I’ll admit it: while half the country’s been glued to England’s World Cup group games, I’ve been thinking about Warren Buffett. And also the World Cup.

Buffett handed the Berkshire Hathaway reins to Greg Abel at the start of this year. It feels like a good moment to ask: what actually made him so good at this?

Buffett’s first investment

Buffett’s father bought him three shares in Cities Service in 1942. At the time, Buffett was 11 years old. 

It was a good investment, but he sold too early and watched the price triple without him. It did, however, teach him a valuable lesson that shaped the next 80 years.

In 2018, Buffett said that investing can be “a question sometimes of confusing the forest with the trees”. What matters isn’t the daily price movement – it’s the underlying business.

That’s not a famous quote. It won’t show up on a motivational poster. But it’s arguably more important than half the ones that do.

Avoiding FOMO – and what to do instead

Berkshire has never offered investors timing opportunities, it’s never offered the next big AI rally, and it’s never promised quick riches. What it offered was time. 

Buffett’s net worth was built almost entirely after his 60th birthday. That’s because compound interest rewards patience and persistence, not timing.

FOMO itself isn’t a bad thing. It’s extremely important to avoid doing (or not doing) things that can cause investors to miss out on big returns.

This, however, isn’t about missing the next big stock or rally. It’s about avoiding having years spent not invested, while the market keeps compounding wealth for everyone else.

FOMO about individual trees can be highly counterproductive. But investors don’t want to let that translate into missing the entire forest.

What does Buffett look for?

Greggs (LSE:GRG) sits in the FTSE 250, not the 100, but it illustrates Buffett’s story well. It has a lot of the features the Oracle of Omaha looks for in an investment. 

The firm has a name that means something to people – in a good way. And its scale creates a long-term advantage in the form of lower costs. 

The stock has roughly halved since September 2024, for a very Buffett-shaped reason. Like-for-like sales growth has fallen from 17.8% in 2022 to 2.4% last year. 

Investors don’t like it when that happens. It means the rate at which its existing stores are growing their sales is slowing down. 

There are, however, encouraging recent signs. Growth is picking up in 2026, reaching 3.3% in the latest update and the stock has responded positively.

Despite this, the stock still trades at a price-to-earnings ratio of around 14. That’s relatively low, which suggests there’s still a high degree of caution around the stock.

Final thoughts

Greggs might be the Buffett setup on the UK stock market. It’s a hard-to-replicate business that’s priced for caution, rather than confidence.

Margins are under pressure from inflation and ongoing investments in capacity make cash flows tight. That means the stock isn’t a sure thing, by any means. 

It might, however, be the kind of situation he’s always told shareholders to look for. And while this is speculation on my part, sausage rolls seem like the kind of thing he might go for.

Should you invest £5,000 in Greggs Plc right now?

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Stephen Wright owns shares in Berkshire Hathaway.