How Warren Buffett eats his steak

Forgive my belated account of a summer holiday from a year ago. I just never had any idea a place known for where my ready-mix mashed potatoes come from would be so exhilaratingly breathtaking. The scenes of Sun Valley in Idaho keep coming back. It probably has a lot to do with the fact that we were scheduled to return this year and what came with the territory of welcome developments at work (meaning having more work that mattered) were unwelcome limitations (meaning having much less time for leisure). Sorry, but no leaves "yellow on the cottonwoods, no leaves floating on trout streams and, above the hills, no high blue windless skies" for me this year. Sun Valley will have to wait. Oh, but what memories to last me a lifetime with a week of this "ski-resort" to the "discriminating rich American tourist" where summer is as unforgettable as its winter and the backdrop of mountain ranges surrounding the valleys where humble log cabins own stretches of green is a certain refuge to the worn, weary and wobbly. It is where you naturally catch up on your senses and leave with Sun Valley in you as you leave part of yourself in Sun Valley.

My great fortune was having tagged along with a friend who just happens to be in the yearly guest list of the New York City based investment banking firm Allen & Company’s annual summer outing. Not knowing what was waiting in Sun Valley, Idaho in the US, I would have probably opted for the familiar destinations. But it is no wonder this is the place chosen every year to host some of the busiest, wealthiest most successful and powerful people on earth. A year later, I’m still congratulating myself for deciding to go.

I kept being told it was a big deal. Having interviewed heads of state, rebel leaders in hiding, modern-day heroes, megastars and diamond stars or criminals on the run, I set the pitch aside and murmured, "yeah, yeah, okay, I’m sure..." The activities in the programme included a barbecue, whitewater rafting, canoeing, trail biking, art gallery walks, yoga sessions and pilates in between the talks... And I thought, "Oh God, I have to wear sunblock..." There were also to be scheduled fora where invited participants go on a panel discussion for everyone to listen to and interact with. "Warren Buffett will be there for a talk, we have to attend that." Ooops... I’d heard of him but didn’t quite make the connection so I couldn’t react. "You know.... Warren Buffett?" I went silent and then I hit the net. Warren Buffett is an American stock investor, businessman and philanthropist. With a current net worth of around $42 billion, he is ranked by Forbes as the second richest person in the world, behind only Microsoft chairman Bill Gates. Comparable to the recent declaration of our own John Gokongwei who declared he was leaving half of his entire estate to charity, Buffett, this June, made the commitment to give away 85 percent of his fortune, most of it to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. It is written that this is "the largest act of charitable giving in US history." Whoa. I figured the rest of the invitees were going to be birds of the same feather. The yearly guest list of the Sun Valley Conferences is consistently top billed by the biggies. It is a low-key summer get-together between friends and associates with the wives and children in a picnic with the highest-powerhouse cast of participants. "Can we just share the space with them? Are we going to be talking with them?" I asked, like wanting to just have your photo taken with the bigwigs and not necessarily wanting to be found out you can’t count beyond what’s in your personal asset portfolio. I wasn’t sure what the smile I was responded with meant.

Some of the guests were flown in from elsewhere. On the plane I browsed through what else, who else and where else I wanted to be familiar with. Most in the Master Guest List were actually at the conference: Apple Computer/Pixar Studios’ Steve Jobs, Bob Johnson of ViaCom, Jeffrey Katzenberg of Dreamworks Animation SKG (bought it from Steven Spielberg), Don and Mary Graham of The Washington Post, Jeff Bewkes of Time Warner, Inc., Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com, Michael Dell of Dell, Inc., Thomas and Ann Friedman of the New York Times Co., John Hendricks of Discovery Communications, Paul Otellini of Intel. And, certainly, not to mention, the gurus’ gurus Rupert Murdoch of News Corporation, Bill Gates of Microsoft, Larry Page and Eric Schmidt of Google, Terry Semel of Yahoo! Inc. About 700 owners and founders of America’s biggest companies from the ABC Network to the Walt Disney Company. Bigwigs in the past conferences include Oprah Winfrey, Andy Grove, Barry Diller, Robert Johnson and many others. The media, working as journalists, are not allowed in the annual conferences so I stick to names that have already been mentioned in other writeups about last year’s event. Sorry, can’t say more. But I’m sure you can, by now, imagine the power in this one resort – enough to light up the entire planet and make sure the earth revolves on its axis.

