Mr. Warren Buffett's greatest insight: A happy person lives longer

Warren Buffett Sir announced his retirement yesterday. This is obviously the end of an era.

A lot has been said about Mr. Buffett and his money making acumen. The internet is filled to the brim with his "wisdom pearls", and there are a lot of remarkable quotes, many of which are timeless. After all, if there's somebody who can be called "the greatest of all time", it's Mr. Buffett. He's undoubtedly the greatest investor of all time. Nobody comes close.

Yes, nobody. Not Jim Simmons, not Ray Dalio, not George Soros. Sure, somebody could match him in returns, somebody else could match him in scale, and yet another somebody could probably match him in timing. But nobody in the history of money making could combine all three, and then keep a track record of over 74 years at the job.

Returns, scale, timing, longevity - Mr. Buffett is literally incomparable.

But that's not the most interesting part of his story, in my opinion. Sure, he made a lot of money. But that's okay. Keeping the money multiplied by investing in Coke through the float collected by running insurance companies isn't exactly something that's inspiring or "impactful". It's just money, after all.

Mr. Buffett didn't create anything. Didn't invest in any cutting edge technology, or innovation that strived to improve humanity in any way. He didn't care about those things. Yes, he gave a lot of money away in Philanthropy, but that's also "standard stuff", in that circle of people.

What's special about Mr. Buffett, which nobody else can claim, is the fact that in addition to money, what he always optimised on (and just as successfully) was "happiness". And while that didn't show in any balance sheet, it ended up giving him the long life that loved to live. And that which set him apart.

Think about it, we're all stressed for whatever we're trying to do or achieve. But here's Mr. Buffett being called by the US Fed to save the American economy in 2008, at the height of the catastrophe. And he's on vacation in Alberta with his grandkids.

Everybody talks about how we must "push" to preserve our body. With exercise, with food, with everything. But here's Mr. Buffett joking, "I checked the actuarial tables, and the lowest death rate is among six-year-olds. So I decided to eat like a six-year-old."

He once said, "If somebody told me that I would live an extra year if I ate nothing but broccoli all my life instead of eating what I like, I would say take a year off the end of my life and let me eat what I like to eat."

Mr. Buffett admits that he and his late business partner (Charlie Munger Sir) weren’t exactly gym rats. He shared how both men chose not to exercise much over the decades. "We preserved ourselves," he said with a grin. But that's to be taken with a pinch of salt. The real essence of Mr. Buffett's story is in the following quote:

“I think happiness makes an enormous amount of difference in terms of longevity. A happy person lives longer”.

A happy person lives longer. Well said, sir. Wish you a "happy" retirement! :)

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