Are You Smarter Than Warren Buffett? 5 Investments He Missed On That You Probably Did Not

Warren Buffett is known as “The Oracle of Omaha” for good reason: The Berkshire Hathaway CEO has accumulated a gargantuan amount of wealth (around $160 billion) thanks to a very cautious and studied business and investing acumen. Buffett’s philosophy is one marked by discipline, frugality and careful study of investment opportunities.

That said, nobody’s perfect. Buffett has made rare stumbles throughout his very long career — stumbles that other, less experienced and less cautious investors still managed to avoid. Think you’re one of those lucky ones? Wonder whether you’re smarter than Buffett? Here are three investments he missed or made mistakes on that you might not have.

“Stupidity.”

That’s what Buffett said when trying to explain why he didn’t invest in Amazon far earlier than his 2019 $900 million buy-in.

“It’s far surpassed anything I would have dreamt could have been done,” he said then. “Because if I really felt it could have been done, I should have bought it. I had no idea that it had the potential. I blew it.”

To be fair, it’s likely that the approximately 20 investors who funded Amazon’s launch in the mid-1990s also hadn’t predicted that Amazon would go from a small online bookseller to a global retail monolith. Still, this serves as a reminder that sometimes investing in the “little guy” can pay off in ways you could never predict.

Sometimes Buffett’s famed cautiousness has hurt him. Case in point: His expansion of stock purchases of the oil and gas company ConocoPhillips. Buffett, who previously owned 17.5 million shares of the company, waited until shares were near their absolute peak before he felt safe expanding his investment to 84 million shares near the end of 2008 — right before the collapse of the energy sector stock prices. The poor timing ultimately cost Berkshire Hathaway $1.5 billion.

In 1993, Buffett purchased the Dexter Shoe Company for $433 million. He later called it his “worst investment ever.” Why? Despite the fact that the shoe company seemed like everything Buffett values in an investment — turning a solid profit, competitive advantages over similar companies — it was soon overwhelmed by foreign competitors and had totally collapsed by 2001.

Even worse? Buffett had purchased the company for $433 million in Berkshire Hathaway stock instead of cash — that’s $433 million of lost stock that would be worth a staggering $17.87 billion today, making this failed investment one that cost Buffett and his company nearly $20 billion.

Despite having an inside track on the reach and scope of Google’s capabilities (as Berkshire Hathaway owned Geico insurance, a company that was dependent on Google for advertising), Buffett missed out on investing in the search engine giant. He later admitted he made a mistake in not being more technically savvy and analyzing and understanding Google’s power and profitability.

Buffett made the atypically bold move of investing 10% stakes in four airlines in 2016, investing in American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Southwest Airlines and United Airlines. While a rather expensive trade, it eventually began to turn a profit by 2019 — right before the COVID-19 pandemic decimated the entirety of the airline industry in early 2020, with Buffett forced to sell off his investments at a loss (reportedly around $3 billion).

If Buffett had waited until 2021 to sell off those stocks during the airlines’ rebound, he would have made double what he made in 2020.