The 10 Worst Decisions You Can Make in Your Life According to Warren Buffett

Warren Buffett built one of the greatest fortunes in history, but ask him directly, and he rarely talks about stock picks. He talks about mistakes. Over seven decades of letters to shareholders, campus talks, and interviews, he returned to making some of the same mistakes, mistakes that he saw destroy people smarter than him.

Below are ten decisions that Buffett warns, in his own words, could ruin lives.

1. Marrying the Wrong Person

Buffett says that the choice of partner is more important than any career move you ever take. He explained it this way during a 2017 talk with Bill Gates at Columbia University:

“You want to hang out with the people you want to hang out with. You’re going to move in that direction. And the most important person by far in that regard is your partner. I can’t stress enough how important that is.” – Warren Buffett.

He was married to Susan Buffett for over fifty years and later credited her for his personal stability. The people you let closest to you, he argues, are secretly pulling your entire life towards them, for better or worse.

2. Sit on Your Hands When the Odds Are Big

Buffett divides mistakes into two categories. There are errors of commission, things you do that fail, and errors of omission, correct actions you see clearly and never do. He said the second type was much more painful.

“The biggest mistakes I’ve ever made by far were mistakes of omission and not commission. I mean, those were things I knew enough to do, and I was stupid as hell. They were things that hurt.” – Warren Buffett.

Bad investments will cost you money. Good opportunities that you understand and miss will make you miss out on the version of life you could have had.

3. Pretending to Know Everything

Buffett’s “Circle of Competence” is one of the oldest and simplest ideas. Stay within what you truly understand. Get out of it, whether in work, relationships, or investments, and you’re guessing while calling it knowledge.

“What an investor needs is the ability to properly evaluate a chosen business. Note that the word is chosen. You don’t have to be an expert on every company. The size of your circle of competence doesn’t really matter. However, knowing the boundaries is critical.” – Warren Buffett.

Failure is not ignorance. Buffett’s statement was more subtle than that. The failure is not knowing where your ignorance begins.

4. Pursue a Poisonous Path out of Stubbornness

Buffett’s biggest regret, in his own opinion, is buying Berkshire Hathaway himself. The textile mill was dying when he bought it, partly out of resentment against the man who ran it. He spent twenty years trying to save a business on poor economic grounds before finally winding down textile operations and rebuilding the company relying on insurance.

“When a manager with a brilliant reputation meets a business with a bad economic reputation, it is the business’s reputation that remains intact.” – Warren Buffett.

Remaining in a losing situation because you have invested years, money, or self-esteem in it will rarely save it. Usually this only adds to the losses over the years.

5. Trade Your Reputation for Quick Wins

A career built over decades. Great wedding. A name that people trust. Buffett has warned that it could all end in one bad moment, and that trading calculations do not support shortcuts.

“It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to destroy it. If you thought about it, you would do things differently.” – Warren Buffett.

He has told Berkshire managers directly that he can afford the losses. Loss of reputation is an entirely different matter, and much more difficult to regain.

6. Letting Jealousy Make the Decision

Buffett and his late partner, Charlie Munger, constantly discussed this theme at Berkshire’s annual meetings. Of all the vices, according to them, envy is completely useless, because it brings no benefit at all, not even bad pleasures.

Charlie Munger said, “It is not greed that controls the world, but envy.” Buffett expanded on the idea in his own words: “My colleague Charlie says that envy is the only deadly sin that keeps you from having fun. Gluttony, you have to eat. Lust, you have fun. But envy just makes you feel bad.” – Warren Buffett.

Watching others win and want what they have means nothing to them. It just makes you lose your own focus.

7. Trading What You Need for What You Want

Buffett has little patience for people, or companies, who risk something important in pursuit of something they don’t really need. He said that the odds don’t matter when the bets are set like that.

“If you’re risking something that’s important to you for something that’s not important to you, it doesn’t make sense. I don’t care if the odds are 99 to 1 or 1,000 to 1.” – Warren Buffett.

This is why Berkshire avoids leverage that can sink a company even when facing prolonged problems. A small profit that is almost certainly not worth the small chance of losing everything.

8. Letting Emotions Hijack Your Reason

A high IQ doesn’t help you much if panic or excitement controls decisions. Buffett has said for years that temperament is more important than raw intelligence, in investing and in other areas.

“If you can’t control your emotions, you can’t control your money. You’re looking for a stable personality. You need a temperament that doesn’t really like being with the crowd or going against the crowd.” – Warren Buffett.

He doesn’t describe someone who feels nothing. He describes someone who can feel abundant and still act based on evidence, not on adrenaline.

9. Postponing Life for an Unguaranteed Future

Buffett has told his students bluntly that staying in a job you don’t like, just because it will look good, is a bad job. He uses one of his most memorable comparisons to make his point.

“I think you’re crazy if you keep taking jobs you don’t like because you think they’ll look good on your resume. Isn’t that like saving for your retirement?” – Warren Buffett.

Resumes are created in any way. What doesn’t come back are the years spent waiting.

10. Failing to Develop the Right Habits When You’re Young

Buffett compares your body and mind to a car given to you once, with no trade-in and no replacement. He advises young viewers to address them early on as bad habits are much easier to avoid than to break.

“The chain of habits is too light to feel, until it is too heavy to break.” – Warren Buffett.

Buffett has used this phrase for decades in his talks with students, and he is open that the idea did not originate with him. What’s important, he says, is that the habits you ignore at twenty are the ones that govern your life at sixty.

Conclusion

Buffett’s advice rarely sounds complicated, and that’s the point. Protect those closest to you. Stay within what you actually understand. Guard your name as if it is more valuable than any deal, because it is.

None of these ten decisions requires a genius to avoid. This requires honesty about what you already know, and the discipline to act on it before the costs come due.