Munger - learn from the eminent dead
Charlie Munger passed away this past week. Charlie was the backbone of Berkshire Hathaway and arguably the brains of the operations.
At the age of 41, (1962) Charlie started his partnership with Warren Buffett to become investors in a failing textile business, Berkshire Hathaway. Day by day Charlie sought to become a better businessman by working on himself AND the business. Charlie’s determination and dedication yielded extraordinary results. Today, Berkshire Hathaway is the 8th most valuable company in the world.
One of Charlie’s mantras was to “go to bed smarter than when you woke up.” An avid reader of biographies and autobiographies, part of Charlie’s operating system was to “learn deeply from the eminent dead and bathe in the wisdom of great people who lived before you.” Charlie coined the term “wisdom is prevention.”
Charlie was a man built on healthy habits and endless curiosity and is a perfect example of getting a little bit better every day:
“I like to read.
I like to make money with my mind.
I like to talk to smart people.
I like to think about the world.”
For Charlie, business is not an art or science. It is a practice. It is the practice of getting a little bit better every day. For this reason and many other he was and is one of my inspirations. I look to him to inspire me to consistently deliver a weekly memo. Business is about the practice.
Charlie will be greatly missed but his wisdom is fortunately captured in many books that we can continue to drink deeply from.
I’ll close this weekly memo with one last quote from Charlie, “I constantly see people rise in life who are not the smartest, sometimes not even the most diligent, but they are learning machines.”
Onward,
Matt
PS – Find more about Charlie Munger here: