Warren Buffett prepares his middle child for the job of a lifetime

At Berkshire, Buffett has long said he wants his middle child, Howie, to succeed him as non-executive chairman

- Karen Langley

When Howie Buffett first bought a front-end loader, he didn't know how to start it. When he ran to be a county commissioner of Douglas County, Neb., he didn't know what the board did. He just knew he would figure it out.

Howie—and really, no need to call him Howard, he and his dad, Warren, say—has been a sheriff, a member of the Nebraska ethanol board and a farmer. He's served on corporate boards and runs a charitable foundation.

Now he's getting ready for a really high-profile job: chairman, without an executive role, of the nearly $1 trillion Berkshire Hathaway.

"When the time comes, I'm ready to do it. But that's how I am," he said. "I've gone through most of my life doing things that I wasn't sure exactly how to do."

Warren Buffett is upfront about why he wants Howie in the job. "He is getting it because he's my son," he told me. "I'm very, very, very lucky in the fact that I trust all three of my children," he added during a later conversation.

As a child, Howie Buffett listened to Warren Buffett's side of telephone conversations, asking questions about things he didn't understand. As an adult, he turned to his father for advice. And as a director on Berkshire's board for more than 30 years, he's had a front-row seat as his father built Berkshire into one of the largest companies in the U.S.

"I feel I'm prepared for it because he prepared me," Howie Buffett said. "That's a lot of years of influence and a lot of years of teaching."