Warren Buffet's Life Advice Will Change Your Future

HEADLINES - 70 years ago, I was in high school, almost a third, as long as the country has been around. And when I was in high school, I really only had two things on my mind, girls and cars. And I wasn't doing very well with girls. So we'll talk about cars. But let's just imagine that when we finished, I'm going to let each one of you pick out the car of your choice. Sounds good, doesn't it? pick it out any color, you name it will be tied up with a bowl. And I'll be at your house tomorrow. 

And you say, well, what's the catch? And the catch is that it's the only car you're going to get in your lifetime. Now, what are you going to do, knowing that that's the only car you're ever going to have and you love that car, you're going to take care of it by you cannot believe. Now what I'd like to suggest is you're not going to get only one car in your lifetime. But you're going to get one body and one mind. And that's all you're going to get.  and here is Life Advice Will Change Your Future

And that body and mind feels terrific now, but it has to last your lifetime. The important thing is to decide is to be able to define which ones you can come to an intelligent decision on and which ones are beyond your capacity to evaluate. You don't have to be right about 1000s and 1000s of 1000s of companies. You only have to be right about a company couple I met Bill Gates on July 5 1991, we arrived, Seattle. And Bill said you've got to have a computer. And I said why? And he said, Well, he said you can do your income tax on it. 

I said I don't have any income. Berkshire doesn't pay a dividend. And he said, Well, you can keep track of your portfolio. And I said I only have one stock. I said he says it's going to change everything. And I said well, will it change whether people chew gum? And he said, Well, probably not. And I said what will change what kind of gum they show. And I said well, then I'll stick to chewing gum and you stick to computers. I don't have to understand all kinds of but there's all kinds of places I don't understand. But there's 1000s of opportunities there. I didn't understand the Bank of America, you know, and

and I'll be able, I'm able to do that. I'm able to understand some given percentage, but Ted Williams wrote a book called The science of hitting. And the science of hitting, he's got a diagram shows him at the plate. And he's got the strike zone divided in the 77 squares each the size of a baseball. And he says, If I only swing it pitches in my sweet zone, which he shows there and he has what his batting average would be which is 400 if he had to swing at low outside pitches, but still in the in the strike zone, his average would be 230. He said the most important thing in hitting is waiting for the right pitch. Now he was at a disadvantage because if the count was oh one two or one and 200 and so on, even if that ball was down where he was only gonna bat to 30 he had to swing at it. 

In investing, there's no called strikes, people can throw Microsoft that man, you know, you name it any any stock, General Motors, and I don't have to swing at nobody's gonna call me out on call strikes, I only get a strike call if I swing at a pitch and mess. So I can wait there and look at 1000s of companies day after day. And only when I see something I understand. And when I like the price at which is selling, then if I swing it by if I hit it fine. 

If I miss it, it's it's a strike. But it's an enormously advantageous game. And it's a terrible mistake to think you have to have an opinion on everything, you only have to have an opinion on a few things. In fact, I've told students, if when they got out of school, they got a punch card with 20 punches on it. And that's all the investment decisions they got to make in their entire life, they would get very rich, because they would think very hard about each one. And you don't need 20 right decisions to get very rich. Four or five will probably do it over time. 

So I don't worry too much about the things I don't understand. If you understand some of these businesses that are coming along and can spot things on if you can spot on Amazon, for example. I mean, it's a tremendous accomplishment what Jeff Bezos has done, and I tip my hat to him. He's a wonderful businessman. He's a good guy, too. But could I have anticipated that he would be the success and 10 others wouldn't be. 

I'm not good enough to do that. But I don't Fortunately, I don't have to, you know, I don't have to form an opinion on on Amazon and I didn't I did form an opinion On the Bank of America, and I form an opinion on Coca Cola. I mean, Coca Cola has been around since 1886. There's 1.8 billion 1.8 billion, eight ounce servings of Coca Cola products sold every day. Now, if you take one penny, and get one penny extra, that's $18 million a day. And 18 million times 365 is 7,000,000,003, less 730 billion or $6,570,000,000. So annually, $6,570,000,000. From one penny, do you think Coca Cola is worth a penny more than you know, Joe's cola? I think so. So, you know, and I've got about 127 years of history that would indicate it. So those are the kinds of decisions I like to make. 

