Warren Buffett interview

Warren Buffett interview reveals the joy of frugal-living.

• I bought my first share at age 11 and I now regret that I started too late.
• I bought a small farm at age 14 with savings from delivering newspapers.

Disclaimer

Frugal living

Greed is probably man's greatest obsessive sin; what a relief to read in this Warren Buffett interview that there are still some amongst the disgustingly rich who practise frugal living.

Taking good care of ourselves and our possessions is core to his belief.

• I still live in the same three-bedroom house I bought after I got married 50 years ago. It doesn’t have a surrounding wall or fence.
• I drive my own car everywhere and do not have a bodyguard.

• I do not carry a cellphone; nor do I have a computer on my office desk.
• I never travel by private jet, although I own the world’s largest private airline company.
• I do not socialise with the high society crowd. After getting home I make myself some popcorn and watch TV.
• Berkshire Hathaway owns 63 companies. I only write one letter each year to the CEOs giving them goals for the next twelve months. I never hold meetings or call them on a regular basis.

TWO RULES

Warren Buffett added that he gives his CEOs only two rules.

Rule No 1: Do not lose any of your shareholders’ money.

Rule No 2: Do not forget rule number one.

MAYORS

One could only wish that the mayors of towns in South Africa, large and small, could see themselves as CEOs like Warren Buffett.

And that they would operate with Buffett's two rules.

One cannot expect the nouveau riche not to flaunt their newly-found wealth but we do wish they could discover the joy of living like Warren Buffett; and not squander their ratepayers' money.

There we can and will hold them to account.

Warren Buffet interview

This Warren Buffett interview is about how he became a multi-billionaire.

Bernard Preston

Less is more. Bernard Preston has discovered it too; the art of simple living, discovering the joy in the small things of life.

Less THINGS and More TIME lie at the centre of the meaningful life. Reading this Warren Buffett interview just confirmed what I already knew; that a plethora of possessions is no guarantee of happiness and fulfillment.

• A DAY IN THE LIFE OF BERNARD PRESTON DC

The joy of gardening

Warren Buffet declares that he bought a small farm with his own savings as a teenager; he too knows the joy of gardening. 

What's more it is the fresh vegetables and fruit from your own garden that provide you with the taste of food that is completely denied those who rely on the supermarket for their week-old fare; that can never be one of the high folate foods, rich in the vitamin that brings us sparkling wellbeing or those nutrients that keep frailty syndrome at bay.

Doesn't the power of the photograph of Warren Buffett and his elderly wife above tell a story just as vivid as the interview?

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"If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you ever need."

- Marcus Cicero, Roman politician, lawyer and orator

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Whilst I can't boast of 63 companies, I do have ten colonies each of which has 50,000 employees. The queen lives frugally by the Warren Buffett interview rules; a simple, comfortable though not luxurious lifestyle within the hive, bringing forth abundant honey for the shareholder. We in turn care diligently for the bees that are so essential for our food chain.

That raises an interesting moral question; should you delve into how to start beekeeping will you be exploiting all these employees? Is it unethical to take their honey in exchange for feeding them in a dearth and providing a warm, dry home?

There would be no almonds, for example, were there no beekeepers exploiting their pets ability to pollinate the flowers in California; nor blueberries or macadamias either. Would it also not be just as wicked to eat the fruit and nuts from these trees as for me to enjoy the honey? Some have a tender conscience about such matters; I'm not knocking them. Warren Buffett would agree wholeheartedly that we should care for the environment.

This kind of sustainable backyard living is for anyone looking for more of the simple carefree lifestyle that Warren Buffett promotes.

• Musings from the summer vegetable garden
  

These ten hives produce over 500 bottles of honey each year; I often wonder why folk are so reluctant to keep bees. It has been an absorbing hobby of over sixty years that has produced a return that multiplied by 63 would have made me into a millionaire several times over; not in Warren Buffett's league though.

More important than the honey is the pollination service they provide for free.

It is estimated that roughly one quarter of the food we humans consume is pollinated by honeybees.

On retirement

On retirement this is Warren Buffett's final letter to shareholders; it speaks for itself and the greatness of the man.

One perhaps self-serving observation. I’m happy to say I feel better about the second half of my life than the first. My advice: Don’t beat yourself up over past mistakes; learn at least a little from them and move on. It is never too late to improve. Get the right heroes and copy them. You can start with Tom Murphy; he was the best.

Remember Alfred Nobel, later of Nobel Prize fame, who reportedly read his own obituary that was mistakenly printed when his brother died and a newspaper got mixed up. He was horrified and realized he should change his behaviour.

Don’t count on a newsroom mix-up: Decide what you would like your obituary to say and live the life to deserve it.

Greatness does not come about through accumulating great amounts of money, great amounts of publicity or great power in government. When you help someone in any of thousands of ways, you help the world. Kindness costs nothing and is also priceless. Whether you are religious or not, it’s hard to beat The Golden Rule as a guide to behavior.

I write this as one who has been thoughtless countless times and made many mistakes but also became very lucky in learning from some wonderful friends how to behave better (still a long way from perfect, however). Keep in mind that the cleaning lady is as much a human being as the Chairman.

WARREN BUFFETT

Did you find this page useful? Then perhaps forward the WARREN BUFFETT interview to a fellow bookworm.

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