Warren Buffett, the chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, turns 91 in August. Remarkably, at an age where most people’s cognitive functions have entirely regressed, where many are now at the hands of caretakers, Buffett still captures the world’s attention as the fifth richest person on the planet.
The greatest investor of this generation has amassed a following of millions who’ve learned, like Buffett, that long-term success is achieved by making smart decisions — in investing and in life.
Here are four Buffett lessons that will yield good returns when you choose to act on them.
1. Master the practice of “boundaries”
With all the demands on him every day, Buffett learned a long time ago that the greatest commodity of all is time. He simply mastered the art and practice of setting boundaries for himself. That’s why this Buffett quote remains a powerful life lesson. The mega-mogul said:
The difference between successful people and really successful people is that really successful people say no to almost everything.
Buffett’s advice is a bull’s-eye to our conscience. We have to know what to shoot for to simplify our lives. It means saying no over and over again to the unimportant things flying in our direction every day and remaining focused on saying yes to the few things that truly matter.
2. Invest in your personal development
What assets should you be investing in the most? In a 2019 interview, Buffett said: “By far the best investment you can make is in yourself.”
As Buffett has repeatedly taught us, it means to never stop acquiring knowledge — the kind of knowledge that betters yourself as a whole person, not just as an investor.
Buffett’s lifelong pursuit of learning, which he shares with his longtime Berkshire Hathaway partner and colleague Charlie Munger, is the secret sauce of his success.
3. Model the leadership behaviors of the best managers
In Buffett’s 2015 letter to shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway, he summarized how one arrives at leadership greatness in a few words:
Much of what you become in life depends on whom you choose to admire and copy.
The quote was in reference to Tom Murphy, who taught Buffett everything he learned about managing a company. Murphy, who was Buffett’s biggest admirer, gave plenty of lessons on the best management practices that Buffett has adapted for his own companies, including:
Give autonomy to workers.
Delegate your authority effectively and wisely.
Hire for integrity.
4. Build a positive reputation
Buffett’s reputation is founded on his principled and level-headed approach to his personal and professional life. When it comes to building a good reputation, these are some things worth prioritizing:
Establishing trust, transparency, and fairness
Offering good value and high-quality products and services
Treating people with dignity and respect
Communicating clearly and promptly
Providing a service to the community
You should treat your business practice as a reflection of yourself, and that means being thoughtful and considerate of how your decisions affect others. If you embrace professional opportunities as a chance to add value to your community, your reputation will reflect your own personal growth.
The millionaire mindset is the key to changing your fortune. It’s how you go from average results to great wealth.
To become a millionaire you must first learn how to think, feel and act like a millionaire. Once you have achieved that mindset, you will have access to the riches of the world.
If you want to be rich; have a million dollar fortune and feel financially free then you should start with the millionaire mindset.
6 Steps to the Millionaire Mindset
Invest in yourself
Invest in learning
Don’t work for money, work to learn
Don’t learn for entertainment, learn for value
Invest in vehicles that will generate income.
Shift your motivation from getting to giving.
Follow these six steps to get the millionaire mindset and start to change your fortunes today.
Why I don’t make Millions?
I, like so many others in the world, had been brought up with the message: ‘Get a good job, work hard and you will be able to enjoy a modest to good life.’
This, I have to admit sounded like good advice. My fiancée and I had good jobs and we were living well and saving a reasonable amount of money.
But when we started to think about how we wanted to live, and the life we wanted for our future children, and how we wanted to live in retirement, we came to the realization that we would need to work a very long time and save a whole lot of money. And even then, we couldn’t live the way we wanted.
Steps to Think and Act Like a Millionaire
I knew there was a better way. I was aware that there were people living much easier. And I wanted more than the normal plan would give. I wanted financial freedom.
Millionaire Lessons
So I needed some new messages and some new lessons.
I read mountains of material and one of the most helpful resources I found, the one that got me started, was a blog I read for free on Medium.
I would encourage you all to read this article and learn directly from him what it means to live like a millionaire. However, at this stage I just want to explain how rules 1–6 have changed my ways of thinking and put me on a path to success.
