Life is What You Make It: Find Your Own Path to Fulfillment, by Peter Buffett

Warren won't be the only Buffett putting on a show this weekend at the annual Berkshire Hathaway shareholders meeting in Omaha.

Peter, his youngest son and an accomplished musician and devoted campaigner against violence targeting women, will perform “Life Is What You Make It: A Concert and Conversation with Peter Buffett,” tomorrow, Friday April 30 at 7:30 PM CT in the Witherspoon Auditorium of Omaha's Joslyn Art Museum.

Ticket benefit the Kent Bellows Studio and Center for Visual Arts, and are available online.

The title of Peter's performance is also the title of his just-released book, Life is What You Make It: Find Your Own Path to Fulfillment.

With the permission of the publisher, here is an excerpt from the book, in which Peter explains why he has no regrets about his decision years ago to sell inherited Berkshire Hathaway stock that would be worth $72 million today:


One of my father's often-quoted tenets is that a parent, if he has the means to do so, should give his children "enough to do anything, but not enough to do nothing." A head start is fine; a free pass is often a crippling disservice. When I turned 19, I received my inheritance—proceeds from the sale of a farm, which my father converted into Berkshire Hathaway stock. At the time I received them, the shares were worth roughly $90,000. It was understood that I should expect nothing more.

So—what to do with the money? I was a student at Stanford University; there were no strings attached. Fortunately, I'd had the advantage of seeing my older siblings burn through most of their cash; I didn't want to follow down that path. At the other extreme, I might have done absolutely nothing with that stock—just left it in an account and forgotten about it. If I'd picked that option, my shares would now be worth around $72 million. But I didn't make that choice, and I don't regret it for a second. People think I'm either lying or crazy when I say this, but it happens to be true, because I used my nest egg to buy something more valuable than money: I used it to buy time.

My inheritance came to me around the time I was finally committing to the pursuit of a career in music. As a pragmatic Midwesterner with a very limited nest egg, I knew that I would have to find a way to turn my creative impulses into a livelihood. But how did one do that? How would I find an audience, or clients, or a way to sell what I'd written and produced? I didn't have a clue, but it was becoming clear to me that I wasn't going to figure it out by staying in a university.

I decided to leave Stanford and use my inheritance to buy the time it would take to figure out if I could make a go of it in music.

With help from my father, I worked out a budget that would allow me to conserve my capital as long as possible. I moved to San Francisco, where I lived very frugally—small apartment, funky car. My sole extravagance was in expanding my recording equipment. I played the piano, wrote tunes, experimented with electronic sounds. Then I put a classified ad in the San Francisco Chronicle, offering to record all comers in my studio.

And I waited until a very important bit of good luck tracked me down one day in 1981, as I stood at a San Francisco curbside washing my crummy old car. A neighbor with whom I'd had nothing more than a nodding acquaintance happened by and asked what I did for a living. When I told him I was a struggling composer, he suggested I get in touch with his son-in-law, an animator who was always in need of music. I followed up, and the son-in-law did have work for me. He'd been commissioned to create 10-second "intersticials"—quick ads meant to flash a logo and establish a brand ID for a newly conceived cable channel.

I took the work. And the cable channel more than launched; it rocketed to the moon. It was called MTV. Soon many TV outlets wanted to look and sound like MTV. I no longer had to take on unpaid work.

My inheritance was relatively modest, but it was more than most young people receive to get a start in life. Having that money was a privilege, a gift I had not earned. If I'd faced the necessity of making a living from day one, I would not have been able to follow the path I chose.

Would my father have helped me get started if I'd chosen a career on Wall Street? I'm sure he would have. Would he have given me a job at Berkshire Hathaway if I'd asked for one? I suppose so. But in either of those cases, the onus would have been on me to demonstrate that I felt a true vocation for those fields, rather than simply taking the course of least resistance. My father would not have served as an enabler of my taking the easy way out. That would not have been an exercise of privilege, but of diminishment.

The Ant Philosophy by Jim Rohn

Over the years, I’ve been teaching kids about a simple but powerful concept: the Ant Philosophy. I think everybody should study ants. They have an amazing four-part philosophy.

Here is the first part: Ants never quit. That’s a good philosophy. If they’re headed somewhere and you try to stop them, they’ll look for another way. They’ll climb over. They’ll climb under. They’ll climb around. They keep looking for another way. What a neat philosophy—to never quit looking for a way to get where you’re supposed to go.

Second, ants think winter all summer. That’s an important perspective. You can’t be so naive as to think summer will last forever. So ants gather their winter food in the middle of summer.

An ancient story says, “Don’t build your house on the sand in the summer.” Why do we need that advice? Because it is important to think ahead. In the summer, you’ve got to think storm. You’ve got to think rocks as you enjoy the sand and sun.

The third part of the Ant Philosophy is that ants think summer all winter. That is so important. During the winter, ants remind themselves, “This won’t last long; we’ll soon be out of here.” And the first warm day, the ants are out. If it turns cold again, they’ll dive back down, but then they come out the first warm day. They can’t wait to get out.

And here’s the last part of the ant philosophy. How much will an ant gather during the summer to prepare for the winter? All he possibly can. What an incredible philosophy, the “all-you-possibly-can” philosophy.

Wow, what a great philosophy to have—the ant philosophy. Never give up, look ahead, stay positive and do all you can.

The Call of God, by Kong Hee

So David went to Baal Perazim, and David defeated them there; and he said, “The LORD has broken through my enemies before me, like a breakthrough of water.” Therefore he called the name of that place Baal Perazim. 2 Samuel 5:20

Every one of us has a call of God for our lives. You are called by God to do something specific for Him. There is no useless person in life and you should not be drifting through life without a sense of destiny or purpose. From David’s experience in 2 Samuel 5, you can learn five important lessons about discerning God’s calling for you:

(1) What word or rhema have you received from the Lord? That word will be a good indicator of your calling in life. David had a word from heaven that he shall be the shepherd and ruler of Israel (5:1-2). Faith comes by hearing that rhema. Without that rhema revelation, you won’t have the faith to obey.

(2) What are you gifted and anointed with? David was anointed three times in his life: by the prophet Samuel, by the men of Judah, and by the elders of Israel (5:3). An anointing is an impartation of ability by the Holy Spirit. God never wastes His anointing. What He has gifted and anointed you with is often indicative of your calling.

(3) What does other trusted leadership see in you? The reason elders chose him was because the gifting and ability of kingship in David were already clearly evident to all (5:3). God works through spiritual protocol. A calling upon your life should be evident to the mature, spiritual leadership God has surrounded you with. Let them confi rm your calling.

(4) How are your enemies opposing you? If you are not walking in your calling, you will never be a threat to Satan. But the moment you step into your destiny, you can be sure he is not going take things lying down. He will be very agitated and start hindering you (5:3). Sometimes, an unprovoked attack could be an indication that you are walking in your calling.

(5) What breakthrough has God provided you with? When David went to the Valley of Rephaim, God provided a way for him to attain resounding victory over his enemies. He renamed that valley Baal Perazim, which means “Master of Breakthroughs”(5:20). God often speaks to us through an open door. When you receive a breakthrough in an impossible situation, it is a good sign that God wants you to walk through it. That is your calling from the Lord.