One Non-Financial Lesson from one of the Best Investors Ever

Let’s say that I offer to buy you the car of your dreams. You can pick any car that you want, and then that car will be waiting for you at home.

There’s just one catch: It’s the only car you’re ever going to get… in your entire life.

Now, knowing that, how are you going to treat that car?

You’re probably going to read the owner’s manual 4 times before you drive it; you’re going to keep it in the garage, protect it at all times, change the oil twice as often as necessary. If there’s the least little bit of rust, you’re going to get that fixed immediately so it doesn’t spread – because you know it has to last you as long as you live.

Right?

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Now

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Think about it…

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The story is exactly the same with your BODY.

You have only one body for the rest of your life.

Read that again – You have only one body for the rest of your life.

So the position you’re in with your car is exactly the position you are in with your body. And the way you treat your car should be no different than the way you treat your body.

If you aren’t taking proper care of your body (the only one that you got and will ever get), it’s like leaving that car out in hailstorms and letting rust eat away at it.

If you don’t take care of your body now, by the time you’re 40 or 50, you’ll be like a car that can’t go anywhere.

– Warren Buffett

(From an essay in the book Getting There)