《黑石的起点,我的顶点》讲述黑石集团创始人彼得•彼得森以睿智、老练的文笔描述了他非凡的生命故事，他是一个真正的“巨人”，是投资银行家、政治家、美联储官员、反对财政赤字的公众人士、私人股权投资基金创始人。出生于美国内布拉斯加州的科尼市的他，8岁时就在父亲希腊餐馆的收银台前帮工，大学毕业后25岁的他就做了市场研究公司Market Facts公司的副总裁，后接受尼克松邀请，出任总统国际经济事务助理，被誉为“尼克松政府经济领域的基辛格”，之后转任商务部长，再之后又在危难时刻出任董事长兼首席执行官解救了雷曼兄弟，开始了他的投资银行家生涯，后来他以4个人和40万美元创建了黑石公司，并把它创建为私募巨头。

巴菲特赞誉这本书：“彼得森的旅程是一个了不起的故事，他的书展现了他在商业和生活上坦诚的态度，令人耳目一新。” With insight and refreshing candor, Peter G. Peterson describes his remarkable life story beginning in Kearney, Nebraska as an eight-year-old manning the cash register at his father's Greek diner through his "Mad Men" advertising days, to Secretary of Commerce in Nixon's paranoid White House, to the tumultuous days of Lehman Brothers, and to the creation of The Blackstone Group, one of the great financial enterprises in recent times.

In THE EDUCATION OF AN AMERICAN DREAMER, Peterson chronicles the progress of this journey with irony, humor and, sometimes, painful honesty. Within these pages are stories of marriage and family hardship; lessons in political gamesmanship; thoughts on his obsessive desire to succeed; and, finally, learning the meaning of "enough." From his advertising days in Chicago in the 1950's to becoming the youngest CEO of a Fortune 300 Company, he shares with us his rise to the top and the price paid along the way. As the youngest Cabinet member in the Nixon administration, he describes his survival techniques in a hubris-driven and paranoid White House, including his turbulent turf wars with Treasury Secretary John Connally leading to Peterson's abrupt and highly publicized firing. His stewardship of Lehman Brothers is a Shakespearian tale of a CEO who struggled to deal with partners who were plotting his demise and, at the same time, turning an institution on the brink of bankruptcy to one with 5 straight years of record profits.

His life's story is about doing well by doing good. In the wake of Blackstone's highly successful public offering, Peterson found himself an 80-year old instant billionaire, on the verge of retirement. And like many lifetime workers and over-achievers, he suddenly confronts an unexpected, depressing identity crisis. His solution? Committing a great bulk of his net proceeds to establish the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, his philanthropic endeavor to do something about America's politically untouchable challenges that threaten America's future, among them massive entitlement obligations, ballooning health care costs, and our energy gluttony.

Ultimately, this is a man's account of his legendary successes, humiliating failures, and personal tragedies - a testament to a remarkable life and, indeed, to the American Dream itself.