Warren Buffett Caps a Career Built on Humility
The Oracle of Omaha always sought to do right by shareholders, and he wasn’t under the delusion that he was the only man for the job.
One of a kind.
Photographer: Johannes Eisele/AFP via Getty Images
Warren Buffett is stepping down as chief executive officer of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., the company he built alongside his later partner Charlie Munger for the past six decades. It’s a final show of humility by a man many consider the greatest investor of all time.
Operating in an era replete with purported Wall Street soothsayers, the 94-year-old Buffett always rejected the idea that anyone — even him — could predict the future. Nicknamed the Oracle of Omaha (a misnomer perhaps), he credited his success to patience and insisting on only buying the businesses he understood. From the early years of Berkshire, those included a textile business, insurance company GEICO, the Buffalo News and See’s Candies. After delivering a 20% annual compounded annual gain between 1964 and 2024, about double that of the S&P 500 Index, the business is now a behemoth valued at more than $1.16 trillion, more than 390,000 employees and a cash hoard totaling $347.7 billion.