The Golden Rule and a life of meaning
In a Thanksgiving letter to shareholders this past Monday, Nov. 10, business titan and retiring Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett announced that he’s “going quiet.”
“Sort of,” he added.
In fact, this “quiet” farewell from one of the world’s wealthiest individuals will likely echo through the halls of American business and philanthropy for some time.
For investors, there is keen interest in how his handpicked successor will perform as chief executive of one of the United States’ 10 largest firms.
But it is at the intersection of affluence and altruism, of gaining and giving, that Mr. Buffett’s words and actions carry outsize implications. He has donated $60 billion over the last 20 years, and this week gifted $1.3 billion from sales of stock to four family foundations. That still leaves $150 billion of his personal fortune to be given away.
“The most enduring part of the letter wasn’t financial,” wrote executive coach and author Marcel Schwantes in Inc. “Buffett didn’t talk about markets, mergers, or money.”
Instead, he shared a “roadmap” on how to “build lives of meaning.”
The letter was issued the same week that the longest U.S. government shutdown ended. The 43-day period underscored the economic precariousness of hundreds of thousands of Americans. Neighbors and nonprofits stepped up to meet basic needs amid furloughs, paused paychecks, and frozen benefits. Such generosity – individually and collectively – embodies a sentiment in Mr. Buffett’s letter.
“When you help someone in any of thousands of ways, you help the world,” he stated, adding that “greatness” comes through such acts, not through accumulating money, publicity, or power.
The multi-billionaire has long viewed his immense wealth as the fruit of opportunities and support from trusted colleagues more than as his personal achievement. “It is beyond arrogance for American businesses or individuals to boast that they have ‘done it alone,’” he said in 2019. Rather, it’s because there is “no incubator for unleashing human potential like America.”
This year, Mr. Buffett happily shared that Berkshire Hathaway paid $26.8 billion in corporate taxes for 2024, reportedly the highest such payment ever made to the U.S. government. (He has long called for a higher minimum tax on the ultrarich.)
This sense of obligation to the country is accompanied by a down-home humility, frugality, and folksiness. In that spirit, two simple sentences in Mr. Buffett’s letter offer food for thought – not just during the Thanksgiving season, but yearlong:
“Kindness is costless but also priceless. Whether you are religious or not, it’s hard to beat The Golden Rule as a guide to behavior.”
Note: The photo caption was revised on Nov. 21 to correctly identify the location as being the University of Nebraska.
