Warren Buffet has a few words for those self-satisfied types who think they made their billions all by themselves

See below 

From Buffet's 2019 annual letter to Berkshire Hathaway stockholders, page 14:

Charlie* and I happily acknowledge that much of Berkshire’s success has simply been a product of what I think should be called The American Tailwind. It is beyond arrogance for American businesses or individuals to boast that they have “done it alone.” The tidy rows of simple white crosses at Normandy should shame those who make such claims.

 And while we're at it, from page 5 of the same letter:

Abraham Lincoln once posed the question: “If you call a dog’s tail a leg, how many legs does it have?” and then answered his own query: “Four, because calling a tail a leg doesn’t make it one.” Abe would have felt lonely on Wall Street.

Or, I might add, in today's Republican party. Or today's White House.

One more, because while Buffet is talking about corporate behavior, he might just as well be talking about political behavior. From Page 7:

Over the years, Charlie and I have seen all sorts of bad corporate behavior, both accounting and operational, induced by the desire of management to meet Wall Street expectations. What starts as an “innocent” fudge in order to not disappoint “the Street” – say, trade-loading at quarter-end, turning a blind eye to rising insurance losses, or drawing down a “cookie-jar” reserve – can become the first step toward full-fledged fraud. Playing with the numbers “just this once” may well be the CEO’s intent; it’s seldom the end result. And if it’s okay for the boss to cheat a little, it’s easy for subordinates to rationalize similar behavior.

* "Charlie" refers to Buffet's business partner, Charlie Munger.