My celebrity crush

March 7, 2009

Some women daydream about Brad Pitt.  For others, Hugh Jackman dominates their fantasies.  Me… my secret crush extends back to the late nineties, when I was just graduating from college and wondering how I would manage my millions, once I made them. 

It didn’t matter that I had majored in social work, a degree not known for its earning potential.  I was idealistic and ready to take on the world, and I sought out a role model for managing the vast amounts of wealth I was sure to acquire in the next few years (I’m still waiting…). 

If I were a teenager, I’d have a picture of my crush in my locker; a poster above my bed that I kissed goodnight.  I admit it.  I have a crush on Warren Buffett, the 78-year-old CEO of Berkshire Hathaway.  In 2008, Mr. Buffett surpassed his friend Bill Gates as the richest man in the world. 

Don’t misunderstand me.  It isn’t his money that makes Mr. Buffett so attractive.  It is how he has managed to live such a humble, quiet life amidst the pressures of wealth and public scrutiny. 

Mr. Buffett lives in the same modest house in Omaha where he began his career and raised his family.  For Mr. Buffett, being rich is a bonus, not the goal of his life. 

My crush was solidified in 2006, when he announced he would be giving away 85% of his wealth to charity, rather than passing it on to his children. 

Mr. Buffett has said, “I want to give my kids just enough so that they would feel that they could do anything, but not so much that they would feel like doing nothing.” How could I not love this man?

When people ask me, “What famous person would you meet if you had the opportunity?”  Skip the movie stars and rock icons.  If I were introduced to Warren Buffett, I wouldn’t wash my hand for a week.  I’d giggle and blush and be unable to look him in the eye. 

He’d think I was an idiot.  I’d walk away slapping myself on the forehead – “stupid! stupid!” – thinking of all the things I should have said.

Every year, I eagerly anticipate Mr. Buffett’s annual letter to the shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway.  I’m not an economist.  I’m a writer.  And Mr. Buffett doesn’t disappoint. 

I’ve always believed that any topic can be made interesting if it is written the right way.  Somehow, Mr. Buffett can take a topic as dry and depressing as interest rates and recession, and make them sing.

This year, rather than adding yet another boring sentence to the already overloaded dialog about investor insecurity, Mr. Buffett writes: “By year-end, investors of all stripes were bloodied and confused, much as if they were small birds that had strayed into a badminton game.” 

Tom Wolfe, eat your heart out!  He even references my all-time favorite heroine of fiction, Scarlett O’Hara.  My heart is aflutter.

What I like best about Mr. Buffett is that regardless of the current economic climate, be it positive bordering on pompous or negative bordering on suicidal, he remains serene and centered, and always forward thinking.  Success never goes to his head, and failure never gets him down.  He just keeps looking toward what lies ahead. 

In his letter this year, he reminds us that despite the scary economic crisis we’re facing, we’ve been through worse.  Historically, we’ve battled bigger monsters and won. 

Mr. Buffett assures us that although we might struggle for a while, we’re going to be just fine.  He urges us to learn from our mistakes and remember our strengths.  As always, Mr. Buffett makes me feel better about life just by being himself. 

A summary of Warren Buffett’s 2009 letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders is available at www.newsweek.com.

This article first appeared in the Lewistown News-Argus and the Sidney (Mont.) Herald on March 7, 2009.