And you may have an entirely different field of expertise than I would have, and probably much more up to date in terms of the kinds of businesses that we're seeing evolve, and you can get very rich, if you just understand a few of them and understand their future. What

is it that you to share? What makes this friendship so satisfying for both of you?

Well, I think we both certainly share a curiosity about the world. And we come from two different but related worlds. So we had probably spent about 10 hours of this one hour visit that was scheduled on July 5 1991, as mother had to talk him into it. And we weren't halfway. I mean, we'd gotten no place in terms of our eventual agenda. Just in that time. 

In fact, the governor of Washington came by and bills that had to come into the bedroom. We were talking about it's what we have fun to start with, right? I mean that every relationship should have a lot of fun and and, and we find the world and just such an interesting place. So we like to compare notes on it. When we compare notes. We have a lot of fun doing it.

Warren Buffet's Life Advice Will Change Your Future

Part of the time is I remember the conversation by the way, there's a remarkable documentary about Warren, which is on HBO. I think it premieres on day 30. Yeah, Monday, you should take time to take a look at it. Those involved in that and you will see, in a sense, it's called I think becoming Warren Buffett.

Yeah, that's what it's called, because

you're doing well on and doing well.

So far. Yeah. That's

one of the things that happened in I bill, was it, I guess your dad at the dinner, said, you know, what is it you? What's been the most important quality for you? And you found out that you and Warren had the same word?

Yeah, I think curiosity which Warren mentioned, is a an amazing thing where you try and predict what's going to happen and then when it doesn't, you sort of think well, you know, that drug didn't get invented, that stock did go up. That approach wasn't popular. What's what is it about my model of the world? That's wrong, you know, who could I talk to? What could I read and, and the things that have happened since 1991 mostly good things have been amazing and just, you know, so much fun to talk about. 

You know, so, you know, we read the news and we think God, what did Warren think about that you both are readers, you both you read all time all day, Warren bill, your reader, you also do a lot of sort of courses online as well. What does that have done? What is that done for your life, the sense of constantly learning?

Well, it's an incredible time to be a learner. I remember when I was young, and I had the World Book, which is one of Warren's products. And it was very good, but he always felt like I want to get into this in more depth I understand it better today. The videos that are online and the courses that you can buy with the very best professors it's phenomenal you know, take a subject like weather or climate change, or what's going on in economics, what's known what's not known. 

Now at the foundation a lot of what I need to learn is about biology making vaccines and what's going on with these these various diseases. This is a phenomenal time to be a curious person the information that's out there, you know, I have a my my biggest problem is that I stay up too late because I'm reading and then I'm a little bit tired the next day.

The other thing that you share other than reading is optimism. You believe in America? Absolutely. You have said to me more than once. I would give up a year of my life just to know what the next 50 is going to be like.

Yeah, even like for now. I mean why did you pick four The number that came to me is just fascinating what's happened just in my lifetime. And the 86 years I, I should mention one thing about reading.

It was at the library here at Columbia, that I wish I spent probably more time than any other. I live there practically. But then I pulled the book out there happened to be who's an American that told me something about my professor Benjamin Graham. And then I looked up and I went to the library, and I said, I want to learn more about this because I learned this over here. 

That changed my whole life. You know, we own Geico now, because of that library and directing me to some other book and then following through on that. It's the chance I I read about 1/5, the pace, the bill does nice, still spend five or six hours a day reading I mean, it just, you can learn so much. I particularly love biography just to be able to live the lives of these people have been extorted. So extraordinary in the lessons and you know, the discouragements, they face just everything about it. So you can't get enough of reading.

What surprises you most about Bill?

That's an interesting question. I guess what really surprised me initially, we just found so many things to connect on. He didn't try to sell me a computer. That was that's probably the only sale he didn't make on the computer changed my life for the better in a big way, subsequently, but Well, he, he just had the same curiosity.

