The best leaders know that this is a lifelong process and that even if it reaches the top, one should not stop working on it. As a leader, you have to continue to understand who you are and how you can evolve and progress.
Warren Buffet is one of the most authentic people I know. I love learning something. In fact, there is a ritual that I do with the world’s most famous investor: I have the privilege to take him for lunch every year in a KFC in Omaha City, Nebraska, where the headquarters of his company Berkshire Hathaway is located. We have the opportunity to talk about whatever is on our minds there.
At one of these lunches, while eating our chicken, which is a product called Original Recipe, which he likes to add an extra ton of salt, I asked him what he was looking for in a company.
” I am looking for companies managed by painters working on an unfinished painting. Such managers know what the painting can be and are passionate about making it as perfect as possible.”
I liked this analogy because it reminded me that the work is always progressing. It also made me think about what a perfect painting is. The perfect painting, that is, a masterpiece is the kind of work unlike anything else on earth.
When you think about it, you are like him. Nobody has your DNA. Nobody is like you. The best leaders are leaders who know that they are not like anybody else, that they have their own strengths and weaknesses, interests and knowledge, and that they will be continuous progress.
