“Be More & Achieve More!”

Dear Reader,

The son of billionaire investor Warren Buffett has an old-world spiritual message for today’s money-rich parents: teach your children values and do not give them everything they want.

Musician and now author Peter Buffett preaches the message in his new book “Life is What You Make it: Finding Your Own Path to Fulfillment”. Recently released in the United States, it describes how he wound up a “normal, happy” person instead of a spoiled child to one of the world’s richest people.

Buffett, 52, teaches the rewards of self-respect and pursuing one’s own passions and accomplishments rather than buying into society’s concepts of material wealth.

“I am my own person and I know what I have accomplished in my life,” he said. “This isn’t about wealth or fame or money or any of that stuff, it is actually about values and what you enjoy and finding something you love doing.”

People who are born with a silver spoon in their mouth can fall victim to what Buffett said his father has called a “silver dagger in your back,” which leads to a sense of entitlement and a lack of personal achievement.

“Entitlement is the worst thing ever and I see entitlement coming in many guises,” he said. “Anybody who acts like they deserve something ‘just because,’, is a disaster.”

But Buffett wasn’t always this wise. His own family gave him $90,000 (59,840 pounds) in stock when he was 19, a small sum from such immense financial wealth. After studying at Stanford University, he moved to San Francisco and lived in a studio apartment with just enough room for his musical instruments.

“I was really searching,” he said, adding that he began his musical career by working for free writing music for a local television station.

“I was kind of lost, but trying to find myself. It was definitely this strange period where I didn’t really know where I was going,” he said.

LOOKING AT THE BIG PICTURE

As well his musical passions, the values taught to him growing up and a sense of a bigger picture in life stayed with him during those trying times, he said.

“I was not only not handed everything as a kid, I was shown that there are lots of other people out there with very different circumstances,” he said.

Although many people he encounters assume that his father wanted him to go into finance, he said his father accepted his choice to become a musician beginning with commercials then his own albums and composing for television shows and films.

“It was encouraged for a moment when I was open to the idea,” he said about pursuing finance. But he added that as he grew older, it became clear the financial world “was not speaking to my heart.”

Along with the book, Buffett has embarked on a “Concert & Conversation” tour in which he plays the piano, talks about his life and warns against consumerist culture and damaging the environment.

He said he eventually inherited more money after his mother died in 2004, but by then he had learned his lessons. Now he works on giving back to the world — another of his life philosophies — which includes through working for his father’s NoVo charitable foundation.

“Economic prosperity may come and go; that’s just how it is,” he writes in the book. “But values are the steady currency that earn us the all-important rewards.”

(editing by Bob Tourtellotte)

I’m glad he’s found his own way to an enlightened path.

For continued Success & Contentment,

Asad Khan

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Often times people will get stuck on an issue that pre-occupies the mind no end. This could range in form and type where on the one hand it may be about someone having uttered something, perhaps neglectfully, rather than maliciously, and on the other hand it could about who to share the rest of your life with! What I have found most interestingly is this: that people are prepared to make huge personal sacrifices, to say health or time, for the sake of pre-occupation with an issue.

We all know that we have to continue to ride the ebbs and flow of life, so what gets us so hung-up on issues that may not even figure much in the grand scale of life? The answer is this: the lack of priorities. When a person hasn’t given sufficient thought to their place in the scheme of life, or found significant roles to fulfill, or defined their personal mission or understood which ways they are going to contribute back to the common pool of progress, then you will find a person who gets stuck into every little event - or nonevent - for the sake of utilising their finite energy in some way or another.

But take a person who has given due consideration to their personal roles, mission, vision, ambition, areas of contribution, relationships, and code of ethics and you will find a purposeful person who lives by priorities rather than reaction.

Looking out of my office window, I can see a busy 4-way road junction that has traffic lights with pedestrian crossings on each of the four sides. Now, firstly we must appreciate the ability of invention for such useful and purposeful mechanism for creating traffic order. Secondly, it brings home the point that we have to understand, appreciate, accept, and live by an order of things that will be mutually beneficial for all. By doing so, we create harmony not only in our own personal lives, but in the lives of those who surround us.

Imagine for a moment if such technology did not exist: who would have right of way and who should remain stationary? How would drivers know when to go and when to slow down or stop? How would drivers recognise the rights of pedestrians and vice versa?

So you see, the mark of individual distinction arises from realising the priorities of affairs and most importantly, that which helps shape your life according to your best ideals and highest goals. This is something that I expand on in the workbook “How to Maximise Peace and Power through Pure Leadership” available as either an e-copy (£15) or hard copy (£20). Chapter 2 (Work The Edge) deals with the essence of leadership, personal growth, development and effectiveness with a focus on the being, rather than just the doing. Because we tend to lost sight of what really matters, we get caught-up in the thick of minor things. This isn’t to say that certain issues don’t require a greater degree of attention at particular points in time, such as picking a partner to share the rest of your life with - they do - but then we have to take it in our stride and move on. It’s not correct to remain stationary when the lights have turned green!

Similarly, the more successful people and centered people are those who deal with life’s issues almost like a traffic signal system: Red = stop = give more attention as required. Amber = slow down = take caution if changing from green upwards / or get ready to set-off if coming down from red. Green = flow through smoothly towards your desired destination.

So consider who has priority in your life? What are you paying more emphasis to? How are you dealing with issues and what level of priority do they really require? Once you grasp this key idea, you can apply the Red/ Yellow/Green code to most things and move forwards to achieving greater success and fulfillment as a result.

Get your copy of the workbook here

Best wishes,

Asad Khan

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