Rules of the Millionaire Mindset
1. Invest At Least 10% Of Your Income In Yourself
The basic lesson of this rule, is if you want to be a millionaire you need to be committed.
If you just have dreams and plans, you will never really be driven to make the kind of changes needed to have the type of life you want.
Also, if you want to be earning millions, you need to have the skill to earn millions. You need to be worth it. To become worth it you need to invest in developing yourself and you need to invest real dollars so you take it seriously.
Success Lesson
So I realized, if I wanted to earn big and become a million dollar level earner I needed to invest in myself. To begin with I started by researching and taking advantage of the free information on the internet. As my ideas became more focused I began to make small investments in books that I thought would hold valuable knowledge that I required.
I bought several books, which I will expand on at a later date, but by thinking of them as an investment of my valuable time and money, I read them with purpose and soaked up all the knowledge they had to offer on becoming a success and making millions of dollars.
To read about some of the books that have boosted my understanding, my confidence and my millionaire mindset, follow these links:
The next step was to up the game a small amount. From my research and reading I learned the value of online resources and the power of being part of a professional community. So I invested in a subscription to Medium. Knowing the valuable insights it contained and that it was costing me valuable money, I was driven to read every day.
This kept me focused with the kind of reading that was geared to making money and being influential in the 21st century. It also kept me up to date with what was happening in the world. But most importantly, it put me in contact with serious people; people playing the game at a higher level than I was. This expanded my knowledge, my thinking, my community and my scope of living.
Future steps
My next step will be to take courses that will work to provide me with the skills to one day launch my own business. A business that I will be inspired by, one that won’t feel like work. One that will eventually lead to full financial freedom and the feeling of working because I want to work and not because I have too.
The Lesson
By being invested and ‘having some skin in the game’, a wild dream can start to become a reality.
By putting money and time on the line, it forces you to take it seriously and to make very serious evaluations about what is possible.
Also, by expanding your knowledge, you start to answer the questions you need answered. Through this process, my fiancée found out where to invest our money and she made some great moves. I came to know where my skills were and about the areas I needed to go to find that great idea that would make me boss.
If you really want to live like a millionaire you need to be more than interested.You must be invested!
2. Invest At Least 80% of Your “Off” Time into Learning
I used to think that you work hard then you got to enjoy your time off.
I used to work my full day then come home, go to the gym, have dinner, then relax — which usually meant watching TV, playing guitar, going out with friends, drinking, eating and so on.
Basically, all my free time was about consuming what I earned during my work time.
Millionaire Mindset Rule 2 was a huge change for me.
My fiancée and I decided we would no longer waste our free time. We would invest it. At night I started reading articles and books about investment and making money. She would study the stock market and discuss investment options with her friends in the stock market game.
On the weekend, my fiancée worked on Saturday, so I decided to make Saturday my writing day. It started with 2 hours and then it quickly became a whole day job.
I cut back my drinking on the weekend and invested much more time into productive activities. This cut down our consumption on things we didn’t need and freed up more money to invest. We were becoming more focused on our goals and more aware of our situation in the world.
Millionaire Mindset: Becoming more productive
Free time, entertainment and relaxation are all very important. But like everything, they should be done in moderation and with purpose. We spend quality time doing what makes us happy. But we spend the greater quantity of our free time on making us stronger, smarter and better. This helps us to live with purpose and guides us towards our million dollar goals.
You can’t earn a million dollar lifestyle by paying for free time.Invest your free time so you can spend your time free in the future.
3. Don’t Work For Money, Work to Learn
By this stage we were starting to develop a millionaire mindset. We were starting to invest our savings and feeling very grateful that we were in a situation where we could afford to make substantial investments every month. We were making modest gains from the stock market and feeling very good about our decision to become investors.
However, the dream of being financially free and living blissful everyday was not yet a reality. And it was starting to become frustrating dragging myself into work every day.
How to have a millionaire mindset when you have a average job?
In my dreams I was rich, I was the boss — I was making the world a better place with my great wealth and amazing company. But in reality, I was still working day to day.
