2010 Forbes 400 List

The magazine cover of the special Forbes 400 list issue will feature a very strange pairing — Jay-Z and Warren Buffett. What does the hip-hop mogul have in common with the second richest man in the world? I watched a video of their hour-long chat, which revealed that they're actually two unlikely peas in a pod.

• Legendary kings: Both have had long-lasting careers in their field. As Forbes editor-in-chief Steve Forbes puts it, being 40 in the hip-hop industry is almost like an equivalent to being 80 in the investing world. The two are kings of their industries and have outlived their successors.
• Love for the game: Buffett and Jay-Z didn't do it for the money. Their love of doing what they do came first, and the monetary success came later. Buffett started young, reading investment books that were lying around the house at the age of seven, and says he pratically "tap dances" to work every day because he enjoys it so much. Jay-Z records music without business in mind and it works in his favor because "at some point it has to be real when [the listeners] touch it, when they listen . . . something has to resonate with them that's real."
  

To see what else these two have in common, read on.

• Luck be their lady: Luck played a huge factor in their success. Just the mere fact of when Warren Buffett was born, the 1930s, a time when the country was on the very cusp of becoming a capitalist nation, gave him an advantage. Timing and luck played an important role in Jay-Z's career as well. Because he was away on music-related travels, he missed a sting operation in which a close friend of his was arrested and served a 13-year prison sentence. The rapper said that could've easily have been him.
• Independent men: Buffett says that in his field, "you have to be be able to think independently. When you come to a conclusion you have to really not care about what other people say and just follow the facts and follow your reasoning." Jay-Z's staying power also comes from being confident in who he is and not following the pack. "Music is like stocks too. There is the hot thing of the moment," the hip-hop mogul says. "For me just having discipline and having the confidence in who I am . . . there are a number of people in the world that can relate to what I'm saying and [are] going to buy into what I'm doing. Not because it's the new thing of the moment, but because it's my genuine emotion."