'I Never Look If My CEO Has Gone To School, Business Talent Comes From Nature': Warren Buffett

In his annual letter to shareholders, Warren Buffett, Chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, enlisted the company’s achievements over the past 60 years along with occasional mistakes.

Expressing confidence in Greg Abel, Buffett praised his successor’s ability to identify and act on investment opportunities.

Warren Buffett's annual letters

Buffett’s annual letters are more than his company’s financial report. It contains the investment guru’s lessons in business and life. This year, he disclosed a few key principles about success not being a prestigious education, that mistakes must be fixed quickly, and one great decision can ‘reshape’ the future

“One further point in our CEO selections: I never look at where a candidate has gone to school. Never!” he wrote.

Citing Pete Liegl, the late founder of Forest River, an MBA from Western Michigan University, Buffet praised him for taking the company to new heights.

“During the next 19 years, Pete shot the lights out. No competitor came close to his performance,” Buffett remarked.

He also referenced Bill Gates, who left Harvard after three semesters to build IT giant Microsoft.

“Look at my friend, Bill Gates, who decided that it was far more important to get underway in an exploding industry that would change the world than stick around for a parchment that he could hang on the wall,” Buffett wrote.

Another example cited was Ben Rosner, who built a $44 million retail empire despite never advancing beyond the sixth grade. 

For his part, Buffett attended three universities—the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Penn’s Wharton School, and Columbia University—but insisted that business acumen is often ingrained.

“I’ve observed, however, that a very large portion of business talent is innate with nature swamping nurture,” the investment mogul noted.

Buffett also mentioned circumstances when he misjudged business prospects and hired the wrong people. The shareholder letters mentioned “mistake” or “error” 16 times between 2019 and 2023.

“The cardinal sin is delaying the correction of mistakes,” Buffet said.

He affirmed that while mistakes come and go, a single great decision can shape an entire business.

“Our experience is that a single winning decision can make a breathtaking difference over time,” Buffet wrote.

He illustrated key moments in Berkshire Hathaway’s history: acquiring GEICO, bringing former McKinsey consultant Ajit Jain into management, and partnering with Charlie Munger, who served as vice chairman for more than four decades.

“Mistakes fade away; winners can forever blossom,” the Berkshire Hathaway boss remarked.

He also opined that the United States has thrived because of a culture of saving and reinvestment.

Since the country’s founding, “We needed many Americans to consistently save and then needed those savers or other Americans to wisely deploy the capital thus made available,” he elaborated.

Buffett’s message for the regulators was: “Never forget that we need you to maintain a stable currency, and that result requires both wisdom and vigilance on your part.”

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