In the economy driven atmosphere of modern western civilization, the last person one would expect to preach values of inner satisfaction over financial gains would be the son of a legendary investment banker.
Warren Buffettʼs son, Peter Buffett, has defined his personal life and musical career by the idea of forging oneʼs own path. The idea that predetermined goals and a set in stone future plan yields limited success.
Buffet is a philanthropist who has a musical career spanning over twenty years and fifteen albums, including an Emmy Award, film scores, and advertising work that have generated much acclaim. He also became a published author in May 2010 with his book “Life Is What You Make It: Finding Your Own Path To Fulfillment” which covers topics of his own personal philosophy.
“You have to understand your past to understand your future,” said Buffett, who lived a microcosm of that statement by recording his own original music in Abbey Road Studios, the same building in London in which his greatest influence The Beatles recorded their classic records.
Buffett is influenced musically by artists that manage to pull off the delicate balance of forging new territory while still sounding familiar. He started his career in the Bay Area but progressed towards the midwest, a move which he believes helped him hear his own artistic vision.
Buffett believes the most important quality he has inherited from his fatherʼs modesty is to do things for the point, and not the outcome, “All the money in the world isn’t what makes you happy. Doing what you love can make you very happy.”
He picked up similar traits form Native American musician Hawk Pope while touring together in the mid-nineties: “There is so much rich history that we either ignore or don’t understand – both in our culture and society as well as our personal lives.”
One part of history that particularly troubles Buffet is slavery; particularly because human trafficking and slavery are still going on in the world. The one thing that he wants to let the public know is that it is still going on and can be stopped, just as it was in America in the 1800ʼs He set up a website with singer Akon called “IsThereSomethingICanDo.com” in which people, especially younger people, can find answers about what they can do to help abolish these injustices.
Buffet believes that when one findʼs, “his or her own voice, the rest will follow. Everything starts from the inside out.” He has certainly found his in his music and charity work, and is now helping others do the same.
His advice to Bellevue College students is this, “Don’t have expectations on the outcome! If I had said, “I want to be a _____” my life would have been predetermined and I would have missed a huge amount of what came to be.”
Buffet will be delivering the keynote at The Bellevue College Foundation’s 12th Annual Luncheon on Wednesday April 21 at the Meydenbauer Center in Bellevue. For more informaion, please contact The BC Foundation at (425) 564-2386.
Look out for next week’s coverage on The BC Foundation’s lunheon.
Charles Kane contributed to this article.