Devoted to Managers and those that seek to improve their management skills

"Don't pay attention to beginning salaries. My first job with Benjamin Graham I accepted before I even knew what the salary was. Do what you're passionate about."

Buffett's comments above were in response to a question asking him how you identify getting on the right train early on in your career.

This isn't the first time I've heard people say this. I remember one of Thomas Edison's key assistants had said one time that his goal in life was to be: one of Thomas Edison's key assistants. He reached his goal. How he got there was taking on anything that Edison needed to be done, and he did it well.

Another example was Maria Shriver, wife of Arnold Schwarzenegger, who wanted to get into reporting. She told the story one time of how she rose up in the ranks (it wasn't because she was a Kennedy). What she did was the same as Buffett and Thomas Edison's assistant: she would offer to do any job that the company wanted her to do.

Why do people do things like this? They have a passion and a drive to reach the vision before them. They get off their high horse and drop their pride and dive in to what's offered them, while do it to their utmost. All the time they have their eye on their goal and purpose, while doing their best at whatever comes their way that day.

One unexpected benefit of all this is they learn their chosen profession from the ground up; something not that many people in an organization can say they've done. The result is they know the business or department as good as anybody in the company does. This is a valuable attainment.

This is the same thing we've heard in all areas of success: Give people what they want, and they'll give you what you want. Give a company your best service where you're put at while never forgetting where you're going, and you'll find that before you know it you've arrived.

The only thing that can get you through the process is the passion you have for your goal and never giving up until you get it.

Buffett did this and the result is one of the great businesses in the world - Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-A).