Warren Buffett: Why Luck Is More Important Than You Think | Berkshire 2024

[Transcript]

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Hello Mr. Buffett. My name is Zhang Ya Bo (PH). I came from micro city, Hainan, China. And my question relates to the concept of maximizing the duration of compounding. As individuals age, the quality of compounding inevitability diminishes. What are your secrets in maintaining your sharp mind, extraordinary judgment, and great physical condition? We wish you well. Thank you.

WARREN BUFFETT: Well, you don't know me well. But that’s — I like — (Laughter) — just keep talking, I mean — (Laughter)

Well, you know, you have to be just plain lucky. I mean, there's no question about it that there's a hundred or a thousand, you know — multiply a number of times that some drunk could've pulled out a car and broadsided me or, you know — just all the bad luck that you can have in life. You know you can say that my great skill has been avoiding bad luck, but that isn't a skill, that's luck — (Laughs) — or bad activities.

And, you know — and then to get to be — you know, I would not have been a — If you'd taken my high school class and you said, you know, a couple of you are going to live to be 90 — men are going to live to be 93, you know, I would not have been a heavy favorite, I can tell you that. And I wouldn't have bet on myself.

Now you — you should make the most of your luck when you get it. And sometimes I've done that and sometimes I haven't. I mean — It is absolutely true that if I had it to do over again there would be a lot of different choices I would make. But that they would have ended up working out as well as things have worked out, its hard to imagine how they could have worked out any better.

So — But it is interesting how many mistakes you can make if you just keep going. And Charlie, you know, used to talk about that, that you just soldier through. You just keep going.

And — But you still need luck, you know, you don’t want to — Anybody that says I did it all myself is just kidding. I mean, it's just — you’re delusional.

And, you know, actually live in a country where the life expectancy is pretty darn good, you know, so that alone is a huge plus.

I was born — if I had been born — my sister is here, and she was born female. And she's just as smart as I was and everything. But even my own family, who really did — well, particularly my dad loved us all equally and in a terrific manner, but he still told me that — this is ten or — well, I was born ten years after the 19th Amendment was passed.

But he told — he basically told my sisters, you know, to marry young while you still have your looks. And he told me that the world, you know, that power in you is new in nature, and that you really could do anything.

Well, I found out there were a lot of things I couldn't do. (Laughs)

But the message given to females and males was incredibly different, by the most well-meaning and loving of parents. You know, like I say, in 1930, I mean, it had been that way for millions of years. It’s changed quite dramatically, but obviously, not completely.

But during my lifetime — but it's been during the latter half of my lifetime — if you take my sisters, if they'd been born even five or ten years later they still would've been, you know, getting instructions when they went away to college to be sure — to be sure and get married — or get arranged so that you're going to be married, you know, while you're in school. Because after you get out, all the good ones are taken.

That was — Bertie was telling me that was a message that, you know, basically had been imparted to most of — a lot of the women she'd met, obviously.

And so it really — it's extraordinary how much progress we've made. But it's unbelievable how long it took to get it made.

I mean, it — It really does make you wonder about, you know, we've got all the heroes from American history and all the wonderful things they did, but how could they say, “All men are created equal,” and then write a Constitution — (Laughs) — that women, you know, women not to be able to own property, and depending on the state, I mean, just terrible conditions.

But anyway, that's how you learn about what the humans can do. (Applause)

And if you — and you've got to feel better about the future for your kids than you would've felt a hundred years ago, no matter, you know, what the situation is.

Anyway, we'll move to Becky.

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

 

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