Editor: Crass Cash

Scrooge McDuck my favorite Disney character often said on the hit show of my youth, "Work smarter, not harder."  It was as true then as it is now!  Now this was a silly cartoon, not real life.  Fair enough, but you'd be wrong.  

I present to you, the real life definition of working smarter, not harder...  

Warren Buffett is the model for working smarter, not harder.  I've come to the conclusion that if you're worker more, than you're doing something wrong.  Here's a guy who works the same schedule he did when he was a 28 year old millionaire vs now when he's an 84 year old multidecabillionaire.  

He goes to work at normal 8-5 hours with a long lunch.  He does nothing but read for the first 4 hours before lunch and then returns phones calls and talks to his individuals chiefs of other companies that Berkshire owns.  He then goes home and reads more newspapers or plays bridge at home on the computer.  

For such an important person you'd think his schedule would have become exponentially more hectic.  But all this does is show you that he's doing it right.  He has the right people in place to do what they do best.  He's a type A personality, but not a control freak.  When you realize that people around you can do a better job than you, just let go and let them do it.  

EVERY DAY THAT YOU GO INTO WORK, YOU SHOULD BE TRYING TO WORK YOURSELF OUT OF YOUR JOB.  The 80/20 principle at its finest.  Think about it...  

Editor: Crass Cash

Assuming you make the same amount of money, would you rather be a CPA or a pinball machine mogul?  I'd take being a pinball machine mogul any day of the week and twice on Sunday.  But the CPA position is so much more respectable??  True.  In that case I'll even throw in being a doctor and lawyer.  How about now, again assuming the same money?  

Definitely the pinball machine mogul, even if I make less money.  Why??  It's "leveragable" and it makes money even when I'm not working.  This is the perfect type of business that we should all strive for.  

What do I mean by leverageable?  I mean that it can be expanded with only a small amount of time.  Unlike a CPA, doctor, or lawyer who has to work more in order to make more.  A leverageable market/product means that the amount of money you make are capped by how many hours are in the day.  Will you need to work more if you have 1,000 pinball machines vs 100.  Probably.  But you're not going to have to work 10x more!  And if you find the right management you can then actually work less, not more.   

Editor: Crass Cash

The Dark Continent is officially the lowest labor producer.  I say this tongue and cheek, and we all saw it coming, but I saw it for the first time today.  We got in a box of shirts that had the company logo on them. I immediately checked the "made in..." tag to see.  For the first time I saw that it was made in Madagascar!

For the past 20 years you almost always would have seen this for textiles for some country in SE Asia.  Well, as it happens with all countries, the countries are becoming richer.  Wages are increasing and they are becoming richer.  As a result the cost of production goes us.  Textiles always seem to find the lowest cost labor, for obvious reasons.  They first moved from the NE USA, then to the SE USA, then to South America, then to SE Asia, and it's now progressively moving to Africa.  Where will it go after Africa?  Have you ever seen the movie Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines?  Eventually it will be done by machines when the labor becomes too expensive.  This will probably take decades though as Africa continues to crawl out of the depths of poverty.  Labor unions, higher wages, worker safety, and basic benefits also tend to follow the textile industry.    

Might be a good time to start investing there...