Angelo Labrou

My notes from Buffett: The Making of an American Capitalist turned into maxims: 1. Genius lies in ignoring the unimportant.  2. Intensity is the price of excellence.  3. If you’re not working on your best idea you’re doing it wrong.  4. Writing a check separates conviction from conversation.  5. A thousand opinions doesn't outweigh one conviction.  6. Let your winners ride.  7. Make your life's work a work of art.  8. Learn as much as you can; teach everything you know.  9. Be the best informed person in your field.  10.Time reveals who is full of shit.  11.There is no better investment than intense focus on your own development.  12.Be headstrong about how *you* want to build *your* business. 13.The job to do is the job at hand. 14.Take the time to develop your own philosophy about your craft. It should be unique to you.  15.Avoid over optimizing for your work at the expense of your relationship with your spouse. 16.No one can predict how this all plays out.  17.Sell cheap, tell the truth, and put your competitors through a meat grinder.  18.Never underestimate the power of inspiration.  19.All you need is the will to work hard and a library card. 20. Be possessed of a spark. 21.Nobody can tell you about a great opportunity. You have to get there on your own.  22.Have Kanye West levels of self-belief.  23.Pour your entire soul into one outlet.  24.Have an inner scorecard. Know who you are and never try to be anything else.  25.The master in the art of living simply pursues his vision of excellence at whatever he does, leaving others to decide whether he is working or playing. 26.The primary benefit of wealth is independence.  27.Excellence does not come from consensus seeking groups.  28.A North Star for your life: Will your kids hang up your picture when you’re gone?  29.Maintain childlike enchantment with your work.  30. Concentrate.  31.Life is too short to work with people you don't like. 32.You can make magic by going farther than most other people think is reasonable. When Warren was asked, "How'd you do it?" He said, "I read a couple thousand financial statements a year." 33. Remember what Andrew Carnegie learned: "Profits and prices are cyclical, subject to any number of transient forces of the marketplace. Costs, however, could be strictly controlled, and any savings achieved in costs are permanent." 34. Let your company be misunderstood by outsiders. They can't compete with something they don't understand.  35. What looks like work to others but feels like play to you? Do that for a living.  36.Making decisions based on what other people might do is nonsensical.  37.Sometimes the real right answer is directly opposite of the *perceived* right answer. 38. Benjamin Franklin's aphorisms are more useful than most of what is taught in business school.  39. Don't spend money on luxurious offices. "Why does a newspaper need a palace to publish in?" — Charlie Munger 40. Avoid the fatal weak link. Common examples include alcoholism, easy money, too much debt.  41.Not having a schedule allows you to always work on the most important thing.  42. Always work on the most important thing. 43. If you love what you do the only exit strategy should be death.