“Elon is a brilliant, brilliant guy.”
That’s how Warren Buffett described Elon Musk at Berkshire Hathaway’s annual shareholder meeting this weekend. It was in response to a question directed at Buffett’s business partner Charlie Munger, as to whether Munger thought that Musk overestimates himself.
Munger does believe that, although he added that “[Musk] is very talented” and that “he would not have achieved what he has in life if he hadn’t tried for unreasonably extreme objectives.”
“He likes taking on the impossible job and doing it,” explained Munger. “We’re different, Warren and I. Warren and I are looking for the easy job that we can identify.”
Buffett concurred. “If we can do it playing tic-tac-toe, we’ll do it,” he said.
But it’s what came next that really stands out. Describing the way Musk runs his companies, Buffett said this:
“It takes over your life in a way that just doesn’t fit us. There have been important things done by Elon already. It requires … a dedication to solving the impossible. And every now and then he’ll do it. But it would be torturous to me or Charlie.
“I like the way I’m living.”
Buffett’s answer has little to do with Musk, more to do with emotional intelligence, and everything to do with being intentional about how you run your business.
Namely, do you want to be:
To clarify, “investor” here isn’t talking about traditional investors who manage financial assets. Rather, it’s referring to owners who are building a business with the aim to generate future passive income.
Let’s take a closer look at each of these types of business owner and see what you can learn from it. (By the way, if you enjoy this article, you might want to sign up for my free course, which uses real-life examples like this one to help you and your team build emotional intelligence.)
Disrupters focus on changing the world
As a disrupter, Elon Musk’s primary goal is to change the world–he wants to disrupt the status quo and alter how humanity lives.
To accomplish this goal, Musk and other disrupters like him work extremely hard to do things in a completely different way, and then relentlessly try to demonstrate why that new way is better.
For example, with his companies, Musk has tried to move the world to:
- use renewable energy instead of fossil fuels
- consider life on Mars and beyond
- change the way they use social media
As you can imagine, to initiate this type of change is extremely difficult. That’s why disrupters must be workaholics. They have to go all in.
As Musk himself once put it: “Nobody ever changed the world on 40 hours a week.”
Investors focus on changing their life
Investors could care less about changing the world. Rather, they’re interested in leveraging what they learn about the world to make money.
Investors focus on identifying opportunities. Then, they use proven formulas that they can repeat. In Buffett’s case, this has meant focusing on slow but steady growth in his businesses, and then investing capital from those businesses in what he describes as “an outstanding company at a sensible price” (as opposed to mediocre or risky companies at bargain prices).
For others, that might mean investing time or money to design or refine a product or service, create content, build marketing funnels, etc.–all with the goal of earning profits that compound over time, so they can have the freedom to live life on their terms.
While many investors also end up workaholics, the beauty of this type of business is you don’t have to work crazy hours to accomplish your goal. Buffett, for example, once told PBS that he has “no desire to get to work at 4:00 in the morning” and usually sleeps “eight hours a night.”
How to run a business: The choice is yours
Which brings us to the key lesson in how to run your business:
You have to make a choice. Do you want to be a disrupter or an investor?
Here is where emotional intelligence comes in. By using the rule of recentering, you must idenitfy what your primary business goals are. Do you want to change the world? Or is your business a means to an end?
The answers to these questions will in turn influence your decisions, and help you decide what type of business you want to run.
For example, disrupters do practically anything for the business, because they believe they are serving a greater good and pushing humanity forward. They’ll work nights, weekends, and vacations until they’ve gotten the world’s attention. Then, they continue to do so–to make sure they’re not disrupted themselves.
Investors may also work crazy schedules–but, often, only until they discover the “formulas” they can repeat. For many investors, the goal then is to make the business as easy to run as possible.
As time goes on, I see fewer people trying to disrupt, and more trying to invest. And no wonder, because if truly successful, investors have more control over their lives.
Spend more time with family.
Spend less time doing things they hate, and more time doing things they love.
Spend less time working, and more time living.
Of course, you still have to be intentional about making those choices. But it all starts with answering that pivotal question:
Do want to be a disrupter or an investor?
The choice is yours. Choose wisely.
