Once They Said

Bill Gates My success, part of it certainly, is that I have focused in on a few things. Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning. Information technology and business are becoming inextricable interwoven. I don’t think anyone can talk meaningful about one without talking about the other. As we look ahead in the next century, leaders will be those who empower others. Be nice to nerd. Chances are once you’ll end up working for one. I believe that if you show people the problems and you will show them the solutions they will be moved to act. If GM had kept up with technology like the computer industry has, we would be driving $ 25 cars that got 1000 MPG. If you can’t make it good, at least make it look good. It’s fine to celebrate success but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure. Life is not divided into semesters. You don’t get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you find yourself. Life is not fair; get used to it. Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can’t lose. This is a fantastic time to be entering the business world, because business is going to change more in next 10 years than it has in last 50. I am serious when I do my work. I’m not serious when I’m home with my kids. I really had a lot of dreams when I was a kid, and I think a great deal of that grew out of the fact that I had a chance to read a lot. Is the rich world aware of how four billion of the six billion live? If we were aware, we would want to help out, we’d want to get involved. I have 100 billion dollars... You realise I could spend 3 million dollars a day, every day, for the next 100 year? And that’s if I don’t make another dime. But now I want to donate this wealth. Warren Buffett Our favourite holding period is forever. I always knew I was going to be rich. I don’t think I ever doubted it for even minute. If a business does well, the stock eventually follows. Wide diversification is only required when investors do not understand what they are doing. Only buy something that you would be perfectly happy to hold if the market shut down for 10 years. We simply attempts to be fearful when other are greedy and to be greedy only when others are fearful. Why not invest your assets in the companies you really like? As Mae West said, “Too much of a good thing can be wonderful”. Your premium brand had better be delivering something special, or it’s not going to get the business. Chains of habit are too light to be felt until they are too heavy to be broken. I buy expensive suits. They just look cheap on me. I don’t look to jump over 7-foot bars: I look around for 1-foot bars that I can step over. I never attempts to make money on the stock market. I buy on the assumption that they could close the market the next day and not going to reopen it for five years. In the business world rear view mirror is always clearer than the windshield. It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you will do things differently. It’s far better to buy a wonderful company at a fair price than a fair company at a wonderful price. Only when the tide goes out do you discover who’s been swimming naked. Price is what you pay. Value is what you get. Risk comes from not knowing what you’re doing. Rule No. 1: Never lose money. Rule No. 2: Never forget rule No.1. The business schools reward difficult complex behaviour more than simple behaviour is more effective. The investor of today does not profit from yesterday’s growth. You only have to do a very few things right in your life so long as you don’t do too many things wrong.