Warren Buffett will no longer write the letters that accompany his firm, Berkshire Hathaway’s annual reports, nor will he field questions at the company’s annual shareholder meeting, he wrote in a letter published on Monday.
“As the British would say, I’m ‘going quiet,'” he wrote. “Sort of.”
Even after Greg Abel takes the reins as Berkshire CEO at yearend, Buffett will continue to share a Thanksgiving message with shareholders — and anyone interested in reading.
Interest will no doubt abound. Over his 95 years, Buffett has earned a reputation not only as a legendary investor, but as someone with the secrets to living a better life.
In his most recent letter, Buffett took a second to look back and assure his fans that they still have time to do and get the things they want.
“I’m happy to say I feel better about the second half of my life than the first,” he wrote. “My advice: Don’t beat yourself up over past mistakes — learn at least a little from them and move on. It is never too late to improve.”
Buffett’s advice for living well
In his letter, Buffett riffed on one his longstanding pieces of life advice: Consider your legacy, and work backward.
Buffett recalled the story of Alfred Nobel, who reportedly read a mistakenly printed obituary and was horrified at what he saw. The move prompted him to “change his behavior,” Buffett wrote — Nobel, previously famous for, among other things, inventing dynamite, came to be associated with his eponymous prize.
“Don’t count on a newsroom mix-up: Decide what you would like your obituary to say and live the life to deserve it,” Buffet wrote.
One route, Buffett said, is to imitate those people you most admire: “Choose your heroes very carefully and then emulate them. You will never be perfect, but you can always be better,” he wrote.
Another way is to refocus your ambitions.
“Greatness does not come about through accumulating great amounts of money, great amounts of publicity or great power in government,” Buffett wrote. “When you help someone in any of thousands of ways, you help the world. Kindness is costless but also priceless.”
Regardless of your aims, Buffett wrote, you’re unlikely to go wrong following the “golden rule” by treating other people, regardless of their station, the way you would want to be treated.
“Keep in mind that the cleaning lady is as much a human being as the Chairman,” he wrote.
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