However, when I decided to change my mindset and decided to see work as a process of learning and not just a process of trading time for money, I discovered much more purpose and passion for it. I came to see that I had skills teaching. That probably the best area for me to make the most money was still in education.
Don’t Focus on the money.
So, I decided not to focus on the money. Work was now a possibility to learn and develop skills. Where possible, I guided work to fit my new needs; as a teacher I was able to choose activities and topics that played into my interests. My students also benefited from learning about real life issues and skills.
Alongside this, I became more conscious of learning how to become a better teacher, a better communicator, how to use my time better, how to deal with children and colleagues and how to use new technology and so on. I was learning more skills and purposefully becoming smarter, stronger, and better.
Don’t simply work to make money. Work to learn the skills you need to take your life in the direction you want to go.
4. Don’t Learn For Entertainment, Learn To Create More Value
A simple but tough lesson for me. As a teacher, I value learning for the sake of learning and I enjoy it.
However, if you want to have the millionaire minset, you can’t waste your valuable time learning things that don’t add value.
For me it was difficult. I used to love playing guitar. When I was in Ha Noi, just prior to coming to Ho Chi Minh and starting out on this journey, I played guitar all the time. I was watching YouTube and studying how to play Spanish style guitar and how to finger-pick. And I had finally mastered Stairway to Heaven — well I could play along start to end (minus the solo).
Now, I don’t play much guitar anymore. But when I weigh the value of my future success to my family, as opposed to the joy they would get from my guitar playing, I know I am making the right decision.
For others it may have been the right decision to keep playing guitar, but for me I know deep down I don’t have the passion to make it pay — my employable passion is writing, so that’s what I’m working at and trying to master.
Nurture the passions you make pay.
I have always loved creative writing and I studied it at university. When I started at my new school I put my hand up to run a creative writing class and I make time every week to write. However, before I was writing very casually and it was very much an enjoyable time filling activity.
Now I write with purpose: if it’s going to take up my valuable time it needs to add value. Now I write professionally; I write to improve my life and my abilities, and I write with the goal that I will one day be able to make something out of it.
Get rid of hobbies that are bad.
The other thing I love is TV. I haven’t been able to cut it out all together, but it’s now a very minor amount of my time. It’s part of that 20% rest and relax time, and I’m cool with that.
Long story short: If you want the millionaire mindset, you need to make everything add value. You don’t have time to master hobbies and interests that don’t add value. But at the same time, if you take a million-dollar-mindset to your hobbies, you can turn waste of time activities into a true path to success.
If I thought I could play like Hendricks I’d be a guitarist, and not a writer.Find your true passions and skills and make them pay!
5. Invest At Least 10% Of Your Income Into Vehicles That Will Generate More Money
The path to absolute financial freedom is by investing money in passive income generators like the stock market and property.
This is central to the millionaire mindset. You can never work your way to free. You need to leverage your time and money and make money flow to you.
The obvious streams of wealth creation are stocks and property.
We plan to do both, but at the start, with minimal capital, we started with the stock market. I will cover more on this at a later stage, but basically, the more you can invest and the earlier you invest the better.
If you can start early and put away at least 10% of your income every month, then through the power of compound interest you can create a revenue stream that will one day let you retire before you’re old and allow you to live well.
My partner and I wanted freedom. We want it in 10 years time. So we put every spare dollar we can find into the stock market. We are making good returns by investing in good companies. We also feel a sense of empowerment when we think of ourselves as part owners of some of the biggest companies in the country.
Also, by being invested, we watch our money working for us every day.
Advantages of Investing
It is a reminder of what we’re worth and a driver for us to increase our worth. We still live well. Not as extravagantly as others, but we don’t go without.
I will admit that occasionally I do get a bit jealous when I see my colleagues jet-setting off here and there every holiday. However, every day I’m buoyed by the thought that one day we will be making money by doing nothing at all. What we don’t consume today will multiply and provide me with everything I need in years to come. That’s a very happy thought.
Don’t work for money, make money work for you.
