Career Advice from Warren Buffett
Many business schools have a “Warren Buffett Club” that makes an annual trip to visit the Oracle of Omaha. Buffett is extremely outgoing to such groups and usually does a lot of candid Q&A. I recently saw an unofficial transcript from a Tuck Q&A session in ’05. This response of Buffett’s was particularly amusing:
Q: What is your career advice?
A: If you want to make a lot of money go to Wall Street. More importantly though, do what you would do for free, having passion for what you do is the most important thing. I love what I do; I’m not even that busy . . . A few months ago I was talking to another MBA student, a very talented man, about 30 years old from a great school with a great resume. I asked him what he wanted to do for his career, and he replied that he wanted to go into a particular field, but thought he should work for McKinsey for a few years first to add to his resume. To me that’s like saving sex for your old age. It makes no sense.
I’m not going to touch the sex comment, but I think his advice about finding something about which you are passionate is great.
