My person of the year

A couple of years back, research by Laura Nash from Harvard Business School on what it means to succeed pointed to four aspects- happiness, achievement, significance and legacy. Happiness is doing what you love to do, achievement is attaining a standard of excellence in what you do, significance is having a larger purpose to what you do and legacy refers to what you leave behind. Research pointed out that the people who have the ability to balance these four perspectives lead contended, fruitful lives and can be called successful. For me, the idea of balancing the four aspects is the crucial element- too often, one overweighs the other three- these are not totally distinct categories- the idea is to lead ones life in a manner that aligns all four. And that is easier said than done!

One person who seems to have done a stellar job on this front, one who is an unquestioned leader in his field (achievement), one who derives incredible joy at what he does (happiness), one who has disseminated his wisdom to thousands if not millions to make them reach their dreams (significance), and lastly, one who decided to make a significant contribution to society when he leaves (legacy) is Warren Buffet and for all of those but especially the last reason- he is my person of the year.

For a man who is the second richest man in the world, he leads a simple life (no chauffer, no security, no cellphone!!), has simple, enduring rules for investing- looks for integrity in management and a stable business to invest in, has returned incredbile returns year over year over the past four decades, freely discusses his mistakes, his philosophy, his rationale at his legendary meetings at Omaha with his long time friend and partner, Charles Munger, but what he did this year was particularly remarkable and in a way, not surprising with how he has lived all along- having accumulated enormous wealth over decades of sound investing, he decided to give it all away (or most of it) to the Gates Foundation that is working tirelessly in the areas of health and education to make our world not only heathier but to raise the level of literacy around the world- the only way out of widespread poverty and hunger. Buffet has never believed in leaving money for kids- bring them up well, give them a good education, a sound set of values and they will take care of themselves- a great philosophy to have.

For leading a simple life with extraordinary achievements in his field of interest (he started investing at the age of 11!), for his earthy wisdom, but most importantly, his enormous contribution in giving back to society, Warren Buffet is my person of year.