Harvard University has a classic saying: "A person's success and failure do not lie in their ability and experience, but in their way of thinking."
In fact, learning from the smartest people is itself a very important way of thinking. If you are in the right circle, life will be right. Find the right teachers, and your life can enter the next stage.
1. Those who have truly achieved something in history have all learned from various sources.
In 1993, Warren Buffett said in an interview with Forbes: "The three people who have influenced me the most in the world are my father, Graham, and Munger."
My father taught me to either not do anything or to do things that are worth making the front page of the newspaper.
Graham taught me the rational framework and correct model for investing, which gave me the ability to observe calmly from a distance, unaffected by others, and not panic when stock prices fall.
Charlie made me realize the various advantages of investing in an excellent company with sustained profit growth, but the premise is that you must have a grasp of it.
The difference between humans and animals lies in our collective wisdom. With the accumulation of abstract knowledge across regions, times, and groups, we can achieve compound-like cognitive growth. If we cannot maximize the use of human collective wisdom, how are we different from animals?
2. Everyone needs role models who can inspire them.
If you walk into a maze and want to find an exit in a two-dimensional world, it is very difficult. If someone can point the way from above, moving from two dimensions to three, you can quickly find the path out of the maze.
Buffett's investment performance before he met Graham was average. He said: "Since 1951, my investment performance began to improve significantly, but not because I changed my diet or started exercising; the only new nutrient I added was Graham's investment philosophy. The effect of learning under a master for a few hours far exceeds the naive thinking I had during the past ten years."
The more insights you gain from others and the broader the sources of lessons you absorb, the better the situation will be.
Everyone needs to find role models who can inspire them, follow the guidance of those examples, and find an outstanding person to emulate. What you observe and learn will increase your chances of investment and life success.
It is important to emphasize that learning from and emulating these outstanding people must not stay on the surface, but rather to emulate their nonlinear thinking, connect to their framework of wisdom, adopt their spirit, thinking, and methods, and use your multidimensional thinking to copy multiple programs and combine them into your systematic thinking.
3. First, well master the knowledge that others have already organized.
Once upon a time, there was a person who diligently mastered the best achievements of his predecessors. Although his foundation was not good when he started studying geometry, he learned very painfully.
In the end, the achievements he himself obtained attracted the attention of many. He evaluated his own results as follows: "If I see further than others, it is because I stand on the shoulders of giants."
This person's ashes are now buried in Westminster Abbey, where his tombstone bears an unusual epitaph: "Here lies the immortal Sir Isaac Newton."
Munger warns us: people should master the principles that others have already figured out. No one can grasp universal wisdom just by sitting down and daydreaming; no one is that smart. The reliable way to learn is first to master the knowledge that others have already organized.
Life has its limits, but knowledge is limitless. Strive to read books and research results written by outstanding political, business, and academic elites; their knowledge is the time they share with us.
With this knowledge, we can treat the skills and knowledge they have refined over countless times as part of our own time accumulation.
These enlightened predecessors who have educational significance for us are the ones we should love the most. The time they accumulated in their lives will help us have a significant advantage in life.
4. Do your best to spend time with those who are smart, interesting, and ambitious.
Someone once asked Bill Gates about the secret to his success, and he answered without hesitation: "Surround yourself with smart people."
If we want to achieve great success, we should try to spend more time with smart, interesting, and ambitious people. Either work for them or hire them to work for us.
Both those who excel in their professional fields and those who are promising but have yet to be recognized and discovered are worthy of our deep connections.
There is a saying: "You are the average of the people you surround yourself with."
The biggest difference between people lies in their thoughts and understanding. You should associate with those who have higher thoughts than you, connect with those who are more capable, and engage with experts to elevate yourself.
Whether in work, entrepreneurship, or investment, whom you are with is very important. A truckload of potatoes is not as valuable as a single pearl; the higher the level of the people you associate with, the faster your ability improves, and the more opportunities you have.
Because the collision of wisdom among experts can inspire, encourage, achieve, and promote each other.
The most efficient way to grow is never through independent innovation; it is always to learn from the best in the field, rapidly replicate experiences, quickly iterate oneself, achieve passing in a short time, and then find ways to become good and excellent!
If you want to grow effectively and change yourself, try to associate with ambitious people. Strive to find the best people in life, work, and investment who are willing to help you, placing yourself in an environment that not only allows you to improve but also propels others forward, achieving efficient growth through learning and imitation.
5. Knowing people who are more capable than you is one of the means to cross social strata.
Wise people enlighten you, noble people help you, loved ones support you, opponents inspire you, and petty people trip you up. To achieve great accomplishments in life, these individuals are indispensable in your life. Everyone who appears in your life is here to help you achieve and refine yourself.
Even Einstein would not conduct research in isolation. Although he never attended large conferences, everyone needs colleagues to communicate with.
In fact, finding colleagues who can lend you a helping hand in work and life is not something that can be naturally achieved without effort, just as no one is willing to voluntarily be a mentor, very few are willing to become someone else's colleague.
Only by continuously improving your abilities can you meet increasingly capable people. China's social classes are still full of mobility, providing excellent opportunities for you to change your destiny. Knowing people who are more capable than you is one of the means to cross social strata.
6. Discover that there are brilliant people around you; the first reaction should be to join them. If your circle is right, life will be right.
When you find that the people around you are quite capable, you should quickly think of ways to join or assist them.
When Lang Lang was a child learning piano, he was often scolded by his father and teacher, so he would run to the market to chat with an uncle. The uncle thought the kid was good and guided him every day. Later, when Lang Lang became famous, he bought a house for that uncle in Beijing to show his gratitude.
Don't think such things are rare. In fact, if you flip through the biographies of Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, and others, you'll find that many of their college classmates did nothing, but just had good connections during college, helped out a bit, and later became billionaires.
Having brilliant people around you is like winning the lottery in life; cherish it!
Therefore, we should spend 60% of our lives with the 10% of people who have a significant impact on our lives.
Spend 30% of your time communicating with the 30% of people you interact with frequently.
For the remaining 60% of people, if you both are not important in each other’s lives, then just spend 10% of your time maintaining that connection.
In life, there are only about 10 people who are most important to you. Identify these 10 people, interact with them, and if your circle is right, life will be right.
Whether a person can build a big and strong career is incredibly important based on whom they are with.
In fact, if you believe that getting to know some capable people and entering certain relationships will have long-term advantages, then perhaps paying a premium for it is worth it.
Munger told a story: A person handed him a check for 50,000, and he said, "If you let me work for you for free, you can cash this check."
Although this method did not work on Munger, it did catch his attention at that time.
Munger believes that his thinking is not irrational, just that he has found the wrong people. Perhaps in some place, there is a capable person, and if you give him 50,000 (if this amount allows you to work for him for free), it would be a good investment.
