MEGA-PHILANTHROPHY

Wowza. Warren Buffet, the world's second richest man, has taken his philanthropy to an other-wordly level, earmarking over $30 Billion dollars or 85% of his wealth, to the charity of the world's richest man, Bill Gates and his wife Melinda. Gotta love that.

In a fascinating "Billionaire Buddies" Fortune magazine interview with the both of them, there were a couple of things that Warren Buffet said that really stood out and have stuck with me.

1. CHOOSE the things that really make a difference, not meaningless activities. My take: You'd think that a mulit-billionaire would have places to go, people to see, things to do. But Buffet's calendar is mostly blank. He's learned how to say yes to the important things, and no to the meaningless things. Clear your calendar. Lance Armstrong says your schedule is how you make your intentions manifest in the world. I say it this way: It's YOUR life. Do what energizes you. Avoid what drains you. No guilt trips, no regrets. Don't just 'jump' when something comes up. If I feel I 'have to' or 'got to' do something, I'll usually decline. I'd rather 'want to', 'get to', or 'choose to' do something. Big difference.

2. Your INNER scoreboard is more important than your outer scoreboard. My take: don't care what others think about you or what you do. Of course don't be unkind or irresponsible, but live life your way, make decisions based on your values. Honor your own preferences, be true to yourself. It takes too much energy to do otherwise. Besides, you can't control what other people think anyway. Just be yourself, at your best, unapologetically.

3. A SUCCESFUL life is defined by the people that you hope love you, DO love you. My take: at the end of one's life, that's what life's all about, isn't it? Not the 'stuff' you've accumulated, but the relationships and experiences you've shared, the person you've become, the people whose lives you've touched.

Thanks for the sage advice Warren, we seem to think alike. Well, at least those things in common. Now let me get back to working on that billionaire thing... :)

- R

An excerpt of the interview (Fortune, Oct. 17, 2005):

FORTUNE: What is the best piece of advice you've ever been given, and how has it impacted your personal or professional life?
BUFFETT: (Turns to Gates.) What did I tell you that impressed you the most? (Laughter.)
GATES: Actually, I can answer that. When I first met Warren, we were talking about getting together and doing something again, and he pulled out his calendar and the pages were so blank. I said, 'Wow, you've managed to avoid getting tied in to a lot of kind of meaningless activities.' And Warren said, 'Yeah, you have to be good at saying no and picking the things that really make a difference.' And that's one of many things I've learned from Warren, and so I can blame it on him whenever I'm turning things down.
BUFFETT: The truth is I don't get invited anyplace. (Laughter.) I got an awful lot of good advice from my dad, and he didn't lay it on me, meaning I picked it up from him but there was never any of this 'do this, do that' type of thing at all. But he really taught me that what's on your inner scorecard is more important than your outer scorecard. Some people get in a position where they're worrying all the time about what the world is going to think of this or that, instead of considering what they themselves think about it. The people who ascribe too much to the outer scorecard sometimes find that it's a little hollow when they get all through.

FORTUNE: What has been your largest non-business success in life?
BUFFETT: This will surprise you, but I would say that I've never known anybody who got to be my age who had lots of people that loved them who were anything other than a success. I mean, you have lived a successful life if as you get older, the people that you hope love you do love you. That includes your family, your business associates, all kinds of people.
And the converse of that is that I know people who are enormously wealthy--they get schools named after them and they get dinners in their honor, all that sort of thing—and the truth is that nobody thinks a thing of them. And I have to believe they know that, and everything gets quite hollow in their life at that point.