BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY

https://www.berkshirehathaway.com/news/nov1025.pdf

BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY INC.
NEWS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Omaha, NE (BRK.A; BRK.B) –
November 10, 2025

Today, Warren E. Buffett converted 1,800 A shares into 2,700,000 B shares in order to give these B
shares to four family foundations: 1,500,000 shares to The Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation and
400,000 shares to each of The Sherwood Foundation, The Howard G. Buffett Foundation and NoVo
Foundation. These donations have been delivered today.

今天，沃伦·巴菲特将 1,800 股 A 股转换为 2,700,000 股 B 股，以便将这些 B 股赠送给四个家族基金会：1,500,000 股股给苏珊·汤普森·巴菲特基金会，400,000 股给舍伍德基金会、霍华德·巴菲特基金会和 NoVo 基金会。这些捐款已于今天交付。

Mr. Buffett’s comments to his fellow shareholders follow:

To My Fellow Shareholders:

I will no longer be writing Berkshire’s annual report or talking endlessly at the annual
meeting. As the British would say, I’m “going quiet.”

我将不再撰写伯克希尔的年度报告或在年会上滔滔不绝地讲话。正如英国人所说，我正在“安静”。

Sort of.
有点。

Greg Abel will become the boss at yearend. He is a great manager, a tireless worker and an
honest communicator. Wish him an extended tenure.

格雷格·阿贝尔 （Greg Abel） 将在年底成为老板。他是一位伟大的管理者、一位不知疲倦的工人和一位诚实的沟通者。祝愿他延长任期。

I will continue talking to you and my children about Berkshire via my annual Thanksgiving
message. Berkshire’s individual shareholders are a very special group who are unusually generous in sharing their gains with others less fortunate. I enjoy the chance to keep in touch with you. Indulge me this year as I first reminisce a bit. After that, I will discuss the plans for distribution of my Berkshire shares. Finally, I will offer a few business and personal observations.

我将继续通过我的年度感恩节致辞与你和我的孩子们谈论伯克希尔。伯克希尔的个人股东是一个非常特殊的群体，他们异常慷慨地与其他不幸的人分享他们的收益。我很高兴有机会与您保持联系。今年，当我第一次回忆一下时，请放纵我。之后，我将讨论我的伯克希尔股票的分配计划。最后，我将提供一些商业和个人观察。

As Thanksgiving approaches, I’m grateful and surprised by my luck in being alive at 95.

随着感恩节的临近，我对自己 95 岁还活着的运气感到感激和惊讶。

When I was young, this outcome did not look like a good bet. Early on, I nearly died.

当我年轻的时候，这个结果看起来不是一个好的赌注。早些时候，我差点死去。

It was 1938 and Omaha hospitals were then thought of by its citizens as either Catholic or
Protestant, a classification that seemed natural at the time.

那是 1938 年，当时奥马哈的医院被其公民认为是天主教或新教，这种分类在当时似乎很自然。

Our family doctor, Harley Hotz, was a friendly Catholic who made house calls toting a black
bag. Dr. Hotz called me Skipper and never charged much for his visits. When I experienced a bad bellyache in 1938, Dr. Hotz came by and, after probing a bit, told me I would be OK in the morning.

我们的家庭医生哈雷·霍茨 （Harley Hotz） 是一位友好的天主教徒，他拿着一个黑色袋子上门拜访。霍茨医生称我为船长，从不收取太多费用。1938 年，当我经历严重的腹痛时，霍茨医生过来，经过一番探查后，告诉我早上会没事的

He then went home, had dinner and played a little bridge. Dr. Hotz couldn’t, however, get my somewhat peculiar symptoms out of his mind and later that night he dispatched me to St. Catherine’s Hospital for an emergency appendectomy. During the next three weeks, I felt like I was in a nunnery, and began enjoying my new “podium.” I liked to talk – yes, even then – and the nuns embraced me.

然后他回家，吃过晚饭，玩了一座小桥牌。然而，霍茨医生无法将我有些奇怪的症状从脑海中抹去，那天晚上晚些时候，他把我送到圣凯瑟琳医院进行紧急阑尾切除术。在接下来的三个星期里，我感觉自己就像在尼姑庵里一样，开始享受我的新“讲台”。我喜欢说话——是的，即使在那时——修女们也拥抱了我。

To top things off, Miss Madsen, my third-grade teacher, told my 30 classmates to each write
me a letter. I probably threw away the letters from the boys but read and reread those from the girls;hospitalization had its rewards.

