In August, Warren Buffett will turn 95. But age is not slowing down the world’s most famous investor.
The chairman of Berkshire Hathaway recently penned his annual letter to his company’s shareholders. In the note, Buffett recounts how the company performed over the past year.
But the Oracle of Omaha also sprinkles his missive with insights about investing and life that are full of hard-earned wisdom.
The 2024 letter was released to the public on Feb. 22, 2025. Here are life lessons everyone can learn from Buffett’s latest musings.
You don’t have to be talented to become rich
As one of the richest people in the world – and leader of a well-respected company — Buffett is greatly admired by millions of people.
But in this year’s letter, Buffett says he owes his wealth not to any special talent, but to simply hitching his wagon to decades of spectacular performance on the part of the American economy:
“Lacking such assets as athletic excellence, a wonderful voice, medical or legal skills or, for that matter, any special talents, I have had to rely on equities throughout my life. In effect, I have depended on the success of American businesses and I will continue to do so.”
Buffett has said that almost anyone can get wealthy simply by investing money in an S&P 500 index fund and being patient. His comments in this year’s letter appear to be a nod in that direction.
Ambition and drive are more important than education
Buffett devoted a portion of this year’s letter to singing the praises of Pete Liegl, who died last November at the age of 80.
Liegl sold his recreational vehicle company, Forest River, to Berkshire Hathaway in 2005 but stayed on to run the RV manufacturing business for another two decades.
During that time, Liegl “shot the lights out,” according to Buffett, who added that “no competitor came close to his performance.” Yet, Liegl never graduated from a famous school.
Buffett also recounted the tale of Ben Rosner, a “retailing genius” who led another company for Buffett and his late partner, Charlie Munger. Rosner never made it past the sixth grade.
Buffett says he has never once bothered to learn where any of his CEO candidates attended school:
“I was lucky enough to get an education at three fine universities. And I avidly believe in lifelong learning. I’ve observed, however, that a very large portion of business talent is innate, with nature swamping nurture.”
Own up to your mistakes — and fix them
In this year’s letter, Buffett admits to making mistakes with his investment decisions. Sometimes, he has made misjudgments about the stocks and whole companies he has bought. At other times, he has made errors in assessing the talent of managers he has hired.
Buffett notes that in his letters from 2019 to 2023, he used the words “mistake” or “error” a total of 16 times. Such blunders are inevitable, but how you respond to them determines how much damage they do:
“The cardinal sin is delaying the correction of mistakes, or what Charlie Munger called ‘thumb-sucking.’ Problems, he would tell me, cannot be wished away. They require action, however uncomfortable that may be.”
After fixing your mistakes, don’t dwell on them
Owning up to mistakes and rectifying them may be essential, but you shouldn’t let those errors define you.
While acknowledging his share of mistakes, Buffett also celebrates the good decisions that served as the foundation for Berkshire’s success. He also emphasizes how a handful of shrewd moves have the power to easily erase the damage of a few mistakes:
“[O]ur experience is that a single winning decision can make a breathtaking difference over time. (Think GEICO as a business decision, Ajit Jain as a managerial decision and my luck in finding Charlie Munger as a one-of-a-kind partner, personal advisor and steadfast friend.) Mistakes fade away; winners can forever blossom.”
Capitalism remains the best system
In recent years, it has been unfashionable to sing the praises of capitalism. In fact, a growing number of people appear to have warmed to socialism as a better alternative.
Buffett long has acknowledged capitalism’s imperfections. He even used this year’s letter to make a plea to America’s leaders to “take care of the many who, for no fault of their own, get the short straws in life. They deserve better.”
But the Oracle of Omaha did not shrink from defending America’s market-based system:
“One way or another, the sensible — better yet imaginative — deployment of savings by citizens is required to propel an ever-growing societal output of desired goods and services. This system is called capitalism. It has its faults and abuses — in certain respects more egregious now than ever — but it also can work wonders unmatched by other economic systems.”
