Warren Buffett: On having no talent

This quote shows how extreme Warren Buffett can be in his self-deprecation. Despite his extraordinary and even photographic memory, his incredible patience, and his extreme fixity of purpose... despite all his very real talents, he still describes himself as a nobody who only stumbled into his billions.

It's one of his most endearing qualities, and it was on display again this week when 94-year-old Warren Buffett announced his retirement as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway. The news astonished everyone, including his proposed successor, Greg Abel.

True to form, Buffett gave no hint of his intentions. He waited until the last five minutes of the company's AGM and festival of capitalism to let slip the announcement. The room erupted into sustained, appreciative applause, revealing that no one is fooled by Buffett's modesty into actually believing him.

The Life of Warren Buffett

Buffett is perhaps the most legendary investor of all time. He was entrepreneurial from a young age and earned around $175 a month delivering newspapers. He bought his first stock at age 11, in 1941: six shares of Cities Service Preferred stock at $38 per share. He was terrified shortly thereafter when it plunged in value.

By the time Buffett started his investment partnerships in 1956, at age 26, his personal savings had grown to over $135,000. That's equivalent to about $1.6 million today. He is now the fifth richest person in the world, with a net worth of $155 billion (8 April 2025).

Buffett is a lifelong learner who spends five to six hours a day reading. The Wall Street Journal's Jason Zweig tells of how Buffett, as a young father, took his children to an amusement park. As they played, he sat on a bench and read financial statements.

Recommended Reading

My favourite book about the greatest of all time is Buffett: The Making of an American Capitalist by Roger Lowenstein. It dates to 1996 but does a fantastic job of covering Buffett from his childhood through to his success in amassing one of the epochal fortunes of the twentieth century.

For more recent insights, I also highly recommend the words of Warren Buffett himself. Every year through 2025, he included an essay with his thoughts on business and finance at the beginning of Berkshire Hathaway's annual report. Just visit the company's reports webpage to download the free reports and read the letters.

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