Buffett has his regrets too—he missed out on making money within his circle of competence!

Have you ever felt this way? You’ve clearly done deep research on a company. From its business model and corporate culture, everything looks good. But its valuation never comes down, so you never dare to pull the trigger. Then a few months later, you look back and find the price has risen a lot more, making it even harder to buy. So you keep slapping your thigh and sighing, “Man! If I’d known this would happen, I should have bought it!”

Actually, there’s no need for that. You’ve made this mistake, I’ve made this mistake, and the famous Buffett has made this mistake too. Buffett said he’s had his regrets in life, but what he regrets isn’t buying the wrong thing—it’s failing to make money within his circle of competence.

For example, in his 1989 letter to shareholders, Buffett said that some of his most serious mistakes are unknown to the outside world. These mistakes were businesses he clearly understood, yet he just sat there sucking his thumb and didn’t buy in time. He said he had indeed missed several big businesses that were served up to him on a platter and that he was fully capable of understanding. For Berkshire, because of his hesitation and inaction on these good businesses within his circle of competence, Buffett admitted the cost to him was enormous. Well, yeah—whenever you realize you should have bought but didn’t, anyone would feel like they missed out on hundreds of millions!

On the road to financial freedom, although we will miss many opportunities, the good thing is that getting rich slowly through investing doesn’t require buying every business you can understand. It only requires concentrating your purchases in one or two of the best businesses, then holding them for the long term. You can become very wealthy without doing anything. So there’s absolutely no need to agonize all day long. Instead, be like Buffett—tap-dance to work every day!