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Sun, Jul 13, 2025, 11:07 AM 5 min read
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World-renowned billionaires Warren Buffett and Bill Gates were once asked about their secret to success. The one word answer they both gave? Focus.
For Buffett and Gates, that focus started young. Gates was obsessed with coding as a teenager. That passion led him to co-found Microsoft and become the seventh wealthiest person on the planet, according to the Forbes real-time billionaires index.
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Buffett, meanwhile, has been investing since the ripe age of 11. He’s now known as one of the most successful investors of all time, ranking as the fifth wealthiest billionaire according to Forbes.
In an interview with CNBC, Buffett explained how his focus differed from Gates.
“While he was focused on software, I was focused on investments,” he said. “It gave me a big advantage to start very young — there’s no question about it.”
Even if you’re long past your teenage years, it’s not too late to get focused. Here are three ways to refine your investing strategy to emulate Buffett and Gates’s wealth-building success.
The best time to start investing was yesterday. The second best time is now.
Even if you didn’t start investing when you wished you did, that's all the more reason to start today. Compound interest is another reason to invest sooner rather than later.
Buffett once described earning compound interest — interest you earn based on your personal contributions and the interest you've already earned — as the ability to snowball your wealth.
Remember, the more time you have to earn interest, the bigger the rewards you'll see. Starting small today can pay dividends tomorrow.
Read more: Rich, young Americans are ditching the stormy stock market — here are the alternative assets they're banking on instead
Buffett is famously a proponent of value investing, which involves buying stocks that are trading below their intrinsic value. He would look for companies with long-lasting earning potential, consistent earnings, good cash flow and a low amount of debt.
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