Warren Buffett Says Farmer Son Howard Who Dropped Out of 3 Colleges Is Happiest ‘Moving Dirt’ While He’s Happiest ‘Watching Football’
Howard Buffett just became chairman of Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A) (BRK.B) the $1 trillion-plus empire his father, Warren Buffett, spent more than five decades building. And there’s something wonderfully odd about the man now sitting atop Berkshire’s board.
He’s a farmer.
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Not a billionaire’s son playing at farming, either. Howard has spent much of his adult life growing corn and soybeans, climbing into enormous machines, and working the land himself. Years before he became Berkshire’s chairman, CBS‘s Lesley Stahl visited him on his 1,500-acre farm in Illinois for 60 Minutes in 2011 and found a man who seemed almost comically removed from his father’s world of stocks, companies, and balance sheets.
“He’s a farmer, he’s outdoors, he’s down in the dirt. Are you sure he’s your son?” Stahl joked.
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Warren Buffett’s answer was classic.
“Well, I think that’s worth checking out. You’ll have a big exclusive.”
Then he explained the difference between the two men.
“He likes doing big things. You know, moving dirt. And he just is happiest when he’s working hard. I’m happiest when I’m just kind of sitting around watching football!”
That old exchange hits differently now that Howard is no longer merely the farmer Warren once picked to guard Berkshire’s culture. He’s the chairman.
Three Colleges, Three Dropouts, and No Panic
Howard’s route there wasn’t exactly paved with diplomas.
He attended three colleges—Augustana College, Chapman College, and the University of California at Irvine—and dropped out of all three. One after another, he zigged and zagged until farming finally stuck.
Stahl asked Warren whether he had been worried.
“I wasn’t.”
Why?
“He was just kind of finding what he wanted to do.”
Warren didn’t believe college had to be the finish line. None of his three children graduated, he noted, joking that if they pooled all their college credits, “we can get a degree.”
“One degree!” Stahl replied.
“Yeah. Just pass it around!” Warren said.
Once Howard settled on farming, even his father’s help came with a Buffett-style lesson in incentives. Warren bought land for his son, but Howard had to pay rent—and part of the rent was tied to his body weight.
Stahl couldn’t resist.
“So if you gain weight your rent goes up and if you lose weight the rent goes down?”
“Something like that,” Howard replied.
Financial incentives, he joked, work better on some things than on weight.
Howard Wasn’t Trying to Become Warren
Howard wasn’t simply different from his father. He had deliberately built a life around something his father couldn’t give him.
Warren had always told his children to find something they loved as much as he loved making money. Howard found that something in farming.
The 60 Minutes segment showed him working the 1,500-acre operation in Pana, Illinois, rather than posing as a gentleman farmer while somebody else did the dirty work. He drove the equipment, harvested the crops, and spent his time where he wanted to be—outside.
That same hands-on streak followed Howard into philanthropy.
As chairman and CEO of the Howard G. Buffett Foundation, he has spent years working on global food security and conflict mitigation. During the 60 Minutes profile, CBS described him as a hands-on philanthropist who visited as many as 20 countries a year and documented much of what he saw through photography.
He wasn’t content simply to sign checks. He wanted to see the farms, the people, and the problems for himself.
The Farmer Finally Gets the Boardroom
Warren’s choice of Howard as Berkshire’s future chairman once seemed almost strange enough to require an explanation.
It doesn’t anymore.
Howard had been a Berkshire director since 1993, giving him more than three decades inside the company. His job was never supposed to be picking stocks or running Berkshire’s operating businesses. The idea was that he would protect the culture Warren had built while somebody else handled the machinery of the company.
That succession plan became official Sept. 18, when Berkshire announced that Warren had become chairman emeritus while remaining a director and that Howard had been elected chairman. Greg Abel remains CEO and runs the company.
Abel described Howard as the guardian of Berkshire’s culture and values.
It’s a fitting role for the man who spent his life refusing to play his father’s game.
Warren picked stocks.
Howard picked corn.
Warren liked watching football.
Howard liked moving dirt.
And after all those years, the farmer ended up exactly where his father wanted him—at the head of Berkshire Hathaway, protecting the culture rather than trying to become the man who created it.
On the date of publication, Caleb Naysmith did not have (either directly or indirectly) positions in any of the securities mentioned in this article. All information and data in this article is solely for informational purposes. This article was originally published on Barchart.com