Warren Buffett’s “Last Letter”: I was “purely lucky,” but “Father Time” has caught up, and I will “remain quiet.” | Bee Network

Warren Buffett’s “Last Letter”: I was “purely lucky,” but “Father Time” has caught up, and I will “remain quiet.” | Bee Network Login 熱門新聞 Meme Launchpad AI 代理商 DeSci 熱門鏈瀏覽器 新人必讀 衝百倍幣 蜜蜂遊戲 必備網站 必備APP 必關大神 DePIN 新人必備 教我避坑 基本工具 深度網站 交易所 NFT 工具 你好， 登出 Web3宇宙 遊戲 DApp 蜂巢 增長平台 生態 搜尋 英語 Coins儲值 登入 下載 Web3大學 遊戲 DApp 蜂巢 生態 家•分析•Warren Buffett’s “Last Letter”: I was “purely lucky,” but “Father Time” has caught up, and I will “remain quiet.” Warren Buffett’s “Last Letter”: I was “purely lucky,” but “Father Time” has caught up, and I will “remain quiet.”分析4 個月前更新懷亞特 16,550 原始來源： Wall Street News

Warren Buffett announced to his shareholders that he was about to “retire,” marking the end of his illustrious 60-year career at the helm of Berkshire Hathaway and a historic turning point for the business empire he had built.

In his letter to shareholders released on Monday, Buffett announced a major shift in his career with the British expression “I’m ‘going quiet’.” The 95-year-old Buffett made it clear that he will step down as CEO at the end of this year and formally withdraw from the company’s day-to-day management.

Buffett also confirmed that the next annual letter, which is closely watched by global investors, will be written by someone else. However, Buffett stated that he will continue to communicate with shareholders about his philanthropic endeavors through the letter he releases every Thanksgiving.

This transition plan has already impacted market sentiment. Since Buffett first announced his plans to step down in May of this year, Berkshire Hathaway’s Class A shares have fallen by about 8%. In his letter, Buffett stated that to ensure a smooth transition for his successor, Greg Abel, he will continue to hold a “significant portion” of Berkshire Hathaway’s Class A shares.

While announcing his personal role transition, Buffett also used this letter to issue his signature business maxims and ethical warnings. He harshly criticized the greedy atmosphere in the corporate world, especially the excessive competition in executive compensation, leaving a profound admonition for his successor and the business community as a whole.

Advice for successors In his letter, Buffett offered clear warnings to future leaders, directly addressing corporate greed. He pointed out that executive compensation disclosure requirements have had unintended negative effects, instead fueling a race among business leaders to see who earns the most.

“What often bothers very wealthy CEOs is that other CEOs are getting even richer,” Buffett wrote. “Envy and greed are inseparable.” He emphasized that Berkshire Hathaway should especially avoid hiring CEOs who expect to retire at 65, aspire to become “look-at-me-rich,” or attempt to establish a “dynasty.”

Adhering to long-termism Warren Buffett’s investment philosophy stands in stark contrast to the evolution of the financial industry over the past few decades. His advocacy of long-term value investing is particularly unique in an era of rising speculative assets like 加密貨幣currencies and transaction times reduced to milliseconds. His candid communication with shareholders, whether through annual letters or marathon Q&A sessions at the Omaha Annual Shareholders Meeting, has become a hallmark of his tenure.

Since his initial investment in the then-struggling textile company Berkshire Hathaway in 1962, Buffett has developed it into a vast business empire spanning well-known consumer brands such as Dairy Queen and Fruit of the Loom, as well as insurance, manufacturing, utilities, and one of North America’s largest railroads. He wrote, “The way Berkshire operates will forever make it an asset to America and avoid activities that could turn it into a beggar.”

Sustained philanthropy Alongside announcing his career transition, Buffett also announced his latest charitable donation. According to the letter, he has donated 2.7 million shares of Berkshire Hathaway Class B stock, worth approximately $1.3 billion, to four family foundations managed by his children. This aligns with his charitable donation plans announced in his Thanksgiving letters in recent years.

Warren Buffett first pledged in 2006 to donate all of his Berkshire Hathaway stock to charity. Since then, he, along with Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates, launched the Giving Pledge, which encourages the world’s richest people to donate more than half of their wealth to charity.

