The Buffett Formula...(Could It Change Your Business?)

I follow Shane Parrish who writes the farnamstreetblog.com. He recently posted a fantastic article titled, “The Buffett Formula – How to Get Smarter.” It’s a great article and definitely worth your time.

In the article, he highlighted how Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger (his partner) are learning machines. Apparently they both spend about 80% of their time reading and the knowledge acquired compounds over time. Buffett and Munger seem to read a great deal about different businesses. Their primary role is capital allocation, so they focus their reading on different investment opportunities. Buffett once commented that he read 500 pages a day. Shane wrote…

“We can learn a lot from them. They didn’t get smart because they are both billionaires. No, in fact they became billionaires, in part, because they are smart. More importantly, they keep getting smarter.”

If we consider the old saying success leaves clues, we might consider copying this strategy ourselves. This would mean that we should make time to read daily. The next question quickly becomes what to read? Well, for this let’s turn to James Altucher and his book titled, “How to Be the Luckiest Person Alive.” In this book, James recommends reading everything in your field. Here are a few of his suggestions:

1. The history of your field from 1800 on. Try and read 10 different sources on the industry.
2. All of the latest blogs in the field. Try to have 100 different sources.
3. All the basic techniques the current leading experts in the field use. Read all of their biographies or autobiographies.

For those of you in the real estate industry, you could apply this approach to real estate or specific niches. For example, if you work with investors, you might use the 3 steps above for real estate investing. Same goes for any other niche you might want to specialize in.

Over the years, I have asked my Master Marketer members to use this approach but focus their reading on direct response marketing. The reason why I specifically target marketing is because its what drives sales, income and cashflow. The idea is to read daily and to be very strategic about what you read. Apply the 80/20 rule to what you read and your results will compound at an accelerated rate. Another reason why I recommend reading about marketing is because the skills you acquire from your reading can be transferred to opportunities in any industry giving you complete autonomy.

Where would your business be in 12 months if you started using the “The Buffett Formula” today and focused your reading on marketing? If you decide to apply this idea to marketing, your reading might include:

1. Reading the history of direct response marketing.
2. Read the books marketing books written by the best marketers in the world.
3. Read all of the latest marketing blogs.
4. Read all of the techniques of the leading marketers.
5. Read all of the biographies and autobiographies of the best marketers in the world.