Anyone hoping to lead effectively for as long as Warren Buffett should take humility seriously.
This week, the Oracle of Omaha stepped down as Berkshire Hathaway chairman after spending more than half a century helping build and then manage the conglomerate. Buffett said his son, Howard, would succeed him in the role.
As chairman, Howard Buffett will be responsible for protecting Berkshire’s culture and values, which his father described as being “worth more than anything on our balance sheet.”
Buffett has long emphasized the importance of organizational culture, offering a steady flow of guidance on investing and leadership over the years.
In his final Thanksgiving letter to shareholders as CEO last year, he reflected on stewardship, honesty, and the unintended consequences of “good intentions” in efforts to control executive compensation.
One major message was the importance of continuing to learn and develop.
“Choose your heroes very carefully and then emulate them. You will never be perfect, but you can always be better,” Buffett wrote.
Here are five additional lessons he shared:
Stay humble
At 96, Buffett was known for running Berkshire with an unpretentious, practical approach. He wrote about the role fortune played in his personal and professional life and how that awareness continually strengthened his humility.
“Keep in mind that the cleaning lady is as much a human being as the Chairman,” Buffett said.
He also connected his modest outlook to the advantages of being born male, noting that his sisters had “equal intelligence and better personalities” but faced very different opportunities.
“I was born in 1930 healthy, reasonably intelligent, white, male and in America. Wow! Thank you, Lady Luck,” he said.
Learn from your errors
Buffett acknowledged making many mistakes but said he tried to use them as opportunities to grow. “Learn at least a little from them and move on,” he wrote.
One error, he explained, was not acting more forcefully when he noticed signs that a “wonderful and loyal CEO” of a parent or subsidiary company would “succumb to dementia, Alzheimer’s or another debilitating and long-term disease.”
“Charlie and I encountered this problem several times and failed to act. This failure can be a huge mistake,” Buffett wrote, referring to his longtime friend and colleague Charlie Munger, who died in 2023.
Although doing so can be difficult, Buffett said boards should watch for signs of such conditions among leaders, while CEOs should do the same with the people managing the businesses beneath them.
“Directors should be alert and speak up is all that I can advise,” Buffett said in the roughly seven-page letter.
Choose the right leaders
Buffett’s emphasis on humility also influenced how he believed future Berkshire leaders should behave and what they should strive to become.
He said the company should need only five or six CEOs over the next century. In the shareholder letter released Friday, Buffett again expressed confidence in Greg Abel, who succeeded him as CEO.
“He has been making the decisions that matter for some time now, and I have not had to think twice about any of them,” Buffett wrote.
Last fall, Buffett wrote that Berkshire Hathaway, which was a New England textile manufacturer when he began purchasing its shares in the early 1960s, should avoid appointing senior leaders for the wrong reasons. “It should particularly avoid those whose goal is to retire at 65, to become look-at-me rich or to initiate a dynasty,” he said.
Think about your obit
A recurring theme in the letter was Buffett’s belief that it is “never too late to improve.”
He also advised people to start with the message they would like their obituary to convey and then “live the life to deserve it.”
The publication of Buffett’s third annual Thanksgiving letter to Berkshire shareholders had become a notable event because of his standing as one of the world’s best-known investors. At the time, he said he planned to keep addressing shareholders annually, although no longer as CEO. “As the British would say, I’m ‘going quiet.’ Sort of.”
Don’t rule from the grave
Buffett’s decision to become chairman emeritus appeared consistent with his advice against trying to hold onto influence for too long.
In his Thanksgiving letter, Buffett praised Abel’s abilities. Abel, roughly three decades younger, took over as CEO at the beginning of 2026.
“He is a great manager, a tireless worker and an honest communicator,” Buffett said.
He also wrote about his three children, saying they had the “maturity, brains, energy and instincts” needed to distribute the family’s substantial wealth. Earlier this year, Buffett’s net worth was approaching $150 billion.
Buffett wrote last year that after his death, his children would be able to adjust to changes in tax policy and other circumstances as necessary to carry on the family’s philanthropic efforts.
“Ruling from the grave does not have a great record, and I have never had an urge to do so,” he said.
A previous version of this story was published on November 10, 2025.