巴菲特84了。You Only Live Once

独立意志

This week, Warren Buffett celebrates his 84th birthday.

Those of you who follow my blogs know I have a bit of a man crush on Buffett, not just because of his investing acumen but because he has always seemed to me endowed with a kind of uber-common sense… an ability to cut to the heart of a situation or an issue and capture it in a few words, understandable to experts and common folk alike.

Lists of his “10-greatest” or “18-greatest” (or however-many-greatest) sayings pop up everywhere in online searches. But the Buffett-ism that’s stayed with me is the one at the top of this blog – namely, the notion of a punch card (a quaintly antiquated thing you don’t run across very often these days).

Buffett used his punch card analogy in an investment context. It’s consistent with his belief that really profitable investment decisions are few and far between. His counsel to individual investors has always been to “wait for the fat pitch.” [See “Bored Investors Beware.”]

But I think the punch card analogy applies equally well to life, and to the decisions that define and shape our lives over the five, six, seven or eight decades most of us are on the earth. For someone graduating from high school, I think the number 20 is just about right. For someone like me, in middle age, the number of un-punched punches on the card is a lot smaller. There might be only two or three left.

The point is, whether it’s two or twenty, the number of inflection points in our lives is a lot smaller than it often seems. The trick is having the wisdom, or the instinct, to recognize “fat pitches” at the time they show up, which is always easier in hindsight. Then we need to make our big decisions count.

Getting married. Having children (or not). Making a career change. Starting or investing in a business. Those are obvious hole punches.

By contrast, the last two times I punched my card it had less to do with me, personally, than it did the opportunity to make a difference in the lives of others.

The first of these was agreeing to chair Wall Street’s advocacy group – the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association – in the wake of the financial crisis. I did so because I never wanted our clients, the investing public, to have to go through again the trauma and disruption they experienced in their financial and personal lives during that unprecedented and volatile period.

My second recent hole punch was deciding to help lead, in 2011 and 2012, a campaign to defeat a constitutional amendment that would have banned same-sex marriage in my home state of Minnesota. I got a lot of advice and counsel against getting involved, as a business leader, in what became known as the “Vote No” campaign. But every bone in my body told me this was a once-in-a-lifetime chance to make a difference in the lives of tens of thousands of LGBT residents in a state long known for its progressive brand, inclusive culture and values of respect and tolerance.

As it turned out, the support of the business community was critical not only in defeating the amendment, but then, six months later, legalizing same-sex marriage in Minnesota.

That was last year. Just this month, two gay friends who had lived together for 34 years before getting married last year at Minneapolis’ City Hall thanked me, with tears in their eyes, for being able to celebrate their first ever wedding anniversary.

I wish someone had told me about Buffett’s punch card analogy when I was a lot younger. However, I’m glad I have the opportunity to use it now to recognize and lean into the few remaining “big decisions” in my life. I pass it on here as a birthday gift to others – not from me, but from Warren Buffett, who, by the simple arithmetic of his own analogy, has made a big decision once in every four of his 84 years.

John G. Taft is CEO of RBC Wealth Management - U.S., and author of Stewardship: Lessons Learned from the Lost Culture of Wall Street (Wiley, 2012). RBC Wealth Management-U.S. is a division of RBC Capital Markets, LLC, a member of NYSE/FINRA/SIPC.

Photo: creative commons licensed (BY-NC-ND) flickr photo by trackrecord

独立意志

再次涨停！索罗斯赔的钱，巴菲驼赚到了。

巴菲特有警世名言曰：“在别人贪婪时恐惧，在别人恐惧时贪婪”。可是，你们见过这个学者样的老者贪婪吗？有这么一个段子，话说1974年年底，美国资本市场下滑25%，他对记者说，此时的自己就像“性欲过剩的人到了后宫里”。好吧，我们相信巴老爷子的能力，据说现在每天仍要豪饮许多罐可口可乐，也爱吃冰激凌和糖果，这像是84岁高龄的老爷子么？

但是，2008年的股市让巴菲特和中国的“巴迷”们都“折了腰”，反而是另一位投资大师——索罗斯借助敏锐的判断力获得远超同行的回报，也正是在这一年，在国内投资界，“索迷”开始急剧增多。因为在他们看来“股神巴菲特三年赚的钱，索罗斯只用三天就赚到了。”从这句话我们就能看出两者最大的不同，巴菲特年长一岁，所以追求的是持久；索罗斯年轻一岁，依然推崇速度与激情。但是有的时候，索老爷子也会激情过头。

有媒体报道：日前，索罗斯旗下索罗斯基金管理公司提交给美国证券交易委员会的报告显示，索罗斯在二季度大幅建仓新东方股票：买入240.9万股新东方美国存托凭证。新东方股价在第二季度的均价为26美元。如果按照上周五21.27美元的收盘价计算，索罗斯明显是被套住了。

(后文有广告，省略。)

独立意志

You Only Live Once, Do It Warren Buffett’s Way.

从来没有救世主

再次涨停！索罗斯赔的钱，巴菲驼赚到了。
巴菲特有警世名言曰：“在别人贪婪时恐惧，在别人恐惧时贪婪”。可是，你们见过这个学者样的老者贪婪吗？有这么一个段子，话说1974年年底，美国资本市场下滑25%，他对记者说，此时的自己就像“性欲过剩的人到了后宫里”。好吧，我们相信巴老爷子的能力，据说现在每天仍要豪饮许多罐可口可乐，也爱吃冰激凌和糖果，这像是84岁高龄的老爷子么？
但是，2008年的股市让巴菲特和中国的“巴迷”们都“折了腰”，反而是另一位投资大师——索罗斯借助敏锐的判断力获得远超同行的回报，也正是在这一年，在国内投资界，“索迷”开始急剧增多。因为在他们看来“股神巴菲特三年赚的钱，索罗斯只用三天就赚到了。”从这句话我们就能看出两者最大的不同，巴菲特年长一岁，所以追求的是持久；索罗斯年轻一岁，依然推崇速度与激情。但是有的时候，索老爷子也会激情过头。
有媒体报道：日前，索罗斯旗下索罗斯基金管理公司提交给美国证券交易委员会的报告显示，索罗斯在二季度大幅建仓新东方股票：买入240.9万股新东方美国存托凭证。新东方股价在第二季度的均价为26美元。如果按照上周五21.27美元的收盘价计算，索罗斯明显是被套住了。
(后文有广告，省略。)
墨子 发表于 2014-8-28 11:38

走自己的路，盖茨的书不会告诉你他母亲是ＩＢＭ董事，是她给儿子促成了第一单大生意，巴菲特的书只会告诉你他10 岁就知道去参观纽交所，但不会告诉你他国会议员的父亲（甚至做过共和党主席）带他去的，是高盛的董事接待的。

独立意志

1、确实不会说。
2、说明他们有好的基因。
3、他们的成就，主要还在于自己吧？

走自己的路，盖茨的书不会告诉你他母亲是ＩＢＭ董事，是她给儿子促成了第一单大生意，巴菲特的书只会告诉你他10 岁就知道去参观纽交所，但不会告诉你他国会议员的父亲（甚至做过共和党主席）带他去的，是高盛的董事接待的。
从来没有救世主 发表于 2014-8-28 11:44

从来没有救世主

1、确实不会说。
2、说明他们有好的基因。
3、他们的成就，主要还在于自己吧？
墨子 发表于 2014-8-28 11:52

    同意，富二代能干些正经事的，还要靠自己，毕竟磕药搞基的多