Peter Buffet is not Jimmy Buffet's son; he's Warren Buffet's son. 2008 was a rough year for Peter's dad. He lost $25 billion and slipped from first place as the worlds richest human being to second, from $62 billion to $37 billion. How many schools and hospitals can you build with what Warren Buffet lost? Peter has had a fair amount of success in the music industry but, like most privileged people, he attributes his success to his own individual qualities and efforts. They have to justify their privilege. They propagate the idea that success is out there and we just have to go out and get it.
Peter is pushing his new book which will hopefully make him a lot more money and reveal the way to success to all of us who work the nine to five, or should I say, the 6 to 6. "Life Is What You Make It" is the title of Peter's book and reading it will surely prove that he is where he is, like George Bush, through his own efforts, by pulling up his own bootstraps.
I'm sure being Warren Buffet's son never helped him one bit. His dad told him that as a parent, and indeed, all parents, should give their children "enough to do anything but not enough to do nothing." And Warren stuck by that. When Peter turned 19 in 1977, he received his meager inheritance of $90,000, the proceeds from the sale of a farm that his dad converted to Berkshire Hathaway stock. Peter decided that this pathetic amount, that surely most 19 year olds would be have been insulted to receive back in 1977, would not be left in an account to grow. Had he done that, he tells Business Week, it would be worth $72 million today. *
No, Peter used that money, what he describes as a "very limited nest egg", to pursue his first love, music. He left Stanford, moved to San Francisco and lived "frugally". He describes himself as just a "struggling composer".
Anyway, through a bit of luck, hard work and talent here and there he became an established composer and writer and was involved in the beginnings of the now world famous MTV. He admits his dad helped him work out a budget that would allow him to conserve his capital as long as he could, but that's about it.
I should read this book of Peter's worthless piece of shit that I am. I am sixty and wasted my life away going to work for a wage every day. I never wrote a musical score. My dad gave me $100 when I left home once and I just spent it. I, along with millions of other working class people, deserve to be where we are. We never worked hard like Peter Buffet. Those older workers who are having to work in to their seventies like the woman I know who is still working at 72 because she has a car payment, have only themselves to blame.
Peter Buffet is a true American hero. He is successful, which in our society means rich, and did it all on his own. Most importantly, his father is one of the top three richest men in the world and never pulled strings or helped him in any way. He simply gave him at the age of 19, a "very limited nest egg."
I initially said to myself when I read about Peter's struggle to keep his head above water that surely being Warren Buffet's son, inheritance or not, would give him the key to all sorts of doors. I mean, if Warren Buffet's son asked you if you could give him a job, wouldn't you jump at the chance?
But the title of Peters book has me thinking. Maybe his success is proof that life really is "What you make it." You believe that don't you?
*What I Learned From My Dad: Business Week 3-08-2010
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