6. Shift Your Motivation From Getting To Giving
All of these lessons turned me on the millionaire mindset, the kind of purposeful thinking and living that is needed if you want to go for massive success. However, there was still one massive question that bugged me:
Why do I deserve to make millions?
I was raised with a Christian ideal for money — the message very clearly was “rich don’t go to Heaven”. So for me it was difficult to say I deserved to be a millionaire. It was something obscene to want to live lavishly and to have more than others. But rule number 6 gave me the answer.
Ethics of the Millionaire Mindset
If you want to make millions and you want to be a big success, you need to provide value to others. If you want to have a big successful company, you need to provide something your customers need.
Also, if my motivation is solely to be rich so that I can have a lot of stuff, then I won’t make it. Right now I have lots of stuff and I don’t really need much more — it would be nice but I don’t need it and it makes it hard to work extra hard for stuff you don’t need.
Furthermore, if it’s just about free time for me then that’s not enough.
Work gives people purpose. I used to be a slacker trying to avoid work and I can tell you it didn’t make me feel good. I had plenty of free time and nothing to do.
Contribution is the ultimate purpose.
But what drives me is my need to give to others. I have started to develop my idea for a business and it is rewarding because it fixes a problem in the world and it is designed to help humanity with its very real needs.
This genuine motivation drives me to write every Saturday morning, even after I’ve worked all week and I wake up already living like a wealthy person. I can see the value and I love doing it, and it’s what I want to do forever.
I’m also really driven for my investments to do well. Not because I want more stuff, but because I want more time with my fiancée. I want to be able to spend more time with my son. And I want to be able to help people in trouble and I want to be a force for good in the world.
If I just wanted the money and the stuff, I would give up now. It’s too hard to win big just for stuff I don’t need. But I have a passion to make everything better. I want to live that million dollar life style I dream of and I want to help as many people as possible.
Make your life a gift to the world and your life will become a gift to you and let you live like a millionaire regardless of the money in the bank.
Now I have the Millionaire Mindset:
In Hardy’s list he goes on to explain how to build your business into a million dollar business. I will work through these steps as I start to develop my own business ideas further. But for the time being, I truly believe that following these initial guidelines have put me on a path to tremendous success. In this way Hardy has given a great gift and I have no doubt he will have all the success he deserves.
I think you’ll agree with me when I say that everybody wants to know how to become a millionaire and get rich. Unfortunately, some people just don’t know where to start. Would you be surprised to learn that you can get rich in your own way, starting today? http://bit.ly/2ZBFdpX The following 6 tips will help you visualize the road ahead of you and enable you to set goals to make more money than you ever dreamed.
Time is something we all need more of, but how can you get more of it when there is only 24 hours in a day? Sadly there is no way to put more hours into each day, but what you can do is be more efficient with your time so you can follow your dreams. Here is how I was more efficient during my college years, which allowed me to run a business at the same time.
Watch television on the web – the problem with television is that you had to watch TV shows when they want you to watch them. Now with the technology advancements most entertainment channels like NBC, FOX, CW, and even a few cable networks let you watch your favorite TV shows online. It is free, you can watch the shows when you want to, and an hour show usually ends up being 45 minutes because there are a lot less commercials.
Sleep more – if you learn to take power naps, you will have more energy throughout the day. Although you may lose some time from napping, you will be able to work more efficiently, which will give you more time.
Eat healthy meals – changing your diet maybe hard at first, but eating balanced meals will affect how you do your daily tasks. It will give you more energy so you can get your work done faster.
Do less work – a lot of the things you do on a daily basis, don’t need to be done. Think about your daily routine and cut out anything that isn’t essential. You will be surprised on how much time you are wasting.
Tell people what’s on your mind – being honest and to the point is a great way to accomplish things quicker. When you beat around the bush things don’t get accomplished as fast. Just think about boardroom meetings, people are hesitant to say what is on their mind, which causes meetings to drag on forever.
Have some fun – all work and no play is a good way to make you feel depressed. Get some fun into your life, it will make you feel better, work harder, and hopefully make you want to accomplish your dreams.
