Buffet made his initial nut by raising a sort of "Friends & Family" round for a mini-hedge-fund type thing. You can read about his wealthy Aunts and extended family in Snowball.
He was doing this on the side while working at his daddys Buffett-Falk & Co as an investment salesman. He did well and after stalking Graham was able to get a gig in NYC for a few years before returning to running "mini-hedge-fund" type partnerships in his hometown.
So being a son of a congressman surely helped in raising many many millions of dollars from the Nebraska elite. I would even argue its almost a necessary but insufficient condition for making his initial fortune - he got dealt a great hand but he also played it very very well.
Connections aren't results. Getting an introduction won't help you one iota if you can't deliver.
The only thing that ultimately matters in investing is results. Buffett is the absolute worst example you could use to claim privilege results. Unless your theory is that his father's friends made all those investment decisions for him.
Just about the hardest thing to do in business would be to generate a $300 billion company on the back of one man's dozens of investment decisions. Trying to rob Buffett of that stunning success because his grandfather owned some tiny stores in Omaha, is beyond ridiculous.
There are four grid squares here, and you're ignoring two, and insisting that they are not important to consider.
here are the variables:
father is a congressman (yes/no)
took good advantage of opportunities (yes/no)
to combine them we have:
yes/yes, yes/no, no/yes, no/no.
so you are saying that it didn't matter that his father was a congressman because he took advantage of his opportunities.
But imagine a warren buffet who didn't have a well positioned family, and didn't have the opportunities he had- Still a wiley person- our no/yes.
Where is he on the forbes 400?
Warren Buffet is not exactly a rags to riches story. It's more of a riches to unimaginable riches story.
Buffett is a perfect example of the problem: to be in the position to have those opportunities, you need a base and you need seed money. Having a family and friends round means you don't have the same type of pressure (they are generally far more willing to tolerate risk, give more room for experimentation, and are willing to write off lots of losses)
How is it "robbing" Buffett of his success to accurately describe the conditions of his success? When he writes about his own biography, it's along similar lines; he doesn't try to portray himself as a poor kid who pulled himself up by his bootstraps with nobody's help.
I wouldn't dream of robbing Buffet of his success - I'm describing the lengthy period of his life that occurred prior to his irrational obsession of buying a small textile company by the name of Berkshire. :)
The Snowball I read said that Buffett had a difficult time raising money because no one took him seriously. Once word started spreading around that "the kid" knows what he is doing that is when people started approaching Buffett.
Buffett was running his own business even when he was a kid and was earning more than his teachers.
He was doing this on the side while working at his daddys Buffett-Falk & Co as an investment salesman. He did well and after stalking Graham was able to get a gig in NYC for a few years before returning to running "mini-hedge-fund" type partnerships in his hometown.
So being a son of a congressman surely helped in raising many many millions of dollars from the Nebraska elite. I would even argue its almost a necessary but insufficient condition for making his initial fortune - he got dealt a great hand but he also played it very very well.