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🏦 Business: "Kindness is costless but also priceless."

🏦 Business: "Kindness is costless but also priceless."

The 'Oracle of Omaha' is "going quiet" at 95.

Imran Khan
November 15, 2025

Analysing meaning and power through language.

Hi Signposter. I was 13 years old as the calendar ticked over from 1999 to the new millennium (25 years ago now, wow!). At the time I had enough sense to recognise that I was living through a truly unique experience: I was entering my teenage years just as all of humanity was entering the 21st century (yes, yes, I know the 21st century started in 2001, don’t leave me comments about this).

It’s hard to explain just how hopeful and joyous a time this was in my life. My family had moved to Dubai five years prior after (what was for me) a lifetime of moving around and scarcity. In the late 90s, Dubai hadn’t yet experienced it’s dramatic millennial glow-up, and the city was still a small, well equipped, comfortable place to live. I felt like my family was finally in a place where we had ‘made it’, and I had started to think about my own long term plans for the first time in my life.

At that time, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates had recently topped the world’s richest persons lists, and it looked like he was going to dominate that list for the foreseeable future. He did. I took his elevation as a sign that I should, at some point, work in the tech industry, unaware just how ubiquitous technology would become to humanity’s entire existence.

I’m happy to report that I ended up working in tech for a fair chunk of my career, long enough to be burned and jaded by the industry and by the people who lead it. The rich lists for the last 25 years have been dominated by tech billionaires. However, one non-tech-related name has consistently become synonymous with the flashy-tech-billionaire-levels-of-wealth without the flash — Warren Buffett.

I know nothing about the finance industry. But I do recognise that he is the only person in the world whose shareholder letters people actually care about. He is one of the rare ultra-wealthy who understands that good communication builds trust and enables power without you having to call attention to it.

Buffett wrote his last shareholder letter this week before retiring. In this issue of Signpost, we’ll have a look at the 95 year-old’s closing paragraph from his final letter as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway.

THIS WEEK

🏦 Business - Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Letter 2025

Source: Trades Union

Here is the closing section of the shareholder letter, taken verbatim from the letter, with specific words and phrases highlighted for semiotic analysis below:

A Few Final Thoughts

One perhaps self-serving observation. I’m happy to say I feel better about the second half of my life than the first. My advice: Don’t beat yourself up over past mistakes – learn at least a little from them and move on. It is never too late to improve. Get the right heroes and copy them. You can start with Tom Murphy; he was the best.

Remember Alfred Nobel, later of Nobel Prize fame, 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 realized he should change his behavior.

Don’t count on a newsroom mix-up: Decide what you would like your obituary to say and live the life to deserve it.

Greatness does not come about through accumulating great amounts of money, great amounts of publicity or great power in government. When you help someone in any of thousands of ways, you help the world. Kindness is costless but also priceless. Whether you are religious or not, it’s hard to beat The Golden Rule as a guide to behavior.

I write this as one who has been thoughtless countless times and made many mistakes but also became very lucky in learning from some wonderful friends how to behave better (still a long way from perfect, however). Keep in mind that the cleaning lady is as much a human being as the Chairman.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

I wish all who read this a very happy Thanksgiving. Yes, even the jerks; it’s never too late to change. Remember to thank America for maximizing your opportunities. But it is – inevitably – capricious and sometimes venal in distributing its rewards.

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

Warren Buffett (2025)

CONTEXT

1️⃣ What is happening?

Buffett took over textile manufacturer Berkshire Hathaway in 1965 and grew the company (alongside his long time friend and vice chairman Charlie Munger) into one of the world’s largest publicly traded companies and conglomerate investment funds. Along the way, he acquired a personal wealth of (at the time of writing) $154 billion. Under Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway returns outperformed the S&P 500 (the stock market index of the 500 leading companies in the United States) 19.8% versus 10.2% CAGR, effectively outperforming the U.S. economy for the last 60 years. The company is also the first non-tech publicly-traded company to have a valuation of $1 trillion (and somehow none of that money was spent on the company’s laughably 90s website).

