Faithful believers: Spend a lifetime following

It's often said that behind a successful man there is a great woman. There is also such a great "woman" behind Buffett, who is Buffett's partner and good friend - Charlie Munger.

Charlie Munger and Buffett are fellow country friends. In 1959, Buffett, 29, and Charlie Munger, 35, met at a friend's house, and the two became lifelong friends.

Charlie Munger was Buffett's guide to value investing, and together they ran Berkshire Hathaway, whose stock price rose from $7 to more than $450,000 now. Together, they've walked for nearly half a century, creating an investment myth that has never been seen before, and perhaps never since. |

The author of The Poor Charlie's Book is Peter Cofferman of the United States, a good friend of Charlie Munger and an excellent entrepreneur. The title of the book is modeled after the title of The Poor Richard's Yearbook, written by Benjamin Franklin, one of the founders of the United States of America and a lifelong idol of Munger, and the title also expresses Munger's true will.

The Poor Charlie's Book is divided into two parts, the first part summarizing the essence of Munger's thoughts in life and career, and the second part bringing together his twenty-one speeches. |

Today I will share this book with you from three aspects, and start to emerge on the road to study; adversity entrepreneurship on the Forbes rich list; serious life, calmly grow old.

Let me explain the first part for you: the beginning of the emergence of students on the road to study.

1. On the way to study, it began to emerge

There is a Chinese saying: "Three years old sees big, seven years old sees old." "Charlie Munger has shown his ingenuity since childhood. Munger loved to read as a child, especially biographies, and it was at that time that he came into contact with Benjamin Franklin, and his admiration for him made him a big fan of Franklin.

Some people may ask, Charlie Munger created great wealth in his lifetime, why is it called "poor Charlie"? In fact, this is also a model for his idol, Franklin, because they both have engaged in hard labor.

Franklin called himself Poor Richard because Franklin had been an apprentice printer, and Munger had originally worked as a coolie at Buffett's grandfather's grocery store, working as a porter for up to 12 hours a day, during which he could not eat or rest. This hard work benefited Munger for the rest of his life, and it was from here that he began to understand the importance of financial independence to a person.

Charlie Munger was born in 1924 and has been in school ever since his mother taught him the alphabet. So at school he was always the youngest and the youngest in their class.

So the school's traditional sports, he has no advantage. But he himself chose shooting as his physical education subject, and because his father often took him out hunting, he practiced a good marksmanship, so he stood out in the shooting event. While others were still amazed at his achievements, he had already begun to know how to achieve great results within his circle of ability.

When he was a child, he liked to raise hamsters, often exchanging with his classmates, and he always exchanged them for hamsters of larger or scarce colors. His keen negotiating skills began to sharpen his muscles at an early age, when he was always good at questioning other people's opinions.

When Munger was in high school, during the Great Depression, he witnessed the poverty of ordinary people. In order to survive the economic crisis, Charlie's grandfather generously rescued Munger's uncle and aunt's family, which made him understand the principle of helping each other from an early age, which also laid the foundation for his future charity.

Because of his love of reading, Munger was exposed to medical books at an early age, developed a keen interest in medicine at the age of 14, and developed a lifelong interest in science. After graduating from high school, he entered college, where he studied mathematics at the University of Michigan, during which he began to learn about physics. A sophomore, he enrolled at the University of New Mexico to study natural sciences and engineering. Later, he was sent to the California Institute of Technology to study thermodynamics and meteorology, and was trained by the army to become a meteorologist.

Finally, on the occasion of the military placement, he entered Harvard Law School, where he graduated with honors and became a lawyer. The multidisciplinary learning experience provides a solid foundation for Munger's multidisciplinary thinking. His high intelligence, coupled with his diligence and studiousness, will eventually cast a good life for him.

Well, at this point, Munger's academic career is over. Above I read the first part of the article for everyone, we saw that Munger was smart and studious from an early age and began to emerge.

