“I call myself a farmer,” says Russo. “Wall Street is flooded with hunters—people who try to go out and find the big game. They fell it and bring it back, and there’s a huge feast and everything is fabulous, and then they look for the next big game. I plant seeds and then I spend all of my time cultivating them.” His biggest holdings include Berkshire Hathaway, Brown-Forman, and Nestlé, all of which he’s owned since the 1980s. A few years ago, when he was fifty-nine, I asked Russo if he expected to own Berkshire and Nestlé for the rest of his life. He replied without hesitation, “I would think
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