Life-Changing Advice from Billionaire Charlie Munger
Charlie Munger was the vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway and Warren Buffet’s longtime friend and business partner.
Charles Munger died in November 2023 at age 99 with a net worth of over $2 billion.
He left behind great advice in his book “Poor Charlie’s Almanack.”
Here is some of his life-changing advice:
Seek a partner who will never second-guess you nor sulk when you make expensive mistakes.
Look also for a generous soul who will put up his own money and work for pennies.
Finally, join with someone who will constantly add to the fun as you travel a long road together.
Repetition is the heart of instruction.
Do the job right the first time.
Perhaps the most valuable result of all education is the ability to make yourself do the thing you have to do, when it ought to be done, whether you like it or not.
The only way to win is to work, work, work, work, and hope to have a few insights.
“Simplicity is the end result of long, hard work, not the starting point.” — Frederick Maitland
3 basic rules for your career: 1. Don’t sell anything you wouldn’t buy yourself. 2. Don’t work for anyone you don’t respect and admire. 3. Work only with people you enjoy.
Choose clients as you would friends.
“Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others.” — Jack Welch
Example is not the main thing in teaching — it is the only thing.
A life employed in the pursuit of useful knowledge, in honorable actions and the practice of virtue; in which he whoo labors to improve himself from his youth, will in age reap the happiest fruits of them; not only because these never leave a man, not even in the extremest old age; but because a conscience bearing witness that our life was well-spent. together with the remembrance of past good actions, yields an unspeakable comfort to the soul.
Enjoy the process along with the proceeds, because the process is where you live.
You have to figure out what your own aptitudes are. If you play games where other people have the aptitudes and you don’t, you’re going to lose.
If at all feasible, you want to maneuver yourself into doing something in which you have an intense interest.
All investment evaluations should begin by measuring risk, especially reputational.
Cultivate curiosity and strive to become a little wiser every day.
Intellectual humility — acknowledging what you don’t know is the dawning of wisdom.
If you don’t keep learning, other people will pass you by.
“You can learn from everybody.” — Sam Walton
I know known no wise people who didn’t read all the time.
‘The man who doesn’t read good books has no advantage over the man who can’t read them.’ — Mark Twain
Few people can list a lot of bad habits that they have eliminated, and some people cannot identify even one of these. Instead, practically everyone has a great many bad habits he has long maintained despite their being known as bad.
One of the great defenses if you’re worried about inflation is not to have a lot of silly needs in your life — you don’t need a lot of material goods.
Spend less than you make; always be saving something. Put it into a tax-deferred account. Over time, it will begin to amount to something.
1. Ingesting chemicals in an effort to alter mood or perception; 2. Envy; and 3. Resentment.
Life is hard enough to swallow without squeezing in the bitter rind of resentment.
Envy is a really stupid sin because it’s the only one you could never possibly have any fun at.
Envy, resentment, revenge, and self-pity are disastrous modes of thought.
Even if it’s obvious, it’s wise to stick in the why.
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Read all of my notes from Poor Charlie’s Almanack down arrow ⬇️