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

When Greg Abel takes over for Warren Buffett as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A, BRK.B), he’ll have big shoes to fill. Buffett leaves an unparalleled legacy as one of the greatest investors ever, having transformed Berkshire from a struggling textile company into a $1.1 trillion conglomerate.

Abel, a famously private executive who has run Berkshire’s non-insurance operations, offered a glimpse into his philosophy for success while addressing shareholders at Berkshire’s annual meeting this month.

Abel’s Key to Success

At the 2025 shareholder meeting, where Buffett announced he would step down as CEO by the end of the year, a teenager from Hong Kong seized her moment during the meeting’s famed Q&A session. When she asked Abel what it would take to get hired by him, he offered a simple answer.

“You’re going to have to work hard, and I think hard work takes all of us a long way in life,” Abel said. “There’s a lot of things that matter in life, but if you start with a great work ethic and have that attitude that you want to contribute, you’re going to go a long way in life.”

“If you work hard, you’re going to find the things you love in life,” he added. “We truly look forward to the day you’re part of Berkshire.”

Abel’s Humble Roots

Abel’s grounded advice echoes the values long espoused by Buffett, a Wall Street titan famous for his modest lifestyle—he still lives in the same Omaha, Neb., home he bought in 1958 for $31,500 (about $353,000 in April 2025 dollars). Like Buffett, Abel had humble beginnings. A Canadian by birth and an accountant by training, he earned a bachelor’s degree in accounting from the University of Alberta in 1984.

Also, like his predecessor, he started working on his business acumen at an early age. “From a young age, business intrigued me,” Abel told the Calgary Herald in 2024. “It was as simple as back in the day, you could collect pop bottles, and people had a tendency to throw them away. And we’d get the nickel. I almost viewed it like a business.”

He said he started to optimize his route home to pick up more bottles and earn more money. If he made $1 one week, he would try to make $1.05 the next week.

“How many could I pick up in a week?” Abel said. “I still remember thinking, ‘OK, well, there’s a better route home…Maybe I can get five pop bottles on the way home.'”

Is Hard Work Enough?

Abel acknowledges that success isn’t guaranteed by effort alone. “I think hard work leads to good outcomes,” Abel told the Horatio Alger Association. “In my schooling, in sports, and in my business positions, I learned that if I put in a lot of work and was well-prepared, then success would be more likely.”

That measured “more likely” reveals a nuanced view—preparation improves the odds of success, but it doesn’t guarantee results.

At the 2025 Berkshire meeting, Buffett himself highlighted this reality. “The luckiest day in my life is the day I was born—because I was born in the United States,” he said. “At the time, about 3% of all the births in the world were taking place in the United States.”

“I was just lucky, and I was lucky to be born male. I was lucky to be born white,” he added, acknowledging the role of sexism and racism as barriers to success.

The Bottom Line

As Buffett steps down, Abel brings a practical work ethic and an understated approach to the helm of Berkshire Hathaway. His message is straightforward: Hard work significantly improves your chances of success, but it doesn’t guarantee it.