The following is the full text of Warren Buffett’s letter to shareholders:

To all shareholders:

I will no longer write Berkshire’s annual report, nor will I speak at the annual meeting. In British terms, I will “remain silent.”

I guess so.

Greg Abel will take over at the end of the year. He is an excellent manager, a tireless worker, and an honest communicator. Wishing him a long and successful tenure.

I will continue to speak with you and my children about Berkshire through my annual Thanksgiving address. Berkshire’s individual shareholders are a very special group of people who have always generously shared their profits with those less fortunate than themselves. I enjoy the opportunity to stay connected with you. This year, allow me to begin with a few reflections. After that, I will discuss my plans for allocating Berkshire shares. Finally, I will share some business and personal thoughts.

As Thanksgiving approaches, I feel both grateful and amazed to have lived to 95. When I was younger, this seemed like a slim hope. Earlier in my life, I nearly died.

That was in 1938, when the citizens of Omaha considered local hospitals to be either Catholic or Protestant, a classification that seemed quite natural at the time.

Our family doctor, Halley Hotz, was a friendly Catholic who always carried a black medicine bag when he came to our house. Dr. Hotz called me “Little Captain,” and he never charged much for his visits. In 1938, I had a severe stomachache, and Dr. Hotz came, examined me, and told me I would be better by the next morning.

He then went home, had dinner, and played some bridge. However, Dr. Hotz couldn’t forget my somewhat strange symptoms, and later that evening he took me to St. Catherine’s Hospital for an emergency appendectomy. For the next three weeks, I felt like I was in a convent and began to enjoy my new “preaching platform.” I loved to talk—yes, I did then—and the nuns were very kind to me.

The funniest thing was that my third-grade teacher, Madsen, asked each of the 30 students in the class to write me a letter. I probably threw away all the boys’ letters, but I read the girls’ letters over and over again; being hospitalized has its advantages, you know.

The happiest thing during my recovery—even though the first week was still very dangerous—was a gift from my dear Aunt Eddie. She brought me a very professional-looking fingerprinting kit, and I immediately had my fingerprints taken by all the nuns who were taking care of me. (I was probably the first Protestant child they had seen at St. Catherine’s Hospital, and they didn’t know what to expect from me.)

My idea—completely far-fetched, of course—was that one day a nun would break the law, and the FBI would discover they hadn’t taken her fingerprints. The FBI and its director, J. Edgar Hoover, were revered by Americans in the 1930s, and I imagined Mr. Hoover himself coming to Omaha to examine my precious collection of fingerprints. I also fantasized that J. Edgar and I would quickly find and arrest that wayward nun. National acclaim seemed within reach.

Obviously, my fantasy never came true. But ironically, years later I discovered that I should have taken fingerprints from J. Edgar himself, because he later fell from grace for abusing his power.

Yes, that was Omaha in the 1930s, when my friends and I longed for a sled, a bicycle, a baseball glove, and an electric train. Let’s look at a few other kids from that era who lived nearby and had a great influence on me, but I didn’t know they existed for a long time.

Let me start with Charlie Munger, a friend of mine for 64 years. In the 1930s, Charlie lived just one block from the house I had lived in since 1958.

Earlier, I almost became friends with Charlie. Charlie was six and a half years older than me and worked at his grandfather’s grocery store in the summer of 1940, working 10 hours a day for $2. (Thrift is a tradition in the Buffett family.) I did a similar job at the store the following year, but I didn’t meet Charlie until 1959, when he was 35 and I was 28.

After serving in World War II, Charlie graduated from Harvard Law School and settled permanently in California. However, he always considered his early years in Omaha a crucial stage in his life. For over sixty years, Charlie has had a profound influence on me; he was an excellent teacher and a protective “big brother.” We had our disagreements, but never arguments. He never said, “I told you so.”

In 1958, I bought my first and only house. Of course, it was in Omaha, about two miles from where I grew up (roughly speaking), less than two blocks from my in-laws’ house, about six blocks from Buffett’s grocery store, and a six- to seven-minute drive from the office building where I had worked for 64 years.

Let’s talk about another Omaha native, Stan Lipsy. In 1968, Stan sold the Omaha Sun (a weekly newspaper) to Berkshire Hathaway, and ten years later moved to Buffalo at my request. At the time, the Buffalo Evening Post, owned by a Berkshire subsidiary, was locked in a fierce battle with its morning rival, the publisher of the city’s only Sunday newspaper, and we were losing ground.

Stan eventually created our new Sunday product, and for several years afterward, this investment, which had been losing a lot of money every year, returned more than 100% (before tax) annually. In the early 1980s, this $33 million investment was a significant sum for Berkshire.

Stan grew up about five blocks from my home. One of Stan’s neighbors was Walter Scott Jr. Walter, you might recall, was the one who brought MidAmerican Energy to Berkshire Hathaway in 1999. He was a director of Berkshire until his death in 2021 and a close friend of mine. For decades, Walter was a philanthropic leader in Nebraska, leaving a deep imprint on Omaha and the entire state.

Walter went to Benson High School, and I was originally planning to go there too—until 1942, when my father unexpectedly defeated his four-term incumbent opponent in the Congressional elections. Life is always full of surprises.

And there’s more.

In 1959, Don Keough and his young family lived in a house across the street from my home, about 100 yards from the Munger family home. At the time, Don was a coffee salesman, but he later became president of the Coca-Cola Company and a loyal director of Berkshire Hathaway.

When I met Tang, he earned $12,000 a year, and he and his wife Mickey had to support five children who all had to attend Catholic schools (which were expensive).

Our two families quickly became close friends. Don came from a farm in northwestern Iowa and graduated from Creighton University in Omaha. Early in his life, he married Mickey, a girl from Omaha. After joining Coca-Cola, Don quickly gained worldwide fame.

In 1985, during Donald Trump’s tenure as president of The Coca-Cola Company, the company launched the ill-fated New Coca-Cola. Trump delivered a famous speech apologizing to the public and relaunching the “old” Coca-Cola. This shift occurred after Trump explained that letters addressed to “the supreme idiot” would quickly reach his desk. His “retraction” speech is considered classic and can be viewed on YouTube. He cheerfully admitted that Coca-Cola products actually belonged to the public, not the company. Sales subsequently surged.

You can watch a great interview with Don at CharlieRose.com. (There are also some great segments with Tom Murphy and Kay Graham.) Like Charlie Munger, Don has always been a true Midwestern boy—warm, friendly, and quintessentially American.

Finally, Ajit Jain, born and raised in India, and Greg Abel, the Canadian who will become our CEO, both lived in Omaha for several years in the late 20th century. In fact, Greg lived just a few blocks from me on Farnam Street in the 1990s, though we never met then.

Is there some magical ingredient in the water of Omaha?

I lived in Washington, D.C. for a few years when I was a teenager (my father was serving in Congress at the time), and in 1954 I found a job in Manhattan that I thought I would do for the rest of my life. There, Ben Graham and Jerry Newman were very kind to me, and I made many lifelong friends. New York had a unique charm—and it still does. However, just a year and a half later, in 1956, I returned to Omaha and have never left since.

Later, my three children and several grandchildren all grew up in Omaha. My children all attended public schools (graduating from the same high school that produced my father (class of 1921), my first wife Susie (class of 1950), Charlie, Stan Lipsey, Erf, and Ron Bloomkin, who played key roles in the development of the Nebraska Furniture 市場, and Jack Ringwalt (class of 1923), who founded National Indemnity Insurance Company and sold it to Berkshire Hathaway in 1967, forming the basis of our vast property and casualty insurance business).

Our country has many great companies, great schools, great medical institutions, and every place has its unique strengths and talented people. But I feel incredibly fortunate to have made so many lifelong friends, met my two wives, received a good education in public schools, met many interesting and friendly adults in Omaha from a young age, and made all sorts of friends in the Nebraska National Guard. In short, Nebraska has always been my true home.

Looking back, I think the reason Berkshire Hathaway and I have achieved so much more is largely because we are rooted in Omaha. If I had been born elsewhere, the outcome might have been very different. The heartland of America is an ideal place to be born, raise a family, and start a business. I was purely lucky to be born; I drew an unusually long lottery ticket.

Now let me talk about my advanced age. My genes haven’t been particularly good—the family longevity record (of course, the further back you go, the more blurred the record becomes) was 92 until I broke it. However, I’ve had wise, kind, and dedicated doctors in Omaha, from Dr. Harley Hotz to the present. At least three times, my life has been saved by doctors who live near my home. (Though, I no longer have my fingerprints taken by nurses. A 95-year-old can have many quirks… but there’s a limit.)

To live to such an old age requires immense luck; one must avoid dangers such as banana peels, natural disasters, drunk or distracted drivers, lightning strikes, and so on, every day.

But Lady Luck is fickle and—no other word can describe it—extremely unfair. In many cases, our leaders and the wealthy receive far more fortune than they deserve—and these lucky ones are often unwilling to admit it. Some children of privilege are born with lifelong financial security, while others face hellish hardships in their early years, or worse, be disabled and lose everything I take for granted. In many densely populated parts of the world, I might live a miserable life, and my sisters would live even worse.

I was born in the United States in 1930, healthy, intelligent, white, male. Wow! Thank goodness. My sisters were just as intelligent as me, and even better-natured, but their lives took very different turns. Lady Luck has been on my side for most of my life, but she doesn’t have time to look after those in their nineties. Luck has its limits.

Father Time, on the contrary, found me increasingly interesting as I grew older. He was invincible; to him, everyone ultimately ended up on his list of “winners.” When your balance, eyesight, hearing, and memory all continue to decline, you know Father Time is nearby.

I entered old age relatively late—the onset of aging varies from person to person—but once it begins, it cannot be denied.

To my surprise, I feel good overall. Despite slowed movements and increasing difficulty reading, I still work five days a week in the office, working with excellent people. Occasionally, I have a useful idea, or someone offers us a suggestion that we might not have otherwise had. Given Berkshire’s size and market conditions, good ideas are few—but not none.

However, my unexpected longevity has had a significant and unavoidable impact on my family and on the achievement of my philanthropic goals.

Let’s explore them.

下一步是什麼？

My children are all past the normal retirement age, aged 72, 70, and 67 respectively. Expecting them—who are at the peak of their abilities in many ways—to age as slowly as I have is clearly unrealistic. To increase the likelihood that they will manage almost my entire estate before my designated trustees take their place, I need to expedite the lifetime donations to their three foundations. My children are now at the peak of their experience and wisdom, but have not yet entered old age. This “honeymoon period” will not last forever.

Fortunately, the shift in direction is easy to execute. However, there is one additional factor to consider: I want to retain a significant number of Class A shares until Berkshire’s shareholders have the same level of confidence in Greg as Charlie and I do. This level of trust shouldn’t last long. My children have 100% support for Greg, and so do the directors of Berkshire.

Now, my three children are all mature, intelligent, energetic, and instinctive enough to manage a substantial fortune. Their continued presence in the world long after my passing will be an advantage. If necessary, they can employ forward-thinking and responsive strategies to address federal tax policies or other developments affecting philanthropy. They will likely need to adapt to the significant changes occurring in the world around them. Posthumous remote control has never been effective, and I have never felt the urge to do so.

Fortunately, all three children inherited the dominant gene from their mother. As the years have passed, I have gradually become a better role model for their thinking and behavior. However, I can never compare to their mother.

My children have three alternate guardians in case of any unexpected death or disability. These three guardians are not in any particular order of priority, nor are they tied to any specific child. They are all exceptional individuals with profound understanding of the world. They have no conflicting motives.

I have assured the children that they do not need to perform miracles, nor should they fear failure or disappointment. These are inevitable, and I have experienced them myself. They simply need to build upon the achievements typically made in government activities and/or private philanthropy, while recognizing that these methods of wealth redistribution also have their limitations.

Earlier in my life, I had envisioned many grand philanthropic projects. Despite my stubborn nature, none of these plans ultimately came to fruition. Throughout my long life, I have also witnessed politicians’ clumsy transfers of wealth, family-style decisions, and, of course, incompetent or eccentric philanthropists.

If my children do well, they can be sure that their mother and I will be very happy. They have excellent intuition, and each of them has years of practical experience, starting with small amounts and gradually increasing to over $500 million annually.

These three people all enjoy working long hours to help others, but in different ways.

My accelerated pace of donations to the children’s foundation is by no means due to any change in my view of Berkshire’s future. Greg Abel has far exceeded my expectations when I initially thought he should be Berkshire’s next CEO. He knows many of our businesses and people far better than I do, and he quickly grasps issues that many CEOs wouldn’t even consider. Whether you’re talking about a CEO, a management consultant, an academic, or a government official, I can’t think of anyone more suitable than Greg to manage your and my savings.

For example, Greg’s understanding of the potential gains and risks of our property and casualty insurance business far surpasses that of many long-time executives in this field. I hope his health remains good for decades to come. With luck, Berkshire will only need five or six CEOs over the next century. In particular, avoid those who are solely focused on retiring at 65, those who are only interested in becoming high-profile billionaires, or those who aspire to build a family dynasty.

An unpleasant fact is that sometimes, the brilliant and loyal CEO of a parent company or subsidiary can develop dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, or other debilitating and chronic illnesses.

Charlie and I have encountered this problem many times, but failed to take action. This failure could have disastrous consequences. The board must be vigilant at the CEO level, and the CEO must be vigilant at the subsidiary level. Easier said than done, I could cite examples of this in some large companies in the past. All I can advise is for directors to be alert and to speak out.

In my lifetime, reformers attempted to embarrass CEOs by demanding disclosure of a comparison between CEO compensation and that of ordinary employees. As a result, proxy statements quickly swelled from around 20 pages to over 100 pages.

However, these well-intentioned measures failed to work and instead backfired. In my observation, in most cases, after seeing the situation at competitor B, Company A’s CEO hinted to the board that he deserved higher compensation. Of course, he also increased the directors’ compensation and was extremely cautious in selecting members for the compensation committee. The new regulations incited envy, not restraint.

This upward spiral seems to have gained its own vitality. What often bothers the very wealthy CEOs is that other CEOs are getting even wealthier. Envy and greed always go hand in hand. And which advisor would suggest drastically cutting CEO compensation or board rewards?

************

Overall, the outlook for Berkshire’s businesses is slightly better than average, including several sizable and relatively unconnected gems. However, in ten or twenty years, many companies will outperform Berkshire; our size also presents a disadvantage.

The likelihood of Berkshire Hathaway suffering a catastrophic disaster is lower than that of any other company I know. Moreover, Berkshire’s management and board are more focused on shareholder interests than almost any other company I’m familiar with (and I’ve seen plenty of companies). Finally, Berkshire’s operating methods will always ensure its existence is a treasure of America, rather than engaging in activities that would reduce it to a beggar’s errand. Over time, our managers should become quite wealthy—they bear significant responsibilities—but they do not aspire to build hereditary wealth or pursue that kind of ostentatious riches.

Our stock price will be volatile, sometimes dropping by around 50%, just like it has happened three times in the 60 years under the current management. Don’t be discouraged, America will recover, and Berkshire’s stock will rebound.

A few final thoughts

Perhaps this is a self-serving observation. I’m happy to say I’m more satisfied with the second half of my life than the first. My advice is: don’t blame yourself for past mistakes—at least learn something from them and move on. It’s never too late to improve. Find suitable role models and emulate them. You can start with Tom Murphy; he’s the best.

Remember Alfred Nobel? He later became famous for establishing the Nobel Prize. It is said that he once read a misprinted obituary of himself, published by a newspaper mistakenly when his brother died. What he read shocked him greatly, and he realized that he should change his behavior.

Don’t expect the newsroom to make a mistake: figure out what you want your obituary to say, and then try to live that kind of life.

Greatness doesn’t come from accumulating vast wealth, gaining massive exposure, or wielding immense power in government. When you help others in thousands of ways, you help the world. Good deeds require no cost, yet are incredibly precious. Whether you’re religious or not, the Golden Rule, as a code of conduct, is difficult to surpass.

I write this as someone who has been careless countless times and made many mistakes, but has also been fortunate enough to learn from some wonderful friends how to better conduct myself (though I’m far from perfect). Please remember, cleaning ladies and CEOs are both human beings.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone reading this. Yes, including the jerks; it’s never too late to change. Don’t forget to thank America for the greatest opportunities it has given you. But America is—inevitably—fickle, and sometimes even mercenary, in distributing those rewards.

Choose your role models carefully, and then emulate them. You can never be perfect, but you can always improve.

本文源自網路： Warren Buffett’s “Last Letter”: I was “purely lucky,” but “Father Time” has caught up, and I will “remain quiet.”Recommended Articles

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