Becoming Warren Buffett 山寨巴菲特

巴菲特在2012年4月的时候接受过一次采访，其中提到了他曾经在25岁时如何思考自己的人生。 他谈到每天早上乘火车去曼哈顿为恩师本·格雷厄姆工作的经历，退休计划（因为他相信他可以依靠投资收益度过余生），以及他如何开始他的第一个投资合伙公司。 作为沃伦巴菲特的忠实粉丝，我也有想要山寨的冲动。 我也在为我钦佩的人工作，大概在27岁又2/3岁的时候，我也以为我可以靠投资收益度过余生。 唯一缺少的一步是写一份关于 25 岁的备忘录，但是……我拖延了，直到三年后的今天。 所以，很遗憾，这个备忘录是我的25又3岁独白

Warren Buffett took an interview in 2012 April, to explain respectively, about how he was thinking about his life at age 25 . He talked about taking a train to Manhattan every morning and working for Ben Graham, retirement plan because he believed that he could rely on the investment income and how he started his first investment partnership. As a big fan boy of Warren Buffett, I naturally want to replicate. I have been working for people who I admire without negotiating salary. At about the age of 27 and 2/3, I also thought that I just rely on investment income and retire as well. One thing missing writing a memo regarding age 25, so I have been planning to do the same and write an essay about mine. But… I procrastinated and have not written any single words until three years later. Therefore, unfortunately this title have to be “when I was 28, just 3 years late”

我已经有很长时间没有写过任何形式的备忘录了。我可以找理由说我很忙，但我觉得我正是这种忙碌时刻，应该花更多的时间与自己的本心相处。忙碌的时候很容易被生活中的细枝末节而分心，而了更大方向上的行动的意义。

Dear Richard, It’s been a while I haven’t had a conversation with you. I would say I have been busy, but I feel like the busier I am, the more I should spend more time having more introspective conversation with myself. It is really easy to be caught up by nitty gritty in life while forgetting about the bigger mission.

当面临挑战或问题时，我总是发现与短期前景相比，拥有长远的眼光会做出更有价值的判断。很多看来非常令人害怕或者令人烦恼的问题，在一个更长的时间跨度上来看就变得没那么可怕了。我经常陷入的陷阱之一是我过于关注短期，而忘记了许多决定的长期意义。

When faced a challenge or an issue, I always find that having a long-term view is more productive compares to a short-term prospect. One of the pitfalls I frequently run into is that I focused too much on the short term. And sometimes it can be really detrimental that I forgot about all the long-term significance of many decisions.

我发现自己经常做的另一件事是过分关注我做错的事情。反刍错误是值得的。 但有时我发现自己把它们放在回忆的显微镜下太久。过度关注错误会以为自己实际上无力去改变，忘记了自己在当下和未来实际是你可以做的事情。这让我想起沃伦巴菲特曾经说过的一个经验：我们不应该过度纠结于遗憾，因为你真的无法回去解决任何问题。时间带着我们向前生活，我们应该考虑一下将来应该怎么做。

Another thing I find myself doing constantly is focusing too much on the things I have been done wrong. Regurgitating mistakes is a valuable action. But sometimes I find myself putting them under my microscope too much. With such an obsession, I indulge myself in this passive sentiment and really can’t let go. It reminds me an idea Warren Buffett once explain that we shouldn’t dwell on the regrets, because you really can’t go back and fix anything. We live our life forward and you should think about what you can do in the future.

最近我与一些我非常钦佩的前辈交谈过，咨询过他们对未来的看法和建议。一个他们共同的反馈的是，我值得认真花时间去思考自己最内心的想法和目标。

I have talked to a couple of people who I really admire, asking for guidance and comments for my view in future. One of the responses they share is that I need to figure it out myself what I really want to do with my life from this point forward.

所以在这里，我会说说我的决定和目标，以及我过去为什么做了一些事情。

So here I am, I’m going to talk about my decisions and goals and why I’ve been doing what I’ve been doing.

