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Warren Watch: 'Invest in yourself' is whiz's advice(Omaha World-Herald (NE) (KRT) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Aug. 31--What's the best investment you can make? "Invest in yourself," Warren Buffett said during a recent panel discussion on the economy and the nation's financial future. By that, the chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. of Omaha means to fully develop your interests and talents and to use every one of them to the max. He frequently mentions his own education as an important factor in his success. If you're excited about something you do or want to do, Buffett said, you're more likely to succeed. So invest as much time and effort into your education as possible. Nobody, Buffett has said in the past, should "sleepwalk through life." Rather, people should pursue their interests, take advantage of opportunities and learn as much as possible. As an example, Buffett, who turned 78 Saturday, recently took a trip to northern Alberta, Canada, with friend Bill Gates to observe an oil sand extraction project. The mining-style operation is in one of the largest areas of oil reserves on the planet. Oil sands, also called tar sands or bituminous sands, are geologic formations that contain a dense form of petroleum called bitumen. In a CNBC interview, Buffett said he and Gates wanted to learn about the physical process as well as the market mathematics of extracting the bitumen and upgrading it into products that can be sold. Today's high oil prices make the process more viable economically. He said he has no immediate plans to invest in bitumen production, but the knowledge might come in handy sometime. Panel's 'Pollyanna' Between a press conference, a panel discussion and the CNBC program, Buffett spent most of five hours talking publicly on Aug. 21. Among his messages was that the United States continues to be an economic powerhouse. By 2000, he said, "Americans were living seven times as well as at the start of the century." "I think Americans will do very, very well in the future," he said. "Our children will live better than we do, and our grandchildren will live much better." He said he was the "Pollyanna" during the panel discussion about "I.O.U.S.A.," a documentary backed by Pete Peterson, a friend and native Nebraskan. Peterson's foundation is pushing for national leaders to acknowledge that there are serious problems with the national debt, the imbalance of foreign trade and other economic issues. Buffett appears in the movie to explain his concerns over continued trade deficits, but he is less pessimistic about the future than Peterson. During the press conference, Buffett said the present national debt is not "unduly alarming, but I would not like it if the numbers just kept going up." The nation has overcome serious problems in the past and will do so again, he said. "We've added 25 million jobs or something like that since 1982, when we thought we were kind of losing the battle for production in the world to the Japanese and the Germans. We're going to export $1.7 trillion worth of goods and services this year. It was 44 billion, one-fortieth of that, in 1970. We make a lot of things the world likes." Buffett said continued large U.S. trade deficits could lead to political instability and "demagoguery." But overall, he said, America's potential is still strong. "This country has unleashed human potential like no other country has in the world. And it's been a terrible mistake to bet against the United States ever since 1776, and I think it will continue to be a mistake." --Contact the writer: 444-1080, [email protected] To see more of the Omaha World-Herald, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.omaha.com. Copyright (c) 2008, Omaha World-Herald, Neb. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA. |