最重要的是，我三年级的老师马德森小姐告诉我的 30 个同学每人给我写一封信。我可能扔掉了男孩们的信，但又读了又读了女孩们的信;住院有其回报。

The highlight of my recovery – which actually was dicey for much of the first week – was a
gift from my wonderful Aunt Edie. She brought me a very professional-looking fingerprinting set, and I promptly fingerprinted all of my attending nuns. (I was probably the first Protestant kid they had seen at St. Catherine’s and they didn’t know what to expect.)

我康复的亮点——实际上在第一周的大部分时间里都是冒险的——是我出色的伊迪阿姨送来的礼物。她给我带来了一套非常专业的指纹识别装置，我立即为所有主治修女采集了指纹。（我可能是他们在圣凯瑟琳教堂看到的第一个新教孩子，他们不知道会发生什么。

My theory – totally nutty, of course – was that someday a nun would go bad and the FBI
would find that they had neglected to fingerprint nuns. The FBI and its director, J. Edgar Hoover, had become revered by Americans in the 1930s, and I envisioned Mr. Hoover, himself, coming to Omaha to inspect my invaluable collection. I further fantasized that J. Edgar and I would quickly identify and apprehend the wayward nun. National fame seemed certain.

我的理论——当然，完全是疯狂的——是，有一天修女会变坏，联邦调查局会发现他们忽视了对修女进行指纹识别。联邦调查局及其局长埃德加·胡佛 （J. Edgar Hoover） 在 1930 年代受到美国人的尊敬，我想象胡佛先生本人会来奥马哈检查我的宝贵藏品。我进一步幻想，我和 J. Edgar 会很快识别并逮捕这位任性的修女。全国的名声似乎是确定的。

Obviously, my fantasy never materialized. But, ironically, some years later it became clear
that I should have fingerprinted J. Edgar himself as he became disgraced for misusing his post.

显然，我的幻想从未实现。但是，具有讽刺意味的是，几年后，很明显，我应该在 J. Edgar 本人身上按指纹，因为他因滥用职位而蒙羞。

Well, that was Omaha in the 1930s, when a sled, a bicycle, a baseball glove and an electric
train were coveted by me and my friends. Let’s look at a few other kids from that era, who grew up very nearby and greatly influenced my life but of whom I was for long unaware.
I’ll begin with Charlie Munger, my best pal for 64 years. In the 1930s, Charlie lived a block away from the house I have owned and occupied since 1958.

嗯，那是 1930 年代的奥马哈，当时我和我的朋友们都觊觎雪橇、自行车、棒球手套和电动火车。让我们看看那个时代的其他几个孩子，他们在附近长大，极大地影响了我的生活，但我很长一段时间都不知道他们。我将从查理·芒格开始，他是我 64 年来最好的朋友。在 1930 年代，查理住在离我自 1958 年以来拥有和居住的房子一个街区的地方。

Early on, I missed befriending Charlie by a whisker. Charlie, 6 ⅔ years older than I, worked in the summer of 1940 at my grandfather’s grocery store, earning $2 for a 10-hour day. (Thrift runs deep in Buffett blood.) The following year I did similar work at the store, but I never met Charlie until 1959 when he was 35 and I was 28.

早些时候，我错过了与查理成为胡须的朋友。查理比我大 6 2/3 岁，1940 年夏天在我祖父的杂货店工作，每天工作 10 小时赚 2 美元。（节俭深深地流淌在巴菲特的血液中。第二年，我在商店做了类似的工作，但直到 1959 年我才见过查理，当时他 35 岁，我 28 岁。

After serving in World War II, Charlie graduated from Harvard Law and then moved
permanently to California. Charlie, however, forever talked of his early years in Omaha as formative.For more than 60 years, Charlie had a huge impact on me and could not have been a better teacher and protective “big brother.” We had differences but never had an argument. “I told you so” was not in his vocabulary.

在第二次世界大战中服役后，查理毕业于哈佛法学院，然后永久移居加利福尼亚。然而，查理永远谈论他在奥马哈的早年经历是成长的。60 多年来，查理对我产生了巨大的影响，他是一位更好的老师和保护性的“老大哥”。我们有分歧，但从未发生过争吵。“我告诉过你了”不在他的词汇中。

In 1958, I bought my first and only home. Of course, it was in Omaha, located about two
miles from where I grew up (loosely defined), less than two blocks from my in-laws, about six blocks from the Buffett grocery store and a 6-7-minute drive from the office building where I have worked for 64 years.

