What Warren Buffett's Successor Greg Abel Says You Need to Succeed in Life

When Greg Abel takes implicit for Warren Buffett arsenic CEO of Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A, BRK.B), he'll person big shoes to fill. Buffett leaves an unparalleled bequest arsenic 1 of the greatest investors ever, having transformed Berkshire from a struggling textile institution into a $1.1 trillion conglomerate.

Abel, a famously backstage enforcement who has tally Berkshire's non-insurance operations, offered a glimpse into his doctrine for occurrence portion addressing shareholders astatine Berkshire's yearly gathering this month.

Abel's Key to Success

At the 2025 shareholder meeting, wherever Buffett announced helium would measurement down arsenic CEO by the extremity of the year, a teen from Hong Kong seized her infinitesimal during the meeting's famed Q&A session. When she asked Abel what it would instrumentality to get hired by him, helium offered a elemental answer.

"You're going to person to enactment hard, and I deliberation hard enactment takes each of america a agelong mode successful life," Abel said. "There's a batch of things that substance successful life, but if you commencement with a large enactment ethic and person that cognition that you privation to contribute, you're going to spell a agelong mode successful life."

"If you enactment hard, you're going to find the things you emotion successful life," helium added. "We genuinely look guardant to the time you're portion of Berkshire."

Abel's Humble Roots

Abel’s grounded proposal echoes the values agelong espoused by Buffett, a Wall Street titan celebrated for his humble lifestyle—he inactive lives successful the aforesaid Omaha, Neb., location helium bought successful 1958 for $31,500 (about $353,000 successful April 2025 dollars). Like Buffett, Abel had humble beginnings. A Canadian by commencement and an accountant by training, helium earned a bachelor's grade successful accounting from the University of Alberta successful 1984.

Also, similar his predecessor, helium started moving connected his concern acumen at an aboriginal age. "From a young age, concern intrigued me," Abel told the Calgary Herald successful 2024. "It was arsenic elemental arsenic backmost successful the day, you could cod popular bottles, and radical had a inclination to propulsion them away. And we’d get the nickel. I astir viewed it similar a business."

He said helium started to optimize his way location to prime up much bottles and gain much money. If helium made $1 1 week, helium would effort to marque $1.05 the adjacent week.

“How galore could I prime up successful a week?" Abel said. "I inactive retrieve thinking, ‘OK, well, there’s a amended way home...Maybe I tin get 5 popular bottles connected the mode home.'"

Is Hard Work Enough?

Abel acknowledges that occurrence isn't guaranteed by effort alone. "I deliberation hard enactment leads to bully outcomes," Abel told the Horatio Alger Association. "In my schooling, successful sports, and successful my concern positions, I learned that if I enactment successful a batch of enactment and was well-prepared, past occurrence would beryllium much likely."

That measured "more likely" reveals a nuanced view—preparation improves the likelihood of success, but it doesn't warrant results.

At the 2025 Berkshire meeting, Buffett himself highlighted this reality. "The luckiest time successful my beingness is the time I was born—because I was calved successful the United States," helium said. "At the time, astir 3% of each the births successful the satellite were taking spot successful the United States."

"I was conscionable lucky, and I was fortunate to beryllium calved male. I was fortunate to beryllium calved white," helium added, acknowledging the relation of sexism and racism arsenic barriers to success.

The Bottom Line

As Buffett steps down, Abel brings a applicable enactment ethic and an understated attack to the helm of Berkshire Hathaway. His connection is straightforward: Hard enactment importantly improves your chances of success, but it doesn't warrant it.