Warren Buffet is the most successful investor of the 20th century. Buffett is the chairman, CEO and largest shareholder of Berkshire Hathaway, and consistently ranked among the world’s wealthiest people.
He started his business career extremely early and had his first small business by the age of 13. He started investing as young as 11! It’s clear, early on he found his passion and threw his complete self at it! Buffet has consistently ranked among the wealthiest people in the world with a net-worth north of $69 billion as of June 2015.
What is this amazing asset he’s so bullish on? It’s you.
“Invest in as much of yourself as you can, you are your own biggest asset by far.” –Warren Buffet
Charlie Munger, the vice chairman of Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Corporation, once said this about Buffet:
“Warren Buffett has become one hell of a lot better investor since the day I met him, and so have I. If we had been frozen at any given stage, with the knowledge we had, the record would have been much worse than it is. So the game is to keep learning, and I don’t think people are going to keep learning who don’t like the learning process.”
At one of his annual Berkshire Hathaway’s annual meeting, Buffett said:
“The most important investment you can make is in yourself. Very few people get anything like their potential horsepower translated into the actual horsepower of their output in life. Potential exceeds realization for many people…The best asset is your own self. You can become to an enormous degree the person you want to be.”
Related: This Is The Daily Routine of Warren Buffett
In an ABC news interview, when asked whether it is still important for families to send their children to college or higher learning, Buffett said:
“Generally speaking, investing in yourself is the best thing you can do. Anything that improves your own talents; nobody can tax it or take it away from you. They can run up huge deficits and the dollar can become worth far less. You can have all kinds of things happen. But if you’ve got talent yourself, and you’ve maximized your talent, you’ve got a tremendous asset that can return ten-fold.”
In an appearance on CNBC to talk about an online animated series called the Secret Millionaire’s Club in which Buffet teaches kids about finance and investing, Buffett was asked, “What’s your hope that kids will take away from these episodes?” His reply:
“Well, one way or another you develop financial habits when you’re very young. And the habits you develop live with you for the rest of your life. So if we can get through to some young people that it’s better to be a little bit ahead of the game than behind the game, watch out for credit cards. The most important message is that the best investment you can make is in yourself. Teaching them if something’s too good to be true, it probably is, and so on. If they learn those things the easy way through these stories early on, it may save them learning it the hard way later on.
…Like I said, the most important message you can deliver to a young person is that anything you invest in yourself, you get back ten-fold. And nobody can tax it away, they can’t steal it from you. So we’ll be trying to deliver those messages. You have to do it with a good story. They’re not going to watch it to get a lecture. They’re going to watch it to get entertained, and in that entertainment we hope there can be a good message.”
Related: The Incredible Work Life of Warren Buffett (An Investment Genius)
These are some of the best ways you can invest in yourself.
1. Create your own specific plan of action on what you want in life. A good one helps you define your preferred future (your dream life), clarifies your life’s purpose, evaluates your current reality in the basic areas of life (financial, family, career, health, spiritual, etc.), reveals your personal values for each life area (the beliefs that are important to you), sets well-defined goals, and creates a specific plan of action.
2. Be a lifelong learner. Read amazing books and resources personal growth. Take classes (formal or informal). Subscribe to industry blogs. Attend webinars and listen to podcasts. But don’t stop there – you’ve got to apply what you read and hear, and take action!
3. Surround yourself with excellence. It’s been said that you’re the average of the five people you spend the most time with. In other words, who you spend time with influences the person you become.
Don’t spend your precious time with people who don’t believe in you or your goals. We all need to have positive people in our lives. And maybe you need a mentor or coach who can help you take action on your goals.
4. Keep improving your communication skills. Buffett mentioned this in one of the interviews. Communication skills are extremely important today. And not just in how to be a great speaker, but also a great listener. And a good writer. If you intend to share what you learn with your audience, communicate better by writing your most amazing pieces of ideas and thoughts.
These are a few more ways you can invest in yourself, according to Dr. Carmen Harra in a post on Huffington Post.
1. Discover your true needs. No two people have the exact same needs. Establish what’s most important for you to gain, have, and keep in your life, e.g., what you truly need as opposed to what you simply want.
2. Raise your self-worth. Even if you think you already possess a healthy dose of self-esteem, work to improve your opinion of yourself. This calls for a remorseless disposal of fears and perceived insecurities as well as the healing of old wounds once and for all.
3. Create a bigger version of yourself. Don’t settle on a self-imposed plateau; always aim a bit higher than before. Visualize your ideal life — regardless of how unattainable it may seem now — and act to manifest it one element at a time.
4. Create a bigger version of yourself. Don’t settle on a self-imposed plateau; always aim a bit higher than before. Visualize your ideal life — regardless of how unattainable it may seem now — and act to manifest it one element at a time.
5. Do what you love. Oftentimes it is the simplest things that deliver the most profound joy, yet we barely find time for these precious activities. Don’t postpone your simple pleasures, whether you like to read or sing or hike. Perform actions grounded in a deep seat of love every day.
6. Never go against your intuition. Your intuition knows more than you think. Learn to trust your inner voice without hesitation; reason may tell you one thing, but your instinct tells you the right thing, always.