Warren Buffett? Howard Buffett? Nancy Miller? Henry F. Kletzing? Robert Quillen? Anonymous?
Question for Quote Investigator: A positive reputation is fragile. Here are three versions of a popular saying:
(A) It takes years to build up a good reputation which may be destroyed in five minutes.
(B) It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it.
(C) It takes a lifetime to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it.
This saying has been credited to the prominent U.S. investor and philanthropist Warren Buffett, but I am skeptical. I have not seen a solid citation, and I suspect that the statement was circulating before Buffett was born. Would you please explore this topic?
Reply from Quote Investigator: Warren Buffett was born in 1930, and a version of the saying appeared in the “San Antonio Daily Express” of Texas many years earlier in 1891. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:1
The Waxahachie Enterprise deplores the fact that it takes years to build up a good reputation which may be destroyed in five minutes.
The newspaper in San Antonio acknowledged a newspaper in Waxahachie, Texas. The creator of the saying remains anonymous. The phrasing is highly variable, and QI believes earlier instances probably exist.
There is substantive evidence that Warren Buffett employed the saying. In September 1991 journalist Nancy Miller of “USA Today” published a profile of Warren Buffet which contained the following remarks from the investor’s son Howard Buffett:2
One of the most vivid childhood memories his son Howard has of his father is a lecture on the value of a good name. “I was 11 years old,” Howard recalls. “We were driving down the street, and he said, ‘It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it.'”
Howard Buffett was born in December 1954; hence, if Howard’s memory is correct then he heard the saying from Warren in 1965 or 1966. This evidence is indirect, and QI has not yet found direct evidence in a speech, interview, or essay by Warren Buffett.
Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.
The saying appeared in a Texas newspaper in 1891 as mentioned previously. In 1898 Henry F. Kletzing and Elmer L. Kletzing published the book “Traits of Character Illustrated in Bible Light” which contained an instance of the saying:3
It takes a lifetime to build a reputation, but only a moment to destroy it. This suggests that no man is safe unless he continues his course upward.
In 1899 an elaborate metaphorical version of the saying appeared in the “Pinegrove Herald” newspaper of Pennsylvania:4
A man struggles for years to build up a good reputation for honesty and integrity among his fellow-men, and then in an unguarded hour he takes a fatal toboggan-slide that hurls him in a single act below where he began to climb twenty or thirty years ago.
In 1929 “The South Bend Tribune” of Indiana printed the following anonymous filler item:5
It takes years to build a good reputation; it takes but a day to tear it down.
Journalist Robert Quillen was known for composing “paragraphs” which were short witty pieces of news, gossip, and observation. In 1947 he published the following item:6
What a world! It takes you years to build a good reputation and you can wreck it in 24 hours.
In 1981 the “Aldershot News” of Hampshire, England printed a remark from John FitzSimon, a supplier of photocopying machines:7
“It takes years to build a good reputation and just five minutes to ruin it.”
In 1990 “The Ottawa Citizen” of Canada printed a remark from a local businessman:8
“It takes years to build up a reputation and only five minutes to ruin it,” says Bob Desnoyers, store manager at Valley Squire.
In 1991 “USA Today” printed an article in which Howard Buffett credited Warren Buffet with the saying. This article was reprinted in other newspapers such as the “News-Press” of Fort Myers, Florida:9
“I was 11 years old,” Howard recalls. “We were driving down the street and he said, ‘It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it.'”
In 1992 Andrew Kilpatrick published a biography titled “Warren Buffett: The Good Guy of Wall Street”. Kilpatrick spoke to Howard Buffett, and the son credited Warren Buffett with a slightly different version of the saying. The word “lifetime” replaced the phrase “20 years”:10
His son Howard says “My dad couldn’t run a lawnmower, but he once told me it takes a lifetime to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it.”
In 1994 Andrew Kilpatrick published a much longer biography titled “Of Permanent Value: The Story of Warren Buffett” which contained the same version of the quotation:11
Howard Buffett says his father often offered guideposts to live by. “I remember once, we were on Dodge Street near a McDonald’s that’s no longer there, and my father told me, ‘It takes a lifetime to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it.'”