1958 年，我买了我的第一套房子，也是唯一一套房子。当然，那是在奥马哈，距离我长大的地方大约两英里（定义松散），距离我的姻亲不到两个街区，距离巴菲特杂货店大约六个街区，距离我工作了 64 年的办公楼 6-7 分钟车程。

Let’s move on to another Omahan, Stan Lipsey. Stan sold the Omaha Sun Newspapers
(weeklies) to Berkshire in 1968 and a decade later moved to Buffalo at my request. The BuffaloEvening News, owned by a Berkshire affiliate, was then locked in a battle to the death with its morning competitor who published Buffalo’s only Sunday paper. And we were losing.

让我们继续讨论另一位奥马哈人斯坦·利普西。斯坦于 1968 年将《奥马哈太阳报》（周刊）卖给了伯克希尔，十年后应我的要求搬到了布法罗。伯克希尔附属公司旗下的《布法罗晚报》随后与其早间竞争对手展开了一场殊死搏斗，后者出版了布法罗唯一的周日报纸。而我们正在输。

Stan eventually built our new Sunday product, and for some years our paper – formerly
hemorrhaging cash – earned over 100% annually (pre-tax) on our $33 million investment. This was important money to Berkshire in the early 1980s.

斯坦最终打造了我们新的周日产品，几年来，我们的报纸——以前是现金流失——在我们 3300 万美元的投资中每年赚取超过 100%（税前）。这对 1980 年代初期的伯克希尔来说是一笔重要的钱。

Stan grew up about five blocks from my home. One of Stan’s neighbors was Walter Scott, Jr.
Walter, you will remember, brought MidAmerican Energy to Berkshire in 1999. He was also a valued Berkshire director until his death in 2021 and a very close friend. Walter was Nebraska’s philanthropic leader for decades and both Omaha and the state carries his imprint.

斯坦在离我家大约五个街区的地方长大。斯坦的邻居之一是小沃尔特·斯科特 （Walter Scott， Jr.）。你会记得，沃尔特于 1999 年将 MidAmerican Energy 带到了伯克希尔。在 2021 年去世之前，他还是伯克希尔的重要董事，也是一位非常亲密的朋友。几十年来，沃尔特一直是内布拉斯加州的慈善领袖，奥马哈和该州都带有他的印记。

Walter attended Benson High School, which I was scheduled to attend as well – until my dad
surprised everyone in 1942 by beating a four-term incumbent in a Congressional race. Life is full of surprises.

沃尔特就读于本森高中，我原定也就读于本森高中——直到 1942 年，我父亲在国会竞选中击败了一位四届现任议员，令所有人大吃一惊。生活充满了惊喜。

Wait, there’s more.
等等，还有更多。

In 1959, Don Keough and his young family lived in a home located directly across the street
from my house and about 100 yards away from where the Munger family had lived. Don was then a coffee salesman but was destined to become president of Coca-Cola as well as a devoted director of Berkshire.

1959 年，唐·基奥 （Don Keough） 和他年轻的家人住在我家街对面的一所房子里，距离芒格一家住的地方大约 100 码。唐当时是一名咖啡推销员，但注定要成为可口可乐的总裁以及伯克希尔的忠实董事。

When I met Don, he was earning $12,000 a year while he and his wife Mickie were raising
five children, all destined for Catholic schools (with tuition requirements).

当我遇到唐时，他年收入 12,000 美元，而他和他的妻子米奇正在抚养五个孩子，他们都注定要进入天主教学校（有学费要求）。

Our families became fast friends. Don came from a farm in northwest Iowa and graduated
from Omaha’s Creighton University. Early on, he married Mickie, an Omaha girl. After joining Coke,Don went on to become legendary around the globe.

我们的家人很快就成为了朋友。唐来自爱荷华州西北部的一个农场，毕业于奥马哈的克赖顿大学。早些时候，他娶了奥马哈女孩米奇。加入可口可乐后，唐继续成为全球传奇人物。

In 1985, when Don was president of Coke, the company launched its ill-fated New Coke.
Don made a famous speech in which he apologized to the public and reinstated “Old” Coke. This change of heart took place after Don explained that Coke incoming mail addressed to “Supreme Idiot” was promptly delivered to his desk. His “withdrawal” speech is a classic and can be viewed on YouTube. He cheerfully acknowledged that, in truth, the Coca-Cola product belonged to the public and not to the company. Sales subsequently soared.
You can watch Don on CharlieRose.com in a wonderful interview. (Tom Murphy and Kay
Graham have a couple of gems as well.) Like Charlie Munger, Don forever remained a Midwestern boy, enthusiastic, friendly and American to the core.

