Editor’s note: This article was first published in April 2022, as a news piece. Buffett’s age (91), “his latest interview”, Bezos described as having become the world’s richest man, and Tesla’s 2021 valuation all reflect that time.
Legendary businessman and investor Warren Buffett, 91, recently gave a wide-ranging interview to the American interviewer Charlie Rose. He covered a huge variety of subjects, from the possibility of a third world war to how he feels in old age. He also talked again about Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos.
As usual, the Berkshire Hathaway CEO’s words leave no one indifferent.
We’ve picked out the most interesting moments of the interview and his best lines from it.
Warren Buffett’s best quotes from the interview
1. Warren Buffett on his investment philosophy
In substance, Buffett said:
I know that over time I’ll win. That doesn’t mean I’ll beat everyone else or anything like that, but the game is very, very easy if you have the right lessons in your mind about what you’re buying.
With this, Buffett was answering those who question value investing as an investment method today. He stressed that shares are pieces of businesses, not bets to be monitored every day. Time ends up proving you right, he emphasised.
2. Buffett on his career philosophy
His view, roughly:
I don’t need to be a genius at what I do. That’s the good thing about it. I’m a bright guy who is terribly interested in what he does, and that’s how I’ve spent my whole life doing it. And I’ve surrounded myself with people who bring out the best in me.
Warren Buffett once again talks about the importance of being passionate about what you do and, even more, the importance of surrounding yourself with the right people in life and in business.
3. Warren Buffett on old age and the possibility of retiring
He put it more or less like this:
Berkshire Hathaway has a successor ready to take the field when I’m gone. But the successor isn’t warming up yet. I’m in overtime, but I’m still playing.
In short, there’s plenty of Buffett left, and he probably has a lot of the game still to play. But he went on:
I’m a deteriorating machine, but this machine still feels terrific. I can’t add up a column of numbers as fast as I used to. Sometimes I can’t remember why I went upstairs. I’m starting to forget names easily, and I can’t read as fast as I used to. I don’t hear as well as I did, or see as well as I did, and my balance isn’t as good. But none of this interferes with my happiness, my work or anything else.
4. On the criticism aimed at billionaire business people
Buffett’s argument, paraphrased:
People think it’s as if the 50 richest men in the country were saying, “I’m going to eat it all”, but that’s not how it is. Henry Ford and Steve Jobs amassed great fortunes, but we all enjoy their inventions today.
With this, Warren Buffett reminds us that money is a consequence of work done well and a contribution to society. You can see it as a business owner exploiting people and taking advantage of everyone, but you can also see it as a business owner improving the lives of millions of people. And yes, they’ve profited from it, because otherwise what would be the point of devoting your whole life to working harder than everyone else?
5. Warren Buffett on Elon Musk
In Buffett’s words, more or less:
Elon Musk is taking on General Motors, Ford and Toyota. He has an idea and he’s winning. That’s America. It’s amazing.
It’s curious that Buffett is starting to show some admiration for Elon Musk, when in 2018 he criticised him on several occasions for taking on the big carmakers.
In 2020, Buffett said he wouldn’t invest in Tesla, although he acknowledged it had done some very remarkable things. He concluded by saying it would be the public who decided whether Tesla succeeded or not.
And the truth is that in 2021, Tesla came to be worth more than its top five competitors combined, according to Reuters. That said, we think anything is possible with Tesla. Its stock market value may be justified, or it may be heavily inflated, with expectations ending up higher than the potential reality.
Remember that Tesla could lose its competitive edge over rivals who could get their act together at any moment. To be fair, though, Tesla currently has certain advantages over any other manufacturer, and a head start. Only time will tell, although for now Tesla’s valuation is frightening if you’re thinking of investing in it. But as Warren Buffett says, anything can happen in America.
See also: 10 reasons why electric cars are for fools
6. Warren Buffett on Jeff Bezos
His recollection, roughly:
It couldn’t happen, but it ended up happening. If Jeff Bezos, on his trip from New York to Seattle, had stopped in Omaha and said to me, “What do you think of this idea?”, I’d have told him, “Good luck, Jeff.”
Buffett is referring to how unlikely it was that the idea of a small online bookshop (which is what Amazon was at first) would end up becoming the biggest e-commerce tech giant and would make its creator the richest man in the world.
Buffett also took the opportunity to praise MacKenzie Scott, Jeff Bezos’s ex-wife, saying, in essence, that you won’t read anything more beautiful than what she has written, and that she has expressed a philosophy of life he considers the best model anyone could find. Buffett was referring to MacKenzie’s dedication to philanthropy.
7. His candour and praise for Bill and Melinda Gates
It’s curious how these days we see people criticising Bill Gates for one thing or another, but here’s Warren Buffett in a fit of candour, paraphrased:
What Bill and Melinda Gates are doing is something great. They’re not just doing it with money. They’re doing it with their time. Time is the most precious thing you have. They’re giving something I’m not willing to give. I’d rather give my time to Berkshire.
With this, Buffett acknowledges that he can contribute money to philanthropic causes, but he wouldn’t be willing to devote the time that Bill Gates and his wife devote to those causes, because money can be recovered, but time can’t.
Featured image: Jon Carrasco, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
