>well this is mostly semantics: the quote does not contradict, most of the wealth was self-made.
Just for reference, and we don't know how much he really inherited, if he inherited $10M and put all of it into a SP500 index fund that earned 8% returns per year he would have $100M after only 30 years. This is with 0 additional capital invested, 0 effort, 0 skill in picking stock, doing nothing but tracking with the market so perhaps his "self made" status isn't really that impressive. The Author guesses he did better than average to make his fortune but that doesn't seem necessary at all.
Just for reference, and we don't know how much he really inherited, if he inherited $10M and put all of it into a SP500 index fund that earned 8% returns per year he would have $100M after only 30 years. This is with 0 additional capital invested, 0 effort, 0 skill in picking stock, doing nothing but tracking with the market so perhaps his "self made" status isn't really that impressive. The Author guesses he did better than average to make his fortune but that doesn't seem necessary at all.