Not timing or talent: Gates and Buffett agree success comes from this simple word

It wasn’t a conference, a TED Talk, or some viral tweet. It was a quiet moment at a private gathering when Bill Gates and Warren Buffett were handed a simple piece of paper and asked to write down, in one word, the reason for their success.

No brainstorming. No caveats. Just one word.

They didn’t see each other’s answers. Yet they wrote the same thing. One key factor that has been part of a combined $280 billion empire.

Here we have a video of the two men discussing success several years ago:

How did Gates and Buffet make their fortunes?

Gates taught himself to code before high school. He co-founded Microsoft at 19, became a millionaire by 26, and today ranks among the world’s richest people with a net worth of $127 billion.

Buffett, on the other hand, made his first investment at 11, using his life savings to buy three shares of Cities Service. He’s spent the past eight decades building Berkshire Hathaway into a $780 billion juggernaut, amassing a $160 billion fortune along the way for himself. At 94, he just announced his retirement.

Different industries, different personalities, but the same outcome: extraordinary wealth. But it wasn’t IQ, charisma, or even timing that they credit most. So, what did they both write on the aforementioned piece of paper?

That single word was: focus.

Gates said the thing you do obsessively as a teenager is likely what you’ll be best at. His was coding. Buffett’s was reading financial reports. Both locked in early and didn’t look back.

Buffett likens it to rolling a snowball down a long hill. Start young, stay focused, and it’ll grow.

But even if the age of 13 is somewhere distant in the rear view mirror, there’s still time. Focus isn’t about age – it’s about discipline. Stay with your investment strategy. Don’t chase trends. Learn from your misses. And when something truly great crosses your path, be ready to commit.

These billionaires agree: talent helps, but attention is everything.

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