The Tao of Warren Buffett

Mrs. Businesspundit gave me The Tao of Warren Buffett for Christmas. It's short and I read the entire thing yesterday between family gatherings. Each page has a Buffett saying, along with a paragraph or two of explanation. I liked the book so much I wanted to share some of my favorite Buffettisms in this post.

• You can't make a good deal with a bad person.
• It's easier to stay out of trouble than it is to get out of trouble.
• The market, like the Lord, helps those who help themselves. But unlike the Lord, the market does not forgive those who know not what they do.
• My idea of a group decision is to look in the mirror.
• The reaction of weak management to weak operations is often weak accounting.
• You can always juice sales by going down-market, but it's hard to go back upmarket.
• You have to think for yourself. It always amazes me how high-IQ people mindlessly imitate. I never get good ideas talking to other people.
• In looking for someone to hire, you look for three qualities: integrity, intelligence, and energy. But the most important is integrity because if they don't have that, the other two qualities, intelligence and energy, are going to kill you.
• Never ask a barber if you need a haircut.
• A public-opinion poll is no substitute for thought.
• If you let yourself be undisciplined on the small things, you will probably be undisciplined on the large things as well.
• The fact that people are full of greed, fear, or folly is predictable. The sequence is not predictable.
• We also believe candor benefits us as managers. The CEO who misleads others in public may eventually mislead himself in private.
• What we learn from history is that people don't learn from history.