And the other word you have used his focus

was the focus, there's no question of I mean, he, both of us got to where we are in a big, big way because of focus,

though, what surprises you about Warren?

I was so amazed that he comes to investing with this broad model of the world. So one of the first questions he asked me was a Microsoft's a small company, IBM says, huge company, why can you do better? Why can't they beat you at the software game you're playing? And I always, you know, you know, every day I was thinking about, okay, what advantage do we have? What do we do? But nobody ever asked me that question. 

And we talked about the economics of software, which is a very different and special thing. And he could relate it to things that he'd seen. And, you know, I didn't understand banking, why some get ahead, and some don't. And so he was able to put that in very clear terms. And so I found somebody who's model was rich enough, that it helped me understand things that I really wanted to know. And we could laugh about things that were surprised to us. I'd say his humility, and his sense of humor really stood out in this incredible way. 

I mean, he enjoys what he does, and he shares that with other people. And even, you know, when I ask questions that are pretty naive that he's probably been asked 15 times he's very nice about, well, it took me a long time to figure this out, Bill, but here's how it works.

I tried to fill out with some non transited dice. And I'd read about them in Scientific American or someplace. There are only two people in the world in the history of these dice. That actually figured it out while I was trying to take their money from them. 

And one was the leading symbolic logician in the world, and the other was a drunk who didn't really know any better as long question, but Bill said, Wait a second. You choose first and the game was over.

You taught him not you didn't teach him but you brought him into a greater appreciation of bridge.

Yeah, he didn't play bridge but the family is very big on games. His family was very very big on games. And and, and so we played bridge together. And we played in China going on great rivers when we were supposed to be Look, it was we had a good time.

All right, we got a lot of questions. Want to talk from the audience? Somebody? We want to start up in the up in the balcony. So we so you know, we haven't forgotten you? It's hard to see. But is there a number there that has a question? Okay, started wherever it is. Yes. Number six.

thank both of you, guys for being here today. My question is in regards to public health and vaccinations. Given our current president president's publicly stated stance against the use of vaccinations, both in this country and abroad, how would you recommend that we, as students and future leaders in the health sciences, best allocate our resources to most effectively resist his alternative fact political philosophy in regards to domestic and global public health?

Thank you, Bill.

That's a good place to start. Yeah. Well, the facts about vaccines are very clear and very strong, which is both that there's A thing that the vaccine schedule is then designed to reduce disease. And, you know, the more parents that adhere to it, the more not only their children be protected, but you have some kids who are immune deficient. 

And so unless the kids around them are protected, then it puts those kids at risk. And there are diseases like measles or pertussis, that all it takes is a small cluster. And then mostly those diseases would be coming in from overseas, but you can get infection and in some European countries, you've had deaths because the kids weren't vaccinated. 

I don't think the US government is going to come out with any negative statements. There may be a commission. And fortunately, if you look at the facts, the facts are quite unequivocal. We certainly are speaking out in favor of vaccines. So I, I, you know, I'm a little surprised that we have to stick up for them. 

But it's true in every country, that you get these rumors, and particularly in today's media, those rumors can get out. And I had the facts because the rumors were sort of more salacious, or, you know, contrary to what you've been told type things. Here, I'm sure we'll have a chance if necessary, to go through the facts again, and get a clear positive message from the Government.

And the risk is it vaccines somehow people are scared of having vaccines, the risk is, well, they're,

we're engaged right now in polio eradication. And the only way that succeeds is to get 95% of the kids to have these vaccines. And there we found we ran into a form of anti vaccine sentiment that's even worse than us rumors, and that is that two terrorist groups, one in Nigeria, Boko Haram, and another one in Pakistan, Afghanistan, natali. 

Bond, said that vaccination was a US plot and you know, would sterilize women. And it was a very bad thing. And they took the women who are going out to the children's houses and getting these oral drops, oral polio vaccine and actually killed a number of them. And so those negative rumors, the only reason we still have polio today that we're not done is because of that part of Nigeria that Boko ROMs caused unrest in the border areas, including Baluchistan in Pakistan, where there have been these anti vaccine sentiments. 

