Warren Buffett has a lot of wisdom and shares this with students - this is one of the many wonderful things that are inherent in him. He talks about the importance of developing good personal qualities at a young age. Establishing good habits, even the smallest ones, such as saying “please” and “thank you,” is the key to success.
High IQ won't make you rich
Buffett shared his rules of success with MBA students from the University of Florida in 1998.
The legendary investor began his presentation with a small game. He said: “Think for a moment that I gave you the right - you can buy 10% of your classmate’s earnings for the rest of your life.”
The decision must be merit-based. Buffett argued that it’s not wise to choose the person with the highest IQ.
“There is nothing wrong with getting the highest marks in the class, but it will not be the quality that distinguishes the winner from the rest of the students,” said Buffett.
He continued: “You must choose a person who has leadership qualities, who is able to force others to perform any actions in his interests. A person should be generous, honest. He will gladly share his ideas with other people. ”
In addition to this, Buffett told students that they should sell their other classmate and pay 10% of what he does.
“You will not choose a person with a low IQ,” he said. “It could be a person who has humiliated you, who is selfish, greedy, who cuts corners, does a little dishonest thing.”
Get rid of any of these qualities.
If you see any of these qualities in yourself, you can get rid of them. “This is just a matter that you must resolve,” he said.
“If you develop good qualities in yourself and make them familiar, you will be the one you want to buy for 10% when it is all over,” Buffett said. “The beauty of this is that you already own 100% of yourself, and you are stuck with it.” Buffett said he sees people of his own age or even 20 years younger with “self-destructive behavior” and they fall into the trap again and again.
In fact, honesty, virtue, and morality can make or break you in the professional world. And if you decide not to make it a priority, you run the risk of gaining a reputation as a deceiver.
All this goes back to the one whom Buffett himself is looking for, deciding to hire or invest. His decision is not based on business metrics, test results, or degrees. Instead, it's all about personal qualities.
“There was a guy in Omaha, Pete Cuit, who said he was looking for three things when hiring people: integrity, intelligence, and energy,” Buffett said. “If they didn’t have the first, the other two would not matter, because if they do not have integrity, they will be stupid and lazy.”
It makes sense if you cannot trust someone to act honestly in a situation that requires it, then these people should not be anywhere near you or your brand.
How do you know who you can trust?
At the 2007 Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting, one of the participants asked Buffett exactly this question.
The billionaire plunged into his stock of wisdom and offered this perspective: “People give themselves away quite often. When someone comes to me with something to do with what he is talking about, with what he considers important, there are a lot of clues about the subsequent behavior. ”
Do not be the one who pushes people away
The main conclusion here is that if you want to be the successful person that everyone wants to hire, you need to build integrity habits.
There are several ways to do this:
- Keep your promises.
- Be honest.
- Be reliable.
- Be attentive and emotionally intuitive.
- Show humility.
- Be prepared to admit that you are wrong.
- Offer help when needed.
- Treat others with respect.
- Be thankful.
- Be patient.
Intelligence and ambition are valuable qualities, but even so, a lack of integrity will not make you stand out from others and will not make you hire, at least not Buffett.