The Next Warren Buffett

The Warren Buffett of the next generation will be very different from the Warren Buffett of today.* Sort of.

It’s hard to guess if they’ll love Coke or McDonalds. They probably won’t know much Ben Graham.

They will have figured out how to buy or own something at an amazing price, and it will only be obvious in hindsight.

No matter what their area of money-making brilliance, they will have figured out a way to compound their faces off with it.

There will be copycats. There will be misinterpretations. Some will even have moderate success and be crowned as disciples.

They will be skilled in some version of folk-business poetry. And, their popularity and wealth will engender them with political clout.

They are out there somewhere, right now, building. They’ll be “over,” “finished,” and “washed up,” several times along their journey, but it won’t stop them.

All of these traits and more will apply, and they’ll all be slightly different From Buffett. There’s no exact mold, but there are markers – not to predict them in advance, but to recognize as they emerge, and then, hopefully, learn something.

It’s actually pretty exciting. Cheers to the Buffett’s, old and new. We’ve got much to learn.

*I’ve heard a few variations on the first line of this and didn’t note attribution. Sorry to whoever said it first. I kept thinking about it and this post happened.