So, you know, our risk is is is simply those negative things. So it's not just in rich countries that we run into this, it absolutely is causes deaths, if parents don't know, bring your kids in and get them fully vaccinated and your drive to eradicate polio is to show that you can do it.

Well, it'll be it started in 1988, when it already had been eradicated in the Americas. So these were the the US in the 60s, the rest of the Americas in the 70s showed that it could be done and so 1988 Well, before our foundation was involved, rotary and a number of other organizations said, let's get rid of this. And it's been harder than what's expected just because of these, these sentiments, you know, here we are in 2016, or 17. Last year, less than 50 cases. So we are very, very close. In fact, there are so few cases now the way that we track where the virus is, is we go and look at sewage samples. 

And we see because a lot of kids get infected and pass along without getting paralyzed. And so it's only through the sewage samples. We know that they're still about four places in Pakistan and Afghanistan and one place in Nigeria that we we haven't gotten there yet.

All right, let's see the next question. I got to see a card number one.

Thank you both so much for being here. My question again, sorry, is a little bit on the political spectrum. I was wondering what you're both most hopeful about in this new political environments we have and also what you're both most worried about.

You want to take hope or worried Martin?

Well, I'm, I'm confident that America will move ahead. It's been no, from the time I was born. Until now, the real GDP per capita of this country is one of six for one. I mean, nobody ever dreamt that would be possible. And when you look at what's happened in this country over 240 years, it's an absolute miracle. 

When I went to Columbia Business School, in September 1951 woman in the class, I mean, this country moves forward, and you can't stop it. So I am I'm enormously I say, the luckiest person born in the history of the world as the baby being born today in this country, and we will go into, you know, everybody, half the country always is going to be somewhat unhappy close to half about the last election, but I grew up in a household In the late 1930s, my dad was very Republican, we, my sisters, and I didn't get dessert unless we said something bad about Roosevelt. I mean, it was just, it was required. And I heard all these apocalyptic views about after his third term, there'll be no more elections. 

I've been hearing that all my life. And, you know, year after year after year with occasional hiccups and an occasional seizure, like we had in 2008, and nine, but this country, it's all profit, folks. I mean, you know, I came in, just like what it would have been like in 1776, nothing here. And now we've been the velocity of change just keeps moving. I mean, guys like Bill, you know, they don't quit. You know, I mean, he moves on to something like polio, he mentioned 50 cases in the world, there were more than 50 in the ward, where I went when I was a teenager, to see a friend of my sisters. And they're all in these rocking machines and everything. They were destined to a terrible, terrible life. 

And it was just one word in Omaha. And now that's, you know, that's the yearly total thanks, initially, as well as currently Rotarians. But people kept working on this world moving forward. And it's been doing I bought my first stock when I was 11. In April of 1942, the Dow was 100, you haven't looked at 20,000, something bad must have happened. And it's gonna keep happening.

Bill, I know you fear the optimism. What about concerns?

Well, their optimism is partly that I think American innovation is strong. You know, support for research is by and large, bipartisan. And so whether it's health breakthroughs, or even energy breakthroughs, I think, you know, every year that goes by, we're going to have more of those things. Now, this administration is new enough, we don't know how their budget priorities will come out. You know, there are things like foreign aid, which is a small part of the budget about 30 billion a year. But that means the US is the biggest, that every time there's new leadership, we have to go in and articulate the benefits, it's well spent, it's not the image that people have in the past. 

And so right now, I think there's a lot of intensity, to make sure we get that message out and get both in terms of the executive branch and the Congress to maintain amazing things like the President's Malaria Initiative, or PEPFAR, which is an HIV thing. These things started under President Bush. And so our foundations had a great working relationship with Democratic and Republican administrations, most people wouldn't realize that US foreign aid as a percentage of the economy, which is generally how it's measured, reached its low point in 1999. 

Under the Clinton administration Now, I'm not saying it was the administration, it was a mix of the administration, the Congress, then, during those bush years, it went up fairly substantially. Now, the economy helped with that. 

But these initiatives were really amazing. And, you know, I'm hopeful that maintaining or even growing, these initiatives will be a priority, when there's a lot of talk about tax cuts and different spending activities. And so it is a bit up in the air during these months ahead.

