Posted on May 15th, 2012 by Keith Ferrazzi
If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
One of my employees accidentally pocket emailed me while he was at Warren Buffett's annual meeting in Omaha. When I found out, I asked him to share 
what he learned. - KF
Three Smart Ways to Invest in Relationships from Warren Buffett
By Brandon Smith
I’d long heard about the legendary shareholder meetings of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway. Dubbed the “Woodstock of Capitalism,” the event attracts 30,000 people to Omaha, Nebraska, every year. For five hours during the meeting, Buffett and his partner Charlie Munger answer questions from reporters, analysts, and shareholders on a wide range of subjects. No audio or video recording is allowed.
Despite the high cachet of the event (I walked past Bill Gates without realizing it until I heard a commotion behind me), any shareholder of Berkshire Hathaway can attend by filling out a form in the annual proxy statement. I’m only four hours from Omaha, so I decided to make the trip.
I’m sure glad I did. The event is a one-of-a-kind networking opportunity. More importantly, Buffet and Munger’s willingness to answer questions is priceless. I was fascinated by their emphasis on people and relationships and took away three key lessons.
1. People skills are critical and take a lifetime to master.
Buffett learned how to invest at 19 from his mentor Benjamin Graham. His method hasn’t changed since. Any one of us can learn Buffett’s method by going to the library and picking up Benjamin Graham’s seminal classic The Intelligent Investor. What has taken Buffett a lifetime to figure out is how to understand people. When Buffett first started out, he placed a heavy emphasis on quantitative data. Despite being the third richest man in the world, Buffett feels he would be richer today if he started paying attention to the people side of investing sooner. Read more →
Posted on May 4th, 2012 by admin
Check out a few of the posts from the myGreenlight blog this week: 
Enjoy!
Posted on April 24th, 2012 by Keith Ferrazzi
Today’s most successful careerists see every relationship they have as a source of new information and expertise. 
They consciously seek out relationships that can teach them more and are very open-minded about who might fall into that category.
Because they're savvy at tapping the knowledge of an entire network, they’re the ones who move steadily, confidently forward as the world spins through ever-faster cycles of change.
On a recent Social Capitalist call, Bill Taylor, author of Practically Radical and co-founder of Fast Company, gave exactly this quality a great name:
Humbitious.
The term originated in an IBM study that sought to identify the traits of their most high-impact employees. Turns out that ambition alone is mediocre; ambition plus intellectual humility is the winning combination.
Here’s what Bill had to say. It’s about continuous learning, but it’s also about leadership:
"IBM did a study a few years ago trying to address the simple question of what distinguishes the technologists, engineers, and leaders at IBM who have had a really huge impact on the company from other engineers and technologists, who, while excelling, haven’t had that same kind of impact. Read more →
Posted on April 13th, 2012 by admin
Check out a few of the great posts on the myGreenlight blog this week:
Enjoy!
Posted on March 30th, 2012 by admin
Check out a few of the great posts on the myGreenlight blog this week:
Enjoy!
Posted on March 16th, 2012 by admin
Check out a few of the great posts on the myGreenlight blog this week:
Enjoy!
Posted on March 2nd, 2012 by admin
Check out a few of the great posts on the myGreenlight blog this week:
- Taking Relationships in the Workplace from Business to Social - This post discusses how intimacy allows you to transition a relationship from strictly business to one with deeper meaning.
- Who's the Boss? - The importance of having a good relationship with your boss cannot be overestimated. That’s why the more you understand their likes, dislikes, and what they’re like as people, the more successful you can be.
- Relationship Roundup - This week’s roundup includes further proof that nice is a quality that can get you far, being human is the wave of the future, and gaining greater trust and intimacy in our relationships with ourselves and others requires some flexibility.
Enjoy!
Posted on February 1st, 2012 by Keith Ferrazzi
The success of any business, small or large, is heavily dependent on innovation. But so many people make the mistake of equating innovation with a product or device that changes the world. Heads up: You don’t have to create the next Facebook in order to innovate successfully and grow.
The president of SAP North America, Robert Courteau, and I recently sat down to talk about exactly that – innovation in today’s global age. By the end of our talk, it was very clear that the most innovative companies have a solid foundation of talent at their core.
The foundation of any business is its people. With all the competition around, we need to retain our best talent by keeping our people engaged and challenged — or they’ll be gone, just like that, either because we’ll have to lay them off because things aren’t getting done, or because they’ll find somewhere better to work. Read more →
Posted on January 18th, 2012 by Keith Ferrazzi
I met Garrett at Summit Series and was so impressed by his success story launching his nonprofit (buoyed by advice from NEA!) that I asked him to 
contribute a blog. Audacity and the power of a great idea are the big drivers here. - KF
I was a college student when I co-founded SEE College Prep, a non-profit that has helped more than 1,300 low-income high school students improve their SAT scores an average of 200 points and become the first in their families to go on to college. At the time, I had no idea what it meant to raise large amounts of money, or the kinds of relationships I would need to build to do so.
Fortunately, a friend clued me in to Keith and Never Eat Alone and that wisdom has supported me ever since. It has been an extraordinary learning curve: in a short period of time, I went from not knowing a single person who could donate more than a few hundred dollars, to raising nearly $2 million in 18 months.
I followed my heart, risked embarrassment by asking simple questions, and found the courage to ask for people’s time and eventually money. I was empowered by the mission of what I was trying to achieve, and since I had a calling I knew that no request was too silly or too bold. I reached out to mentor after mentor—first professors, then non-profit leaders, then heavy hitters like Stanford University President John Hennessy and billionaires John Fisher, John Morgridge, and Laurene Powell Jobs. Not all of these conversations were successful, but I saw first-hand how little I knew and how much people were willing to help. Technology has helped people like me: many of the most impressive people I’ve met have agreed to meet following a cold e-mail; some of those people are my closest mentors and advisors today. Read more →
Posted on January 6th, 2012 by admin
Check out a few of the great posts from the myGreenlight blog this week:
