MBAs: What Would Warren Buffett Do?

This is our first guest blog posting from Julie:

There’s a game I like to play in grad school. It’s called: Who Would I Hire. There are no formal rules. I just think about the people I’ve worked with in previous jobs, and then observe those in my classes, and think about if I’d want to work with them.

Warren Buffett proposed an interesting scenario in a talk he gave to second-year MBA students. You can read about it here. Buffett suggested that the MBA students think about which classmate they would choose, if they were entitled to 10% of that classmate’s earnings for the rest of their life. He also wanted the students to think about which classmate they would go short.

His point was that you would choose qualitative factors. You would pick someone you responded well to – someone who is generous, who motivated you to do your work, and who gave you credit for it too. You would choose an honest and kind person over a greedy, egotistical, off-putting person.

Go ahead and try this out. Think about your classmates, and write down the qualities that you admire in them, and those you dislike. When you look at your list, realize that you have the power to cultivate all the positive qualities in yourself. They are behavioral, achievable qualities. And, with some conscious effort on your behalf, they can be all yours.

It worked for Warren.