Change the world and the first 100k 改变世界vs十万美金

我的理解是一但我能够达到了不需要花太多时间担心温饱问题的状态时，就值得去开始一步步的思考自己的社会责任感。哪怕只是因为自己力量很小只能从点滴开始。即使如此，至少先从做好自己开始（比如不给社会添乱这种最低标准），随着自己能做到的事情越来越多，一步步更加深入的去考虑自己能给周围的人带来什么更加积极意义和影响。

I genuinely believe that I have a social responsibility to contribute to society rather than just sleepwalk through life. I have the privilege to be in a situation that I don’t need to have an immediate obligation and need to worry about or to worry about living paycheck by paycheck. Even if your power is initially very limited, you can still start walking on this path by being having agreeable personality. Then after your impact gets bigger you can start to offer positive impact to others

任何想对这个世界产生影响（即使只是一点点）的想法都看起来是痴人说梦。如果将计划的时间期限不断拉长至未来20~40年，我最想努力的方向是太空旅行和生物科技，目的是去解决地球上有限资源的问题和人类的长寿问题。这些想法非常脱离现实，对于我这样的没有资源的年轻人来说更是荒唐。抛开成功率不谈，它们是资金、精力和时间的无底洞。我不相信我现在可以解决这些问题。

Having of an goal of making impact to the world (even just a little bit) can appear to be blue sky thinking on the surface. And it does look like that. I’ve been talking a great deal about space travel and genetic engineering, solving problems of limited limited resources on earth and the longevity problems of human race. These ideas are so out of touch of ordinary people and are even more ridiculous for a youngster like me. I clearly cannot solve these problems right now, they are bottomless sink for capital, energy, and time. I will be out of mind believing I can tackle these problems now.

面对庞大的任务和目标，我的想法是将其分解为无穷小的步骤，以便它们变得更加有可能完成。 比如：有一篇很长的报告要读？ 先从第一段开始。 要做一个很长的幻灯片？先完成封面。 不想锻炼？ 那先就做一组俯卧撑。通常，第一步完成以后，我会发现自己有了一些动力，可以一步步完成剩下的部分。 如果没有，那就休息一下，稍后再试一次。

My idea is to break it down into infinitesimal steps, so they become actionable. When in doubt, always break them down into tiny goals that sometimes seems hilarious easy. Very long essay to read? Read the first paragraph. Very lengthy PowerPoint slide to make? Finish the cover. Don’t want to work out? Lift this dumbbell just for once. Usually the momentum will build up and everything will start moving. If not, take a short break and try again.

回到太空旅行这个例子。 如果我现在要创建一家太空旅行公司，那显然是可笑的。 在最初的 10 年内，SpaceX 从 2002 年到 2012 年花费了大约 10 亿美元。 如果你不知道这是什么意思，这意味着需要很多很多钱。即使是马斯克在创立SpaceX的时候也没有那么多钱可以挥霍。在这10年之间，他亲自投资了1亿美金，并在公司的后来经营不断的筹集了剩余的资金。不过，马斯克仍然是自己能够拿出1个亿。这对于绝大多数人来说依然是一个非常夸张的数字。 幸运的是，马斯克也不是手里拿着银行卡出生的，他也必须自己一步步赚这些钱。

Back to the space travel. if I want to create a space travel company now it is obviously laughable. Within its first 10 years, SpaceX spend about 1 billion from 2002 to 2012 . That’s a lot of money if you do know. Even Elon Musk didn’t have that kind of money laying around to squander. He personally invested 100 million and raise the remaining capital on the go. Still 100 million is, not the kind of money siting in the bank account for overwhelming majority of people. Fortunately, Elon Musk wasn’t born with that money either, he had to earn those money somewhere.

一个亿的目标显然还是太庞大了，相对而言，完成第一个一千万是一个相对实际的想法（我这里用了“相对实际”这个词）。 有了第一个万，你可以通过投资、运营一家公司或任何其他可能的资本行为滚雪球，最终完成一个亿。美国人喜欢说的一句谚语是：赚大钱是需要花钱的。 或者，引用企业家埃德加·布朗夫曼过的一句话：“把 100 美元变成 110 美元是辛勤劳动。 将 1 亿变成 1.1 亿美元是顺其自然。”

To further break under 100 million you probably need to focus on getting 10 million first. With 10 million, you can invest, build your company, or any other activity that can potential get them into 100 million. You need money to make money. Edgar Bronfman said that: “To turn 110 is work. To turn 100 million into $110 million is inevitable.”

