Famed value investor, Mohnish Pabrai, recently conducted a wonderfully insightful and candid interview with The Investor’s Podcast guest interviewer, William Green. I encourage everyone to listen to it above. There are so many nuggets of wisdom as well as access behind the curtain to what Charlie Munger and Warren Buffett are really like.
One of my key takeaways from the interview was Pabrai’s mention of an exercise he did with his YPO group. YPO is a group of young chief executive officers committed to growth, learning, and making an impact in their communities. And the exercise Pabrai mentioned was the “5-minute obituary.”
The YPO members were each asked to write obituaries that were 5-minutes long. I started to think about what things I’d list in my own–lover of God, family, builder of elite teams. Got real joy out of building solid businesses, maybe something like that. And fun! The kicker came next though.
The instructor directed everyone’s thoughts with a question, “Take a look at what you wrote. And take note of what didn’t make it in. Why are you now spending your time on things that AREN’T mentioned in the obituary?” Said another way, are there things you’re wasting time on currently? Things that aren’t essential to your legacy. If so, stop! That was a revelation for me.
What’s your 5-minute obituary? What things might you be spending time on that don’t contribute to your ultimate legacy, to whatever it is you wrote in those few sentences?
One Ladder Project 