What Set Warren Buffett Apart
As Warren Buffett prepares for retirement, we reflect on what we've learned from his 60 years of leadership at Berkshire Hathaway.
In early May 2025, Warren Buffett announced his plan to retire as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B), the struggling textile company he took over in 1965 and transformed into a sprawling conglomerate (189 subsidiaries) and a legendary investment vehicle (stock in 40 companies worth nearly $280 billion in the first quarter, according to CNBC, plus some $348 billion in cash).
Come year-end, Buffett, who turns 95 in August, hands the reins to Greg Abel, 63, who joined Berkshire in 1999 when it acquired a controlling interest in MidAmerican Energy, an Iowa utility.
Buffett isn't disappearing. He'll remain chairman of the board, and he told the Wall Street Journal, "I'm not going to sit at home and watch soap operas."
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We know Kiplinger readers revere Warren Buffett, so we couldn't let him go without a bit of a send-off.
It's difficult to overstate Buffett's influence on the business and investing worlds, says David Kass, a finance professor at the University of Maryland, who recalls how gracious – and funny – the man known as the Oracle of Omaha could be to the occasional groups of students Kass would bring to meet him.
"Many portfolio managers will tell you that everyone makes mistakes, and that if you get it right 50% of the time, then you succeed," says Kass. "In the case of Buffett, he's right over 90% of the time. That differentiates him from everyone else."
Buffett is a master communicator, and at times, he has been an elder statesman. His op-ed in the New York Times in October 2008, during the depths of the Great Financial Crisis, just weeks after Lehman Brothers declared bankruptcy, was Churchillian, as he encouraged frightened investors to "Buy American" and to "Be fearful when others are greedy and be greedy when others are fearful."
His annual letters to shareholders are gems of transparency and accessibility (no finance degree necessary!), sprinkled with a folksy humor that makes them must-reading for all investors, not just Berkshire's.
But perhaps Buffett's most important legacy, says Kass, beyond his personal qualities of honesty, integrity and transparency, is the example he set for how to be a long-term investor: patient, impervious to market swings, with an ideal holding period of "forever."
And indeed, as Buffett told the Journal, he hopes his equanimity will continue to stand Berkshire in good stead: "I will be useful here if there's a panic in the market, because I don't get fearful when things go down in price or everybody else gets scared."
Note: This item first appeared in Kiplinger Personal Finance Magazine, a monthly, trustworthy source of advice and guidance. Subscribe to help you make more money and keep more of the money you make here.
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