Sahil Bloom Profile picture
May 1, 2021 14 tweets 3 min read Read on X
Warren Buffett is a treasure trove of wisdom.

But contrary to what you have been told, most of it has nothing to do with investing.

10 powerful lessons for life from the Oracle of Omaha:
Wait For A Juicy Pitch

“You don't have to swing at everything - you can wait for your pitch."

Life doesn’t reward you for the number of swings you take.

Focus on identifying the juiciest pitch.

When it comes, swing hard and don’t miss it.
Just Stop Digging

“The most important thing to do if you find yourself in a hole is to stop digging."

When things aren’t working, change course and try something different.

Be nimble. Be agile.

When you find yourself at the bottom of a hole, stop digging and climb out of it.
Exploit Disconnects

“Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.”

Seek out situations where there is a clear disconnect between price and value.

This applies to investing, but it’s more broadly a mental model for life.

Identify disconnects. Exploit them to your advantage.
Be Contrarian

“Be fearful when others are greedy and greedy when others are fearful.”

Following the crowd is easy, but it can be a trap.

Learn to think independently. Come to your own decisions. Develop your own mental models.

Your unique perspectives are your superpower.
Optimize Value Capture

“Opportunities come infrequently. When it rains gold, put out the bucket, not the thimble."

Create structures that enable you to capture more of the value you create.

The most successful people have simply optimized their value capture mechanisms.
Make Time Your Friend

“Time is the friend of the wonderful business, the enemy of the mediocre.”

Don’t be in a rush.

Set up your life to compound value over the long-term.

Play long-term games with long-term people.

Make time work for - not against - you.
Protect Your Circle of Competence

“Risk comes from not knowing what you're doing.”

Be ruthlessly honest about what you know (your circle of competence) and what you don’t.

Focus on playing games within your circle - otherwise, you’re just gambling.
Never Get Caught Naked

“It's only when the tide goes out that you discover who's been swimming naked.”

Find a balance between pushing yourself for growth and being completely out of your depth.

Never put yourself in a high-stakes position to get caught swimming naked.
Reputation Matters

“It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you'll do things differently.”

In every interaction - big or small - always act in accordance with strong principles and values.

Your character is your fate.
Invest In Yourself

“The most important investment you can make is in yourself."

There is no better investment than an investment in yourself.

Find time to read, to think, to learn.

Surround yourself with amazing people who push you to become better.

Invest in you.
These are 10 powerful lessons for life from Warren Buffett, but there are so many more.

What are your favorite lessons from the Oracle of Omaha?

I have to admit, I am still shaking from this moment at the Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting in 2019... Image
Follow me for more threads on business, finance, mental models, and life. You can find all of my threads in the meta-thread below.
And if you are less Twitter inclined, sign up here to receive my threads (and audio versions!) directly to your inbox. sahilbloom.substack.com

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More from @SahilBloom

Apr 23
I can't stop thinking about this idea...

The 3 Types of Friends:

(everyone should read this) Image
The idea originates from Tyler Perry (portraying his wise Madea alter ego).

It's a brilliant framing for thinking about your relationships.

There are three types of people in your life:

1. Leaves
2. Branches
3. Roots

Here's what they look like...
LEAVES

These are the people that are only around from time to time when the weather is good.

They blow around as the winds change.

They provide shade during the summer, but as soon as winter comes, they fall off the tree and disappear.
Read 10 tweets
Apr 20
The secret to success that no one tells you about...

Avoiding the Compound Mistake:

(thread) Image
Let's begin by referencing the image made famous by Atomic Habits.

While most of the dialogue focuses on the 1% better every day, which results in a ~38x improvement, the 1% worse every day is just as important:

It effectively zeroes you out—it knocks you out of the game...
When I was playing baseball at Stanford, the coaches had a metric they liked to track for pitchers called the Compound Mistake.

The idea was simple: Image
Read 12 tweets
Apr 17
I challenged myself to cold plunge every morning for 100 straight days.

- Three different continents
- Several frozen rivers and lakes
- Dozens of hotel bathtubs
- One icy shower at 40,000 feet

10 lessons learned from 100 days in the cold:

(a video thread) Image
Lesson 1: Discipline is about what you do on the days when you feel like crap.

