Warren Buffett - Success and Integrity goes hand-in-hand

I have my favourite Billionaires: Mark Cuban, Richard Branson, Bill Gates, Sheldon Adelson and George Lucas. All of them have made their fortunes doing what they love: Whether through software, the Internet, great branding, conferences or great movies. They each had that one thing that they became the best at. However none has got success down to an art like mr Warren Buffett.

Warren Buffett, the world’s best investor and second richest man has made his fortune of being, 1, smart and 2, patient. When buys stock as an investment, he does so for the long haul. In his words:

“You should invest like a Catholic marries – For Life”

See it like a football game: His team is a great running team without a field goal kicker. He rushes to get to first down, without ever needing to kick in the fourth play. He does not go for the long, risky Quarterback throw, he moves slowly forward with his offence. And his team is always in the final.

His books are filled with lessons in success: He tells in one of his books that integrity and reputation is everything. That you can build your reputation for twenty years and loose it in five minutes: Therefore do not ever be greedy just to make an extra buck. He prides himself that he has no regrets. Every transaction he made seemed the best at the time and he never compromised his integrity in any of them.

If you ever want to read a good biography, read his. (I think there are three different biography titles out for him). He led an interesting life, making his first investment of $38 at the age of 11! I’ll keep quoting him, since I believe his life is a life worth modelling your own after.

The Ultimate Measure of Success & The ULTIMATE GOAL

What is the ultimate measure of success? What is the one thing the ultra successful spend more money on? Charity.

You know you’ve reached the pinnacle of success when you can devote a large part of your time and money on charity. Bill Gates and his wife Melinda can say they’ve reached the pinnacle. So can Warren Buffett, the world’s second richest man and best private investor. Oprah Winfrey is living the enchanted life as so many ultra successful people have been doing before her.

After devoting your life to success in a field, there is no better reward than giving back to people less fortunate. Warren Buffett has created such a successful career, that today he can give away 85% of his income every year! THIS is what I’m going to refer to as the ULTIMATE GOAL. I have decided to make it mine. Yes, I would like to own most of the things I profile in my other blog, Lifestyles of the Rich, but I would like to, at the end of my career give away in abundance. Don’t you? It’s the most rewarding expense you can make. Don’t you agree?

Let me tell you: The one secret to success is to always give. Give and you shall receive. If you have a blog or your own web site, you will know this. If you want a good ranking in Google or any other search engine, you have you have outbound links in order to get traffic. Promote someone else’s site and the favour will be retuned. Not always from the site you link to, but from places like Google. Life works the same. If you are willing to give away a small portion of your wealth to a good cause, life will reward you with so much more. Not always in the way you’d expect, but it always does.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation are funded by the Gates family and secondary by donations from Warren Buffett. Above is a photo of Bill Gates and Warren Buffett (The world’s two richest men). The foundation supports causes such as education, HIV/ Aids, public libraries and science.

Above is a photo of Oprah Winfrey with South African children for whom she has built a new school.

I'll bet you that these three individuals derive more pleasure from making these donations than from making the billions! This is success’ ULTIMATE GOAL!