Warren Buffett has released his final shareholder letter and Thanksgiving message as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway.
As expected, the annual tradition presented a stunning amount of moral clarity and profound insights beyond the financial.
After a lifetime of building an empire, the Oracle of Omaha leaves investors with one final lesson: measure greatness by kindness, not capital.
As he approaches the ripe old age of 96, and prepares to conclude his legendary tenure as Berkshire Hathaway CEO by yearโs end (at which point Greg Abel will step up), Warren Buffett has issued his final letter to shareholders as the conglomerateโs head honcho.
โI will no longer be writing Berkshireโs annual report or talking endlessly at the annual meeting. As the British would say, Iโm โgoing quiet.โ Sort of,โ writes the one and only Oracle of Omaha.
โI will continue talking to you and my children about Berkshire via my annual Thanksgiving message. Berkshireโs individual shareholders are a very special group who are unusually generous in sharing their gains with others less fortunate.โ
Consistent with much of the wisdom heโs imparted in years gone past, the main thrust of Buffettโs latest is that there is far more to life than money โ a sentiment that, depending on where you stand, will either be amusing to hear from someone with a net worth nearing US$150 billion or perhaps hit a little harder knowing heโs essentially dedicated a lifetime to reaching this rarefied strata of wealth.
From his mentor, protective โbig brother,โ and dear friend of 64 years, Charlie Munger, to Berkshire Hathaway successors Greg Abel and Ajit Jain โ Buffett clearly subscribes to the idea that weโre all the average of the folks we spend the most time with.
That and the undeniable truth in โhome is where the heart isโ: despite commanding an almost unfathomable fortune that allows him to live anywhere in the world, heโs never found much reason to stray too far from his hometown of Omaha.
โI feel very lucky to have had the good fortune to make many lifelong friends, to meet both of my wives, to receive a great start in education at public schools, to meet many interesting and friendly adult Omahans when I was very young, and to make a wide variety of friends in the Nebraska National Guard. In short, Nebraska has been homeโฆ [Iโve been] very lucky in learning from some wonderful friends how to behave better (still a long way from perfect, however).โ
Failure can be your friend
Youโve likely heard it a million times before โ you either win or you learn โ but here it is one more time from the man himself.
โMy advice: Donโt beat yourself up over past mistakes โ learn at least a little from them and move on. It is never too late to improve.โ
By the same token, be grateful for whatever streak of good fortune may come your way.
โLady Luck is fickle and โ no other term fits โ wildly unfairโฆ In many heavily populated parts of the world, I would likely have had a miserable life and my sisters would have had one even worse. I was born in 1930 healthy, reasonably intelligent, white, male, and in America. Wow! Thank you, Lady Luck. My sisters had equal intelligence and better personalities than I but faced a much different outlook. Lady Luck continued to drop by during much of my life, but she has better things to do than work with those in their 90s. Luck has its limits.โ
Itโs never too late to become who you were always meant to be
Ever the advocate for a long-term mindset with a deep appreciation for both the process and the end result, beyond investing, applying the same principles to your everyday life will also pay dividends.
โIโm happy to say I feel better about the second half of my life than the firstโฆ Remember Alfred Nobel, later of Nobel Prize fame, who โ reportedly โ read his own obituary that was mistakenly printed when his brother died and a newspaper got mixed up. He was horrified at what he read and realised he should change his behavior. Donโt count on a newsroom mix-up: Decide what you would like your obituary to say and live the life to deserve it.โ
Kindness is king
Because a man is only as rich as the contents of his heart (โI wish all who read this a very happy Thanksgiving. Yes, even the jerks; itโs never too late to changeโ).
โGreatness does not come about through accumulating great amounts of money, great amounts of publicity or great power in government. When you help someone in any of thousands of ways, you help the world. Kindness is costless but also priceless. Whether you are religious or not, itโs hard to beat The Golden Rule as a guide to behaviorโฆ Keep in mind that the cleaning lady is as much a human being as the Chairman.โ
Thereโs nobility in the pursuit
โChoose your heroes very carefully and then emulate them. You will never be perfect, but you can always be better.โ
After stretching his legs with companies such as The Motley Fool and the odd marketing agency, Garry joined Boss Hunting in 2019 as a fully-fledged Content Specialist. In 2021, he was promoted to News Editor.
Garry proudly retains a blue belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, black bruises from Muay Thai, as well as a black belt in all things pop culture. Drop him a line at [email protected]