Adjust your working hours – many companies are very flexible on what times you can start and end work. If you work in a heavy traffic city such as Los Angeles you can easily spend an hour or 2 commuting to work during rush hour. But if you adjust your working hours you can cut back on driving time drastically.
Cut down on your communication methods – cell phones, email, and instant messaging are just a few tools you probably use to communicate with others. The problem with some of these methods is that they can easily be abused. For example if you log onto AIM, you may waste an hour talking to others about junk. Try and use communication tools like AIM only when you need them.
Don’t multi-task – when you mult-task you tend to switch between what you should be doing and what you shouldn’t. By single tasking you are more likely to do what you are supposed to be doing.
Get rid of distractions – things you may not be thinking of can be distractions. Whether it is gadgets or even checking emails every 5 minutes, this can all distract you. By getting rid or distractions or controlling them, you will have more time on your hands.
Saving time creates time to focus on you and your goals. But finding time is only half the battle. You need to remain as productive as possible with the time you have to make the most of it.
We’ve used every tool out there. Some of them drove our revenue sky-high. Others cost us tens of thousands in lost revenue. Learn from our hard-won experience on which tools can be trusted:
The new report, CX Champions: How CX Leaders Who Improve Their Game Are Driving Business Success , surveyed more than 1,000 CX managers and leaders in North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Latin America to better understand their investments in CX.
Zendesk today released new research in partnership with Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG) showing how companies investing in customer experience (CX) are reaping the benefits.
The global study found that there is a clear link between organizations with more mature customer experience capabilities and greater business success in areas such as market share, increased customer spend, and dynamic processes over the past six months.
The research also found that, as companies around the world adapt to new forms of remote work and constant uncertainty in 2020, more than three-quarters of medium-sized and enterprise companies (78%) and almost two Thirds of small businesses (65%) said that customer-centric agility has increased in importance as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Organizations are under increasing pressure to outperform the competition and grow their businesses – that’s an even greater challenge as companies adjust to the impact of a global pandemic and associated uncertainty ahead,” he said. Colleen Berube, CIO and senior vice president of operations at Zendesk.
“By working with ESG, we set out to confirm the link between an organization’s ability to deliver a high-quality experience and better business results. The relationship is clear. We hope that these insights into the connection between a focus on customer experience and business success can help companies learn from those ahead of the CX scale, “he added.
The new report, CX Champions: How CX Leaders Who Improve Their Game Are Driving Business Success , surveyed more than 1,000 CX managers and leaders in North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Latin America to better understand their investments in CX. Based on the research, ESG developed a CX Maturity Scale that segments organizations into three levels of customer service maturity, based on seven key characteristics that cover how organizations use their support teams, technology and data to drive better performance. Next, ESG classified the companies into three maturity categories: Starters : showing from zero to three of the seven characteristics; Risers (Advanced): they have four to five of the characteristics; and Champions (Expert 🙂 that meet at least six of the characteristics.
Some key findings from the report show that companies that invest in CX reap significant benefits, including:
Faster growth: Even during the pandemic, midsize and business Champions were found to be 8.7 times more likely than beginners to have significantly increased customer spending. For the Small Business Champions, this figure increases to 9.2 times.
Increased market share: Medium-sized and enterprise Champions were 3.3 times more likely to have increased their customer base in the past six months. Small Business Champions experienced similar growth, 3.6 times more likely to have increased their customer base in the same period.
High-level support: Champions also ensured increased investment and support from high-level leaders within their organization. For example, senior Champions leaders of midsize companies and enterprises were 3.8 times more likely to see customer service as a differentiator.
“Our research identified a clear connection between CX excellence and business growth. Not only are companies in the Champion stage of scale seeing better results in traditional service metrics such as time to resolution and CSAT, they are also experiencing positive business results in customer spend, retention, and CX board-level support as a business priority, ”said Adam DeMattia, director of personalized research at ESG.
Jennifer Bridges, PMP, shows how customer-centric leadership can help your business. Try our award-winning PM software for free: https://www.projectmanager.com/?utm_s… The customer is king, but unfortunately they aren’t always treated as such. See how customer-centric leadership can help your business with real-life case studies from successful companies such as Apple, Amazon and Virgin Airlines.
