Warren Buffett: “The Best Thing You Can Be Is Kind” | Berkshire 2024

[Transcript]

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Hello, my name is Dennis (PH) from Gifhorn, Germany. I’m a first time here. I’m here with my friend who would, by the way, love to invite you to dinner.

My question is, it is clear that you achieved great success in life. Earlier, you talked about every investment having opportunity cost. From what I've learned in life, that does not only apply to investing your money but also to investing your time.

WARREN BUFFETT: Right.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: And every hour you spend in your office is an hour you cannot spend with your spouse or children.

With the life experience you have now, if you had the possibility to start all over again, would you set your priorities any different? If yes, how and why? And what's the best way to invite you to dinner? (Laughter)

WARREN BUFFETT: Well, that definitely won't be one of my priorities, if I figure out how to — (Laughter)

But that doesn’t — don't take it personally, because — you know — you can figure out, at the maximum, how long a period I've got, and —

No, I don't think — I mean, I can figure out all kinds of things that should have been done differently, but so what? You know, I mean, I'm not perfect.

I don't believe in lots of self-criticism or being unrealistic about either what you are, or what you've accomplished, or what you'd like to do.

You do the — you know, you do a lot of things. And who knows whether somewhat different tradeoffs — you know — you just can’t — you can’t — you don't know where the paths would’ve led.

I feel — I don’t think there's any room in beating up yourself over what's happened in the past. You know, it's happened, and you get to live the rest of the life. And you don't know how long it's going to be.

And you keep trying to do the things that are important to you.

And if I was a doctor or if I was in, you know, all kinds of different professions, I might do different things.

But I really enjoy managing money for people who trust me.

I don't have any reason to do it for financial reasons. You know, I'm not running a hedge fund or getting an override or anything.

But I just like the feeling of being trusted.

Charlie felt the same way. You know, that's a good way to feel in life. And it continues to be a good feeling.

So I'm not really looking to change much.

And, you know, if I'm very lucky, I get to play it out for six or seven years and it could end tomorrow, but that's true of everybody, although the equation isn't exactly the same.

But I don't believe in beating yourself up, though, over anything you've done in the past. And I don't believe in — well, I believe in trying to find, you know, what you're good at, what you enjoy.

And then I think the one thing that you can aspire to be — because this can be done by anybody and it's amazing — doesn't have anything to do with money — but you can be kind. You know, that’s —

You can be kind if you’re — and then the worlds better off. (Applause)

I'm not sure that the world will be better off if I'm richer. But there's no question that — I mean, and you know kind people. And in the end, aspire to be more — or I'm sure many of you are yourself — but just aspire to be more so.

And I guess we can take one more question from Becky, and then well wind up.

Source: https://buffett.cnbc.com/2024-berkshire-hathaway-annual-meeting/

 

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