主题： Life Lessons

If Forbes would put a list of the 400 oldest Americans and I was on that one—that’s the list I really want to be on. When you get to my age, you’ll really measure success in life by how many of the people you want to have love you actually do love you. I know people who have a lot of money, and they get testimonial dinners and they get hospital wings named after them. But the truth is that nobody in the world loves them. If you get to my age in life and nobody thinks well of you, I don’t care how big your bank account is, [your life] is a disaster.

I checked the actuarial tables, and the lowest death rate is among six-year-olds. So I decided to eat like a six-year-old. It’s the safest course I can take.

I’ve reluctantly discarded the notion of my continuing to manage the portfolio after my death—abandoning my hope to give new meaning to the term “thinking outside the box.” I’m in very good health, I love what I do and I’ll go gaga someday and they’ll yank me out of here.… My three kids are supposed to come in as a group and say, “You know, you’re going gaga, Dad.” I tell them if only one comes in, they’re out of the will, so they have to come in as a group.

Let’s just assume that it was 24 hours before you were born and a genie came to you and he said, “Herb, you look very promising and I’ve got a big problem. I’ve got to design the world in which you’re going to live and … I’ve decided … it’s too tough, you design it.” … You say, “I can design anything? … There must be a catch.” He says, “Well, there is a catch. You don’t know whether you’re going to be born black or white, rich or poor, male or female, infirm or able-bodied.…” You’re going to participate in what I call the ovarian lottery. You’re going to get one ball out of there and that is the most important thing that’s ever going to happen to you in your life. That is going to control whether you’re born here or in Afghanistan, or whether you’re born with an IQ of 130 or an IQ of 70…. I think that’s a good way to look at social questions, because not knowing what ball you’re going to get, you’re going to want to design a system that includes lots of goods and services, because you’re going to want people—on balance—to live well. And you’re going to want it to produce more and more so your kids are going to live well and your grandchildren are going to live better than your kids, but you’re also going to want a system that … does not leave behind a person who accidentally got the wrong ball.

There was a fellow that—Pete Kiewit, in Omaha—used to say that he looked for three things in hiring people. He looked for integrity, intelligence, and energy. And he said if a person didn’t have the first … that the latter two would kill him. Because if they don’t have integrity, you want ’em dumb and lazy. You don’t want ’em smart and energetic.

Think for a moment that I granted you the right to buy 10 percent of one of your classmates for the rest of his or her lifetime.… Which one are you going to pick? … Pick the one with the highest IQ? I doubt it. Are you going to pick the one with the best grades? I doubt it. You’re not even going to pick the most energetic one necessarily or the one that displays initiative, but you’re going to start looking for qualitative factors in addition, because everyone has enough brain power and energy…. You’d probably pick the one who you responded the best to. The one that was going to have the leadership qualities. The one that was going to be able to get other people to carry out their interests. That would be the person who was generous and honest, and who gave credit to other people even for their own ideas.

By far, the most important quality is not how much IQ you’ve got. IQ is not the scarce factor. You need a reasonable amount of intelligence, but the temperament is 90 percent of it. When you’re 81, you’re gonna have more fun than you’re having now. I mean, 81 is a great year. I look forward to doing what I do.… I forget whether it was Mel Ott, when he was playing for the Giants or somebody, said, “You know, they—you mean they pay me for this?” That’s the way I feel.

This job doesn’t really require hand-eye coordination or stamina or anything. You know, you just sit at a desk and you apply things that you learned 60 or 70 years ago, and they come in a little different form now, maybe, this way or that way. But it’s the perfect job for somebody that wants to be working at 80 or 90.

Let’s say that when I turned 16, a genie appeared to me. And that genie says, “Warren, I’m going to give you the car of your choice. It’ll be here tomorrow morning with a big bow tied on it. Brand-new. And it’s all yours.” Having heard all these genie stories, I would say, “What’s the catch?” And the genie would answer, “There’s only one catch. This is the last car you’re ever going to get in your life. So it’s got to last a lifetime.” Can you imagine, knowing it had to last a lifetime, what I would do with it? I would read the manual about five times. I would always keep it garaged. If there was the least little dent or scratch, I’d have it fixed right away because I wouldn’t want it rusting…. That’s the position you’re in concerning your mind and body. You only get one mind and body. And it’s got to last a lifetime.

If you work with people who cause your stomach to churn, I’d say get another job. That is a terrible way to go through life, and you only go through life once. You gotta do what you love. You’ve got to have a passion for it. If you’re not doing it, get into something else. There is something out there for you.… As long as you are doing something that you enjoy, it doesn’t really make a difference whether you’ve got $10 million or $100 million or $1 million. You want to have enough so you can do most of the things in life you like doing. That doesn’t take a fortune.