World-renowned billionaires Warren Buffett and Bill Gates were once asked at a gathering to write down on a sheet of paper their secret to success in one word. They both gave the same answer: focus.
“The thing you do obsessively between age 13 and 18, that’s the thing you have the most chance of being world-class at,” Gates told Charlie Rose in a 2016 television interview.
In his case, the activity Gates was obsessed with was coding — which worked out pretty well. Gates went on to co-found Microsoft and became a millionaire in his 20s. He’s now the seventh wealthiest person on the planet, according to the Forbes real-time billionaires index, with a net worth of around $118 billion.
When Buffett was interviewed shortly afterward by CNBC, he was asked what he was obsessed with as a teenager.
“Well, I was pretty interested in investments,” he said.