When the news is constantly negative and the world seems down, are you going to take your business down with it? Of course not!
It’s time to rise up and get your business in gear during these difficult times. Get those gears churning and make your business a success in even the toughest of times.
If you’re looking for some inspiration, it’s time for you to look into some of these actionable business tips. Just keep reading.
1. Save, save, save
One of the biggest problems that businesses have is that they don’t have enough cash in the bank for when bad times come. When there’s a slow down in your business or a slow down in the economy in general, you have to be prepared.
Think about this as a savings account.
It’s highly recommended that everyone keep six months’ worth of living in their savings account. This means that you should have at least $3,000 in your savings account if you spend $1,000 a month. This includes all living expenses like rent, food, utilities, gas, and more.
You should have enough in your business’ savings to cover six months of employee pay, supply pay, and more. If you’re not keeping this amount in your business’ account, you need to reevaluate how your business is operating and allocating its expenses.
2. Take care of your great employees
The best thing you can do to keep your business running on a positive note is to take care of your employees. You need to recognize who your most valuable employees are and take care of them as much as you can.
If you continuously take care of your best employees, they’re more likely to work harder and stay longer. Having faithful employees is great, especially when it makes for a great environment for your customers.
The employees that you’re taking care of will appreciate your friendly and encouraging workplace over others they may have worked at. The point in caring for these employees is to make your workplace stand out. Take advantage of your great employees and show them that you care so that you can stand out for making them stand out.
3. Say goodbye to bad employees
It is never too early to fire a bad employee. While you should understand that giving second chances is okay, you should know when to fire them.
A bad employee isn’t an isolated issue. These are people who are interacting with your business’ customers and other employees. They could be making a bad experience for everyone else.
If you’re finding that one of your employees is building a poor experience for your customers and employees, it’s time to say goodbye.
Before moving on from this idea, we should explore second chances though. It may be useful to have an unspoken system when it comes to disciplinary actions for poor employees.
You may want to give one or two chances for small, isolated incidents. If an employee has blatantly made a customer have a poor experience, you shouldn’t be shy about hiring someone else for that position.
4. Look at yourself before anyone else
If something in your business is consistently going wrong, your probably the reason why. This is why you should always look at yourself before anyone else when it comes to workplace mistakes.
You have a great influence on your workplace, from your leadership style to your workplace rules to even your mood. It’s important to recognize how you could positively and negatively impact your workplace.
Make sure to evaluate yourself before pointing fingers. Even if an employee made a mistake, you should think about how you could have poorly communicated your expectations.
5. Listen to your customers
The customer is always right, at least the majority of the time. They know what they want, and it’s your job to help them get what those things are.
As your business grows, your customers will tell you what they want. Whether it’s through your social media channels or directly to an employee, it’s important to take down any complaints or suggestions.
Make sure that you tell your employees that they should always make a note of what the customers have been saying.
6. Trust your gut
Your gut is normally right when it comes to split-second decisions. Go with your gut.
In business, you’re going to come across a lot of decisions to make. Sometimes, you’re not going to have the time or the energy to get into a full-scale investigation for every question and problem. That’s the perfect time to depend on your gut.
Focus your time and energy on bigger decisions. Let your gut lead you when it feels strongly about something.
7. Keep your business separate
You need to keep your business life separate from your personal life. Keep them separate when it comes to everything.
Your social life will thank you when you’re keeping your work life at work. You shouldn’t be working on work tasks at home, just like you wouldn’t bring your children to work with you every day.
You should also make sure that your personal and business accounts are different. You never want to tap personal money into your business accounts. It’s going to be a tough call to make if your business is ever on the downturn, but you need to make sure that your business is sufficient outside of your personal savings account.
Getting More Business Tips
Getting business tips like these are great for any business person who’s looking for a little bit of inspiration and encouragement. You should always be looking to take in great information like the seven tips we shared in this post. If you have more specific questions to ask, contact us here. We’d love to hear from you and help you with anything you need.
By: Adam Jacobs / Managing Director Bubblegum Casting & Hunter Talent
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