Value of Letting Go: Lessons from Buffett's Pass-Ups

Long-term success comes from avoiding costly mistakes, not in chasing every trend

- Dhirendra Kumar

In a decades-old video resurfacing online, a young audience member asks Warren Buffett about his worst investment. His reply is candid: his biggest mistakes weren't bad bets but the opportunities he never took. He reckons he passed on as much as $10 billion in profit from investments he "knew enough to do" but didn't make.

The instinctive reaction might be alarm. If the world's greatest investor admits to such "mistakes of omission," shouldn't the rest of us work harder to seize every chance? In fact, that's the wrong lesson. Buffett's confession should reassure ordinary investors.

Despite compounding wealth at extraordinary rates for six decades, he openly concedes missing huge opportunities. The real takeaway is not to chase every wave, but to accept that missed chances are part of long-term success.