Last weekend, Warren Buffett, chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, along with Vice Chairman Charlie Munger, took questions from investors from all over the world for nearly seven hours at the Berkshire Hathaway annual shareholders meeting. According Entrepreneur, it wasn't just the traditional crowd of analysts, shareholders and journalists voicing queries — one curious seventh grader also asked the duo a question.
"How do you make lots of friends? And how do you get people to like you and work with you?" asked the middle-schooler who traveled all the way from South Florida to have an opportunity to solicit advice from Mr. Buffett and Mr. Munger.
Mr. Munger said he was "obnoxious" when he was the questioner's age. According to the report, his concise response boiled down to "get rich and be generous."
Mr. Buffett said he too was obnoxious at a young age but changed his behavior as he grew up and matured. He told the young man he did this by observing the people he looked up to and adopting the qualities he admired in them.
According to the report, Mr. Buffett gave the seventh grader an exercise to give him some direction: Write down four qualities he liked about other students in his class and four things he disliked about them and adjust his behavior accordingly.