1985 年，当唐担任可口可乐总裁时，该公司推出了命运多舛的新可乐。唐发表了一场著名的演讲，向公众道歉并恢复了“老”可乐。这种改变主意是在唐解释说，寄给“至尊白痴”的可乐邮件被及时送到他的办公桌后发生的。他的“退缩”演讲堪称经典，可以在 YouTube 上观看。他高兴地承认，事实上，可口可乐产品属于公众，而不是公司。随后销售额猛增。您可以在 CharlieRose.com 上观看 Don 的精彩采访。（汤姆·墨菲和凯·格雷厄姆也有几颗宝石。和查理·芒格一样，唐永远是一个中西部男孩，热情、友好和骨子里是美国人。

Finally, Ajit Jain, born and raised in India, as well as Greg Abel, our Canadian CEO-to-be,
each lived in Omaha for several years late in the 20th Century. Indeed, in the 1990s, Greg lived only a few blocks away from me on Farnam Street, though we never met at the time.
Can it be that there is some magic ingredient in Omaha’s water?

最后，在印度出生和长大的 Ajit Jain 以及我们的加拿大准首席执行官 Greg Abel 都在 20 世纪末在奥马哈生活了几年。事实上，在 1990 年代，格雷格住在离我只有几个街区的法南街，尽管当时我们从未见过面。难道奥马哈的水里有什么神奇的成分？

I lived a few teenage years in Washington, DC (when my dad was in Congress) and in 1954 I
took what I thought would be a permanent job in Manhattan. There I was treated wonderfully by Ben Graham and Jerry Newman and made many life-long friends. New York had unique assets – and still does. Nevertheless, in 1956, after only 1½ years, I returned to Omaha, never to wander again.

我在华盛顿特区生活了几年（当时我父亲在国会任职），1954 年，我在曼哈顿找到了一份我认为会是一份永久工作。在那里，我受到了本·格雷厄姆和杰里·纽曼的极好对待，并结交了许多终生的朋友。纽约拥有独特的资产——现在仍然如此。然而，在 1956 年，仅仅 1 年半后，我回到了奥马哈，再也没有流浪过。

Subsequently, my three children, as well as several grandchildren, were raised in Omaha. My
children always attended public schools （graduating from the same high school that educated my dad (class of 1921)）, my first wife, Susie (class of 1950) as well as Charlie, Stan Lipsey, Irv and Ron Blumkin, who were key to growing Nebraska Furniture Mart, and Jack Ringwalt (class of 1923),who founded National Indemnity and sold it to Berkshire in 1967 where it became the base upon which our huge P/C operation was constructed.

随后，我的三个孩子和几个孙子在奥马哈长大。我的孩子们总是就读于公立学校（毕业于教育我父亲（1921 届）、我的第一任妻子苏西（1950 届）以及查理、斯坦·利普西、欧夫和罗恩·布鲁姆金，他们是发展内布拉斯加州家具市场的关键，以及杰克·林沃尔特（1923 届），他创立了国家赔偿公司，并于 1967 年将其出售给伯克希尔，在那里它成为我们庞大的 P/C 业务的基础。

Our country has many great companies, great schools, great medical facilities and each
definitely has its own special advantages along with talented people. But I feel very lucky to have had the good fortune to make many lifelong friends, to meet both of my wives, to receive a great startin education at public schools, to meet many interesting and friendly adult Omahans when I was very young, and to make a wide variety of friends in the Nebraska National Guard. In short, Nebraska has been home.

我国有许多伟大的公司、伟大的学校、伟大的医疗设施，每个公司都有自己的特殊优势和人才。但我感到非常幸运，有幸结交了许多终生的朋友，认识了我的两位妻子，在公立学校接受了良好的教育，在我很小的时候就遇到了许多有趣和友好的成年奥马哈人，并在内布拉斯加州国民警卫队结交了各种各样的朋友。简而言之，内布拉斯加州一直是家。

Looking back I feel that both Berkshire and I did better because of our base in Omaha than if I had resided anywhere else. The center of the United States was a very good place to be born, to raise a family, and to build a business. Through dumb luck, I drew a ridiculously long straw at birth.

