Buffet is now a poor example; Berkshire Hathaway has many structural advantages that no individual investor, and almost no institutional investors can exploit.

There are many articles on this: https://www.forbes.com/sites/adamhartung/2014/11/19/why-you-...

Some info I gained from when I last read some of Buffett's annual letters: (1) He said he likes the insurance business (Gen RE, Geico) as it gives him money to use; (2) He doesn't like to use that money to buy shares, he likes to buy the whole of solid, multi-million family businesses e.g. furniture businesses; (3) He encourages the previous owners & management to stay on and run the business; (4) He doesn't pay dividends - so you aren't going to get that regular income by investing in Berkshire Hathaway; (5) If he buys shares, he intends to hold those shares for decades, e.g. American Express and Coca-Cola (he now owns about 10% of each); (6) He constantly warns that he might lose substantial amounts through insurance payouts. How much will he lose through the damage done this hurricane season? A list of his present holdings: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_assets_owned_by_Berksh...

Just to fawn over Buffett and Berkshire assets a bit more. Coca Cola and Amex are part of his original big four, along with Wells Fargo and IBM. Amex is the highest percentage ownership while Wells Fargo is the biggest investment in dollars. More recently he has had 3 new huge investments come in, they all exceed some of his four in value. Bank of America (about as much percent as IBM), Apple (only 2-3% but that adds up to a ton), and Kraft Heinz (over 25%) or whatever they call themselves now. That's his biggest major stake now, but a bit different as he worked with 3G of Brazil to first buy Heinz, then merge with the bigger Kraft.

And even more recently he did the cool thing of being a top or the top shareholder of the big 3-4 airline companies in America: United, Delta, American, Southwest.

There have also been some pretty big complete buy outs this century. Two come to mine. One being some manufacturing company. Another being a rail company. Both buyouts were in the low tens of billions. And then Gen Re insurance as mentioned above was no small thing either.

Buffet has lost money on his bets before. Not all tosses are heads, just most of them.