Buffett’s long time friendship and work partnership with Charlie Munger ended in 2023 with his death. Now, at 95 years of age, Buffett himself is handing over the reigns of the CEO (but not chairman) to Canadian Greg Abel.

2️⃣ What was written, and to whom?

Buffett is a famous communicator, mixing heavy doses of personal anecdotes and humour at his shareholder meetings and in his annual letters. His folksy style is a clear departure from the Gordon Gekko-Wall Street-MBA school of communication. This letter is his final letter as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway to shareholders.

ANALYSING THE TEXT

Words / Phrases	What it Says	What it Means
I feel better about the second half of my life than the first.	I wasn’t sure if I would enjoy growing old	but there’s hope for us all
Get the right heroes and copy them.	don’t worship the wrong people	don’t worship anyone simply because they’re famous and powerful
Remember Alfred Nobel, later of Nobel Prize fame / horrified at what he read and realized he should change his behavior.	Alfred Nobel didn’t like what he read about himself and changed his life	Alfred Nobel changed his legacy from arms manufacturer to creator of the peace prize
Decide what you would like your obituary to say and live the life to deserve it.	live the life you want people to remember you for	rather than living the life you want to live
accumulating great amounts of money, great amounts of publicity or great power in government	money and power don’t make people great	even though I, and other people of my class, have accumulated all of this
Kindness is costless but also priceless	kindness costs nothing	when you have everything, the only thing people can offer you is kindness
but also became very lucky / Remember to thank America for maximizing your opportunities.	I became rich and wealthy because of my luck of being born in the United States when I was	every rich and powerful person forgets the impact luck had in their success
even the jerks / Choose your heroes very carefully and then emulate them.	again, don’t worship jerks	especially if they’re rich and in power

DECONSTRUCTING THE TEXT

🗝️ Unlocking Meaning

I would encourage you to read his entire eight-page letter; it’s full of childhood anecdotes and folksy charm. I rapidly skipped through the more financial stuff, but his closing section is worth looking at again. It’s clear he insists that being a good, kind person is more important than being a rich and powerful person. It’s a summary of sorts of the letter that comes before, where he reminisces and thanks the kind and capable people he has worked with in his career and is bullish on the success of the company’s future because of these good people.

However, he mentions one particular statement twice: pick your heroes carefully and then copy them. It’s hard to imagine that he put this sentiment in there multiple times just because. It feels like a clear statement to everyone reading that there are several rich and powerful people (some perhaps in power) that he does not believe are good people. And as the rich and powerful accumulate more, it’s possible he feels uncertain about the examples they are setting for the rest of us.

👑 Power Play

Two things to add here: Buffett is a 95 year-old man who lost his closest, lifelong friend two years ago. Together, they became rich and also made a lot of other people rich. In an earlier part of the letter he mentions that he hopes the new CEO (Greg Abel) has a long tenure, and that people who are looking to retire at 65 should probably work elsewhere. To him, Berkshire Hathaway is a lifelong-employment company. Which means he expects leaders to never leave.

Yet, he is leaving.

Part of the reason is health related (the man is, after all, 95). He mentions this in an earlier part of the letter as well. However, he’s not leaving completely. Buffett will still remain chairman of Berkshire Hathaway. Which is something he doesn’t address in the entire letter. I’m not saying he’s hiding it, but it is convenient.

It looks like at least for now the power remains within Buffett’s 95 year-old hands.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

Tell me your reasoning. In next week’s issue, I’ll highlight the most thought-provoking responses.

NEXT WEEK ON SIGNPOST

I will not be able to cover the latest happenings in next week’s issue because I’m in a five-day-all-day workshop. Instead, we will analyse last month’s interview in the Financial Times with Singapore prime minister Lawrence Wong. Look forward to that next week.

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