Cameron Herold presents lessons for COOs drawn from Bill Gates and Warren Buffett: the importance of focusing on the critical few tasks (Warren Buffett’s calendar-based prioritization) and the value of continuous learning and admitting mistakes (illustrated by Bill Gates attending TED and publicly acknowledging being wrong). The speaker connects these anecdotes to coaching advice for leaders on prioritization and growth.
Chapters
And then he saw Warren Buffett's calendar, and Warren Buffett changed his whole life. He was doing it backwards. Bill Gates was doing this, right? So anybody listening going, oh, I'm not cut for this. Bill Gates was doing this after being a billionaire. Two things you just said. One is around that lesson of getting to work on the critical few things right versus the important many and following that Warren Buffett rule. The second one is the richest person on the entire planet is still learning and is okay with being wrong, Is okay with publicly saying that they're wrong, Is okay saying they're publicly wrong not to kind of leverage and sell something. It's just like, wow, they're admitting they're learning and growing. Sometimes if you're the smartest person in the room, you're in the wrong room. And it's pretty inspiring to see Bill. I saw Bill last week at the TED Conference. He goes to the main stage TED as well, every year. But when you're that smart and you're there sitting in the audience, learning, wanting to learn, that's a pretty big lesson. And so now I want to tie into that, because the coaching session we had, I just want to coach these people with what you told me.