ENGLISH SPEECH WARREN BUFFETT Becoming successful English Subtitles

Interviewer:
Warren, how would you define true success?

Warren Buffett:
Well, I’ve said many times that if you get to be  

65 or 70 and later, and the people that you 
want to have love you actually do love you,  

you’re a success. I’ve never seen 
anybody that reaches that age. I mean,  

I’m not talking about somebody that’s 
in extreme poverty or pain or something,  

but I’ve never seen anybody that if they 
have a lot of people that love them,  

that is other than happy. And I’ve seen some 
very, very wealthy people that they give  

testimonial dinners too and named schools after 
and everything. And nobody, nobody loves them.  

Yeah. Their own kids would say, he’s in the attic, 
he’s in the attic, you know. They were okay.

Interviewer: 

What are say three pieces of advice you would give 
to people who are looking to succeed in business?

Warren Buffett: 

Well, by far, the best investment you can make is 
in yourself. I mean, for example, communication  

skills. I tell those students that come, that 
they’re going to graduate schools and business  

and that they’re running all these complicated 
formulas, all that. If they just learned to  

communicate better, both in writing and in person, 
they increase their value at least 50%. I mean,  

if you can’t communicate with somebody, it says, 
you know, it’s like winking at a girl in the dark,  

nothing happens, you know, basically. 
And you have to be able to get  

forth your ideas. And that’s relatively easy.
I did it myself with the Dale Carnegie,  

of course. Some people wish I’d taken a shorter 
course though, in terms of my talking later on.  

But it’s just hugely important. 
And if you invest in yourself,  

nobody can take it away from you. 
I mean, the second thing which,  

I’ll get a certain criticism for not living 
it, but I do tell those students, you know,  

that if I gave you a car and it’d be the only 
car you’re getting for the rest of your life,  

you would take care of it like you can’t believe. 
Any scratch, you would fix it that moment. You’d  

read the owner’s manual. You keep it into a garage 
and do all these things. And you get exactly one  

mind and one body in this world. And you can’t 
start taking care of it when you’re 50. By that  

time, you will rust it out if you haven’t done 
anything. So, you should really make sure that you  

just remember that you just got one mind and body 
to get through life with and do the most with it.

Interviewer:
What about life advice?

Warren Buffett:
Well, life advices,  

you know, the most important thing  

aside from the things I’ve talked about already is 
it’s really who you’re associated with. You want  

to associate with people that are better than you 
are. I mean, basically, you’ll go in the direction  

of the people that you associate with and you 
want to have the right heroes. You want people,  

if you want to emulate somebody, you better 
pick very carefully who you want to emulate. And  

obviously, you can’t pick your parents, they’re 
going to have an enormous influence on you,  

but you don’t get a choice on that.
But you get choices as you go down the line and  

who you admire, who you want to copy. And the 
most important for most people in terms of that  

decision is their spouse. It’s also important in 
terms of a partner in business, with a partner in  

life is the most important one. You want to pick 
a spouse that’s a little better than you are.  

And then he or she will put, you hope 
they don’t figure it out too fast.

Interviewer: 

Great. Biggest mistakes 
people make when investing?

Warren Buffett: 

Well, they try, they just don’t realize that all 
you have to do is just buy across a cross-section  

of America and they never listen to people like 
me or read the papers or do anything subsequently.  

They think that because you can trade, 
you should trade. You buy a farm,  

you buy an apartment house, you can’t resell it 
tomorrow, you know, the cost of moving around.  

Now you get something handed to you, liquidity, 
which is instant in sell and the cost of doing it  

are pennies, you know, compared to other kinds 
of investment activity. So, because they can  

so easily move around, they do move around. And 
moving around is not smarter than investing.

Interviewer:
You have a pretty cool morning  

routine regarding what you have for breakfast 
and how prosperous you feel. What is that?

