Character Builds Personality

In September 2022, DAAJI released his latest bestseller, The Wisdom Bridge, and throughout 2023 we are sharing highlights from the various chapters to give you a taste of the wisdom the book offers. This month the excerpt is from chapter 14 on Principle 6: Character Builds Personality.

-  DAAJI

Character Is the Foundation of Life: The Role of Parents in Laying the Foundation

In 1998, Warren Buffett, the acclaimed investor, gave a lecture to MBA students in the University of Florida.

“Think for a moment that I granted you the right to buy 10 percent of one of your classmates for the rest of his or her lifetime,” he said. “You cannot pick one with a rich father, that does not count. You have to pick somebody who is going to do it on their own merit. I give you an hour to think about it. Which one are you going to pick?”

Buffett raised the stakes by adding another condition: “To buy the 10 percent, you would have to short 10 percent of another classmate.”

“If you think about it the correct way,” he said, “the person selected would be someone who is generous and honest. Someone who gave credit to other people even for one’s own ideas. Also, the person picked to short would not be one with the lowest IQ. It would be someone who turned you off for some reason. The person who is egotistic, the person who is greedy, who is dishonest and cuts corners and all such qualities.”

Character matters above everything else. Ambition and IQ are no doubt important, but to get to the top and stay there takes character.

Through his thought experiment, Warren Buffett helped future corporate leaders in the room to understand that character matters above everything else. Ambition, creativity, and intellect are all important, but to get to the top and stay there takes character.