10 Life Lessons Warren Buffett Left Behind in His Final Letter

Berkshire Hathaway’s annual report will no longer be written by Warren Buffett after the “Oracle of Omaha” announced his retirement at the end of 2025. Not one to leave the business world behind quietly, the tenth richest person on earth (USD$150.7 billion) wrote an eight-page final letter to his fellow shareholders on November 10, 2025, stating that he would be “going quiet,” but not before donating significant amounts of money to the following charities.

Buffett turned 1,800 A shares into 2,700,000 B shares and spread them amongst four family foundations:

• 1,500,000 shares to The Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation (approx. USD$763,410,000)
• 400,000 shares to The Sherwood Foundation (approx. USD$203,576,000)
• 400,000 shares to The Howard G. Buffett Foundation (approx. USD$203,576,000)
• 400,000 shares to The NoVo Foundation (approx. USD$203,576,000)

Gregory Abel, Chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway Energy and Vice Chairman of the non-insurance operations of Berkshire Hathaway since January 2018, will succeed Buffett as CEO. It’s revealed in the final letter that Abel lived “a few blocks away from me on Farnam Street, though we never met at the time.” Being a man who has lived in the same home and worked in the same office his entire life, Buffett dwells on the fact that the water in Omaha might have something special in it: “Can it be that there is some magic ingredient in Omaha’s water?” he continues.

With more than a few life lessons to his name at the ripe age of 95, including many outside the business world, let’s unpack Warren Buffett’s most important messages from his final letter.

1. Choose Your Heroes Carefully

Quote: “Get the right heroes and copy them.”

This was perhaps the most important message from Warren Buffett’s final letter, and it carries throughout in different forms. It’s clear that he misses his longtime friend and “mental partner,” Thomas Sawyer Murphy (1925-2022). Murphy was the intrepid, courageous man who, as the CEO of Capital Cities, visited with Leonard Goldenson, the founding Chairman of ABC, and point-blank suggested that his company purchase the American Broadcasting Company, which owned Monday Night Football among other famous shows at the time.

Buffett says towards the end of his final letter that, “You can start with Tom Murphy” on your quest to find the right hero.

2. Don’t Dwell on Your Mistakes

Quote: “Don’t beat yourself up over past mistakes – learn at least a little from them and move on.”

This could be one of the most overused inspirational rhetorics, but it follows a line of thinking that some of the world’s wealthiest people believe. “It is never too late to improve,” Buffett continues in this statement before mentioning his long-time friend Tom Murphy. Of course, wealth preservation and prudent growth are safer avenues, and it’s all well and good that a billionaire with more money than people on earth thinks this way. However, when you tie each of these messages together, it adds up.

3. Live a Life Worthy of Your Obituary

Quote: “Decide what you would like your obituary to say and live the life to deserve it.”

We’ve learnt to follow a role model, not to dwell on our mistakes. Now, it’s time to apply a little hindsight, with the thought that we should look back at our lives from the end. Buffett recalls the story of Alfred Nobel, later famous for the Nobel Prize, who reportedly read his own obituary that was mistakenly printed when his brother died and a newspaper got mixed up. “He was horrified at what he read and realised he should change his behaviour,” says Buffett.

4. Remember That Greatness Isn’t About Wealth

Quote: “Kindness is costless but also priceless.”

Buffett says that “Greatness does not come about through accumulating great amounts of money, great amounts of publicity or great power in government.”

He says that he applies ‘The Golden Rule’ as a guide to his behaviour, which is simply the principle of treating others as you would want to be treated. “Whether you are religious or not, it’s hard to beat The Golden Rule as a guide to behaviour,” he says. “Keep in mind that the cleaning lady is as much a human being as the Chairman.”

5. Avoid Envy

Quote: “Envy and Greed walk hand in hand”

Through eight pages of his final letter, just one-third is spent on business, but this could be one of the most important quotes. Buffett discusses the remuneration of CEOs and its impact, saying, “During my lifetime, reformers sought to embarrass CEOs by requiring the disclosure of the compensation of the boss compared to what was being paid to the average employee.”

