He had luck + skill, but he would not be successful if he did not start with wealth, from his rich father.

Sort of. I'd say the best things he got from his father were:

* A good upbringing * Early exposure to stock brokering (his dad ran a small brokerage) * Being sent to university and having his costs covered

Warren actually made the bulk of his early money himself, I think. He ran an enormous paper route operation, and also repaired and sold pinball machines at a large profit.

He started all this around age 11 and it grew from there. He had amassed $5,000 by age 14.

But not having to take money out for university made a lot of difference I expect. It would have cut his compounding. I don't remember him getting much in the way of inherited wealth from his father though.

It's been over a year since I read his bio, so perhaps I'm misremembering. Happy to be corrected if you have specific info.

The biggest advantage wealth affords that it allows you to fail, and then get up to try again, because you haven't lost your basic life security (a roof over your head, good food, education, community, healthcare when you're sick or injured).

You get the freedom to experiment without fear of dire consequences, whether that's by building a paper route, repairing pinball machines, or expanding your family's business partnership to buy a textile mill called Berkshire.

If, however, you are child who has to work to put food on the family table, or pay the rent, you're playing a whole different game, one that has life and death implications.

Of course Buffett isn't unique in having the advantage of a financially stable and prosperous family and household. Clearly his entrepreneurial streak started early. But compared to the average person of his time, he did have extraordinary advantages, including a university education, and exposure to investing from an early age through is father's brokerage firm. His experience is not directly comparable to that of most Americans.

This exactly. The amount of money that you are willing to throw away at an investment without any internal resistance is what makes a difference. For many people even though talented, this amount is close to zero. Even more so, if you grow up with this mentality, it is a lot harder to change when you are e.g. in your 30s and already have some buck behind your back to eventually invest in something other than education/property.

All true, but compared to the 3% of Americans with a college degree at the time, I'd argue that Buffett was in the top 1% of wealth generation skills.

It wasn't his family's business partnership by the way. He ran his own investment fund.

So the takeaway is that his example is not generalizable to the 97% of others in his time who didn't share his privileges.

Nor is is generalizable to the equivalent of that 97% in recent generations, despite their being more likely to have college degrees.

Why do you think that? A significant chunk of millionaires and billionaires are self-made.