Ndamukong Suh wasn’t taking any chances before his first meeting with Warren Buffett.
While still a college student, the soon-to-be NFL star arrived at Buffett’s office two to three hours early because he refused to risk being late, he said.
The wait paid off, though. Suh said he and Buffett hit it off, talking for hours during that first meeting. Before it ended, Buffett agreed to Suh’s request to become his mentor.
That was more than 15 years ago.
Suh went on to spend 13 years in the NFL, establishing himself as one of the league’s most dominant defensive linemen while playing for five teams. He capped his career with a Super Bowl win with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2021.
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While earning millions over his career, Suh built a reputation as one of the NFL’s more serious athlete-investors, assembling a portfolio that spans real estate, private equity, venture capital, and hospitality businesses. In 2021, Forbes said he was building an “investment empire.”
During NFL offseasons, Suh would spend time with Buffett and talk with him by phone. These days, he said, they try to catch up quarterly.
Over the years, Buffett taught him about stocks and the value of companies, Suh said. Yet, two of Buffett’s broader lessons have stuck with him for more than a decade.
Warren Buffet’s most surprising pieces of advice
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For Suh, a good mentor is someone who doesn’t need anything from him and genuinely wants to see him succeed. Buffett fits that definition, he said.
The most surprising lesson Buffett provided was learning to be patient, Suh said. “Great things come to you with patience,” he said, recalling Buffet’s words.
The other piece of advice was choosing the right people.
“If you can learn to have patience and stick to quality people and identifying that, those two things will serve you right,” Suh said of Buffet’s words.
To Suh, patience means believing in what you are doing long enough to see it through. He contrasted that with a world built around instant gratification — a mindset that he said has led him to make “some terrible investments” when he was chasing immediate success.
One large investment involved a media concept similar to LeBron James’ Uninterrupted, he recalled. He put a good amount of money into it but ultimately the venture failed because the timing, infrastructure, and people weren’t right, he said.
Suh is known for being exceptionally good at money management
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Suh said he went through multiple financial advisors before finding a group he was happy with.
Along the way, Suh read books and educated himself enough to take the lead in conversations about his finances rather than simply handing those decisions to someone else.
“I’m not passive,” he said.
It’s an approach that puts both of Buffett’s lessons into practice: Take the time to understand what you’re doing, and be thoughtful about the people you bring along.
Suh is now sharing what he’s learned through his podcast, “No Free Lunch,” which explores how successful people in sports build long-term wealth and what listeners can learn from their experiences. He speaks with athletes, experts, and business leaders about their paths to success and the business ideas and trends shaping the sports world.
“It’s something that I find a great love and fascination with being able to help people,” Suh said.