尽管如此，一千万依然不是大风刮下来的，这依然不是一个能够短期能够快速实现的目标。那就进一步进行拆分。如果想要得到第一个千万那就应该从第一个百万开始。还是太多了？那就先从第一个十万开始。这个目标在现阶段而言是很合理的。

10 million is still to much, so what I need to do? To further break it down into a 1 million goal. Granted, 1 million is still not the kind of money to joke about, so I have to further break it down into a 100k goal. At this point, this goal is a much more reasonable goal to hit.

On crisis, why am I scared? 危机和恐惧

很多担忧来自不确定性。 正如我的一位朋友为我指出的那样，如果我绝对确定我遇到了无法回避的问题，我会毫不犹豫地对待这种情况。正所谓，当你有两个选项的时候，你有两个选择，但是当你只有一个选项的时候，你实际上并不存在选择。坐在原地担心并不能解决问题，应该做的是，四处打探和摸索寻找突破点，然后从阻力最小的地方开始。

A lot of worrying comes from uncertainty, I believe. As one of my friend pointed out for me, if there is an absolute certainty that I’m in deep trouble, I will not hesitate about the situation because I know that I need to face whatever it throw at me, period. When you have 2 choices, you have 2 options, but when you have only 1 choice, you have no option but to take it. If there is a certain disaster or an imminent challenge, I have no choice but to work on it. It makes a little sense to sit there and worry, instead of poking around here and there just to see if anything works and start with the least resistance.

事实上，我没有什么可失去的。比起其他客观上无法承担风险的人，我可以灵活的调整，并且在必要时全力以赴。

In fact, I have very little to lose. Surprise, right? Compared to some others who are at old age or have too much obligations to take care of, I’m more flexible and willing to take the dive if necessary.

自我怀疑是自我实现预言。 没有充分投入的人不会充分利用其潜力，也因此不会得到最想要的结果。 无论自己的实际能力如何，对自己产生的最深刻的怀疑始终是正确的。

Self-doubting is a self-fulfilling prophecy. A person without fully invested motivations is not going to take full advantage of its potential. And that translates to a more mediocre result. Thus, eventually your doubt is always true, no matter what your potential actually is.

如果经过认真的尝试，结果依然不是您希望的那样？ 实际上，绝大部分时刻，事情都不会按照您预计或者希望的方式进行。 但是，全力投入的努力仍然会产生有意义的结果。 “瞄准月球。 如果你错过了，你可能会撞到一颗星星”

What if after serious attempt, the result is not the way you hoped? Of course, way too many times that things are not going to work out the way that you want it to be or intended to be. But a fully invested effort is still going to yield meaningful result. “Aim for the moon. If you miss, you may hit a star”

关于不安和危机感这个话题可能值得多谈一谈。我认为这种情绪的来源之一是害怕错过。 如果放弃了一个更加躺平和安稳的选项，结果我因此得到了更糟糕的结果怎么办？觉得太复杂或者太不确定宁愿放弃所有尝试，因为害怕失败主动放弃所有喜欢做的事情和人，虽然不会更加开心，但是也不会更加难过？

It probably worth explaining a little bit more on my fears. Why am I worried. I think one of the sources of the sentiment is the fear of missing out. What if I take the safe options that is going to produce a predictable result? What if I take a bet, and I end up in a situation that can be worse than playing it safe?

有可能

It can be.

然而，躺平策略并不是最佳选择

直到今天，我从来没有遇到过我最害怕的结果
如果不是我喜欢做或几乎不惜一切代价愿意做的事情，我不会达到最好的结果
我常常会花上数年，甚至数十年去后悔以前未选择当初最想做的事情（我甚至还没30岁）
However, it seems not optimal to take the safe bet

History prove that I never really get to see the worse outcome
If it is not I enjoy doing or willing to do with almost no matter the cost, I’m unlikely to do it very well
Regret is a very strong sentiment, I spent too much time thinking I should have taken the most exciting option. Even after more than a decade, I still regret not doing something back in the days (I’m still in my late 20s).