And you've often made the point that no matter how big the private contributions are, sometimes in terms of tears sheer scale, you need a government.

Yeah, somebody asked me today, you know, if PEPFAR which is this aids program was cancelled when private philanthropy make up for well, PEPFAR is over 5 billion year that is this one aid program, which is a phenomenal thing that's saved over 10 million lives, that's larger than our foundation, which is the largest in the world. So there's no possibility. 

The government sector, US, UK, other European donors, that's $130 billion a year in coal that's uplifting these poor countries and health and education. And if we lose the consensus around that, if if people draw inward too much, the we will hurt progress, and there will be millions of lives lost because of it.

Alright, one thing that might be mentioned earlier, is that the difference between now and 60 or 70 years ago in the ability of really bright people really innovative, really energetic people to get financed to do things is just dramatically better than than it was at that time. 

So now, if you've got good ideas, and there's good ideas right in this crowd, and you've got energy, it's far easier to get financed to move forward those ideas than you couldn't 50 or 60

years is that because of the internet or crowds for crowdsourcing of what is

it just lots more capital around people more optimistic about it, people are very optimistic,

but better ways to connect the capital. And

that was a little dramatic.

willingness to take risk. You know, the first venture capital stuff is in the 1960s. And it's tiny. Microsoft, when we were taking outside investment we took at a valuation of $20 million. We took a million dollars for 5% of the company,

I'll do it retroactively.

You had your chance. You had your own Yeah,

we we, we never spent the money. That is, our business was profitable enough. We really didn't need to do that. But we wanted people on our board to give us advice. 

And there's an emphasis of Silicon Valley, where all these venture capitalists are, are courting this guy. And that really reminded me of what it was like, by that time, which was 1984. There were dozens of venture capitalists, and that's something that other countries have tried to duplicate they have, in small part, but not nearly as well, this this willingness to take risks, the idea that if you have the failure, it's not a mark of shame that, hey, what's your next startup going to be?

You heard the secret, folks, he gets his ideas from Silicon Valley be sure.

Alright, cards, let's see where the cards are both. Okay, number three, take the cart right there.

So you started this talk about how you're able to make a model and it won't accurately predict what happens. And on the other side of the coin, I was wondering what happens when you create such well developed predictive technology? And what are the ramifications and implications of that outcome?

Well, I don't think our predictive technology is going to be like an Oracle Warren's nickname is the oracle of Omaha. But, you know, the percentage of times, you can predict things like macroeconomics, because they involve emotional sentiment, you know, we're a long ways away from that. 

The biggest modeling thing I'm involved in is a group that models diseases. So we look at HIV or tuberculosis and understand, okay, what do we have to do in terms of diagnosis and drugs to get these things down? Once we finish polio will go on. 

And our next big challenge, which will take decades, but I expect will be done in my lifetime, is malaria eradication. So these models aren't nearly at the point where they can take human sentiment into consideration in the field of economics. A very basic question about what we should have done differently before the financial crisis. 

There really is no consensus, whether it's with the public or inside the professional economists, they agree that some of the emergency treatment we did was necessary and important. And, you know, I wish that was, was better understood. But the in terms of the root causes, it's actually a little disconcerting how little our models are understanding, explain how that imbalance got so extreme.

All right, well, number two.

Hi, my name is Dan Pena. I'm doing school here at Columbia. And I wanted to ask you, we're talking about that you love reading, I wanted to ask if you have a particular book, that it changed your life, like the way you think about things. 

And I also wanted to ask, what is the thing that you admire the most about each other? Like you beloved Warren and your way around? Thank

you very solid touched on the on the second question, but go ahead, you may want to add to it books, though, first changed your life.

Well, a book that changed my life. And it was by a fellow who taught her Columbia, Benjamin Graham and I read the book when I was 19, called the Intelligent Investor. 

And I had been interested in investments since I was maybe seven or eight, but I'd never and I'd read every book in the public Omaha Public Library by that I was,

Why do you think you were interested in investing when you were seven or eight

because I was too dumb to get interested in four. My dad, my dad had a very small investment firm, and I would just go read all the books that he had there, waiting to go to lunch, or whatever it might be. And then I went to the public library and read them all and it just was a fascinating subject to me. 

