Buffett’s Farewell at 94: The End of an Era Begins
On May 3, legendary American investor Warren Buffett announced at the Berkshire Hathaway shareholder meeting that he would step down as CEO by the end of the year, handing the reins to Vice Chairman Greg Abel. This wasn’t just a leadership transition—it marked the closing chapter of a financial legend in human history.
The moment the news broke, major media outlets like The Wall Street Journal and Financial Times quickly responded: “There will never be another Buffett.” But behind this statement lies a deeper question—how many conditions that created Buffett are truly impossible to replicate?
I. Extreme Focus Beyond the Ordinary: The Ascetic of the Stock Market
Wall Street Journal columnist Jason Zweig pointed out that Buffett’s legendary status rests on three pillars: personal traits, historical timing, and investment philosophy. First came his near-religious discipline and passion. After buying his first stock at the age of 11, he embarked on a lifelong journey of financial devotion.
As a young man, Buffett read company annual reports with the same reverence others might give to sacred texts. He would walk around the house so engrossed in those reports that he would bump into furniture, entirely oblivious to those around him. Zweig wrote, “His body may have been home, but his mind was deep in a world of amortization schedules and tax deductions.”
Over the past 70 years, Buffett is estimated to have read over 100,000 financial reports. In one interview, he was even able to recite entire paragraphs from a book he had read five decades earlier—an astounding feat of memory. Zweig dubbed him a “human AI,” someone who built a personal data universe from massive amounts of financial information and could intuitively detect market signals faster than anyone.
However, with the rise of AI and big data, Zweig also warned: even a genius like Buffett may lose this informational edge in the future.
II. A Man Chosen by History: What If He Were Born in the Wrong Place or Time?
Buffett once joked that he won the “ovarian lottery,” having been born in Omaha, Nebraska—the capitalist heartland of 1930s America. He said that had he been born in 1880, he might have invested in cattle; born in Siberia, he might have spent a lifetime working for the railways, never once touching a stock certificate.
He was fortunate to meet Benjamin Graham, the father of value investing, whose principles formed the foundation of Buffett’s investment style. In an era before mutual funds and index investing took hold, Buffett was able to scoop up undervalued and overlooked stocks like Dempster Mill and Sanborn Map, patiently waiting for market rewards.
Between 1957 and 1968, Buffett achieved a staggering average annual return of 25.3%, more than double the S&P 500’s average in the same period. Zweig emphasized, “Beating the market for one year might be luck, but doing it for 60 years is no accident.”
III. Building an Empire That Defied the Winds
Berkshire Hathaway isn’t a traditional investment vehicle—it’s a massive container holding stocks, bonds, private enterprises, and at one time, the world’s largest silver reserves. Buffett refused to charge performance or management fees, freeing the company from the pressure of short-term results and enabling true counter-cyclical investing.
Unlike other funds that are forced to buy during booms and sell during busts, Berkshire’s capital came from internal earnings, untouched by the inflows and outflows of outside investors. This allowed Buffett to act boldly during moments of market panic. Such luxurious investment freedom is a strategic edge that most fund managers can only dream of.
Ironically, Zweig noted that most professional investors don’t actually desire such freedom. Many prefer to survive in caution and conformity rather than walk the long, lonely road that Buffett chose.
Buffett’s life has been a marathon where discipline and opportunity crossed paths at just the right moments. He proved that in an era lacking information, determination and insight could still outpace entire armies of traders. Yet as Zweig observed, such a combination is nearly impossible to reproduce in today’s world.
Looking at this legendary life, the more important question now might be: as artificial intelligence gradually replaces human judgment and memory, who will truly lead the next era of investing?
Historically, the ones who mastered the pulse of markets were always outliers—figures like Jesse Livermore in the 19th century or George Soros in the 20th. These men reshaped financial norms with vision and boldness. Buffett, however, stands apart—not as a speculator, but as someone who elevated long-term investing into a life philosophy. And such a philosophy requires not just time, but a time that allows it to flourish.