Isn’t it extremely funny when we think about the phrase, “The Simple Life”, images of Paris Hilton immediately crops up in our minds. Connecting simple with Paris is like connecting the Eiffel Tower with Nebraska. It takes a lot of imagination.

I remember millionaire icons of my youth, MC Hammer, Mike Tyson, or the King of Pop, Michael Jackson. I believe the one thing they now have in common, is that they are literally forced to live the simple life. But at their peak, they were symbols of life lived in excess.

Someone sent me an email about the life of Warren Buffet. In case you are not familiar with him, he is acknowledged to be a financial genius and one of the world’s wealthiest men. He has contributed a staggering total of USD THIRTY ONE Billion to charity and still has a lot left over. Recently, he was ranked the wealthiest person in the world by Forbes Magazine February 2008 issue.

Warren did not inherit his wealth. All of it was self made. One of his first businesses was a paper route at the age of 13. Believe it or not, he filed a income tax return citing his bicycle as an expense. At the age of 15, he and two friends spent $25 to buy a used pinball machine to place in a barber shop. Within a couple of months, they owned three machines in three different locations.

Did you know that he applied for Harvard Business School but was turned down? A great lesson for all of us about never allowing ourselves to be told what we could not do. I want to share with you lessons from the simple life of Warren Buffet.

START YOUNG – “Encourage your children to start some kind of business, and save and invest.” . He was able to buy a small farm with the savings he accomplished from doing his newspaper route. His personal regret was that he could have bought so much more when he was young as things were so cheap then.

PRIMARY NEEDS – “Don’t buy more than you “really need”, encourage your children to think the same.” He still lives in the same house in Omaha that he bought 50 years ago. He says, “I have everything I need there.”

TRUE TO SELF – “You are what you are.” He drives himself, has no bodyguard or driver around him. He owns the world’s largest private jet company but travels commercially, preferring to always look for a more economical way of doing things.

RIGHT PEOPLE – “Assign the right people to the right jobs”. He owns, thru his holding company, sixty three other companies. He writes each individual CEO a personal letter outlining the goals each year. He allows them to do their job and reminds them to focus on these goals. He does not meet or communicate regularly with them.

Warren Buffet is a simple man living a simple life. His enormous wealth and influence dictates that the complicated world has to sit up and listen. He is an epitome of a self made man. He actually calls scions of great wealth, “members of the lucky sperm club.” He backs this up by willing the bulk of his wealth to charity and leaving just enough for his children. He told people, “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.”

Keep it simple, live a simple life. Warren Buffet believes so, “There seems to be some perverse human characteristic that likes to make easy things difficult.” I guess you can’t go wrong following the world’s richest man and acknowledged stock market genius. Just remember, living like Paris Hilton is a lot more complicated.

Let’s follow the examples of these ordinary individuals as they strive to make a difference. Each week, let’s all get together and share knowledge, stories, experiences, information, all for the sole purpose of getting One Step Up.

For comments, suggestions or stories that you want to share, email me atstirspecialist@gmail.com , or visit http://www.stirspecialist.blogspot.com/ .