我的大部分担忧都可以归结为对失败的恐惧。曾经数次我确信自己已经走投无路，然而我依然一次次走出来了。我不应该害怕危机，每一次度过将意味着下一次不再那么可怕。上一次我平安度过了，下一次我相信我也可以。

Most of my worries can be summarized into a fear of failing, I assume. Many times I consider myself seriously doomed, yet I outlasted each of my crises. Ending up in a crisis is not the end of the day. The more crises I encounter, the less scary the next one become. I made it worked last time, I’m sure I can make it work this time.

Fear of rejection and missing out 害怕错过

对于重要的是事情常常害怕失败和拒绝。反而可能会对一些原本重要的事情而选择放弃。这种反应显然是非理性的。尽管如此，其实如果仔细回想起来，比行为更让我后悔的是错过。不作为带来的只能是失败。

The fear of rejection is one thing that stop you from asking for anything that can be important to you. As such I might give up something that would have been extremely important. Such a line of reason is clearly irrational. Even though, now come to think about it, have I ever regretted anything that I’ve done ambitiously? No, I think I spent too much time regretting thing I haven’t done (that’s a revelation that sudden dawn upon me). it is the error of omission rather than commission that bug me the most. I think it’s part of human nature to fear failure to a point to not do anything at all although it equates a guaranteed failure.

害怕错过和同辈压力，可能是导致错过恐惧的因素。 我也会忍不住将其他人的进步与职业、金钱收益、其他一些物质目标或某种头衔进行比较。但是每个人都是如此的不同，最重要的是为自己最在意的那些去努力。

The fear of missing out, or peer pressure assume, can be another factor that contributes to some of the fear. It’s tempting to compare others progress be a career, monetary gain, some other materialistic goals, or some sort of title. However, everyone lives their life very different, it is very important to work on what matters the most

Find your tribe 圈子

圈子代表了志同道合、有正能量、和自己有共同语言、或者是附带了自己喜欢的人格特性的人。优良的品质是有传染力的。我认为沃伦巴菲特的建议是为你钦佩的人工作是一个非常棒的策略。

Speaking the circle of friends, it seems a good idea to associate yourself with like-minded and energetic people, with quality that you admire. Good quality is contagious. It appears that the average of your best friends defines who you are likely to be. It is lonely to go all by yourself. The support system from friends is amazing. I think Warren Buffett advice of working for someone who you admire is a very strong strategy.

What I love doing 热爱

你最喜欢的工作是什么？ 这似乎是是最简答又是最难回答的问题。容易是因为答案按理来说应该能够自然浮现在你脑海。你很少会听说谁会回答不上他/她最喜欢的食物或颜色。 然而，这似乎也是一个难题，因为很大一部分人，出于各种各样的考虑，从事他们不一定喜欢的工作。更甚至，有些人甚至不知道他们最喜欢的工作是什么。 他们正在从事的工作很可能只是机会碰巧在当时出现。

What is your favorite work you want to do? It seems like a simultaneously the easiest and the hardest question to answer. It seems easy, because it should come naturally to you, or it appears. It is virtually unseen if someone struggle to name his/her favorite food or color. However, it also seems like a hard question because a large portion of people is taking jobs that they don’t necessarily like. Some yet even struggle to find an answer to what is their favorite job. Most likely the job they are working on was something that just happen to show up for them to take.

甚至有人认为工作是不会有乐趣的。 将爱好变成工作是徒劳的，因为无论如何你都很可能很快就会讨厌它。

It is even widely agreed that work is supposed to be boring. Turning a hobby into work is a fruitless attempt because you will likely hate it anyway very fast.

我发现我自己其实非常喜欢帮一位投资人做尽职调查。哪怕已经快3个月了，我发现我依然很喜欢做这件事情。

I find myself overwhelmingly enjoy helping an investor working on some due diligence research on companies and people she invested. Even after months has passed, I still find myself liking the work.

