Whether in sports, business, or relationships, it’s often hard to know when to say goodbye.
Warren Buffett announced earlier this month that he will be stepping down as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, the company he took from being a small New England textile maker, to his own personal investment vehicle, to a massive corporation with 400,000 employees.
Buffett took over Berkshire’s management in 1965 and has steered the company towards success ever since. Later this year, he will hand the reins to Greg Abel.
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This week, the discussion has been about another senior citizen who decided to step down from a tremendous amount of power. However, the talk has been that this individual conceded his position too late.
That person is former President Joe Biden.
A book exploring the former president’s physical and mental acuity in the lead-up to his decision not to run for reelection has sparked debate about whether he waited too long to hand the reins over to Kamala Harris.
President Biden waited until July 21, 2024, to announce that he would not seek reelection after a disastrous presidential debate performance forced Democratic leaders to publicly ask him not to run.
Many said that his age played a role in the debate. Biden was 78 years old and 61 days when he was inaugurated, making him the oldest president ever (until his successor, Donald Trump, beat him with an inauguration age of 78 years and 220 days).
On May 3, the 94-year-old Warren Buffett decided he wouldn’t let the same thing happen to Berkshire Hathaway. This week, he explained to the Wall Street Journal the thought process behind the toughest decision of his life.
Warren Buffett’s best friend, Charlie Munger, passed away in 2023 at the age of 99.
Image source: Eisele/AFP via Getty Images
Warren Buffett opens up about his age and slowing down
Despite the realization that he had lost a step, it is clear from the interview that Warren Buffett still has pride in his capabilities.
“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,” Buffett told the Journal. “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.”
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Still, Buffett does acknowledge that, frankly, he’s gotten old.
“I didn’t really start getting old, for some strange reason, until I was about 90,” he said in the interview. “But when you start getting old, it does become — it’s irreversible.”
He says that he occasionally started to lose his balance, started having trouble with recall, and his vision deteriorated.
But beyond his feelings about himself, Buffett says what he saw from Abel on a daily basis gave him the confidence to finally let go.
“Really great talent is rare,” Buffett said. “It’s rare in business. It’s rare in capital allocation. It’s rare in almost every human activity you can name.”
What he really liked was the energy the 62-year-old brought to the table. And after 27 years at the company, Abel is someone Buffett knows well.
“It was unfair, really, not to put Greg in the job,” Buffett said. “The more years that Berkshire gets out of Greg, the better.”
Baby Boomers are reaching retirement age
Neither Buffett nor Biden is a Baby Boomer. Both are older members of the Silent Generation.
However, Baby Boomer retirement is the topic of discussion, as the generation born between 1946 and 1964 is reaching retirement age.
U.S. employers will need to hire more than 240,000 people a month for the next five years just to replace those left by people retiring from the workforce, according to an RII study.
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However, there is also evidence that Baby Boomers aren’t retiring as soon as they hit 65. Nearly 20% of Americans 65 and older are still employed, nearly double the rate of Americans 35 years ago, with many doing so for pleasure rather than out of necessity.
Buffett and Biden are in this category. Both blew past retirement age with no thought of slowing down.
But as Biden realized, Buffett says he knew he would not be CEO for life.
“I thought I would remain CEO as long as I thought I was more useful than anybody else, in terms of being CEO,” he said. “And it surprised me, you know, how long it went.”
Buffett isn’t retiring, however. He will still be head of Berkshire Hathaway’s board and go to his Omaha, Nebraska office every weekday like he has for the last 60 years.
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