From the Presidential Medal
of Freedom presentation

Warren E. Buffett : as a world-known investor and philanthropist, Warren E. Buffett business acumen is matched only by his dedication to improve the lives of others. He is the co/founder of the Giving Pledge, an
organization that encourages wealthy Americans to donate at least 50percent of their wealth to philanthropic causes.

Warren Buffett’s example of Generosity and Compassion has shown us the power of one individual’s determination in inspiring countless women and men to help make our world a brighter place.

Last posts

FOCUS

Discipline

Follow One Course (path) Until Successful. Puo’ essere un ottimo inizio per analizzare a fondo cosa vuol dire essere veramente concentrati e motivati nel perseguire un obiettivo. Sia di lavoro, di accrescimento professionale o di studio ed accrescimento morale. Rimanere disciplinati e focalizzati è come rimanere onesti: è difficile ma possibile. Soprattutto è, per ottenere cio’ che vogliamo non negoziabile. E’ imprescindibile. E’ una specie di pre-requisito. In effetti è difficile pensare che oltre al talento (se c’è) si possa ottenere un risultato straordinario senza uno sforzo straordinario. Pensate forse che Bill Gates, in quanto geniale, non abbia fatto sforzi sovrumani al posto di “just sitting around”? E spesso, ove il talento manchi, questo sforzo straordinario sopperisce ed incrementa enormemente le possibilità di successo o almeno buoni risultati.

Bill Evans, straordinario pianista disse: “Io non ho un grande orecchio percio’ per arrivare a dei risultati ho dovuto faticare parecchio..”. Personalmente la fatica e la disciplina necessaria allo studio del jazz mi hanno ispirato molto nella vita e nel mondo degli investimenti. Dopo tanto studio e “sudate carte” si impara dalla disciplina a “distillare”, a togliere piu’ che a mettere. Per dirla ancora con Bill Evans : “It’s not a what, it’s a how”. La differenza non la fa cio’ che decidi di fare, ma “come” lo fai. Ecco perché costanza, concentrazione e disciplina sono fattori cruciali, di estrema importanza.

Datevi un obiettivo che guidi e comandi i vostri migliori desideri ed istinti. I piu’ preziosi, i piu’ buoni, quelli che varranno piu’ per gli altri e per la società che per voi stessi. Poi datevi un metodo, un imperativo morale, che sia una legge dentro di voi. Solo cosi’, anche dopo enormi cadute, come Dante dall’inferno, “uscirete a riveder le stelle

Article 2

Be thankful, be lovable

Buffett says he wants to be remembered as a teacher. Most of the teachers are good , or bad, in just doing the teaching, and repeating the same lessons over and over . Because it’s the only thing they can do. A wonderful teacher, a true teacher is one that I would call a “Maestro”. The Italian word for Master. Because he’s someone that really can do what it teaches. And then he’s so generous and good that is a big talent in passing along the extraordinary talent he has. The talent he nurtured to achieve those wonderful goals that are under your eyes and tell about him.

“Generosity is a precious gift, don’t expect it from cheap people”. It takes a very generous human being to spend time and efforts passing along to other people what he learned. It is an act of generosity only a true successful man can do for free.

And it tells you  also about the importance of sharing your success with the others. And that’s a key point for many successful people. Like Jean Paul De Joira likes to write on his motorbikes : “Success without sharing with the others is failure”. Don’t ask yourself why JP signed the “giving pledge”. His wonderful story reminds me of what Miles Davis used to say: “I don’t need words, Music speaks for itself”.

Article 1

Be thankful, be lovable

In 2000 and thereafter in 2004 I was living in Los Angeles and had the opportunity to know and spend some time with Ted Greene, a wonderful human being and a terrific musician. I must say that Ted had an impact on my life, in a soft and sweet way, like the sweet guy he was. Nonetheless the few words we exchanged in a couple of occasions were crucial to me. Like Buffett he inspired me in the “management of your life” much more than he did in other fields too. In a way he was the first one to show me that it is possible to find our own path in life. That it had to be possible to be happy. You have to look for what you like, and gives you a sense of accomplishment. You must find by yourself the job and the everyday routine that really makes you happy.

Not everyone can be or must be a guitar genius like Ted was. A master in the chemistry of chord voicings and changes and harmonization on the guitar. A wonderful ear. Like Warren he was painting his own paint everyday choosing from his infinite canvas all the colors and the chords he loved, without anyone telling him what had to be done that day. Ted had a rich life, attracting with his kind mood to him many friends and many people. He’s remembered as a lovable man, a wonderful teacher, an outstanding example. He was thankful for what he had. Once he said something, I can’t remember precisely, but it was more or less like this: “With all the things that can go wrong in life, it’s amazing to experience how for the most part they simply don’t”. Ted like Warren enjoyed life.

Article 2

Discipline

“You can become to enormous degree the person you wanna be”. You’ll probably not be just like Buffett but you’ll be yourself and a better person. And that is not a small achievement at all.

It’s not easy at all though. How can you do that?

