Warren Buffet Says This Is the Key to Success, and Bill Gates Agrees

FameJuly 2, 2019

There are a few people in this world who have found riches beyond our wildest imaginations, and names like Bill Gates and Warren Buffett come to mind whenever we think about them.

You may not know this, but Buffett and Gates are actually very good friends in real life. In fact, according to multiple interviews given by both of them, they have exchanged some very valuable lessons over the course of their friendship.

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Bill Gates and Warren Buffett have a very strong bond, which is certainly uncommon among billionaires of their stature.

Learning from Buffett

According to Gates, one invaluable lesson that Buffett taught him was about the scarcity of time. Buffett told Gates that the number of opportunities which were going to present themselves to him was going to be endless, as he was always going to be invited to partake in some cause, a social gathering, a project, or any other activity which required his time.

Buffett’s advice to Gates was this: learn to say no to requests which take up your time when you have other, more important priorities.

This way, you would have more time to focus on achieving your main objectives. For Buffett, this important life principle had manifested itself because, even though he had money and could buy whatever he wanted, there was one thing he could not buy: time.

This is why Buffett believes that saying no can be a very powerful tool to optimizing your life and maximizing its utility because you get to sharpen your focus on tasks which contribute to your long term growth in life.

Both Gates and Buffett have made countless public appearances with each other.

The Wisdom Of Steve Jobs

While there are many differences in the approaches to success between the two billionaires mentioned above and Steve Jobs, one thing they all agree upon is the value of time.

For Jobs, the most important factor for success was maintaining focus, something he exemplified through his company Apple by focusing the company’s product line to a few key offerings, a move which ultimately led to the groundbreaking and innovative technologies such as the iPod and the iPhone.

And Jony Ive, the design chief working for Apple, tries to apply the same principle in his working methodology as well. Ive has worked with Jobs and has learned how to remain completely focused.

According to him, focus means that one must reject any other thought or idea, no matter how appealing and enticing, in order to remain committed to the task at hand.

Steve Jobs is now recognized as one of the most revolutionary leaders in the tech-business industry, even years after his demise.

The Importance Of Saying No

All of us are presented with options which we can either accept or reject. Whether we are at work or at home, or simply hanging out with friends, there are multiple choices which we have to make which either improve our focus or end up distracting us completely.

The important thing is to set your priorities or objectives which you want to achieve in the long term, and then accept only those activities which contribute to the achievement of those objectives while rejecting those which de-track you from achieving them. This exercise is essential to maintaining focus and, as we have seen above, many successful people endorse it as a key to success.