Warren Buffett retires on December 31 and leaves behind a manual for a life in investing

Warren Buffett will step down as chief executive of Buffett’s planned exit ushers in Greg Abel as Berkshire CEO, closing an era that reshaped American capitalism while reaffirming the conglomerate’s culture of long-term ownership. Berkshire Hathaway on December 31, closing a six-decade chapter that reshaped American capitalism and transformed a struggling New England textile maker into one of the world’s most valuable conglomerates. The announcement, delivered at Berkshire’s annual shareholders’ meeting this spring, set in motion a carefully choreographed succession that will see vice-chair Greg Abel assume operational control on January 1 and preside over next year’s gathering in Omaha. The transition ends one of the longest CEO tenures in modern corporate history and cements Buffett’s legacy not just as an investor, but as a philosopher of patience, discipline and restraint. Since 1952, he has lived in the same Omaha home in the Dundee neighborhood, an emblem of a worldview that rejected flash, speed and constant reinvention in favour of endurance and focus. Over the years, Buffett repeated the same advice in interviews and shareholder letters: find good, undervalued businesses with strong leadership and then stay out of their way. “I have a lot of fun doing what I do every day. I’ve had fun ever since I started delivering papers when I was 13. You better enjoy it as you go along. The idea that you’re going to have a lot of fun 30 years from now, or if you have $10 million, the trick is to enjoy what you’re doing that day. And I’ve always done that,” Buffett said in 1999. Early bets, early lessons Early bets, early lessons Buffett has often insisted that luck played a decisive role in his success, beginning with where and when he was born. “I was conceived during the crash. I was conceived in November of 1929. My father was a stock salesman. So, you can draw your own conclusions. If the market had stayed strong, he’d be out making calls. No telling what would happen,” Buffett said in 1992. He bought his first stock at age 11. It did not go well. “I bought 3 shares of Cities Service Preferred in 1942 at $38 per share. Doris, who is 3 years older, 13 or 14, and she figures that was my entire net worth, so if I’m doing that then she would too. It promptly went down to $27. And Doris and I would walk to Rose Hill and she would remind me that so far I wasn’t setting any records,” Buffett said. As a teenager, Buffett hustled relentlessly. He sold golf balls, delivered 500 newspapers a day, handicapped horse races and sold tips to bettors at Ak-Sar-Ben. He bought a used Rolls-Royce for $350 and rented it out for $35 a day. But his favourite early venture involved pinball machines placed in Omaha barber shops. “We did very well in that business. It was called Wilson Coin Operated Machine Company because my partner Don Danley and I went to Woodrow...

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