Think about another pearl that I like : “Intensity is the price of excellence”. And I would add is the price of success probably. You can have all the good ideas in the world but if you are not a “doer”….well you’ll never be able to see your good ideas in motion in the real world. They will remain dreams and you will remain a dreamer, like most good brains around us remain.

But Sam Walton was not a “dreamer” or  a “talker”. He was a “doer”, and was thinking that what was driving his passion, his soul and mind was doable. And he wanted to do that so much, with so much intensity that he created automatically for himself a routine and a discipline that will make the things come real at the end. Even when debts were growing, problems were growing, and people around him was not going to believe it was possible to expand so much some grocery stores into a chain of super-stores, against competitors so big and well-established like JC Penney and many others. He was thinking it was possible with such an intensity and competence that made him jump out of bed very very early in the morning. Same thing I was doing when I started my own business in 2006 waking up at 4.30 or 5.00 in the morning before even knowing Sam Walton’s story.

Article 1

Discipline

I feel I had an incredible advantage in approaching the study of the investment industry by coming from a very disciplined field of study: jazz music. In jazz you learn to transcribe the music, the solos of the giants. You don’t read books about them or so, you transcribe their speeches. Then you don-t go gigging around playing those same notes you know by heart, but you-ll look for your own voice.  You don-t have to be Colrane but you can “sound-like” Coltrane. Or be more like Sonny Rollins. So let’s sound like Buffett, let’s find our own voice by listening to the giants. And believe me, the Mozart of all investors is Mr. Warren E. Buffett.

One young man came to visit Mozart ….and says > Mozart I want to write symphonies, and Mozart says “How old are you”? He answers “23”. Mozart says: “You’re too young to write symphonies” But he says, “You were writing symphonies at the age of 10 y.o.” . Mozart says: “Yes, but I wasn’t asking other people how to do it”.

Article 2

THE BUSINESS OF LIFE

Let’s go back to this good book I recommend to everyone : “the Snowball” by Alice Shroeder (Bantam Books). The subtitle “The business of Life” tells in few words many many things. It has to do with the concept that life and business are very co-related but  deeper than that It’s probably about going where “the adventure is” and have no fear. And manage well your life while doing the things you love. So if you can manage well your life, you will manage eventually well your business. And life and business will be together one enriching the other, in a positive and wonderful vicious-circle of reciprocal accomplishment.

“Don’t sleepwalk through like” it’s the Warren’s advice that best describes how a life should be lived, no matter the different styles or approach to your talents, your attitude, your business.

It doesn’t matter if you want to be an artist, a painter, a musician, an architect. You can’t just sit around and wait, unless you’re thinking. But even after a long thinking and waiting there’ll be the time in which you have to swing. And if you have thought well, studied intensely; if you know what you’re doing : you’ll swing good and big.

“You can become to enormous degree the person you wanna be”. You’ll probably not be just like Buffett but you’ll be yourself and a better person. And that is not a small achievement at all.

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Last posts

FOCUS

Discipline

Follow One Course (path) Until Successful. Puo’ essere un ottimo inizio per analizzare a fondo cosa vuol dire essere veramente concentrati e motivati nel perseguire un obiettivo. Sia di lavoro, di accrescimento professionale o di studio ed accrescimento morale. Rimanere disciplinati e focalizzati è come rimanere onesti: è difficile ma possibile. Soprattutto è, per ottenere cio’ che vogliamo non negoziabile. E’ imprescindibile. E’ una specie di pre-requisito. In effetti è difficile pensare che oltre al talento (se c’è) si possa ottenere un risultato straordinario senza uno sforzo straordinario. Pensate forse che Bill Gates, in quanto geniale, non abbia fatto sforzi sovrumani al posto di “just sitting around”? E spesso, ove il talento manchi, questo sforzo straordinario sopperisce ed incrementa enormemente le possibilità di successo o almeno buoni risultati.

Bill Evans, straordinario pianista disse: “Io non ho un grande orecchio percio’ per arrivare a dei risultati ho dovuto faticare parecchio..”. Personalmente la fatica e la disciplina necessaria allo studio del jazz mi hanno ispirato molto nella vita e nel mondo degli investimenti. Dopo tanto studio e “sudate carte” si impara dalla disciplina a “distillare”, a togliere piu’ che a mettere. Per dirla ancora con Bill Evans : “It’s not a what, it’s a how”. La differenza non la fa cio’ che decidi di fare, ma “come” lo fai. Ecco perché costanza, concentrazione e disciplina sono fattori cruciali, di estrema importanza.

Datevi un obiettivo che guidi e comandi i vostri migliori desideri ed istinti. I piu’ preziosi, i piu’ buoni, quelli che varranno piu’ per gli altri e per la società che per voi stessi. Poi datevi un metodo, un imperativo morale, che sia una legge dentro di voi. Solo cosi’, anche dopo enormi cadute, come Dante dall’inferno, “uscirete a riveder le stelle

Article 2

Be thankful, be lovable

Buffett says he wants to be remembered as a teacher. Most of the teachers are good , or bad, in just doing the teaching, and repeating the same lessons over and over . Because it’s the only thing they can do. A wonderful teacher, a true teacher is one that I would call a “Maestro”. The Italian word for Master. Because he’s someone that really can do what it teaches. And then he’s so generous and good that is a big talent in passing along the extraordinary talent he has. The talent he nurtured to achieve those wonderful goals that are under your eyes and tell about him.

