"It does pay to have the right models" · Transcript · BuffettMungerGPT

CharlieIt does pay to have the right models. I mean, I was very lucky early, very early in life, that I had certain heroes, and I've continued to develop a few more as I've gone along. And they've been terrific, and they've never let me down. And it takes you through a lot. And I think that, you know, it just stands to reason that you copy very much the people that you do look up to, and particularly if you do it at an early enough age. So I think if you can influence the role models of a of a five-year-old or an eight-year-old or a 10-year-old, you know, it's going to have a huge impact. And, of course, everybody virtually starts out with their initial models being their parents. So they are the ones that are going to have that huge effect out of them. And if that parent turns out to be a great model, I think it's going to be a huge plus for the child. I think that it beats a whole lot of other things in life to have the right models around. And I have, like I say, even after I've gotten older, picked up a few more. And it influences your behavior. I'm convinced of that. And if you, you will want to be a little more or a lot more, depending on your personality, like the person that you admire. And I tell the students in classes, I tell them, you know, just pick out the person you admire the most in the class and sit on and write the reasons out why you admire them and then try and figure out why you can't have those same qualities. Because they're not the ability to throw football 60 yards or run the hundred, in Tim Flat or something like that. There are qualities of personality, character, temperament that are hand-beamulated. But you've got to start early. It's very tough to change behavior later on. And you can apply the reverse of it following Charlie's theory. You can find the people that you don't like and say, what don't I like about these people? And then you can, you know, it takes a little strength of character, but you can look inward and say, you know, have I got some of that in me? And it's not complicated, nothing to be more simple than to try and figure out what you find admirable and then decide, you know, that the person you really would like to admire is yourself. And the only way you're going to do it is take on the qualities of other people you admire. And if it's a model is all you want, you're really better off not limiting yourself to the living. Some of the very best models have been dead for a long time.