And and, but I didn't have any I knew what everybody thought and all of that, an early age, but what Graham wrote made sense. I just happen to pick that book up at a bookstore in Lincoln, Nebraska,

but to investing per se. Did. Is there something about your core competence that made investing the perfect place for you to be

Yeah, I certainly wouldn't be a pro football player. I mean, it was a question of zeroing out all the other end competencies you know, I was left with one thing they Yeah, no, I just allocation. If I was actually wired in a way that was, this would be something I would be good at what

so what Wired In what way? I,

I can't tell you precisely but I, I've got the right temperament for it, which is much more important than IQ if you've got more than 120 points of IQ. So sell the rest of somebody else, you don't need an investment. But you do need the right temperament, you do it, you do have to be able to think for yourself. And getting back to the earlier question. 

The first question I asked myself, when I look into businesses, you know, is it important and easy when I got determined about this business, and a lot of them don't make it. Now bill is looking for hard questions that that plagues society and we're intellect the money may make a difference. They may not for a while and but he's taking on the tough things I take. 

My job is to find easy things. I'm looking for one foot bars to step over, you know, rather than eight foot bars to jump over. And but that's not irrational if you're if you're looking at the investment universe. But reading is key on the biography on the on the book thing. I will tell you a wonderful book to read. 

I can tell you a number of Intelligent Investor when, obviously, if you're in the investment field, but Katherine Graham's autobiography is a marvelous book. And it's absolutely honest, told by an incredible woman who had an incredible life and then wrote on us,

and someone who you knew very well and invested with and, and she was a bit reluctant and had to be assured, yeah, you

know, that she was afraid of me Actually, yes.

But what makes that book so much, it's just,

it is such a broad range of human experience, honestly told him I mean, you couldn't have nobody in Hollywood could write up, you know, a scenario that she lived through and, and just to see that world develop how she reacted to everything you can learn so much. My partner Charlie Munger just loves Ben Franklin, you know, I mean, he, I mean, you know, you can learn from other people and and their mistakes. And I find out biography is my favorite

part of the reason you love biographies, Bobby, part of the reason you love biographies, where's the card? Right here, just come here, I'm having a hard time seeing the cards. So that right here, where the hands are raised.

I'm a senior here at the college. I'm also getting a scholar with my family over here. So I'd like to ask, so what both of you do involve a lot of risk. And sometimes you have to face the fear of failure with that risk. So I'm asking, how did you overcome that fear? And what steps did you take to do that?

Well, I think I was very lucky that when I was in high school computer was brought in there, and I developed a fascination for it became kind of fanatical about it. So that, you know, I didn't view it as risky. I viewed it as this kind of fun hobby. 

Even when I went to college, which I didn't finish, but I spent time in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the I wasn't sure that would be my life's work. Now, as the chip came along and made it mainstream, it became very obvious that something dramatic was going to happen. And so my, my passion, my hobby, and the area, I could start this company, right at the beginning of the revolution that coincided in a nice way. And I never felt it was risky. 

I, you know, if Microsoft had failed, I didn't have kids or anything, I could go back to school and you know, finish my degree and, you know, go get a job somewhere, I was very risk averse in, in running the company. I always made sure we had enough money in the bank to pay everybody for at least a year if nobody paid us at all. Because this idea I was hiring people who had kids and families and they were moving to work there. 

And here I was, you know, 1920 years old, and sort of telling these people I'd be paying their salaries. So I was actually very conservative on a financial point of view. And one of the few arguments I had Mr. Obama, who came in and played a phenomenal role in the success of the company was how many people could he hire? Because I was trying to be so conservative, but I let him go full speed. And you know, it turns out our financial success meant that we never had a conflict about that, but, you know, I think it's great to be risk taking Particularly when you're young trying out different things, fields that, you know, aren't very popular that you might enjoy. But I never gotten to a position where I was taking, actually in any meaningful sense. I was taking a big risk.

