Warren Buffett's advice for beating inflation: 'Be exceptionally good at something'

[mahatmakanejeeves]

This is along the lines of Benjamin Franklin's aphorism, “An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.”

Source: https://due.com/blog/benjamin-franklin-investing-in-knowledge/

Yahoo Finance

Buffett's advice for beating inflation: 'Be exceptionally good at something'

Aarthi Swaminathan · Reporter
Sat, April 30, 2022, 2:29 PM

Invest in yourself to reap rewards even when inflation bites, Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-A, BRK-B) CEO and Chairman Warren Buffett told a shareholder who asked him for advice on what to invest in amid a general increase in prices of goods and services.

"The best thing you can do is to be exceptionally good at something," Berkshire Hathaway Chairman and CEO Warren Buffett said during the company's annual shareholders meeting on Saturday. "If you're the best doctor in town, if you're the best lawyer in town, if you're the best whatever it may be... [people] are going to give you some of what they produce in exchange for what you deliver."

The Oracle of Omaha later added: "Whatever abilities you have can't be taken away from you. They can't actually be inflated away from you. ... So the best investment by far is anything that develops yourself, and it's not taxed at all."

{snip}

[Omnipresent]

1. Well jeez...

That sucks for the rest of us.

[NJCher]

4. Huh?

I don’t see how.

Personally, I’ve always thought this a wise way to position oneself in the marketplace.

Another option is to do something unusual, where there is little competition.

[Ocelot II]

2. I am exceptionally good at being mediocre. Does that help?

[mahatmakanejeeves]

9. "We can't have all Brandeises, Frankfurters and Cardozos."

You knew this was coming.

Roman Hruska

{snip}

Mediocrity

In 1970, Hruska addressed the Senate, urging them to confirm Richard Nixon's nomination of G. Harrold Carswell to the Supreme Court. Responding to criticism that Carswell had been a mediocre judge, Hruska argued:

Even if he were mediocre, there are a lot of mediocre judges and people and lawyers. They are entitled to a little representation, aren't they, and a little chance? We can't have all Brandeises, Frankfurters and Cardozos.

[Irish_Dem]

3. 68% of the population is average.

Most people are not exceptional. They are average.

Warren Buffet is sounding like a real ass here.

[NJCher]

5. See my second para

On post 4

[Irish_Dem]

10. I agree, but most cannot come up with some unusual that will enrich themselves.

Most people are not wired that way.

[Omnipresent]

7. Exactly!

[Hoyt]

6. Like all aphorisms, there's some truth there. If one expects to do better than average - COLA raise

-- think you need to improve your skills or take a risk with a new job. But lots of folks are fine with average, I definitely am nowadays.

[LuvLoogie]

8. I think Buffet answered an investment question

to a shareholder. It's a good answer.

This was true before Warren Buffet. The forces driving inflation are out of any individual's control. Even if the world could agree on a sustainable economy that takes care of everyone's needs, the natural world will inflict shortages of needed things.

He's just saying do what you can to prepare yourself so that you are less susceptible to the forces of greed, waste, and resource depletion--to a shareholder.

[NJCher]

12. if one takes meaning from it

It has validity, whether its an investment or a career.

JMHO, but I think everyone should think of their work time as an investment.

When I was beginning my career, I said that if I had to spend 8 hours a day doing something, I was going to enjoy it.

[Irish_Dem]

11. Buffett is being elitist. And putting down the average person.

If people had a decent safety net in the US, we wouldn't have to worry about trying to figure out how to pay our bills.

[DinahMoeHum]

13. Scott Galloway has an essay on being "unremarkable". . .

. . .he would not take kindly to what Buffett just said.

https://www.profgalloway.com/unremarkables/