回想起来，我觉得伯克希尔和我都因为在奥马哈的基地而做得比我住在其他地方要好。美国的中心是一个非常适合出生、养家糊口和创业的地方。由于运气不好，我在出生时就画了一根长得离谱的稻草。

Now let’s move on to my advanced age. My genes haven’t been particularly helpful – the
family’s all-time record for longevity (admittedly family records get fuzzy as you work backwards) was 92 until I came along. But I have had wise, friendly and dedicated Omaha doctors, starting with Harley Hotz, and continuing to this day. At least three times, my life has been saved, each with doctors based within a few miles from my home. (I have given up fingerprinting nurses, however.You can get away with many eccentricities at 95 . . . . . but there are limits.)

我的基因并不是特别有帮助——在我出现之前，这个家族的长寿记录（诚然，随着你倒推，家庭记录会变得模糊）是 92 岁。但我有过明智、友好和敬业的奥马哈医生，从哈雷霍茨开始，一直持续到今天。至少有三次，我的生命得到了挽救，每次都有医生在离我家几英里的范围内。（然而，我已经放弃了指纹识别护士。你可以在 95 岁时摆脱许多怪癖，但也有限制。）

Those who reach old age need a huge dose of good luck, daily escaping banana peels, natural
disasters, drunk or distracted drivers, lightning strikes, you name it.

那些活到老年的人需要大量的运气，每天都要躲过香蕉皮、自然灾害、酒驾或分心驾驶、雷击等等各种意外。

But Lady Luck is fickle and – no other term fits – wildly unfair. In many cases, our leaders and the rich have received far more than their share of luck – which, too often, the recipients prefer not to acknowledge. Dynastic inheritors have achieved lifetime financial independence the moment they emerged from the womb, while others have arrived, facing a hell-hole during their early life or, worse, disabling physical or mental infirmities that rob them of what I have taken for granted. In many heavily-populated parts of the world, I would likely have had a miserable life and my sisters would have had one even worse.

但幸运女神是善变的，而且——没有其他术语适合——非常不公平。在许多情况下，我们的领导人和富人得到的运气远远超过他们的份额——而这些运气往往是接受者不愿承认的。王朝继承者在从子宫里出来的那一刻就实现了终生的经济独立，而其他人则在早年就面临地狱般的困境，或者更糟糕的是，身体或精神上的残疾剥夺了他们我认为理所当然的东西。在世界上许多人口稠密的地方，我可能会过着悲惨的生活，而我的姐妹们的生活会更糟。

I was born in 1930 healthy, reasonably intelligent, white, male and in America. Wow! Thank
you, Lady Luck. My sisters had equal intelligence and better personalities than I but faced a much different outlook. Lady Luck continued to drop by during much of my life, but she has better things to do than work with those in their 90s. Luck has its limits.

我出生于 1930 年，健康、相当聪明、白人、男性，在美国。哇！谢谢你，幸运女神。我的姐妹们比我有同样的智力和更好的性格，但面临着截然不同的观点。在我生命中的大部分时间里，幸运女神都会继续光顾，但她有比与 90 多岁的人一起工作更好的事情要做。运气有其极限。

Father Time, to the contrary, now finds me more interesting as I age. And he is undefeated;
for him, everyone ends up on his score card as “wins.” When balance, sight, hearing and memory are all on a persistently downward slope, you know Father Time is in the neighborhood.

相反，随着年龄的增长，时间之父现在发现我更有趣。他是不败的;对他来说，每个人最终都会在他的记分卡上显示为“胜利”。当平衡、视觉、听觉和记忆力都处于持续下降的斜坡上时，你就知道时间之父就在附近。

I was late in becoming old – its onset materially varies – but once it appears, it is not to be denied.

我变老的时间很晚——它的发病因质性而异——但一旦它出现，就不能否认。

To my surprise, I generally feel good. Though I move slowly and read with increasing
difficulty, I am at the office five days a week where I work with wonderful people. Occasionally, I get a useful idea or am approached with an offer we might not otherwise have received. Because of Berkshire’s size and because of market levels, ideas are few – but not zero.

