Learning from Others

My friend Morgan Housel had a brilliant tweet yesterday.

Every person I look up to who has achieved personal and professional success has shared a love for reading. From Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger to Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, books were among the most important things in their lives.

Learning from the people who have learned from others is a great place to start. Here is an excerpt from David McCullough’s John Adams:

“Determined to understand human nature, fascinated by nearly everyone he encountered, he devoted large portions of his diary to recording their stories, their views on life, how they stood, talked, their facial expressions, how their minds worked. …”Let me search for the clue which led great Shakespeare into the labyrinth of human nature. Let me examine how men think”….He made close study of the attorneys he most admired, the Boston giants of the profession, searching for clues to their success.”

If you’re thirsty for knowledge, there is no need to reinvent the wheel. Since the beginning of civilization, the smart people were reading books.

Buffett estimates that he spends eighty percent of his working day reading and thinking. Munger has said “you could hardly find a partnership in which two people settle on reading more hours of the day than in ours.”

Building knowledge is like losing weight in the sense that everyone knows what must be done, yet few people actually do it. If you’re ready to do it but don’t know where to begin, I highly recommend you check out Patrick O’Shaughnessy’s book club.

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