“Generosity is a precious gift, don’t expect it from cheap people”. It takes a very generous human being to spend time and efforts passing along to other people what he learned. It is an act of generosity only a true successful man can do for free.

And it tells you  also about the importance of sharing your success with the others. And that’s a key point for many successful people. Like Jean Paul De Joira likes to write on his motorbikes : “Success without sharing with the others is failure”. Don’t ask yourself why JP signed the “giving pledge”. His wonderful story reminds me of what Miles Davis used to say: “I don’t need words, Music speaks for itself”.

Article 1

Be thankful, be lovable

In 2000 and thereafter in 2004 I was living in Los Angeles and had the opportunity to know and spend some time with Ted Greene, a wonderful human being and a terrific musician. I must say that Ted had an impact on my life, in a soft and sweet way, like the sweet guy he was. Nonetheless the few words we exchanged in a couple of occasions were crucial to me. Like Buffett he inspired me in the “management of your life” much more than he did in other fields too. In a way he was the first one to show me that it is possible to find our own path in life. That it had to be possible to be happy. You have to look for what you like, and gives you a sense of accomplishment. You must find by yourself the job and the everyday routine that really makes you happy.

Not everyone can be or must be a guitar genius like Ted was. A master in the chemistry of chord voicings and changes and harmonization on the guitar. A wonderful ear. Like Warren he was painting his own paint everyday choosing from his infinite canvas all the colors and the chords he loved, without anyone telling him what had to be done that day. Ted had a rich life, attracting with his kind mood to him many friends and many people. He’s remembered as a lovable man, a wonderful teacher, an outstanding example. He was thankful for what he had. Once he said something, I can’t remember precisely, but it was more or less like this: “With all the things that can go wrong in life, it’s amazing to experience how for the most part they simply don’t”. Ted like Warren enjoyed life.

Article 2

Discipline

“You can become to enormous degree the person you wanna be”. You’ll probably not be just like Buffett but you’ll be yourself and a better person. And that is not a small achievement at all.

It’s not easy at all though. How can you do that?

Think about another pearl that I like : “Intensity is the price of excellence”. And I would add is the price of success probably. You can have all the good ideas in the world but if you are not a “doer”….well you’ll never be able to see your good ideas in motion in the real world. They will remain dreams and you will remain a dreamer, like most good brains around us remain.

But Sam Walton was not a “dreamer” or  a “talker”. He was a “doer”, and was thinking that what was driving his passion, his soul and mind was doable. And he wanted to do that so much, with so much intensity that he created automatically for himself a routine and a discipline that will make the things come real at the end. Even when debts were growing, problems were growing, and people around him was not going to believe it was possible to expand so much some grocery stores into a chain of super-stores, against competitors so big and well-established like JC Penney and many others. He was thinking it was possible with such an intensity and competence that made him jump out of bed very very early in the morning. Same thing I was doing when I started my own business in 2006 waking up at 4.30 or 5.00 in the morning before even knowing Sam Walton’s story.

Article 1

Discipline

I feel I had an incredible advantage in approaching the study of the investment industry by coming from a very disciplined field of study: jazz music. In jazz you learn to transcribe the music, the solos of the giants. You don’t read books about them or so, you transcribe their speeches. Then you don-t go gigging around playing those same notes you know by heart, but you-ll look for your own voice.  You don-t have to be Colrane but you can “sound-like” Coltrane. Or be more like Sonny Rollins. So let’s sound like Buffett, let’s find our own voice by listening to the giants. And believe me, the Mozart of all investors is Mr. Warren E. Buffett.

One young man came to visit Mozart ….and says > Mozart I want to write symphonies, and Mozart says “How old are you”? He answers “23”. Mozart says: “You’re too young to write symphonies” But he says, “You were writing symphonies at the age of 10 y.o.” . Mozart says: “Yes, but I wasn’t asking other people how to do it”.

Article 2

THE BUSINESS OF LIFE

Let’s go back to this good book I recommend to everyone : “the Snowball” by Alice Shroeder (Bantam Books). The subtitle “The business of Life” tells in few words many many things. It has to do with the concept that life and business are very co-related but  deeper than that It’s probably about going where “the adventure is” and have no fear. And manage well your life while doing the things you love. So if you can manage well your life, you will manage eventually well your business. And life and business will be together one enriching the other, in a positive and wonderful vicious-circle of reciprocal accomplishment.

“Don’t sleepwalk through like” it’s the Warren’s advice that best describes how a life should be lived, no matter the different styles or approach to your talents, your attitude, your business.

It doesn’t matter if you want to be an artist, a painter, a musician, an architect. You can’t just sit around and wait, unless you’re thinking. But even after a long thinking and waiting there’ll be the time in which you have to swing. And if you have thought well, studied intensely; if you know what you’re doing : you’ll swing good and big.

“You can become to enormous degree the person you wanna be”. You’ll probably not be just like Buffett but you’ll be yourself and a better person. And that is not a small achievement at all.