令我惊讶的是，我总体上感觉很好。尽管我行动缓慢，阅读的难度也越来越大，但我每周有五天在办公室与优秀的人一起工作。偶尔，我会得到一个有用的想法，或者有人提出我们可能不会收到的报价。由于伯克希尔的规模和市场水平，想法很少——但并非为零。

My unexpected longevity, however, has unavoidable consequences of major importance to my
family and the achievement of my charitable objectives.

然而，我出乎意料的长寿对我的家庭和我的慈善目标的实现产生了不可避免的后果。

Let’s explore them.

让我们来探讨一下它们。

What Comes Next

接下来是什么

My children are all above normal retirement age, having reached 72, 70 and 67. It would be a
mistake to wager that all three – now at their peak in many respects – will enjoy my exceptional luck in delayed aging. To improve the probability that they will dispose of what will essentially be my entire estate before alternate trustees replace them, I need to step up the pace of lifetime gifts to their three foundations. My children are now at their prime in respect to experience and wisdom but have yet to enter old age. That “honeymoon” period will not last forever.

我的孩子都超过了正常退休年龄，已经达到了 72 岁、70 岁和 67 岁。如果打赌这三者——现在在许多方面都处于巅峰状态——都会享受我在延迟衰老方面的非凡运气，那将是错误的。为了提高他们在替代受托人取代他们之前处置基本上是我的全部遗产的可能性，我需要加快向他们的三个基金会提供终身礼物的步伐。我的孩子们现在在经验和智慧方面正处于巅峰时期，但尚未进入老年。那个“蜜月”期不会永远持续下去。

Fortunately, a course correction is easy to execute. There is, however, one additional factor to consider: I would like to keep a significant amount of “A” shares until Berkshire shareholders develop the comfort with Greg that Charlie and I long enjoyed. That level of confidence shouldn’t take long. My children are already 100% behind Greg as are the Berkshire directors.

幸运的是，路线修正很容易执行。然而，还有一个额外的因素需要考虑：我想保留大量“A”股，直到伯克希尔股东对查理和我长期以来对格雷格产生满意感。这种程度的信心应该不会花很长时间。我的孩子们已经 100% 支持格雷格，伯克希尔的董事也是如此。

All three children now have the maturity, brains, energy and instincts to disburse a large
fortune. They will also have the advantage of being above ground when I am long gone and, if
necessary, can adopt policies both anticipatory and reactive to federal tax policies or other
developments affecting philanthropy. They may well need to adapt to a significantly changing world around them. Ruling from the grave does not have a great record, and I have never had an urge to do so.

现在，这三个孩子都拥有了成熟、大脑、精力和直觉，可以支付一大笔财富。当我早已离开时，他们还将具有在地面上的优势，如有必要，可以采取对联邦税收政策或其他影响慈善事业的发展进行预期和反应的政策。他们很可能需要适应周围显着变化的世界。从坟墓中统治没有很好的记录，我从来没有这样做的冲动。

Fortunately, all three children received a dominant dosage of their genes from their mother.
As the decades have passed, I have also become a better model for their thinking and behavior. I will never, however, achieve parity with their mother.

幸运的是，这三个孩子都从母亲那里获得了主要剂量的基因。几十年过去了，我也成为了他们思维和行为的更好榜样。然而，我永远无法与他们的母亲相提并论。

My children have three alternate trustees in case of any premature deaths or disabilities. The
alternates are not ranked or tied to a specific child. All three are exceptional humans and wise in the ways of the world. They have no conflicting motives.

我的孩子有三个候补受托人，以防任何过早死亡或残疾。候补选人没有排名或与特定子项绑定。这三个人都是杰出的人，在世俗方面很聪明。他们没有相互冲突的动机。

I have assured my children that they do not need to perform miracles nor fear failures or
disappointments. These are inevitable, and I have made my share. They simply need to improve
somewhat upon what generally is achieved by government activities and/or private philanthropy,
recognizing these other methods of redistribution of wealth have shortcomings as well.

我向我的孩子保证，他们不需要创造奇迹，也不需要害怕失败或失望。这些都是不可避免的，我已经做出了我的贡献。他们只需要在政府活动和/或私人慈善事业所取得的普遍成就的基础上有所改进，并认识到这些其他财富再分配方法也有缺点。

Early on, I contemplated various grand philanthropic plans. Though I was stubborn, these did
not prove feasible. During my many years, I’ve also watched ill-conceived wealth transfers by
political hacks, dynastic choices and, yes, inept or quirky philanthropists.

