Editor’s note: This article was first published in October 2017, when Warren Buffett was 87 and still CEO of Berkshire Hathaway; he stepped down as CEO at the end of 2025, was succeeded by Greg Abel and stayed on as chairman.
In a recent interview published by CNBC, Warren Buffett, who is now 87 and still CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, gave a surprising answer to the question of who is the best partner you can have in business.
Instead of pointing to a particular person or company, or listing a set of qualities the person we consider as a business partner should have, Buffett gave an unusual answer and explained why he thinks that way. Who does Buffett consider the most important business partner? A spouse or life partner.
Buffett told Forbes that it is much more fun to achieve things in life with a romantic partner, and that having that partner is a great advantage from a personal point of view.
He said in the interview that his first wife, Susan Buffett, was one of his best teachers, along with Benjamin Graham. “The most important person in this respect is your spouse. I can’t stress enough how important that is.”
Buffett’s first wife died in 2004, ranked number 17 among the richest women in the world. She had been an active part of Berkshire Hathaway, where she served as a director, as well as president of the Buffett foundation. Two years after her death, Buffett remarried, to his old friend Astrid Menks.
See also: 5 things to learn from Warren Buffett’s right-hand man, Charlie Munger
Buffett credits much of his success to marriage.
According to Warren Buffett, marriage is the most important decision you make in life. “Who you marry is enormously important in determining your happiness in life and your success, and I was very lucky in that respect,” Buffett acknowledges. (See: the 3 most important decisions you will make in life.)
But Buffett is not the only one who thinks this: a recent Carnegie Mellon University study found that people who have supportive partners or stable romantic partners are more likely to “give themselves the opportunity to succeed”.
Other studies claim that if you want to know what you are really like, the best mirror is your partner. The person you choose can determine your future. Clearly, if you marry a drug trafficker, you are more likely to end up in prison than if you marry an honest builder.
Buffett says his first wife taught him a lot about investing and helped him become more emotionally open with people.
“I was an unbalanced person, and it took a while, but she stuck with it. She was patient with me, she watered me, she fed me in a positive way, and she changed me,” Buffett adds.
See also: 8 life lessons from Warren Buffett
As we often say, there are people who add to your life and people who subtract from it. If you choose one of those who add, who push you forward, who support you and who fight for the dreams you share, it is very likely that your success will be unstoppable and that happiness will follow.
Choose the wrong romantic partner, and your life could turn bad, go into decline or become hell, both personally and professionally.
We end with one of Warren Buffett’s sayings: “In the end, success is measured by how many of the people you wanted to love you really do love you.”
Featured image: Mauro Cateb, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