I told myself this would either be a breeze for me, or a disaster. Turns out I was panicking for nothing.

Having made early investments and brokering transactions for a movie company back then, it was a natural course for Allen’s business to grow in the direction of communications. Written about the Allen and Co. annual Sun Valley Conference, "the firm has quietly become the premier investment house in the media and entertainment sector despite employing only 60 investment professionals. It may seem strange to think of an investment bank as a cultish, secret society but... it doesn’t have a website, doesn’t issue press releases and prohibits journalists from attending the firm’s annual media industry conference." CNN reported on the July 2005 conference we attended: "The annual retreat for media bigwigs, investors and technology gurus in Sun Valley, Idaho is known as a place for CEO’s to take the family on vacation and talk about business deals." Truly, many deals have been said to be transacted between these giants while whitewater rafting, sharing sauce for the barbecue, or playing tennis.

While many of the media would be lurking about town and around the conference site waiting on a chance to ambush interview one of the guardians of the Gateway to Tomorrow I smiled to myself not even thinking of work and what I could have been throwing back home. You wouldn’t think of it really, with billionaires as if masquerading as mere mortals in their golf shorts and uniform conference cotton shirts, in slippers and caps, with their noses white with sunblock cream (I knew it...), the elderly of them helped on by their wives or kids, hollering at each other jokes that everyone could laugh with them on, and talking TO YOU looking genuinely interested in whatever you have to say. It was surreal. Behind me in a symposium was Movie Great director Sydney Pollack, actor Morgan Freeman and fashion designer Diane Von Furstenberg and news hottie-of-hour Anderson Cooper.

In front of me was a panel Introduced by News Great Tom Brokaw of NBC, anchored by the legendary Charlie Rose. Panelists were the Coca-Cola Company, Columbia University and our very own Sen. Manuel Roxas (the only Filipino invited) talking about Islam and Politics. Another panel was instantly created to talk about the London terrorist bombings on the day it happened. The speakers were the CIA, The New York Times and three others who weren’t suddenly invited – they just happened to also be in the guest list to begin with. On other days there were exhibits. Sony created a home-effect with a mock bedroom and living room showcasing their latest technology in storing movies in your own home theatre system (NO MORE DVD’s lying around). In fact, you can order the movie into your system through a phonecall and store it in you archives forever. Beside me was a Japanese guy looking at me, like, "Hey you’re Asian, too! Not too many of us here, huh?" And my friend tells me, "That’s Nobuyuki Idei... the chairman of Sony Corporation..." In another exhibit Phil Knight, owner and founder of Nike, Inc., in his trademark sneakers, introduced his new "Design Your Own Shoe" line. It was in every store shortly after that. How the new toy did it for the big boys was a sight to behold – with presidents of companies lining up to design his own shoe.

The barbecue was a blast. All the guests literally rubbing elbows during cocktails (so that’s why they call it that). It was requested that participants dress down and "No coats or ties allowed." The roasts, the grills, the seafood and ah... the mashed potatoes to go with it. This would be the only time I’d be reminded of what Idaho used to mean to me.

Okay, okay... the wealthiest of the wealthy in this world do eat the same things, the same way. I imagine that the difference would be in the conversations that go with the meal when they’re all together in one table. In another activity, whitewater rafting, I swear I did hear a few of them talking about a deal by the millions (of dollars) and – about global warming. Ordinary, simple people, not necessarily born into wealth – who, mostly, probably worked their way to success the right way, paid their dues, earned their stripes, gave as much as they took and just ended on top of the world and now just happen to be – well, rich and powerful. It could explain the lack or even absence of an air of superiority among the wealthy – more the norm in societies of developing countries such as ours. So, there.

The conference was almost over when, one morning sitting in the sun by the breakfast tables on a patio overlooking the resort garden, I saw him. THE Warren Buffett. Old. Looked a little cranky explaining things to two other assistants. I heard from the waiter Mr. Buffett wanted breakfast steak medium rare with eggs. Great, now we know first hand how he eats his steak. We can only imagine, of course, what conversations go with the meal.

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(E-mail me at korina_abs@yahoo.com)