The annual eBay auction for lunch with billionaire investor Warren Buffet ended a few days ago with the top bid coming in from a man from Singapore named Andy Chua, at more than double last year’s bid of just over $1 million – the winning bid being $2,200,000. The proceeds go to GLIDE, one of Buffet’s favorite charities. 
The winner can invite up to seven friends to have lunch with Buffet at the New York City steakhouse Smith & Wollensky (the restaurant kicks in another $10,000 to GLIDE).
Buffet says, “I made my first investment at age eleven. I was wasting my life up until then.” By the age of 13, he was running his own businesses as a paperboy and selling his own horse racing tip sheet. That same year, he filed his first tax return, claiming his bicycle as a $35 tax deduction.
I’ve never had lunch with Mr. Buffet but I’ve made it a life-long practice to invite highly successful individuals to lunch. The wisdom I’ve gained from those individuals has been invaluable. I’m curious. If you got your chance to have lunch with Warren Buffet, what two questions would you ask?
Who else would you like to have lunch with? We’ll assume you’d be willing to pick up the check. How much more would you be willing to cough up just to have that devoted time to access someone’s unique wisdom?
Great questions Dan. I would ask him about productivity, his day, routines and such. I have also gained wisdom from having lunch with some very wise people, it’s really helped my business.
Kimanzi, I like the focus on routines and schedule. There’s so much insight there as to what separates the successful from the not-so-successful.
I’m not sure who Warren is but I sure do love a good buffet!
Chet – but is any buffet worth $2.2 million?
None that I’ve been to! 🙂
This is a great reminder….I need to start buying some folks lunch! If I had lunch with Warren, I’d give a quick 3 minute overview of my life and ask him what he would change about how I’m going about my life. I’d also ask him what he does to push through fear and have the mindsets needed for the success he’s attained. And then I’d ask him if he could leave the tip because I just spent all my money on lunch…
Once a month, I network with other individuals who I would like to be in Five, Ten, Twenty Years. I buy them lunch and ask them a million questions. I always ask the same to questions to start. 1) tell me your life’s story. 2) What would you change? Some meetings are great. Some are boring. I would like to meet Warren, but have not done that much research on him. I don’t need to meet the greats (Dan, Dave, Michael, Zig, Brian, Clark), i listen to their podcast or read their books.
We are all fortunate to have significant access to great minds with the ease of communication today – great point.
How would I *find* such individuals? I currently can’t afford to be in the same circles as the movers and shakers. I can’t imagine they’d be open to a lunch invite from some random Joe off the street…
And I think you’d be surprised if you approached them in the right way.
Warren Buffett ….. I don’t know …. Jimmy Buffett …. now your talking … ☺
Really, I don’t know what I’d ask a billionaire …. I’m concerned about his association with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation …. population, medical and food control …. but since it’s hard for me to identify with his kind of success, I’m not sure …. maybe if the opportunity actually did come up …. I’d believe God to help me come up with something.
Hey take Jimmy to lunch – that’s bound to be interesting. And you could definitely expect a good time at Margaritaville.
bill and warren have provided food and medical care that have kept children from suffering.
you don’t have to spend millions on lunch to ask warren a question. buy a share in Berkshire Hathaway and go to the annual meeting. over the years I have ran into warren many times and have asked many questions all while making money with Berkshire Hathaway! he also answers questions for 5 hours on the Saturday of the annual meeting.
Carson – great suggestion.
Right now I’d love to have lunch with Dan Miller himself. 😀
The 2 questions I’d ask him are:
1. At 31 years old I’m not sure I’ve found my passion. Is it important to discover your passion/career direction quickly? Why?
If yes: How would you recommend doing it quickly?
If no: How can I increase my income in the mean time while I explore all the areas that I would love too without having major dips in income?
Earlier this spring I had the opportunity to spend some time with Simon Senek, Malcolm Gladwell, and a couple other great thought leaders and I seriously just enjoyed listening to the rest of the group in the room ask them the questions.
Being so young I feel like there is still so much to learn and just absorb and I love just listening. Maybe that’s wrong for this time of my life and I’m sure it’ll change… but that’s where I’m at.
Michael Hyatt and Dave Ramsey would be a lot of fun to spend some time with as well. 🙂
I would include Napoleon Hill (Author of Think and Grow Rich), P.T.Barnum (Marketing Genius), Earl Nightingale (Motivational Legend), Aristotle Onassis (Poor boy who became a shipping tycoon), Billy Graham (Spiritual Titan who has never waivered), and Richard Simmons (Marketing Genius with his act). I would also ask Harlan Sanders (Later-in-life Entrepreneur and Marketing Genius) to bring the food.
Travis – wow, that’s a great list. The beauty is that you can access a lot of the wisdom of those guys through books and audio programs they left us. I read a lot of my mentors first and then got to meet them in person – Zig Ziglar, Mark Victor Hansen, Jack Canfield, Brian Tracy, Tom Hopkins and many more.
I’ve been incredibly blessed to have lunch with two amazing leaders and influencers – Dan Miller and Michael Hyatt. Soaking up their wisdom, knowledge and advice has been a complete game changer in my business as an Executive Coach. 3 additional leaders that I’d love to have lunch with and learn from are: 1) Oprah 2) Victoria Osteen 3) Michelle Obama. And I have just enough faith and action to believe that it will happen 🙂
Hey I keep watching the mail for that $2.2 million check.
LOL! I receive that, Dan! And by the way, you’ve given such great value, I think I’ll just double that to $4.4 million. Sound good? lol
I am a pretty good at networking – and been in music biz for several years. WHEN I started asking successful people to lunch and learn about Them, built relationships from buying them lunch and finding out what is important to the successful person and asking advice after showing interest in them, I feel I am closer to some of my goals.
I never take my songs and ask them to listen to them, this is about learning, not asking for something over lunch. Remembering we have two ears and one mouth for a reason can help build relationships and open doors to learn from the pros!