This morning I came across this interesting article by Guy Spier, whose name I had forgotten although I remembered the charity bidding war for lunch with Warren Buffett. I didn’t pay $650,000 to learn these life lessons (I didn’t have it to pay!), but I’ve learned them over the years and some of them are why I’ve found myself in Flagstaff and selling Flagstaff real estate. You might find them interesting:
1. Do the unconventional. I learned this early with my college choice. There was a lot of pressure to stay in-state to save money, but I went to the University of Chicago from Iowa. I came out of school seven years later with a load of debt, but it was worth it. I’m not sure that the quality of classes was so much different, but the life experience was.
2. Remain a child. I may not have the bubbly personality, but I do have a continued curiosity about life and interest in meeting new people and learning new things.
3. Learn to say “No.” I had to learn this one in my early years of work as a lawyer. It’s gotten easier to do over the years as I’ve learned the benefits of a managed schedule.
4. Keep your own score. Don’t worry about what other people think of your unconventional decisions. It would have been conventional for me to have done estate-planning instead of trial work. It was unconventional to abandon big city life for Flagstaff at age 45. It would have been conventional to stay practicing law instead of selling real estate. I’ve had more fun.
5. Invest in relationships. I’m still working on this one, but I’m a whole lot better at it than I was before age 35. And, I’ve got another 20-30% of my life left to work on it.
Related:
5 lessons from my $650,000 lunch with Warren Buffett – MarketWatch.
