Don't be others, be yourself

Kai-fu Lee, Chairman of innovation works

Everyone knows to learn from Buffett's investment, but after reading Peter Buffett's "Be Yourself: A Life Gift from Warren Buffett to My Son", my new experience is that I should learn from Warren Buffett as a parent.

Most people may envy the favored son who was born in a rich family with a golden spoon in his mouth. But Warren Buffett explicitly denied this; He believes that the family has given the rich second generation "a luxurious environment and a poor life. They were not born with a golden spoon in their mouth, but were born with a golden dagger in their backs".

Therefore, Warren Buffett gave Peter a unique education. Although he only gave Peter $9,, he gave him a supportive, encouraging and inducing environment. He encouraged Peter: If you want to live a colorful life, try to learn everything that interests you. He encouraged Peter to look inside himself and find his passion. Warren Buffett understands that finding out the passion is a hard and mysterious process, which requires a lot of free space. If parents exert pressure, it will only be counterproductive. It is such an environment and hard-working parents that made Peter Buffett a successful composer today.

Today's China needs to learn this kind of education. Some parents in China have high expectations for their children, blindly asking them to do what their parents want, but they can't hear their own voices. Some parents in China spoil their children too much and teach them to "look after money", which is actually putting a "golden dagger" in their children. Some only children in China grew up in a "responsive" environment and did not learn how to live independently. So, when I forwarded some essence of Be Yourself in my Weibo, I got a very positive response. One Weibo was forwarded by 3, people!

Peter can easily enter the investment field and succeed on his father's reputation. However, when he gave up such a life and went to do his favorite music life, he was particularly convincing.

The philosophy of life in Be Yourself is actually the same as what I described in Be the Best Yourself in 25: Don't be others, be yourself. Listen to your inner call, find your unique ideal and lead your life. Make up your mind and go ahead, and don't forget to give back after success. To put it simply: Life is what you make it.

Your choice

Yang Lan, Chairman of Sunshine Media Group

Birth is the last thing you can choose in life. If you were born in war and poverty in Somalia, you are likely to die of illness in infancy, or eventually become a pirate with no choice but to die in a gang conflagration. The world has a very chaotic and cruel side. Don't tell me that this is God's arrangement, or that suffering itself has any meaning.

However, if we limit the scope to a peaceful environment, would you rather have a rich father or a poor father? What if you were born into the richest family in America? What if your father is Warren Buffett?

Peter Buffett is best qualified to answer this last question. Everyone who met him for the first time made no secret of his curiosity: "Buffett? Who is Warren Buffett? " When learning that Warren is Peter's father, the other person usually answers, "But you look ordinary!" " Imagine that when you repeat this conversation almost every day, you probably think: Should Buffett's son have three heads and six arms? ! There is no denying that Peter was not short of food and clothing since he was a child. One of the people who wrote letters of recommendation to him when he applied for university was Washington post's boss, and he got his grandfather's legacy of 9, dollars before he graduated from university. If he wants to get a job on wall street, it's not something that dad can do with a phone call. But he just became a musician. "Musicians? Oh ... Is it successful? " This is another topic that Peter often has to face. Ah, so that's it! As the son of the stock god, you can not engage in financial investment, but you can't fail. This is Peter's trouble. He had to live in a comparison, in the shadow of his father and in people's expectation. How successful does he have to be? What can he do not to disappoint his father? How can he find his own independent identity and create his own life? If he succeeds, people will say, "He is Buffett's son." If he doesn't succeed, people will say, "He is still Buffett's son!" " These problems are much more difficult for him than for children in ordinary families. Many children of successful people choose careers that they have no interest in just for fear of disappointing their parents, which leads to lifelong regret.

People usually think that poor children and rich children will have very different behavior patterns. However, the sociological survey found that the possibility of extreme behavior orientation in these two groups of children is almost the same. Some of them are withdrawn, timid and timid, and some of them are hot-tempered and rebellious. The reason is not from the family's economic situation, but more related to their parents' emotional disagreement or long-term lack of attention. Peter finally realized that the greatest luck his father brought him was not the success of his career, but a loving and warm family for his children and full respect for their free choice. Encouraged by his father, Peter's brother Howie became a photographer, and his sister Susie became a housewife and a mother of two children. Peter will always remember what his father said to him when he was in his early twenties and determined to pursue music as his lifelong career: "Son, we are actually doing the same thing. Music is your canvas, and Berkshire (Warren Buffett's investment company) is my canvas. I am very happy to add a few strokes to the canvas every day. " For Peter, such words are enough. Children from rich backgrounds often lack the motivation to struggle. Life is carefree, why work hard? My father personally demonstrated that if a person can choose a job that he wants to do, can do and is needed by society, and spare no effort for it, this is the happiness of life, and this is the most reliable way to gain self-esteem. It inspires the best self in our lives. We always screw things up in life, but if we choose the safest road for fear of failure, the fun of life will be greatly reduced.

Peter compares life to a grindstone. During his musical journey, he has both gained and lost career opportunities. Through the introduction of his neighbors, he gave his research on Indian music to kevin costner, who was filming the movie Dancing with Wolves at that time. The other party was very interested and soon invited him to compose music for the film. However, Peter, who has been writing pure music, underestimated the particularity of film music and didn't make enough efforts to consider how music promoted the development of the story. As a result, only a two-minute "fire dance" was selected for the film. The film won seven Oscars in the future, which made Peter regret it, and also learned a big lesson in life-if you are not fully prepared, the opportunity will slip away even if you get it. Hard work pays off. After several years, his enthusiasm and solid work for the indigenous music culture finally made him fully affirmed in this field. When he was invited to hold a concert, his father would join in the fun, and claimed that he had to see if the piano lesson tuition he paid for his son was a successful investment.

Warren, who has billions of dollars, still works six days a week. For him, interest is always the first, and wealth follows interest, not interest follows wealth. Regarding the legacy, Warren Buffett famously said, "Give them enough money to do what they like, but not too much money so that they can do nothing." Charity is not a redemption for him, but a promise. After deciding to donate $37 billion of wealth to the Bill Gates Foundation, he also set up a charity foundation for each of his three children with $1 billion. Such a big responsibility has also changed the lives of children including Peter. He and his wife have to spend a lot of time studying and analyzing how to do charity effectively. In the end, they turned their attention to the disadvantaged girls and decided to use this gift from their father to systematically promote girls' healthy growth and equal access to education opportunities. Today, Peter shared with us his experience of life exploration: the real life is not the part you inherited but the part you created, which is the result of your constant choice and efforts. Whether you have a rich father or a poor father, luck and misfortune may change in your hands.

Of course, it's not bad to have a wise and enlightened person like Warren Buffett as a father!