Warren Buffett says this is ‘the ultimate test of how you have lived your life’—and Bill Gates agrees
Warren Buffett, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway Paul Morigi | Getty Images沃伦·巴菲特，伯克希尔·哈撒韦公司首席执行官
Warren Buffettis one of therichest people in the world, but money isn’t a factor when it comes to measuring the quality of his life.
沃伦·巴菲特是世界上最富有的人之一，但他并不认为金钱是衡量他生活质量的因素。
In , when Buffett andMicrosoft co-founder Bill Gatesshared the stage for a talk atColumbia University, one student asked: “Are there any major life lessons that you two have learned about relationships through your personal experiences?”
，当巴菲特和微软联合创始人比尔·盖茨在哥伦比亚大学共同在台上演讲时，一位学生问道：“你们两位可有在个人经历中学到什么重要的人生课程吗？”
“Well, it’s a very important question. You will move in the direction of the people that you associate with,” Buffett answered. “So it’s important to associate with people that are better than yourself.”
“嗯，这是一个非常重要的问题。你由此会朝着与之交往的人的方向前进，”巴菲特回答。“因此，很重要的一点是与比自己更好的人交往。”
‘The ultimate test’“终极测试”
Buffett, whojust turned 89on Saturday, August 30th, , has given similar advice in the past.
今年8月30日星期六刚满89岁的巴菲特过去也曾提出过类似的建议。
“Basically, when you get to my age, you’ll really measure your success in life by how many of the people you want to have love you actually do love you,” he said in 2001 during a speech at theUniversity of Georgia.
“基本上，当你到了我这个年龄，你会用有多少你真正想要他们爱你的人的确爱你来衡量你的人生成功，”2001年，他在佐治亚大学的一次演讲中说。
“I know people who have a lot of money, and they get testimonial dinners and hospital wings named after them. But the truth is that nobody in the world loves them,” Buffett continued. “If you get to my age in life and nobody thinks well of you, I don’t care how big your bank account is — your life is a disaster. That’s the ultimate test of how you have lived your life.”
“我认识一些人拥有很多钱，他们得到以他们的名字命名的答谢晚宴和特殊待遇的医疗翼。但事实是，这个世界上没有人爱他们，”巴菲特继续说。“如果你到了我这个年龄，没有人对你有好感，我不在乎你的银行账户金额有多大——你的生活显然就是一场灾难。那才是衡量你人生质量的终极考验。”
Choose your life partner wisely明智地选择你的人生伴侣
Out of all the people who love you back, the most important person by far, according to Buffett, is your spouse. “I can’t overemphasize how important that is,” he said in his conversation with Gates.
巴菲特说，在所有回报予你爱的人中，最重要的人就是你的配偶。他在与盖茨的谈话中说：“这一点我觉得怎么强调都不过分。”
In the HBO documentary“Becoming Warren Buffett,”the billionaire said that he owes some of his greatest qualities to his first wife Susan. “I just got very, very, very lucky. I was a lopsided person. And it took a while, but she just stood there with a little watering can and nourished me along and changed me,” he recalled.
在HBO的纪录片《成为沃伦·巴菲特》中，这位亿万富翁说，他把自己最了不起的品质归功于第一任妻子苏珊。“我只是非常，非常，非常幸运。我彼时并不是一个公正看待世事的人。相当长时间里我都是这个样子，但她就站在那里，给我点点滴滴的浇灌，浸润我，影响我，改变我，”他回忆道。
In many ways, Susan did help Buffett become the man that he is today: She got him interested in civil rights, feminism, encouraged him to become more of a public figure and to donate more of his money during his lifetime.
在许多方面，苏珊确实帮助巴菲特成就了今天的他：她让他对民权、女权主义感兴趣，鼓励他成为一个公众人物并在有生之年捐出更多的钱于公益。
While they never got divorced, Susan moved away from Omaha and the two remained very close, according to the documentary. She also helped orchestrate Buffett’s relationship with Astrid Menks, whom he married after she died. (Buffett and Astrid tied the knot on August 30, , the same day he turned 76 — and have since been together for 13 years.)