In 1998 “The Tennessean” of Nashville, Tennessee printed a letter to the editor which attributed the version of the saying with “20 years” to Warren Buffett:12
I recently read a quote from Warren Buffett stating that “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it.’
In 2006 Mary Buffett and David Clark published “The Tao of Warren Buffett: Warren Buffett’s Words of Wisdom”. Mary Buffett is the former wife of Peter Buffett, the son of Warren Buffett. The book included a version of the saying together with an interpretation:13
“It takes twenty years to build a reputation and five minutes to lose it. If you think about that, you will do things differently.”
One foolish act and the bad press that goes with it can instantly destroy a good reputation that has taken a lifetime to build. It’s best not to do something that you know is wrong, because if you are caught, the price you pay may be more than you can afford. This is a Buffett credo that he whispered into the ears of his children from the time they were tots.
In conclusion, this saying has a long history. An instance appeared in a Texas newspaper in 1891, and the creator was anonymous. Warren Buffett used a version circa 1965 according to testimony from his son Howard Buffett in 1991. Yet, Warren Buffet clearly did not coin the saying.
Image Notes: Stars which represent a changing rating from Markus Spiske at Unsplash. The image has been cropped and resized.
Acknowledgement: Great thanks to Hayley Munro whose inquiry led QI to formulate this question and perform this exploration.
- 1891 June 9, San Antonio Daily Express, Editorial Summary, Quote Page 4, Column 4, San Antonio, Texas. (Newspapers_com) link ↩︎
- 1991 September 18, USA Today, Buffett’s Tough Deal: Dirty job consumes top investor, ‘What you see is what you get’, Writer: Nancy Miller (USA Today), Contributing writer: Beth Belton, Start Page 1B, Quote Page 2B, Column 4, McLean, Virginia. (Newspapers_com) link ↩︎
- 1898, Traits of Character Illustrated in Bible Light by Henry F. Kletzing and Elmer L. Kletzing, Part 1: Traits of Character Illustrated, Chapter: Upward Steps, Quote Page 79, Kletzing Brothers Naperville, Illinois. (archive.org Full View) link ↩︎
- 1899 May 12, Pinegrove Herald, So Easy to Go Down Hill (Acknowledgement to Homiletic Review), Quote Page 1, Column 8, Pinegrove, Pennsylvania. (Newspapers_com) link ↩︎
- 1929 December 8, The South Bend Tribune, (Filler item), Quote Page 4, Column 3, South Bend, Indiana. (Newspapers_com) link ↩︎
- 1947 December 19, Pasadena Star-News, Paragraphs by Robert Quillen, Quote Page 10, Column 2, Pasadena, California. (Newspapers_com) link ↩︎
- 1981 March 27, Aldershot News, Specialists in the field of copying machines, Quote Page 16, Column 4, Aldershot, Hampshire, England. (Newspapers_com) link ↩︎
- 1990 June 12, The Ottawa Citizen, Valley Squire Furniture and Appliances, Quote Page E4, Column 2, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. (Newspapers_com) link ↩︎
- 1991 November 4, News-Press, Warren Buffett brings new style to Salomon by Nancy Miller (Gannett News Service), Quote Page 14, Column 4, Fort Myers, Florida. (Newspapers_com) link ↩︎
- 1992 Copyright, Warren Buffett: The Good Guy of Wall Street by Andrew Kilpatrick, Chapter 5: Appearance and Style, Quote Page 57, Donald I. Fine, New York. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
- 1994 Copyright, Of Permanent Value: The Story of Warren Buffett by Andrew Kilpatrick, Chapter 15: “My Dad Couldn’t Run a Lawnmower”, Quote Page 103, AKPE, Birmingham, Alabama. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
- 1998 May 6, The Tennessean, Section: Letters to the Editor, Letter from: Linda Williams of Brentwood, Tennessee, Quote Page 3W, Column 2, Nashville, Tennessee. (Newspapers_com) link ↩︎
- 2006, The Tao of Warren Buffett: Warren Buffett’s Words of Wisdom by Mary Buffett and David Clark, Number 11, Quote Page 13, Scribner, New York. (Verified with scans) ↩︎