Learning from the greats - Warren Buffet

 

In a May 2009 interview, Warren Buffett, until recently the richest man the in the world (he's given most of it away to Bill Gates' charitable foundation) was asked these three questions:

  1. Do banker's bonuses bother you?

  2. What's going to happen to the economy over the next year?

  3. Can money buy happiness?

Here's how the Sage of Omaha replied:

1.  Do banker's bonuses bother you?

There's certainly been a lot of pay for people who didn't perform well. A lot of people walked away from enormous damage and they've taken many millions of dollars with them and that's wrong. The nature of capitalism is that the rewards don't necessarily fall where they should. What you want to do is to get it so that they do.

2.  What's going to happen to the economy over the next year?

I never know what's going to happen in the short term. To say what's happening next week or next month or even next year is a mistake because nobody knows. What I am sure about is that ten, twenty years from now, things will be better. Look at the twentieth century – we endured world wars, the great depression, flu pandemics and yet at the end of the twentieth century the average American was seven times better off than at the start. The same is probably true of the UK

3.  Can money buy happiness?

No. If you believe that boats and castles will make you happy you're going to be very disappointed. I feel I'm the richest man in the world because of all the friends I've got.

Warren Buffett is CEO of investment company Berkshire Hathaway, and is famous not only for his extraordinary financial success but for the frugality of this personal lifestyle – he still lives in the house he bought in Omaha in 1958 for $13,500. 'Why move when so many of my friends are here?' he says.