Why Warren Buffett Doesn’t Suppose You Want a Fancy Diploma to Be Profitable

Warren Buffett is extensively considered one of many biggest investing minds of all time. The “Oracle of Omaha” earned a bachelor’s diploma from the College of Nebraska and a grasp’s diploma in economics from Columbia College, the place he studied beneath legendary investor Benjamin Graham.

However regardless of his personal training, the Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK.A) CEO has stated he does not care the place somebody went to highschool—or whether or not they attended school in any respect. “I by no means have a look at the place a candidate has gone to highschool. By no means!” he wrote in a February 2025 letter to shareholders.

As a substitute, Buffett believes profitable enterprise management stems from innate expertise and real-world expertise reasonably than prestigious diplomas.

What Buffett Says About Discovering Good Enterprise Expertise

In his 2025 letter, Buffett stated that whereas nice managers can come from prestigious colleges, there are various profitable enterprise leaders who did not attend elite establishments and even full their formal training.

“I used to be fortunate sufficient to get an training at three high-quality universities,” Buffett wrote. “And I avidly consider in lifelong studying. I’ve noticed, nonetheless, {that a} very massive portion of enterprise expertise is innate with nature swamping nurture.”

Buffett talked about three examples of profitable enterprise minds who did not graduate from elite colleges:

• Pete Liegl based Forest River, a producer of leisure autos that had $1.6 billion in annual gross sales when it was acquired by Berkshire Hathaway in 2005. Liegl obtained a bachelor’s diploma from Northern Michigan College and an MBA from Western Michigan College. In his 2025 letter, Buffett praised Liegl as “a person unknown to most Berkshire shareholders however one who contributed many billions to their combination wealth.”
• Invoice Gates dropped out of Harvard Faculty to begin Microsoft (MSFT) and have become one of many world’s wealthiest individuals, although he hasn’t inspired different college students to do the identical. “Though I dropped out of school and bought fortunate pursuing a profession in software program, getting a level is a a lot surer path to success,” he wrote in 2015.
• Ben Rosner based Related Retail Shops, a retail chain that had 75 ladies’s attire shops when it was acquired by Berkshire Hathaway in 1978. Buffett described Rosner as “a retailing genius,” regardless of having solely a sixth-grade training.

Does a Diploma Nonetheless Matter?

Whereas Buffett attended three universities, he has stated that he considers a $100 public-speaking course to be “an important diploma I’ve.”

“It’s actually had the most important influence when it comes to my subsequent success,” he stated in an interview for Getting There: A E-book of Mentors. He stated he doesn’t show his diplomas from the College of Nebraska or Columbia College in his workplace, however he retains the public-speaking certificates on show.

“Some individuals are going to get quite a bit out of superior training, and a few individuals are going to get little or no,” Buffett stated in a 2019 interview with Yahoo Finance. “It is dependent upon the individual, way more than it is dependent upon the college.”

Analysis exhibits {that a} school training does carry vital worth for college kids, as individuals with larger instructional attainment are inclined to earn more cash. In 2022, the median earnings of these with a bachelor’s diploma had been 59% larger than the median earnings of those that had solely accomplished highschool. Folks with solely a highschool training additionally face larger charges of unemployment in comparison with individuals with both an affiliate’s or a bachelor’s diploma.

It is value noting that the end result of upper training can differ considerably relying on the kind of faculty a pupil attends. Most schools produce graduates who earn greater than the standard highschool graduate a decade after enrollment, in line with a 2024 evaluation by the HEA Group analyzing knowledge from about 5 million former college students. However on the majority of for-profit colleges, most former college students earned lower than highschool graduates 10 years after enrolling, the report discovered.

In the meantime, public notion might be shifting to align extra with Buffett’s view on the worth of upper training. A 2023 Pew Analysis Middle survey discovered that about half (49%) of these surveyed say a four-year school diploma is much less necessary for attaining a well-paying job than 20 years in the past.

The Backside Line

Buffett’s feedback reduce by way of the credentialism that dominates many hiring practices at the moment. Whereas training can present invaluable information, Buffett emphasizes that pure expertise, sensible expertise, and confirmed outcomes in the end matter extra to him than the place—or if—somebody went to varsity.