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The Snowball Effect
You only get one mind and one body. And it's got to last a lifetime.
Azam Malik
May 19, 2024
Dear you,
A couple weeks ago, Berkshire Hathaway held its famous annual shareholders meeting in Omaha, Nebraska. Here’s some modest lifestyle facts about the ‘Oracle of Omaha’ (aka Warren Buffett) that only recently came to my attention:
Buffett was using a $20 Samsung flip phone right up until 2020 despite owning almost $1bn worth of Apple shares as it’s 3rd biggest shareholder and representing 40% of Berkshire Hathaway’s investment portfolio
He lives in the same humble abode that he bought in the 1950’s around 66 years ago for $31,500 (roughly equivalent to $330k in today’s dollars)
He has the same breakfast almost everyday on his 5 minute drive to work and pays no more than $3.17
99% of his wealth came after the age of 65
He drives a 10-year old Cadillac worth $45k and only racks up 3,500 miles a year
And the trick is to have a very long hill, which means either starting very young or living… to be very old.
If Buffett retired at age 65, you would have never heard of him - Morgan Housel
⚖️ This past week in numbers
📲 3h 58m (up 42% from 2h 47m) - I was at a work dinner on Friday night and someone who I hadn’t seen in 4 months said that I inspired them to take their screen time seriously after I was probably yapping on about it when we first met. Lately I’ve been pretty diligent about keeping both my phone and my laptop downstairs with the aim of eliminating screen time for 3 hours before sleeping
🍎I cooked and hit the gym twice this week - genuinely trying to make an effort to take my nutrition and fitness seriously this year. I’ve paid for MyFitnessPal’s premium version and I try to capture my meals on Recime which a friend of a friend coded a couple years ago
💬 Made you think
When I was sixteen, I had just two things on my mind - girls and cars. I wasn't very good with girls. So I thought about cars. I thought about girls, too, but I had more luck with cars.
Let's say that when I turned sixteen, a genie had appeared to me. And that genie said, 'Warren, I'm going to give you the car of your choice. It'll be here tomorrow morning with a big bow tied on it. Brand-new. And it's all yours.'
Having heard all the genie stories, I would say, 'What's the catch?' And the genie would answer, 'There's only one catch. This is the last car you're ever going to ge tin your life. So it's got to last a lifetime.'
If that had happened, I would have picked out that car. But, can you imagine, knowing it had to last a lifetime, what I would do with it?
I would read the manual about five times. I would always keep it garaged. If there was the least little dent or scratch, I'd have it fixed right away because I wouldn't want it rusting. I would baby that car, because it would have to last a lifetime.
That's exactly the position you are in concerning your mind and body. You only get one mind and one body. And it's got to last a lifetime. Now, it's very easy to let them ride for many years. But if you don't take care of that mind and that body, they'll be a wreck forty years later, just life the car would be.
It's what you do right now, today, that determines how your mind and body will operate ten, twenty, and thirty years from now.
I know I’ve missed the last couple weeks but if you made it this far, thank you for reading. I hope you gained something from it and as always, let me know what resonated with you.
Till next time,
Azam
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