评估投资机会意味着每一次任务都是不一样的。今天可能是评估一个生产高端设备的公司，明天可能是评估一个跟头的投资机构的背景。这是一个在短时间内持续不断的学习过程。我需要学会怎么样通过使用政府数据，行业报告，股市数据以及和一些业内人士沟通来收集信息。

Evaluation investment opportunity means every task is different. Today it may be a research regarding a company making high end products. The next one is some research about an institution investor. It is a continuous process of learning a variety of things very fast in a short burst of time. I have to learn to evaluate the attractiveness of investment opportunities using government data, industry report, data from the stock market, talking to some people working in the field.

谈到痴迷，比尔·盖茨说：“你在 13 到 18 岁之间痴迷的事情，那是你最有可能成为世界一流的技能。” 13到18岁的涵盖了整个中学。考虑到这段时间我最喜欢东西，我首先想到的是DIY。我做了很多莫名奇怪小玩意。 大多数我不记得了，但我记得其中一个是风力的电动汽车和钢铁侠方舟反应堆的自制模型。那个模型花了我用了将近一年半的时间才完成。

Talking about obsession, Bill Gates said : “The thing you do obsessively between age 13 and 18, that’s the thing you have the most chance of being world-class at.” For the record, the time frame encompass the entirety of the middle school. The first thing that comes to mind is making stuff. I make a lot of tiny gimmicks and gadgets. Most of them I don’t remember, but I remember some of them are tiny electric cars and a replica of Iron Man Arc Reactor. The replica took me almost one and half year to finish.

由于我对 DIY 和手工的热爱，我甚至考虑过从大学的时候学习电气工程或机械工程。（我怀疑钢铁侠那部电影也对我有些影响）话说过来，如果我真的大学专业学了机械工程，那么可能我现在的人生都会完全不一样。

Due to my love for DIY and building things, I even consider studying electrical engineering or mechanical engineering from my university major (the movie Iron Man probably had some significant influence). Now I kind of think about it, my life could have been entirely different if I do so.

另一种脑洞的情景是，我大学选专业的时候，曾经也认真考虑过计算机科学，这也是和金融完全不同的领域。假如我学了计算机，那么可能我未来又会是一条不同的路子。如果即使是创业的话，我可能会选择做互联网服务公司。值得庆幸的是我觉得现在几乎所有的事情都可以外包和模块化，所以即使哪怕你是一个完完全全不懂得编程的人，你也可以做一些网络服务，比如使用第三方平台去搭建网络教学服务。尽管，假如自己会写代码，那么我的选择会更多一些。

An Interesting what if scenario is that I also seriously considered computer science while choosing college major. It is also a field that is totally different from finance. Thus, if I start a company, I might choose to make a service web service company instead. I feel like nowadays almost everything can be outsourced and modularize. So, you can still make some web service company if you are a complete programing noob. For example, you can build online teaching company using 3rd party platform, although your options may be more limited. If you can code yourself, you have more option.

既然提到了编程，我有两个想法：

我其实可以在大学的时候选择双学位，也就是说在学习商科的基础上再学计算机科学，不过怎么来说，这已经是过去时了，所以思考我过去能做什么事情实际上并没有办法对现在有什么改变
即使在今天开始学编程，也不是一个非常糟糕的，美国孵化器Y Combinator前总裁Sam Altman说过，1~2个月内学会一些基本的编程能力是可以做到的。而且你只需要基本的编程能力，就可以做出最初版本的产品，如果发现最基本版本的反馈不错，那么你可以再去找那些经验更丰富的程序员帮忙也不迟
Speaking of programing, there are two things that pop up on top of my mind:

One thing I could have done this to double major which is to study business and computer science. Nevertheless, it is something in the past. It makes little sense to think about what I could do differently
Learning to code today. Sam Altman said teaching yourself code in a month or two is possible. And you only need some basic skill to make the version 1 products. And after that, if the product does prove to be interesting, attracts attention, and starts to gain momentum, you can start to hire more seasoned programmers

Live like a millionaire / billionaire 亿万富翁的生活

巴菲特他说过他的生活与普通人没有太大的不同

I think one of the interesting thing that I heard from Warren Buffett is that his life is not so different from the average jones. According to this description, the majority of his time is living life like we do.