“But the good intentions didn’t work; they backfired”

“The CEO of company ‘A’ looked at his competitor at company ‘B’ and subtly conveyed to his board that he should be worth more. Of course, he also boosted the pay of directors and was careful who he placed on the compensation committee. The new rules produced envy, not moderation”

He says that the only thing that annoys a wealthy CEO is knowing that another CEO is getting even richer before reminding us that “envy and Greed walk hand in hand.”

6. Value the Places That Shape You

Quote: “Nebraska has been home.”

Through the first few passages of the letter, Warren Buffett dwells on his time in Nebraska, mentioning friendships, work, family, and the luck that has been rooted in Omaha, where he has lived his entire life. “Looking back, I feel that both Berkshire and I did better because of our base in Omaha than if I had resided anywhere else. The centre of the United States was a very good place to be born, to
raise a family, and to build a business.”

It’s shaped Buffett not only in business but in health, “at least three times, my life has been saved, each with doctors based within a few miles from my home,” he says. “My three children, as well as several grandchildren, were raised in Omaha.”

He bought his first and only home in Omaha in 1958, and it’s where he lives today, two miles from where he grew up, two blocks from his in-laws, and six blocks from “the Buffett grocery store and a 6-7-minute drive from the office building where I have worked for 64 years,” he continues. Despite taking a job in New York City for one and a half years early on in his career, Buffett moved back home, reminding everyone that you must value the places that shape you.

7. Let Go of the Desire to Control the Future

Quote: “Ruling from the grave does not have a great record, and I have never had an urge to do so.”

“I have assured my children that they do not need to perform miracles nor fear failures or disappointments,” says Buffett, on the reality that his three children will now be bestowed with a significant family business venture. He says that he considered philanthropic plans early on, but they didn’t seem feasible after watching “ill-conceived wealth transfers by political hacks, dynastic choices, and inept or quirky philanthropists.”

No, Buffett simply wants his kids, who apparently enjoy working long hours, to do a “decent job,” and that means taking care of their $500 million annual benefit through government activities and philanthropy.

8. Appreciate the Role of Luck in Your Life

Quote: “Through dumb luck, I drew a ridiculously long straw at birth.”

“I was born in 1930, healthy, reasonably intelligent, white, male and in America,” says Buffett on luck.

It’s a theme that carries throughout his final letter, and he acknowledges that even the most successful business people on earth require a little luck. Yet, he also understands that with this luck (and success), some get a little luckier than others, and even he sees the trouble in that. “Lady Luck is fickle and – no other term fits – wildly unfair.

“In many cases, our leaders and the rich have received far more than their share of luck, which, too often, the recipients prefer not to acknowledge. Dynastic inheritors have achieved lifetime financial independence the moment they emerged from the womb, while others have arrived, facing a hell-hole during their early life or, worse, disabling physical or mental infirmities that rob them of what I have taken for granted. In many heavily populated parts of the world, I would likely have had a miserable life, and my sisters would have had one even worse.”

He finishes by talking about the role that Lady Luck continued to play in his life as he balanced risk and reward before finding himself in retirement today, “Lady Luck continued to drop by during much of my life, but she has better things to do than work with those in their 90s. Luck has its limits.”

9. Accept That Aging Comes for Us All

Quote: “I was late in becoming old… but once it appears, it is not to be denied.”

Towards the end of the letter, Buffett reflects on his age. Born on August 30, 1930, the 95-year-old is the oldest in his family lineage. Despite this, he still goes to the office five days a week to work and says that while he moves slowly and with “increasing difficulty,” his health is surprisingly good.

“To my surprise, I generally feel good,” he states.

Yet, despite this, Buffett understands that time waits for no man. “He is undefeated; for him, everyone ends up on his score card as ‘wins,” he concluded before talking about what comes next.

10. Never Stop Trying to Be Better

Quote: “You will never be perfect, but you can always be better.”

Ending his letter, Buffett reminds us, in summary, of the two most important takeaways from his letter.

“Choose your heroes very carefully and then emulate them. You will never be perfect, but you
can always be better.”