Warren Buffett's Snickers

Amidst the hardship and the obstacles, there are also plenty of elements that don’t waiver.

November 28, 2023

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In 2009, during the peak of The Great Recession, Warren Buffett was driving through downtown Omaha, Neb., with a CEO friend, who took note of their bleak surroundings: Empty streets, shuttered shops, a future with seemingly little hope.

“Warren, how are we ever going to pull out of this?”, the friend asked. “This country is never going to be the same.”

Buffett paused, then posed a question.

“Do you know what the best-selling candy bar was in 1962?”

When the friend said he wasn’t sure, Buffett told him it was Snickers. Then, he told him what the best-selling candy bar was now: Snickers.

Best-selling author Morgan Housel recently shared the anecdote on the Tim Ferriss Show — and it has a key lesson for us.

With the end of 2023 drawing closer, some of us are likely frustrated by undesired change, lamenting our bad luck, growing a bit cynical of the circumstances surrounding our teams and our work.

These feelings can at times be justified.

But what we likely aren’t giving as much weight to that perhaps we should are the constants of our lives and our teams, the factors that will go untouched, what can withstand turbulence and upheaval.

There may be some new faces, there may be new technology in place or team members who need serious molding.

But the job, the goals and the methods to achieve these will largely remain the same time and time again, despite the inevitable peaks and valleys of our work lives.

Buffett’s point with the Snickers wasn’t to ignore reality or to be a delusional optimist about the bleak circumstances surrounding the country at the time.

It was that amidst the hardship and the obstacles, there are also plenty of elements that don’t waiver.

And it’s these constants that almost always allow us to prevail. 

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