People have long wondered if the secret to investing success is as simple as copying Warren Buffett. If the Berkshire Hathaway CEO buys Coca-Cola, why not buy Coca-Cola too? Turns out, even Amazon founder Jeff Bezos — one of the richest people on the planet — once asked him that very question.
That story comes courtesy of another self-made success, Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky, who shared it during an appearance on "The Carlos Watson Show." Chesky recounted a surreal lunch at Sundance, where he found himself sitting with both Buffett and Bezos.
At the time, he was a 31-year-old newcomer to tech, "very starstruck and kind of nervous," but determined to make the most of the moment.
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Buffett had invited him to join, and knowing Bezos often referred to the legendary investor as a mentor, Chesky decided to ask what Buffett's best piece of advice to Bezos had been.
Bezos answered with a story. "One day I called him up," Bezos told Chesky. "I said, ‘You're one of the wealthiest guys in the world, and your investment thesis is so simple. Why doesn't anyone copy you?'"
Buffett didn't miss a beat: "Because no one wants to get rich slow."
It was a lesson Chesky instantly understood. In his interview with Watson, he connected Buffett's philosophy to Airbnb's early struggles. "When we started Airbnb, no one wanted to invest," Chesky said. "I felt like a failure so many days. It was small, it wasn't growing… A sane person probably would have quit. But we kept going through obscurity, through rejection. We couldn't raise money — but over time, it started growing."
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That mindset — patience over speed — is at the core of Buffett's decades-long success. Chesky echoed it on the show, noting, "You can overestimate what you can do in a short period of time, but if you stick with something, all the gains are in the outside years."
From renting out air mattresses to becoming a household name in travel, Airbnb's rise wasn't an overnight success. Chesky says the company's survival — through early skepticism, market disruptions, and shifting travel trends — came from sticking with the long game. Like Buffett's investing, it wasn't about quick wins, but about staying the course long enough to see results.
And if there's one takeaway from that Sundance lunch? In a world obsessed with getting rich overnight, the people who actually make it might just be the ones willing to take it slow. Buffett's own career proves it — his biggest wins came decades into his journey, thanks to the sheer magnitude of his investments and his focus on buying great businesses, not just stocks.
As Buffett and his late partner, Charlie Munger, often said, wealth-building is like rolling a snowball — it starts small, gains momentum, and grows larger over time. The key is patience, persistence, and the ability to keep that snowball rolling, no matter how slow it feels in the moment.
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