据该纪录片称，虽然他们从未离婚，但苏珊的确搬离了奥马哈，两人关系仍然非常密切。她还帮助协调巴菲特与阿斯特里德·门克斯的关系，她去世后阿斯特里德嫁给了他。（8月30日，巴菲特和阿斯特里德结了婚，同一天他76岁——此后他们已经在一起了。）
Bill Gates agrees with Buffett比尔·盖茨同意巴菲特的看法
In their conversation at Columbia University, Gates, who has been a longtime friend of Buffett’s, said that “some friends do bring out the best in you, so it’s good to invest in those friendships. It’s really through Melinda and seeing other people that I realized, okay, it’s really worth the investment to have those people, as you’re always there to help them and vice versa.”
盖茨与巴菲特是长期密友，在哥伦比亚大学与巴菲特的谈话中盖茨说，“有些朋友的确能激发出你身上最好的一面，所以投资这样的友谊是好事。我真的是通过梅林达（盖茨夫人）和看到其他人，才意识到，好吧，拥有这些人做朋友真的值得投资，因为你总是在需要时帮助他们，反之亦然。”
Gates also commented on his marriage with Melinda last year, in aFacebook Live talk: There’s a certain type of intensity when you’re raising a family together, said, “but we’re very lucky because we mostly see things the same way. Our goals are very much the same.”
去年盖茨还在Facebook直播节目中评论了他与梅林达的婚姻时说：当你们共同抚养一个家庭时，这会有某种强度的紧张感，他说，“但我们很幸运，因为我们大多以同样的方式看待事情。我们的目标非常相同。”
It takes all kinds这需要各种各样的类型
It many ways, Buffett’s words of wisdom sounds a lot like the warnings we received from our parents when we were younger about not hanging out with the wrong crowd.
从很多方面来看，巴菲特的智慧之言听起来很像我们小时从父母那里得到的醒世恒言，即不要交损友－勿和错误的人群在一起。
Buffett’s own experience with friendships and love is proof that the people we let into our lives — the people who truly love and care about us — are the ones who push us to live successful, happy and meaningful lives.
巴菲特自己的友谊与爱情的经历证明，我们选择准入我们生活中的人——那些真正爱我们关心我们的人——是引领我们过上成功、幸福和有意义的人生的人。
Researchershave even found that people who have a strong support system in place (a.k.a. your friends and life partners) are less likely to suffer from depression and social isolation, which has in turn been associated with poorer health outcomes.
研究人员甚至发现，随时有强大支持系统的人（即你的朋友和人生伴侣）患抑郁症和孤立于社会的可能性较小，而抑郁症和社会隔离又反过来与较差的健康结果有关。
That’s more than enough reason to take Buffett’s advice into consideration by reflecting on the strength of your personal relationships by asking yourself questions like: Do the people who care about me really love me back? Do they make me a better person?
这足以令我们考虑巴菲特的建议，自问这样的问题：关心我的那些人真的爱我吗？他们会让我成为一个更好的人吗？
AsGates once said, “That’s about as good a metric as you will find.”
正如盖茨曾经说的：“那关乎你能找得到的尽可能好的衡量标准。”
Tom Popomaronisis a commerce expert and proud Baltimore native. Currently, he is the Senior Director of Product Innovation at theHawkins Group. His work has been featured in Forbes, Fast Company and The Washington Post. In , he was named one of the “40 Under 40” by the Baltimore Business Journal.汤姆·波波马奥诺尼斯是一位商业专家和自豪的巴尔的摩本地人。目前，他是霍金斯集团产品创新部的高级总监。他的作品曾发布于《福布斯》、《快公司》和《华盛顿邮报》上。
