By Amy Rudolph
Elm Staff Writer
At first glance, most people would doubt that they have much in common with Warren Buffett, the 86-year-old billionaire whose net worth is approximately $71.5 billion dollars. Since learning about Buffett, I have read plenty of stories about how “normal” he is, but over winter break I was able to see firsthand what everyone meant.
During the trip to Omaha, I and 18 other Washington College students were given the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to meet and participate in a Q&A with Buffett. The entire trip was awe inspiring, and many of the locals spoke so highly of Buffett that he sounded like a myth. Buffett is a wealth of information and if you listen hard enough, he has some great quotes.
The 86-year-old loves to make jokes, discuss how seemingly easy it is to find “good businesses,” and to share his life advice. One of my favorite bits was the tangent Buffett went on about which opinions to value. Buffett said, “I don’t read the Opinion section [of newspapers.] If I wanted your opinion, I would ask for it.” As an opinion writer, I was taken back a bit initially, but with any great quote, it got me thinking. When I write my opinions every week, I usually expect at least someone will read them but I can see why people wouldn’t. I don’t think I’ve ever read an opinion piece in a newspaper if it wasn’t in The Elm. People often celebrate the New York Times’ opinion pieces, but I’ve never sat down intending to read one, because like Buffett, I don’t care very much. It’s a little harsh to say you don’t care about someone’s opinion, but when people do say that, they’re being honest. With the rise in popularity of online publications such as Buzzfeed and other click-bait style websites, much of our time on social media is spent sifting through pages upon pages of opinions we never asked for. Especially given the unrest associated with the political and social upset that America and other countries are facing today, everyone has an opinion and plenty of people either write and share their own or repost and recycle someone else’s.
Every time that someone shares their own opinion, one they agree with or one they disagree with, they inadvertently start a dialogue about that issue. With every publication, post or share, others are free to comment on it. The current political and social climates aids in the production of works that call for a certain kind of change or ask the reader to think about what they are doing and how they can change their behavior. Not everyone wants to be told what to do or change their behavior, for those people, the point of the piece should be to show them the effects of their actions already.
As one of the most influential investors in the world, the effects of Buffett’s decisions are wide-spread. Economic decisions fuel much of our daily lives and one wrong choice could have macro effects that have the potential to ruin the livelihoods of millions of people around the globe. Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway make some of those big-money decisions that could have an enormous impact and many people have their own opinions about what Buffett and his board should do. Buffett said that he “can’t think of the macro effects of [his] decisions” as he would never be able to process every single possibility and he would never make any decisions. When industry leaders and investors share their insight, their opinion, on how Buffett should act, for the most part, he will never see them. One man cannot process all of the opinions floating around him because he would never be able to formulate his own idea of how he should act when handling hundreds of billions of dollars.
That is one of the problems with the freedom to share your opinion: it can get a little overwhelming. Buffett has to trust his own instinct and devise his own idea of what is the right thing to do, as we all do every day. With many of these decisions, he leans on his team of trusted partners and friends to help him wade through the madness that surrounds him. When we common folk are faced with difficult and taxing decisions, we do the same thing and many of us get bogged down on thinking about the “what ifs” of every choice. This breeds indecisiveness and sometimes we never reach an agreement with ourselves and others. Take Buffett’s advice and don’t worry about the macro and micro effects of every tiny choice that you make and just make one already. Be thankful that your choices don’t have a billion dollar price tag.