Should We Stuff It?

“It is not about stuff," says Peter Buffett in Business Week." ... it’s not about accumulation or the bling.” The quote raises an interesting question about its author as Buffett has written Life Is What You Make It and also lives the life of son of gazillionaire investor Warren "sage of Omaha" Buffett.

Does PB gain credibility for talking about making it on your own when he has mostly forsaken the safety net of his father's fortune or can his prescription only be taken with a grain of salt because that safety net is so prominent ... and nobody, least of all he or his father is going to forget it? Similarly, does brother Howard Buffett earn his new role as the new chair of his father's Berkshire Hathaway company because of his values — outlined in his book talking about the frailty of humanity, Fragile? Or is he just there because of his name and how that might calm nervous investors when his father steps away?

We could simply pretend PB doesn't have the comfort and take his lessons without context. But in real life that is unlikely to happen, because to greater and lesser degrees (and ignoring whether it should be the case) it is about the bling.