Warren Buffett: 

Well, I now actually send somebody over 
to McDonald’s usually to get me something,  

since the publicity I got from earlier describing 
my habits at McDonald’s. I know somebody had them,  

have somebody go in the office, but that was 
more for entertainment value. I actually eat,  

I eat exactly what I like to eat. If I liked it 
on my sixth birthday and my sixth birthday party  

when we had hot dogs and hamburgers and Coke and 
ice cream with chocolate, I still like it. And  

I don’t care about anything subsequently. 
I discovered it all by the time I was six. 

If somebody offered me a deal, when I was 20 
and said, you’re going to live one year longer.  

You know, instead of living to 88, 
you’ll have 89 or whatever it may be,  

if you eat nothing but broccoli and Brussels 
sprouts and onions and all these things,  

I would have said, I’ll take the last year off. 
It probably won’t be that good anyway, you know.  

So, I eat what I like to eat. I am not 
adventuring something in that area.

Interviewer:
I like how you lumped  

in onions with broccoli and Brussels 
sprouts. I just never heard that one.

Warren Buffett:
I just don’t happen  

to like onions. But I don’t 
put them in the same category.

Interviewer:
Okay. You and  

George H. W. Bush, I think. 
Is business school worth it?

Warren Buffett:
Depends on the person,  

much more than it depends on the 
school. I mean, I wouldn’t worry,  

some people are going to get a lot out of advanced 
education and some people are going to get  

very little. And I don’t even think it’s important 
that every person goes to college at all. I mean,  

we have all kinds of jobs, 70 or so thousand a 
year, 80,000 a year, that college training is  

not required*. And I actually was 
not keen on going to college myself.

Interviewer:
Really?

Warren Buffett:
Yeah. My dad, kind of jolly man, he could get me  

to do anything. But if they’d had an SAT test in 
those days, he would have taken the test for me.  

But because I just, I knew I could have a good 
time and I liked investing and I didn’t really  

feel like I could read the books. So, I don’t, you 
know, it’s a big commitment to take four years and  

the cost involved and maybe the loans involved 
and everything. And I think depending on what  

your interests are in life, I don’t think it’s 
for everybody. I think it’s for a lot of people,  

but there ought to be a reason you’re going 
and I didn’t really see much a reason.

Interviewer: 

All right. Last question. It’s a lightning 
round. So, it’s a few. Do you ever drink water?

Warren Buffett:
Only under a duress.

Interviewer:
What is your favorite all-time song?

Warren Buffett:
It’s undoubtedly, It’s My Way.

Interviewer:
What about movie favorite movie?

Warren Buffett:
Well, I like the Bridge on the River  

Kwai because there were a lot of lessons 
in that plus it was enormously fascinating.

Interviewer:
Catchy tune, also.

Warren Buffett:
Sorry.

Interviewer:
Catchy tune also.

Warren Buffett:
Yeah. Very.

Interviewer:
Right, right.

Warren Buffett:
But  

the ending of that was sort of 
the story of life. You know,  

he created the railroad and he really wants 
the enemy to come and across it, you know.

Interviewer:
Got it. Favorite book?

Warren Buffett:
Well, the favorite book for investment,  

the book that had the most impact on my life 
was the Intelligent Investor by Ben Graham.

Interviewer:
I knew you  

were going to say that. Favorite TV show?

Warren Buffett:
It’s probably going to be,  

it would be Nebraska in some 
huge bowl game I am winning.

Interviewer: 

And finally, what do you carry in your wallet 
and how much money do you tend to carry around?

Warren Buffett:
Well, I’d probably carry,  

maybe $400. I actually, my wife likes 
to use the cash, so I just take home  

a chunk of cash every now and then she does 
it out. She looks at my billfold and sees  

whether all the hundreds are gone and sticks 
a few in there. But it’s pretty simple.

Interviewer:
And the credit cards?

Warren Buffett:
I’ve got an American Express card, which I got  

in 1964. But I pay cash 98% of the time. If I’m at 
a restaurant, I always pay cash. It’s just easier.

Interviewer:
Warren buffet. Thanks very much.