Warren Buffett, the man who became known as the “Oracle of Omaha” and built Berkshire Hathaway into a $1 trillion empire, turned 95 Saturday — and for the first time in six decades, he is preparing to step back from the company that defined his life.
Buffett has been Berkshire’s CEO since 1965, longer than Elon Musk or Mark Zuckerberg have been alive. Under his stewardship, the company grew from a struggling textile mill into one of the largest conglomerates in the world, with subsidiaries ranging from Geico to BNSF Railway and a stock portfolio that has influenced entire markets.
A Life’s Work
Buffett’s longevity at the top is as much about passion as performance. He famously said he “tap dances to work” each day, a motto that underscored his view that he never truly worked a day in his life.
“Work is identity for many people,” noted retirement expert Kerry Hannon. “Buffett knew that and was all in.”
For Buffett, Berkshire was more than a company.
“Warren poured his whole ego into Berkshire,” said Lawrence Cunningham, a longtime Berkshire scholar. “It was more than a job, more than an adventure, a life, one that fully included his family and friends.”
The death of his longtime partner Charlie Munger in 2023 appears to have made retirement feel inevitable.
“In his gut, he just knows it’s time,” said authors Jeri Sedlar and Rick Miners. “No one appears to be forcing Buffett to retire.
“But even he couldn’t go on forever.”
Investing Wisdom
Buffett’s 60 years of letters, shareholder meetings, and public appearances have left investors with a trove of lessons. His mantra of buying companies he understands, concentrating capital in his best ideas, and exercising patience has become investing scripture.
“The specific skills that made Warren Buffett a great investor included having a long-time horizon, intelligence, patience, temperament, curiosity, persistence, hard work, along with knowledge of accounting and financial analysis,” said David Kass, a professor at the University of Maryland.
Buffett’s most famous advice: “The difference between successful investors and everyone else is having the temperament not to panic when stocks fall, and not to get euphoric when they rise.”
Despite avoiding most tech stocks, his 2016 purchase of Apple became the most profitable bet of his career, generating more than $100 billion in gains. Other enduring holdings — Coca-Cola, American Express, and Geico — reflect his belief in durable businesses with strong “moats.”
Giving Back
Buffett’s fortune, now about $150 billion, has never been his end goal. He has donated more than $60 billion to charity and co-founded the Giving Pledge in 2010, urging fellow billionaires to commit at least half their wealth to philanthropy.
“His generosity compounded just like his capital,” Cunningham observed.
Even as he prepares to relinquish the CEO role, Buffett plans to remain Berkshire’s chairman and an active presence in the office. At Berkshire’s annual meeting earlier this year, he told shareholders he expects to “be in the office daily in 2026.”
A Legacy Beyond Numbers
Warren Buffett’s 95th birthday is both a celebration of longevity and a turning point for a company — and an investing philosophy — that reshaped global finance.
“He appears to love what he does and he does it very well,” Sedlar and Miners wrote. “He took his longevity bonus and lived it to the fullest.”
Buffett’s legacy will be measured not just in Berkshire’s trillion-dollar value, but also in the millions of investors he taught, the billions he gave away, and the enduring example of a man who insisted that doing what you love is the ultimate return.
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