Warren Buffett on finally retiring at 94: ‘How do you know the day you become old?’
After decades of defying time, the Oracle of Omaha said his age finally caught up to him. His successor Greg Abel was already outpacing him
Warren Buffett didn’t have a grand epiphany or a boardroom showdown about when he’d finally retire. What finally led the 94-year-old investing legend to step down as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A) was something simpler, and more human: Greg Abel, his hand-picked successor, was outpacing him, Buffett said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal (NWS).
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“The difference in energy level and just how much he could accomplish in a 10-hour day compared to what I could accomplish in a 10-hour day ... became more and more dramatic,” Buffett told The Journal. “He just was so much more effective at getting things done, making changes in management where they were needed, helping people that needed help someplace, but just all kinds of ways.”
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Buffett added, “It was unfair, really, not to put Greg in the job.”
The Oracle of Omaha’s realization crystallized over the past year, culminating in a surprise announcement at the end of Berkshire’s annual meeting in May: Buffett will step down as CEO this December. Abel, 62, will take the helm. Buffett will remain chairman of the board — still involved, but no longer in charge.
“I think the time has arrived where Greg should become the chief executive officer of the company at the end of the year,” Buffett said during Berkshire Hathaway’s closely watched annual meeting in Omaha.
“I think the prospects of Berkshire will be better under Greg’s management than mine,” Buffett said during the meeting. Earlier on Saturday, Buffett said he hoped Abel was “still running things” 50 years from now.
“It’s working way better with Greg than it did with me,” Abel said. “I just didn’t want to work as hard as he does.”
Abel, who joined Berkshire via its 1999 investment in MidAmerican Energy, has been steadily ascending for years. Buffett praised him as both an operator and a capital allocator, telling The Journal, “The more years that Berkshire gets out of Greg, the better.”
Buffett said he always intended to stay on as CEO only as long as he was the best person for the job. What surprised him was how long that remained true.
“It surprised me, you know, how long it went,” he told The Journal. “I didn’t really start getting old, for some strange reason, until I was about 90 ... But when you start getting old, it’s irreversible.”
He added, “How do you know the day that you become old?”
Now, he says that he’s ready to let Abel take the lead — and happy to step back without stepping away.
“I don’t have any trouble making decisions about something that I was making decisions on 20 years ago or 40 years ago or 60 years,” he said. “I will be useful here if there’s a panic in the market because I don’t get fearful when things go down in price or everybody else gets scared.”
And he has no plans to slow down completely: “I’m not going to sit at home and watch soap operas,” he told The Journal with a laugh. “My interests are still the same.”