如果你看看你们和我之间生活上的差别。我们基本上穿的是一样的衣服。好吧，太阳信托银行送了我身上这件T恤。我们都有机会饮用上帝之泉（水），我们都去麦当劳，或者，更好的，冰雪皇后。我们都住在冬暖夏凉的房子。我们都能用大屏幕看內布拉斯加州和德克萨斯州的A&M比赛。我们看比赛的方式是一模一样的。意外发生时你会有一个不错的医疗保障，我也一样。唯一的区别是我们出行的方式：我坐着这小私人飞机，我蛮喜欢的但也确实花钱。但是如果你抛开这一点，除了出行，仔细想想，有什么我在做的你做不到？我从事自己喜爱的工作，但是我一直都做自己爱的工作。我对现在的工作和我在当时来说1000美元就是巨款的时候的工作是一样的热爱。我恳求你们从事自己喜爱的工作。
If you think about the difference between me and you in terms of how we live. We wear the same cloth basically. All right, SunTrust gives me mine. We all have a chance to drink the juice of god here. We all go to McDonald or, better yet, Dairy Queen. We live in a house that’s warm in the winter and cool in the summer. We watch the Nebraska and Texas A&M on a big screen. You see it in the same way I see it. We do everything… our life ain’t that different, you know. You will get decent medical care when something happens to and I will get decent medical care. The only thing we do differently is we travel differently: I ride around this little plane and I love it. That takes money. But if you leave that aside, other than travel, think about it, what can I do that you can’t do? I get to work in a job that I love, but I always work in a job I love. I love it just as much when it was a big deal if I made a thousand bucks. I urge you to work in jobs you love.

有人可以说，这可能是亿万富翁的谎言。但我感觉更大可能是实话。 我小时候在新东方上课的时候遇到俞敏洪谈到游艇等等的玩具的麻烦之处，所以他自己没有买，只是必要的时候借朋友的。

One can argue that it can be a billionaire lie. But it could be true. I once over here a conference in which Minhong Yu, CEO of New Oriental, talked about the hassle of keeping expensive items such as a yacht, so he rented his friends’ whenever he needs.

我个人也见过一些在世俗意义上从出生时就很成功的人，我不认为他们比我更快乐。 我发现幸福的多少似乎与物质的占有量并不成正比关系。 在《思考快与慢》一书中，丹尼尔·卡尼曼引用了一项研究，表明金钱只在达到某个值之前很重要。一旦达到了这个点，幸福不会伴随着更多的收入或财产而增加。在 2015-2019 年期间，美国的家庭收入中位数为 62.843 美元。 因此，高收入带来的最大满意度仅比全国中位数高 19.35% 或更少。

I personally also get to know a few who are lucky in the conventional sense to be born in an incredibly wealth family. I don’t see them to be exponentially happier compared to me. Happiness doesn’t seem to scale very well with materialistic possession. In the book Thinking Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman quoted a research shows that the money matters only to a point. And beyond that, happiness won’t go with more income or possession. One thing to keep in mind that during year 2015-2019, the median household income in the US is $62.843. Thus the point of maximum satisfaction from higher income is just 19.35% or less higher than the national median number.

家庭收入的带来的满足感的上限在高成本地区的约为 75,000 美元（生活成本较低的地区可能会更少），超过该水平，幸福感不再增加。 与超过该水平的收入相关的体验幸福感的平均增长恰好为零。
The satiation level beyond which experienced well-being no longer increases was a household income of about $75,000 in high-cost areas (it could be less in areas where the cost of living is lower). The average increase of experienced well-being associated with incomes beyond that level was precisely zero.

Romantic relationship 爱情

爱情对我来说是一个有趣的概念。我很长一度时间甚至在异性面前都会紧张的说不出话。期待与某人建立密切的情感联系是人类的天性。爱情是一个很奇妙的东西，爱情的本质是将两个陌生人用类似于亲人一样的强烈情感联系在一起。

This is an interesting concept to me. I’ve been awfully terrified and struggle regarding romantic relationships. I often wonder whether I am very eccentric to a point that I cannot easily get on well with the opposite sex. I feel like it’s human nature to look forward to having a close emotional connection with someone. Love is an amazing thing that binds two strangers together.