The Two Letter Word Behind Warren Buffet's Success

“The difference between really successful people and most people is that really successful people say no to almost anything”

-Warren Buffet (paraphrased)

I’m beginning to understand the importance of the two-letter word no. It’s as important as saying yes.

In fact, Steve Jobs went the length to say-

“More important than deciding what to do is deciding what not to do”

He then went on to reduce the number of Apple products in the market from forty to a handful (this after he returned to Apple after being fired).

A vision is something common among all successful people, and even I wanted one for my own life.

But turns out thinking of a vision is harder than I thought.

Something which helped me was creating an anti-vision; writing down the things I don’t want to become. For some reason, it was easier to write down what I didn’t want to become as opposed to writing what I wanted to become.

Another idea I came across is a ‘don’t do list’.

Creating good habits and doing good things is one part of the game. Avoiding bad habits is the other part.

One thing I want to put on my don’t do list is YouTube.

I have all of these tasks I want to do, but then I end up in a moment where my fingers have typed YouTube, and the next thing I know, I’ve convinced myself that watching YouTube is something I should be doing.

It reminds me of A Charlie Munger quote-

”All I Want To Know Is Where I'm Going To Die So I'll Never Go There”

What I’m basically talking about is restraint and discipline. Discipline to a large degree is just saying no to things.

The paradoxical cliche you know goes- discipline = freedom

I used to think calendars are these restricting things that make us robotic, but now I’ve been using a calendar for some time (or trying to) and I realized it’s just a way of being intentional with the time. Keeping time for all the things I want to do, even relaxing.

Some of the most active minds are a result of a lot of a ton of dull work (or work which seems dull to everyone else)

Immanuel Kant (a pro philosopher) was so methodical that his neighbors would set their clocks based on the time he went on his walk. So routine doesn’t necessarily kill creativity.

Saying no has a lot to do with prioritization as well. You need to have priorities to make it easier to say yes and no to things. And saying no does feel hard because it feels mean it’s something I’m understanding to do in a nice way.

Something that helps is this idea of ‘hell yeah or no’ either you want to do it or you don’t.

Anyway, that’s it for this week’s rant. Tell me one thing on your don’t do list (i’m curious and also looking for ideas).

See you in the next one

PS: Check this out, it’s the article that gave the inspiration for this article- https://billyoppenheimer.com/june-9-2024/