Warren Buffett is one of the richest people in the world.
But I’m not talking about his bank account.
Over his lifetime, the “Oracle of Omaha” has amassed a wealth of wisdom about how to live. Check out this excerpt from his Thanksgiving letter to shareholders last year. (It was his final one, as he turns over the company reins to others.)
“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 is costless but also priceless. Whether you are religious or not, it’s hard to beat The Golden Rule as a guide to behavior.”
Help someone… anyone… and help the world.
And your kindness account can never be depleted. Quite the opposite: the more you give, the richer you become.
Here’s to a year filled with heaping helpings of helping!
Warren’s full letter to shareholders is here. The excerpt above comes from his “final thoughts” at the end of it.
1 response to “Warren piece”
Kevin Sullivan
Praise Warren. He also said, “You only have to do a very few things right in your life so long as you don’t do too many things wrong”. He really may be an oracle.
I didn’t hurt it while working on a home improvement project. I come up woefully short on Red Green’s favorite saying:
I slammed my thumb in a car door.
Anticipating your follow-up question, let the record show that I was stone-cold sober.
I slammed it in the door of a Honda CR-V. But it wasn’t one of the three that we own.
I was coming back from the graveside service for my dear friend LJ. And I was riding shotgun with Felicity, the widow of my friend Ned. When we got back to the church, I was both distracted and distraught. And I slammed the passenger door onto my left thumb. Making an awful day even worse.
If you look closely at the photo above (masochist!), you’ll see a drill hole at the top of my nail. You’re supposed to use a small drill bit and hand-drill it into the nail to relieve the pressure ASAP. I waited too long to try that home remedy. It helped a bit, but not much.
It’s been more than a month. The thumb feels much better now, but still looks uglier than sin.
Yet every time I look at my ugly thumb, I’m reminded of my friendship with LJ. Which is beautiful. I’m reminded of all the misery he went through during his cancer treatments. Yet he never complained. The thumb is daily reminder that pain is part of life. And that when you’re down, friends can lift you up.
I know the thumb will get better. I also know that even after it has fully healed, there’ll still be a hole in my heart.
I’m not a goth, but honestly, I may paint that nail with black nail polish after it gets better. To keep the reminder handy. And to keep LJ in my heart.
I took a vacation day on Thursday yet I still bookended the day with two very important meetings. That’s just the kind of mover and shaker I am.
The morning meeting was a gathering of the greatest creative minds in the Tri-State area. Oh, and I was there too! It was an informal holiday season gathering of a bunch of graphic designers, illustrators, writers, art directors, [insert other ad agency title here], etc. A coffee klatch of the cool kids, organized by my buddy Keith.
I don’t miss the ad agency business, but I do miss the magic of being part of a larger creative team. And these folks are Creative with a capital C. There are a lot of laughs whenever we get together, and it’s amazing to witness how quickly everyone can build on someone else’s thought or joke. I imagine that it must be similar to being in the writing room on The Simpsons.
It takes years of practice to be able to make those uncanny connections that others don’t see. But these dudes (yes, it was a sausagefest) have been doing it for decades. They see the world with an artist’s eye – and the world is better for it.
In the evening, I attended a board meeting of a heart foundation. (Translation: the monthly “hoppy hour” gathering with the lifelong friends I made at Xavier four decades ago.) This was our 64th straight month of meeting up, but it was the first without our brother-from-another-mother LJ. We needed the connection and camaraderie more than ever with him gone. The chance to share a few more memories and a lot of laughs is the best heart medicine around.
Start the day with a creative circle. End it with a gratitude group. Those are the type of “work meetings” I need to have more often!
Kevin Sullivan on They greed. You bleed.: “love the smash mouth football D, keep it going !” Mar 31, 10:17
Kevin Sullivan on War… why? And now what?: “I read your post Damian and I like it very much. As we move from a Saturday morning headline of…” Mar 3, 09:22
Damian on Smartphones are making us dumb.: “Thanks for (not) reading the post, Kevin. And thanks for mentioning several other formats (article, essay, poem) that can train…” Feb 23, 19:55
Kevin on Smartphones are making us dumb.: “You know I didn’t read your post because I don’t need to. The lack of reading of all generations reveals…” Feb 23, 10:32
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