Warren Buffett, the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway ( BRK.A 0.58% ) ( BRK.B 0.38% ), may well be the greatest investor of our generation. Berkshire Hathaway's 2019 annual shareholder letter notes that, since 1965, the company's share price has risen by a compound annual rate of 20.3%. That compares to a 10% compound annual gain, inclusive of dividends paid, for the benchmark S&P 500. This 10.3 percentage-point annual difference may not sound like a lot, but it's allowed Buffett to outperform the broad-based index by over 2,700,000% since 1965.