I mean, the rest of you would not to have acted because you felt the train was leaving the station.

Yeah. And it was so clear that, you know, this was gonna happen. This was so much fun. I mean, you know, I was a fanatic. I didn't believe in weekends, I didn't believe in vacation. My mom had to negotiate whether I'd come once a week for dinner.

No matter who the guests was. That's right. That's right. Yeah. But but one you have often said you still tap dance to work out because you can paint with your own colors.

Yeah, I, I get. I'm just excited about tomorrow, in terms of what is going to happen as I was, when I started, I was having a lot of fun when I started, but I'm having just as much fun. Now and I was when I was here at Columbia, I had a terrible third eye, it was impossible for me to speak in public. 

I mean, I wasn't able to do it. I actually read an ad in the New York Times I went down to Midtown signed up for a course gave the guy a check and then stopped payment on the check. I mean, it just just petrified but finally I actually after you get through here, hearing me today, maybe you'll wish I'd stayed afraid of public speaking. 

But that's when I got out all I finally decided just had to do it. So I gave a guy $100 in cash. And once I borrow another dollars in cash, I jump off the Grand Canyon to get my money. So it but it changed, it changed my life. 

But I would say this, don't fear failure, almost everything that's turned out, I got turned down by Harvard, the best thing ever happened. Among others, some good things that happened is you seem good at the time. 

Don't worry about it, don't don't let it eat as your look back, just keep going. Because you're gonna have some things and forget them go go forward.

I want to go to the back of the room right back there. Wherever number three is.

Hi, my name is Matthew. Man. I'm a first year at Columbia Business School. Both of you had a moment where you went out on your own. And I guess my question would be, if you were to do it all over again, you're in our shoes, what industry? Would that be in? Where would you start your own business today?

I did the same thing. Yeah. I mean, I'd be a failure at anything else. Probably. No, I mean, I've had I had fun when I was in my 20s my 30s. Now I'm 86. I'm having fun. So I I advise students as much as possible, look for the job that you would take if you didn't need a job. 

I mean, don't sleepwalk through life. But don't. Don't say it's all going to be great. You know, I'll do this. And I'll do that. And you know, I'm just marking time to be older that I've told people that's like saving up sex for your old age. I mean, it just is not. It is not a good idea. Yeah, yeah.

What are you urging them to do?

Just what I'm talking about. It's just, yeah, you really want to be doing what you love doing. And you can't necessarily find it on your first job, right? But don't give up before you find it, though

you've had the unique experience, but a because of your curiosity be because of your involvement in global health, to see the impact of a lot of other areas. Whether it's biomedicine or whether it's, you know, a whole range of other things other than computer science. If you were going to drop out of Harvard today. Which field would you be most likely attracted to?

Well, I love the hard sciences. And there's some phenomenal things that people will get a chance to be part of, I'd still probably pick computer science, because the work in artificial intelligence today is at a really profound level in our ability, not just to play games, but that is a profound milestone, the AlphaGo work that the DeepMind people at Google were able to achieve. 

And that kind of technologies and all the leading companies and a lot of universities, with AI creation of agents, the ability to read and understand material, it is going to be phenomenal. So anything connected with that, I think would be an exciting lifetime career. I also think in energy, we have the imperative to have energy that's reliable, cheap and clean.

And no system available today can provide that, whether it's for rich countries or for poor countries. And so the innovations there will be profound and there's many paths that could provide that solution. Finally, I think biology it's The most thrilling time, you know, we are going to figure out obesity, cancer, even things that are very hard like depression, because the you know, the mind is, is, is even more complicated than other parts of the body, I see this through the lens of the diseases of the poor, the infectious disease, where new vaccines, new drugs, we are moving faster than ever. 

And some of these are platform technologies, like DNA vaccines are going to give us just that one thing will give us lots and lots of solutions. And so working in that space is is phenomenal. Now I say this, you know, to my children, and, you know, they, they may not want to do hard sciences, the one who's picked wants to counsel patients and, and be a doctor, and even more than the science piece, that relationship with patients is what grabs her. 

So everybody has their own pace. But in terms of big impact, those 300 science problems would be at the top for me.