Forty Chances

If you had the resources to accomplish something great in the world, what would you do?

Legendary investor Warren Buffett posed this challenge to his son in 2006, when he announced he was leaving the bulk of his fortune to philanthropy. So, Howard G. Buffett set out to help the most vulnerable people on Earth—nearly a billion individuals who lack basic food security. And Howard has given himself a deadline: forty years to put more than $3 billion to work on this challenge.

Each of us has about forty chances to accomplish our goals in life. Howard learned this lesson through his passion for farming: all farmers can expect to have about forty growing seasons, giving them just forty chances to improve on every harvest. This lesson applies to all of us, however, because we all have about forty productive years to do the best job we can, whatever our passions may be.