The Legacy Continues: Lessons from Berkshire Hathaway

In early May, I traveled to Omaha, Nebraska, to attend the Berkshire Hathaway Annual Shareholders Meeting.

The meeting is often seen as one of the most important annual gatherings for global investors. Yet for me, its significance went beyond investment itself. It offered a valuable perspective on long-term trust, business succession, and the responsibility that comes with being trusted over time.

This year’s theme, “The Legacy Continues,” is simple, but deeply thought-provoking. How does an individual or a company build value that can be trusted over time? When markets change, leadership transitions, and the business environment continues to evolve, can the principles that once earned trust continue to be understood, practiced, and carried forward?

The story of Warren Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway attracts attention not only because of investment performance, but also because it provides a window into long-term thinking: how to remain rational in complex markets, how to balance capital with responsibility, and how a company can gradually move beyond reliance on one individual toward a more sustainable culture and operating system.

Investment Is Not Only About Returns, but Also About Responsibility

When people speak about investment, they often think first of returns, growth, and compounding. But what I felt more strongly at this meeting was that investment is not merely an allocation of capital. It is also a relationship built on trust.

When an individual or a company is trusted over a long period of time, capital is no longer just a number. Behind it are the expectations of investors, the confidence of partners, the choices of employees, and the market’s long-term judgment of a company’s conduct.

In this sense, investment can amplify many things. It may amplify returns, but it also amplifies judgment. It may bring opportunity, but it also brings greater responsibility. The more people entrust you with their confidence, the more you need discipline, prudence, and clear principles.

This is one of the reasons Buffett remains worth studying. What he represents is not the pursuit of opportunities at any cost, but the discipline to remain rational across long cycles. Compared with short-term speed, long-term steadiness can be more difficult. Compared with making one successful decision, it may be even more important to avoid damaging trust over time.

For companies, this is equally important. Growth matters, but growth alone does not automatically create trust. What often allows business relationships to continue is reliable delivery, transparent communication, risk awareness, and a sustained sense of responsibility.

Business Succession Is More Than a Change of Leadership

“The Legacy Continues” naturally leads to the question of business succession. Succession is often understood as a question of who will take over. But in my view, succession is not only about a change in position. It is also about the continuity of values, organizational culture, and decision-making principles.

A founder may shape the beginning of a company, but whether a company can go further depends on whether it can gradually build stable mechanisms: clear principles, people who can carry responsibility, and the ability to maintain judgment and execution even when the founder steps back.

This is a reminder for every company. In the early stages, a growing business often relies heavily on the founder’s judgment, resources, and personal drive. But as the business becomes more complex, as partnerships expand, and as markets become broader, the company must gradually move from individual capability toward organizational capability.

Succession does not happen suddenly on one specific day. It may begin with one act of delegation, one moment of trust, or one opportunity for younger people to take real responsibility. If a company hopes to develop over the long term, it needs to cultivate people, build mechanisms, and translate values into everyday decisions.

Talent Development Is an Essential Part of Long-Term Thinking

The meeting also led me to reflect on talent development.

Many companies speak about long-termism, but long-term thinking is not only reflected in strategy statements. It is also reflected in how a company treats and develops people. An organization that truly looks toward the future should be willing to invest time in developing those who may one day carry greater responsibility.

Talent is not created through recruitment alone. Strong talent is often developed through real projects, real pressure, and real responsibility. If young people are always treated only as executors, it is difficult for them to build independent judgment. If a company focuses only on short-term results, it is difficult to create enough space for people to grow.

This does not mean that efficiency should be ignored, nor does it mean that all mistakes should be tolerated without limits. On the contrary, effective talent development requires boundaries, standards, and responsibility. A company should give young people opportunities, while also helping them understand the weight of responsibility. It should allow room for growth, while building clear feedback mechanisms.

Long-termism is not about being slow, nor is it about being conservative. It is a more patient way of building, with greater attention to quality and sustainability. For a company, the ability to develop trustworthy people may determine whether it can move through longer cycles.

What This Means for Fan’an: Building Long-Term Trust in Cross-Border Collaboration

This experience also brought me back to Fan’an’s own path.

Fan’an focuses on international industrial cooperation and market connection. What we face is not simply individual transactions, but communication and collaboration across countries, markets, and business cultures.

In cross-border cooperation, trust is especially important. Differences in language, culture, regulations, business practices, and information environments naturally create uncertainty. Whether a partnership can truly be implemented often depends not only on product pricing, but also on whether both sides can communicate continuously, understand each other’s needs, and maintain a sense of responsibility throughout execution.

This is the direction Fan’an hopes to follow over the long term. We do not see our role as simply matching information. Rather, we hope to help reduce the cost of understanding, communication, and execution, so that Chinese enterprises and overseas markets can build more stable and sustainable connections.

We believe that for Chinese enterprises going global, it is not only products that enter overseas markets. Organizational capability, service capability, communication capability, and a long-term sense of responsibility must also go global. Likewise, overseas markets’ understanding of China should not remain limited to price and production capacity. It can also include the growing quality, efficiency, innovation, and partnership capabilities of Chinese companies.

In this process, Fan’an hopes to be a prudent and long-term participant. We do not seek to define ourselves through exaggerated narratives. Instead, we hope to accumulate trust, improve our capabilities, and grow together with partners through concrete cooperation.

The Legacy Continues Is Also a Question for Our Generation

“The Legacy Continues” is not only a theme for Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway. It can also be a question for every business operator, entrepreneur, and younger-generation participant in global commerce.

How do we understand the experience of previous generations? How do we develop our own judgment in a changing era? How do we pursue growth without losing prudence, responsibility, and long-term value?

There is no standard answer to these questions. They can only be answered gradually through real business practice.

For me, the greatest takeaway from this shareholders meeting was not a specific investment technique, but a simple reminder: business is ultimately not only about growth, but also about trust; not only about opportunity, but also about responsibility; not only about temporary success, but also about whether meaningful values can continue to be carried forward.

The legacy continues — not because time simply moves forward, but because people choose to carry trust and responsibility forward.