Warren Buffett’s fans express sadness, gratitude in Omaha: “I cried”

Veron Wong told me that he cried when Warren Buffett announced that he would leave Berkshire Hathaway.

Wong was among the tens of thousands of Pavite followers who descended in Omaha, Nebraska, for the annual meeting of the company.

After I was in the room on Saturday to announce the shock of Buffett that he would resign at the end of 2025, I began asking the shareholders about their feeling about the man’s loss in the midst of everything.

I asked 20 of them the question anywhere I can in “Woodstock for Capitalists” – in a parking lot in the furniture store, and during 5,000 across the city center, at a farewell lunch, and in the bars.

This is how I found Wong. He was enjoying cocktails with his partner, Joanna Vadel, at the Marriott Center opposite the Chi Health Center, the place of the Berkshire meeting.

Wong, 31, said that he loved Bofit and admired him to the point that the investor felt that he was his father.

“I cried,” he said. “It was sad.”

“Everyone was celebrating and celebrating,” Fadil, 30, told me, a strategic expert in innovation design from New York. “It was a beautiful moment. It was sweet and passed, but I think it is nice to be here for this society and be part of this legacy.”

What a legacy: the fifth person in the world, has done failed fabric in 60 years and turned it into one of the most valuable companies in the world.

The couple there was to celebrate their idol. The followers of Pavit said others who spoke to them that they feel everything from shock and sadness to gratitude and hope. But many of them said that they are concerned that without Buffett, the narrow Berkshire community can stumble and attract it.

“He has a great moral compass”

Later on Saturday, it stopped by a picnic for shareholders outside the Mart Furniture. Friends and families were chewed on barbecue parties, played grass games, danced along live music.

Vipara Rasphone, a master’s administration student, told me

He said, “I still treat it.” He thought about what Buffett’s departure means for the investment world.

“Who will be our role model?” He asked.

Mike Shotz, 63, was a warehouse worker from Omaha attending the meeting for the first time, sitting near the theater where two singers performed the songs of classic pop and rock.

He told me that Buffett’s decision applauded to step down, saying that it is better not to wait for the inevitable “and that Pavite could continue to direct Greg Abel, Vice President of Berkshire and the potential Pavite behind.

Early on Sunday, I joined the shareholders participating in the 5K race, which was organized by Brooks Running, a subsidiary of Berkshire. Gary Oberrt, 74, told me, a semi -retired teacher from Oklahoma, who said he had owned Berkshire’s shares for about 10 years, he was optimistic about the company’s prospects.

He added, “I believe in what I created and deed, which continues to grow and do better,” he added.

Sabina Koville, 57, told me a local medical researcher and a member of the Women’s Financial Wiped Literacy Group, while we were walking through the center of Umaha in the city center that she felt sad because of the departure of Pavite.

“She was shook,” she said. “He has done a great job for a long time, and he has a great moral compass.”

“I hope Greg will participate in this compass and that Pavite still appears at times,” she added, referring to ABEL.

Fears about the future call for Omaha

Two hours later, they returned to the Marriott Hotel, hundreds of people were mixing coffee, breakfast sandwiches, cakes, and fresh fruits while the insurance company Marcil held a meeting in the celebration hall.

A conversation with Martin Wigand, the 67 -year -old, has had a 67 -year -old business that has owned Berkshire’s shares for 40 years and has come to the meeting since the eighties. He told me that he saw Buffett “a great, teacher and host of the capital.”

Wigand rejected the idea that Berkshire’s stock may be evaluated without the official. “There is no Pavite Premium now, it has gone 25 years ago,” he said.

He said he did not see Abel showing charisma Pavite and his late commercial partner, Charlie Monage. Wigand is also worried loudly It will be a lesser destination for future investors. Buffett was born in this city, with a population of 500,000, and his face was throughout.Bazaar of deals“Berkshire’s companies were selling a shareholder discount.

Sheldon Vaserman, 77, a retired businessman from Florida said he owns Berkshire’s shares for more than 30 years, asked whether Abel would move to Omaha. “Di Moin’s residents to become the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway“The local ABEL paper has reported that it is possible. Des Moines is located, Iowa, about two and a half hours from Omaha by car.

Wasserman compared the possibility that the Pavite behind ABEL and Tim Cook replaces Steve Jobs as Apple CEO in 2011.

Vaserman was also rising on one of the famous statements of Buffett to emphasize his point of view that Berkshire had more than its CEO, and that his successor would have a solid foundation to build from him.

“We are standing in a tree that has grown from the seed of a person planted years ago,” he said.

Vaserman told me that he is not planning to sell Berkshire shares if he decreases, not only because he trusts his operations but also because “taxes will be astronomical.”

Signe Loenholdt, 44, a Denmark financial teacher who teaches Buffett investment, holds a drink in the basement bar before picking up shuttle to the airport.

She said, “I am concerned about the continuity of society after Buffett,” and she wondered whether the Omha’s gatherings in the future will retain its global attractiveness without Buffett as a star.

Will you sell Berkshire’s shares if they fall on the news of the departure of Pavite? Loenholdt said she would buy more of her.

After all, Hakim Umha always called for a retreat.