Do You Want to be a Millionaire?

I was browsing on my old e-mails searching for something when I stumbled upon this e-mail sent by my friend Carol. It was entitled “Interesting Aspects of the 2nd Richest Man in the World”. Well, from that title alone… the word “richest” is the one that really interests me. With this ailing economy and with all the bills that we need to deal with everyday of our lives… who doesn’t want to get rich? The idea of being rich, much more the illusion of being tagged as the richest person in the world is everybody’s dream or aspiration.

Now, here is a story of a man who is rich and didn’t get rich by winning in a lottery.

There was a one hour interview on CNBC with Warren Buffet, the second richest man who has donated $31 billion to charity. Here are some very interesting aspects of his life which I want to share with you here:

1. He bought his first share at age 11 and he now regrets that he started too late!
2. He bought a small farm at age 14 with savings from delivering newspapers.
3. He still lives in the same small 3-bedroom house in mid-town Omaha , that he ought after he got married 50 years ago. He says that he has everything he needs in that house. His house does not have a wall or a fence.
4. He drives his own car everywhere and does not have a driver or security people around him.
5. He never travels by private jet, although he owns the world's largest private jet company.
6. His company, Berkshire Hathaway, owns 63 companies. He writes only one letter each year to the CEOs of these companies, giving them goals for the year. He never holds meetings or calls them on a regular basis. He has given his CEO's only two rules.
Rule number 1: do not lose any of your share holder's money.
Rule number 2: Do not forget rule number 1.
7. He does not socialize with the high society crowd. His past time after he gets home is to make himself some pop corn and watch Television.
8. Bill Gates, the world's richest man met him for the first time only 5 years ago. Bill Gates did not think he had anything in common with Warren Buffet. So he had scheduled his meeting only for half hour. But when Gates met him, the meeting lasted for ten hours and Bill Gates became a devotee of Warren Buffet.
9. Warren Buffet does not carry a cell phone, nor has a computer on his desk.

I always buy lottery ticket hoping that one day I will strike the jackpot. Well, the odd of winning the million is of course… 1 in a million too. And everyone knows that but still we all keep buying and hoping that one day we will be lucky. Then one day it struck me. Someone asked me… “What will you do with the million dollars if you win it?” And I can’t answer it right away. Sure, I will be buying something… a house, a car, jewelries, travel the world, and the list goes on and on. Then she asked me next… “Then what? After you do all that, what will you do next?”