We get these questions a lot from the enterprising young. It's a very intelligent question: You look at some old guy who's rich and you ask, 'How can I become like you, except faster?'

I try to get rid of people who always confidently answer questions about which they don't have any real knowledge.

Spend less than you make; always be saving something. Put it into a tax-deferred account. Over time, it will begin to amount to something. This is such a no-brainer.

You have to know accounting. It's the language of practical business life. It was a very useful thing to deliver to civilization. I've heard it came to civilization through Venice which of course was once the great commercial power in the Mediterranean. However, double entry bookkeeping was a hell of an invention.

Don't confuse correlation and causation. Almost all great records eventually dwindle.

If you can get good at destroying your own wrong ideas, that is a great gift.

Strategic plans cause more dumb decisions than anything else in America.