早些时候，我考虑了各种宏伟的慈善计划。虽然我很固执，但这些都不可行。在我的多年里，我还目睹了政治黑客、王朝选择以及无能或古怪的慈善家考虑不周的财富转移。

If my children simply do a decent job, they can be certain that their mother and I would be
pleased. Their instincts are good and they each have had years of practice with very small sums
initially that have been irregularly increased to more than $500 million annually.

如果我的孩子只是做得体面，他们可以肯定他们和他们的母亲我会很高兴。他们的直觉很好，他们每个人都有多年的实践经验，最初的金额非常小，但后来不定期地增加到每年超过 5 亿美元。

All three like working long hours to help others, each in their own way.

这三个人都喜欢长时间工作以自己的方式帮助他人。

The acceleration of my lifetime gifts to my children’s foundations in no way reflects any
change in my views about Berkshire’s prospects. Greg Abel has more than met the high expectations I had for him when I first thought he should be Berkshire’s next CEO. He understands many of our businesses and personnel far better than I now do, and he is a very fast learner about matters many CEOs don’t even consider. I can’t think of a CEO, a management consultant, an academic, a member of government – you name it – that I would select over Greg to handle your savings and mine.

我一生对我孩子的基金会的捐赠速度加快，这绝不反映我对伯克希尔前景的看法有任何变化。格雷格·阿贝尔 （Greg Abel） 完全满足了我最初认为他应该成为伯克希尔下一任首席执行官时对他的高期望。他比我现在更了解我们的许多业务和人员，而且他对许多首席执行官甚至没有考虑过的事情学习得非常快。我想不出有哪个首席执行官、管理顾问、学者、政府成员——凡是你能想到的——我会选择格雷格来处理你和我的储蓄。

Greg understands, for example, far more about both the upside potential and the dangers of
our P/C insurance business than do a great many long-time P/C executives. My hope is that his health remains good for several decades. With a little luck, Berkshire should require only five or six CEOs over the next century. It should particularly avoid those whose goal is to retire at 65, to become look-at-me rich or to initiate a dynasty.

例如，格雷格对我们财产保险业务的上行潜力和危险的了解比许多长期的财产保险高管要多得多。我希望他的健康状况能保持良好几十年。如果运气好的话，伯克希尔在下个世纪应该只需要五六位首席执行官。它应该特别避免那些目标是在 65 岁退休、成为富人或建立王朝的人。

One unpleasant reality: Occasionally, a wonderful and loyal CEO of the parent or a
subsidiary will succumb to dementia, Alzheimer’s or another debilitating and long-term disease.
Charlie and I encountered this problem several times and failed to act. This failure can be a
huge mistake. The Board must be alert to this possibility at the CEO level and the CEO must be alert to the possibility at subsidiaries. This is easier said than done; I could cite a few examples from the past at major companies. Directors should be alert and speak up is all that I can advise.

一个令人不快的现实：有时，母公司或子公司的一位出色而忠诚的首席执行官会死于痴呆症、阿尔茨海默氏症或其他使人衰弱的长期疾病。查理和我多次遇到这个问题，但都没能采取行动。这种失败可能是一个巨大的错误。董事会必须在首席执行官层面对这种可能性保持警惕，首席执行官必须对子公司的可能性保持警惕。这说起来容易做起来难;我可以举几个过去在大公司的例子。董事们应该保持警惕，大声说出来是我能建议的。

During my lifetime, reformers sought to embarrass CEOs by requiring the disclosure of the
compensation of the boss compared to what was being paid to the average employee. Proxy
statements promptly ballooned to 100-plus pages compared to 20 or less earlier.

在我有生之年，改革者试图通过要求披露老板的薪酬与支付给普通员工的薪酬相比来让首席执行官难堪。委托书迅速膨胀到 100 多页，而之前只有 20 页或更少。

But the good intentions didn’t work; instead they backfired. Based on the majority of my
observations – the CEO of company “A” looked at his competitor at company “B” and subtly
conveyed to his board that he should be worth more. Of course, he also boosted the pay of directors and was careful who he placed on the compensation committee. The new rules produced envy, not moderation.

但良好的意图并没有奏效;相反，他们适得其反。根据我的大部分观察——“A”公司的首席执行官看着他在“B”公司的竞争对手，并巧妙地向他的董事会传达了他的价值。当然，他也提高了董事的薪酬，并谨慎地安排了谁进入薪酬委员会。新规则产生了嫉妒，而不是适度。

The ratcheting took on a life of its own. What often bothers very wealthy CEOs – they are
human, after all – is that other CEOs are getting even richer. Envy and greed walk hand in hand. And what consultant ever recommended a serious cut in CEO compensation or board payments?

