Warren Buffett has said this by himself that luck, opportunity and circumstance are what he believes were the key drivers of his extraordinary success and his extraordinary rise from the world's wealthiest man was the factor in how he got to the top of the world’s wealthiest people.
The Berkshire Hathaway chairman said he thinks he is the luckiest guy in the world, and that his life and his career were shaped by circumstances outside his control.
Buffett said in an interview with CNBC that out of a world population of about 8 billion people, he might be “one of the 10 luckiest in the world.”
Buffett, who has an estimated net worth of around $147 billion, has often spoken of the importance of chance in his life. At Berkshire Hathaway’s 1997 annual shareholders meeting, he famously referred to being born in the United States and having relatively good health as winning what he called the “ovarian lottery.”
And the veteran investor also said his early exposure to investing was an important stroke of luck. His father owned a stock brokerage, which allowed Buffett to learn about financial markets at a young age.
Buffett said if his father had been a plumber instead, he might not have had the same early exposure to investing. He describes the circumstances that brought him to his lifelong passion as partly accidental.
He also reflected on his longevity and health and said he was lucky to stay healthy and to live to 95. “Talent and hard work alone cannot explain success,” his words suggest. To him success is also a product of place of birth and family situation, health and opportunities.
Buffett’s views on luck are closely linked to his philosophy on philanthropy. He has argued that extreme differences in people’s circumstances are often the result of what he calls the “accidents of birth”.
The investor has pledged to give away 99% of his wealth during his lifetime. Berkshire Hathaway shares worth tens of billions of dollars have been donated to charity, including to the Gates Foundation, over the past 25 years.
But Buffett now has indicated that his future charitable donations will take a different direction. He plans to dispose of all his Berkshire Hathaway shares by December 31, 2034, and future charitable gifts will exclude the Gates Foundation.
Instead, funds are expected to go to family foundations headed by his three children, Buffett said. Buffett said his children, who are currently between 68 and 72 years old, will be responsible for how the remaining wealth is distributed.
He has said that all three children must agree on how the money should be used, stressing that the responsibility of managing the fortune will ultimately belong to them.
Buffett’s recent comments provide some context for his larger philosophy: wealth is not just a privilege, but also a responsibility to help to fix the inequalities that result from the nature of circumstances beyond one’s control.
It seems that for one of the most successful investors in history, luck is very much at the heart of how he will succeed - and how much he will give to philanthropy.