It's easy to be disciplined and consistent when you feel great.

It's hard when you feel like crap.

Those are the days when you remind yourself that you are a winner.
Lesson 2: Stop overthinking, just start.

"No plan survives first contact with the enemy."

Too many get their dopamine from the planning. Too few get their dopamine from the doing.

Plan a bit, then make first contact with "your enemy" and start improving fast.
Read 15 tweets
Apr 16
This idea changed my life (and may change yours)...

The Law of Reversed Effort: Image
In a Zen parable that I love, a martial arts student approaches his teacher and asks, "How long will it take me to master this craft?"

The teacher replies, "10 years."
The student, looking impatient, responds, "I want to master it faster than that. I will work harder than anyone else. I will push myself to practice for many hours every single day. How long will it take then?"

The teacher considers this new information and answers, "20 years."
Read 12 tweets
Apr 14
Advice from a mentor that changed my life:

There’s no such thing as a perfect moment. There are just moments—and you decide what you make of them.
Waiting for the “perfect moment” is just a convenient, socially-acceptable excuse to hide from the thing that scares you.

Trust me, I’ve lived it.
A good sign that you're on the right path:

A lot of moments will seem perfect in hindsight, when they felt terrifying at the time.

Imperfect moments made perfect through action.
Read 4 tweets
Mar 3
My entire life changed because of a leap of faith.

There are a lot of people out there who feel stuck, but trust me, you don't have to stay that way.

If you want to take a leap, here's exactly how I'd do it:

The change you want to make in life scary because of two asymmetries:

1. Information Asymmetry: You know exactly what this path looks like, but very little about what the other path looks like.

2. Evidence Asymmetry: You have abundant evidence that you can make it on this path, but very little evidence that you can make it on the other path.

To break through the fear and take the leap:

Step 1: Gather Information

The first step is to solve the information asymmetry.

The questions you should be asking (and answering):

What does the new path look like? Visualize it in detail.

How reversible is a decision to take this new path?

Note: Most people underestimate the reversibility of a big decision. You assume that if you leave your consulting firm, you'll never be able to get another job in consulting. That is usually patently false. Most of these career decisions are reversible.

What case studies exist on successful (or unsuccessful) execution?

What perspectives can you learn from people with real, earned experience on the new path?

Are there any examples of people who have made a similar shift to what you are considering? What can you learn from them?

If you use a thoughtful process to gather information, you'll balance the information asymmetry and shorten the gap considerably.

Step 2: Create Evidence

The second step is to solve the evidence asymmetry.

While still on your current path, you need to create tangible proof that you can build a life on the other side.

What proof points can you generate of your ability to execute?

• Find one customer for your prospective new venture.
• Make $100 selling something on the internet.
• Generate a few client leads to your new coaching practice.

The tiny wins build momentum and help solve the evidence asymmetry.

Step 3: Confront the Fear

Gathering information and creating evidence should get you most of the way there.

But the fear still exists.

Here's how to address it:

1. Reframe the fear as a good thing: It means you care, it means this is something that matters.

2. Deconstruct the downside of action: What is the worst that could happen? How bad is it, really?

3. Deconstruct the upside of action: What is the best that could happen? How great is it?

4. Deconstruct the regret: How much would you regret inaction when you're 90-years-old? Could you live with that regret?

As Seneca famously wrote, "We suffer more in imagination than in reality."

These steps get the fear out of your imagination and force it into reality.

Your Player's Guide to the Leap of Faith

There's never going to be a perfect moment to make a dramatic change.

The leap of faith isn't for everyone, but if you follow this general process, you'll be well-positioned if you decide to jump.

1. Gather information
2. Create evidence
3. Confront the fear

I hope this helps a few people out there take that leap they've been too afraid to face.

A new life is on the other side...
The most important piece here:

Recognizing the fear as a byproduct of the information/evidence asymmetry.

It turns something abstract into a solvable problem.
I love this quote from Inception:

"Do you want to take a leap of faith or become an old man, filled with regret, waiting to die alone?"
Read 5 tweets

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