棘轮有了自己的生命。经常困扰非常富有的首席执行官——毕竟他们是人——是其他首席执行官越来越富有。嫉妒与贪婪携手并进。有哪位顾问建议大幅削减首席执行官薪酬或董事会薪酬？

In aggregate, Berkshire’s businesses have moderately better-than-average prospects, led by a
few non-correlated and sizable gems. However, a decade or two from now, there will be many
companies that have done better than Berkshire; our size takes its toll.

总体而言，伯克希尔的业务前景略好于平均水平，其中以一些不相关且规模较大的宝石为首。然而，从现在起一二十年后，将会有很多公司做得比伯克希尔更好;我们的规模会造成损失。

Berkshire has less chance of a devastating disaster than any business I know. And, Berkshire
has a more shareholder-conscious management and board than almost any company with which I am
familiar (and I’ve seen a lot). Finally, Berkshire will always be managed in a manner that will make its existence an asset to the United States and eschew activities that would lead it to become a supplicant. Over time, our managers should grow quite wealthy – they have important
responsibilities – but do not have the desire for dynastic or look-at-me wealth.

伯克希尔发生毁灭性灾难的可能性比我所知道的任何企业都小。而且，伯克希尔的管理层和董事会比我熟悉的几乎所有公司都更注重股东意识（而且我见过很多）。最后，伯克希尔将始终以一种使其存在成为美国资产的方式进行管理，并避免导致其成为恳求者的活动。随着时间的推移，我们的经理人应该变得非常富有——他们肩负着重要的责任——但对王朝或看着我的财富没有渴望。

Our stock price will move capriciously, occasionally falling 50% or so as has happened three
times in 60 years under present management. Don’t despair; America will come back and so will
Berkshire shares.

我们的股价会反复无常，偶尔会下跌 50% 左右，就像在目前管理下 60 年来发生过三次一样。不要绝望;美国将回归，伯克希尔的股票也会卷土重来。

A Few Final Thoughts
最后的一些想法

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.

一个也许是自私的观察。我很高兴地说，我对人生的后半段感觉比前半段更好。我的建议：不要因为过去的错误而自责——至少从中吸取一点教训，然后继续前进。改进永远不会太晚。找到合适的英雄并复制他们。你可以从汤姆·墨菲开始;他是最好的。

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.

还记得后来获得诺贝尔奖的阿尔弗雷德·诺贝尔（Alfred Nobel）吗，据报道，他读了自己的讣告，当他的兄弟去世时，这份讣告被错误地印刷了，报纸被搞砸了。他对自己读到的内容感到震惊，并意识到他应该改变自己的行为。

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

不要指望新闻编辑室的混乱：决定你希望你的讣告说什么，并过上应得的生活。

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.

伟大不是通过积累大量的金钱、大量的宣传或政府中的巨大权力而产生的。当你以成千上万种方式中的任何一种帮助别人时，你就帮助了世界。善意无需成本，却也无价。无论您是否有宗教信仰，都很难将黄金法则作为行为指南。

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.

我写这篇文章的原因是，我无数次轻率地犯过很多错误，但也非常幸运地从一些很棒的朋友那里学习如何表现得更好（然而，离完美还有很长的路要走）。请记住，清洁女工和主席一样是人。

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.

是的，即使是混蛋;改变永远不会太晚。记得感谢美国最大限度地利用你们的机会。但它在分配奖励时不可避免地反复无常，有时甚至是卑鄙的。

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

非常仔细地选择你的英雄，然后模仿他们。你永远不会完美，但你总是可以变得更好。

About Berkshire
关于伯克希尔

Berkshire Hathaway and its subsidiaries engage in diverse business activities including insurance and reinsurance, utilities and energy, freight rail transportation, manufacturing, services and retailing.Common stock of the company is listed on the New York Stock Exchange, trading symbols BRK.A and BRK.B.
伯克希尔哈撒韦公司及其子公司从事多种业务活动，包括保险和再保险、公用事业和能源、货运、铁路运输、制造、服务和零售。该公司的普通股在纽约证券交易所上市，交易代码为 BRK。A 和 BRK.B。

– End –

Contact

Marc D. Hamburg

402-346-1400