Charles Thomas Munger (born January 1, 1924) is an American business magnate, lawyer, investor, and philanthropist. He is Vice-Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Corporation, the diversified investment corporation chaired by Warren Buffett; in this capacity, Buffett describes Charlie Munger as “my partner.”
Photo Credit: Lane Hickenbottom
* * *
Here are ten of my favorite Munger quotations.
o Value investing is a very simple set of ideas and the reason that our ideas about investing have not spread faster is they’re too simple. The professional classes can’t justify their existence if that’s all they have to say.
o I think the reason why we got such idiocy in investment management is best illustrated by a story that I tell about the guy who sold fishing tackle. I asked him, “My God, they’re purple and green. Do fish really like these lures?” And he said, “Mister, I don’t sell to fish.”
o I don’t let others do projections for me, because I don’t like throwing up on the desk.”
o People calculate too much and think too little.
o You really can learn to make fewer mistakes than other people — and how to fix the mistakes faster when you do make them.
o I know I’ll perform better if I rub my nose in my mistakes. This is a wonderful trick to learn.
o The iron rule of nature is that you get what you reward for. If you want ants to come, put sugar on the floor.
o Almost all good businesses engage in “pain today, gain tomorrow” activities.
o If you want to get rich, you’ll need a few decent ideas where you really know what you’re doing. Then you’re going to have to have the courage to stick with them and take the ups and downs. Not very complicated, and it’s very old-fashioned.
o There are actually businesses that you will find a few times in a lifetime, where any manager can raise the return enormously just by raising prices — and yet they haven’t done it. So they have huge untapped pricing power that they’re not using. That is the ultimate no-brainer.
* * *
To learn more about him, I highly recommend these three sources:
Charlie Munger: The Complete Investor (2015)
Tren Griffin
Damn Right: Behind the Scenes with Berkshire Hathaway Billionaire Charlie Munger (2003)
Janet Lowe
Poor Charlie’s Almanack: The Wit and Wisdom of Charles T. Munger, Expanded Third Edition (2005)
Peter D. Kaufman, Editor