Let me move on to the second part of the article, adversity entrepreneurship on the Forbes financial list. |

2. Adversity entrepreneurship is on the Forbes Wealth List

People often say that "the moon has clouds and sunshine, and people have bad luck", what kind of life will Charlie Munger start when he steps into society? Shortly after working, Munger suffered a marriage change. Subsequently, the disaster was not alone, and the son was diagnosed with leukemia and eventually died.

Munger suddenly fell to the bottom of his life. Huge medical bills and the pain of losing a child made Munger almost collapse. With the help of friends, Munger, who had been divorced for five years, got back on his feet and met Nancy Barry Boswick, who had 2 children each, and after getting married and having 4 more, they raised 8 children together.

By this time Munger's lawyer salary was no longer enough to spend, and he began to seek a second career. He took advantage of his work to earn the first bucket of gold in his life by investing in the stock market, real estate and other industries, and the first bucket of gold reached more than 1.4 million US dollars.

Subsequently, Munger ended his part-time career, officially started a business, and co-founded a law firm, which is one of the leading law firms in the United States today - Munger Torres Law Firm. And that's not Munger's ultimate goal.

In 1962, at the age of 38, Munger co-founded Wheeler Munger Investment Company, slowly withdrew from the legal profession and began to focus on the field of investment. During its inception, the company achieved an average annual return of 19.8%, compared to the compound annual growth rate of only 5% for the Dow in the same period.

In 1976 Wheeler Munger was liquidated, and Munger converted the shares he acquired into shares in Buffett-controlled Berkshire. In 1978, 54-year-old Charlie Munger became behcir's vice chairman. In 2004, as Berkshire's stock price climbed, Charlie Munger made the Forbes 400 Rich list.

Charlie Munger's investment method of acquiring huge wealth is the value investment method he has promoted throughout his life: buying quality companies and then holding them for a long time. This is completely different from Buffett's previous investment methods.

Munger has been a good at reverse thinking all his life, constantly collecting failure cases, and when others are concerned about how to buy stocks to make money, he is studying how others lose money in the stock market. Buffett once said, "Charlie, he was able to find a convincing weakness in 60 seconds." He was a perfect partner. "Charlie Munger maintained the habit of learning throughout his life, teaching himself a variety of disciplines, using multidisciplinary theory, and forming hundreds of mental models. It is his unique mode of thinking that makes him unique, always able to accurately find high-quality targets, and when the stock price is undervalued, he does the opposite and buys heavily.

In the book, Munger summarizes 25 kinds of human misjudgment psychology, such as "jealousy", which he believes can seriously affect an individual's investment behavior. There is a saying in the "History of Financial Crisis": "The most annoying and most troublesome thing is to see a friend make a fortune." Therefore, when someone makes money in the stock market, due to envy and jealousy, it will trigger a large number of people to follow the trend of trading, resulting in sharp fluctuations in stock prices.

Munger's Berkshire company's investments are mainly long-term investments, for example, more than 40 years of investment in the Washington Post and nearly 30 years of Coca-Cola. In Munger's view, the secret of his investment accumulation of wealth is not to buy and sell, but to wait patiently. He has practiced the theory of value investment all his life, achieved himself, and obtained great wealth.

Well, the second part is shared here. In this section, we share that Munger started a business under the major blow of his wife and daughter, and finally achieved the greatest success in his life and achieved financial freedom.

Let's share the last part: live seriously and grow old calmly.

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3, live seriously, calmly grow old

In the previous part, we talked about Charlie's success in starting a business at the low point of his life and gaining great wealth. But he doesn't skimp on money, always hoping to help others.

At the age of 82, a friend gave Charlie Munger a book published by Franklin, and Munger, inspired by one of his essays, "On Old Age," decided to stick to his good teacher and focused personality.

When someone asks him about his successful experience. "Don't take drugs, don't cross the street, avoid getting AIDS," he said. The seemingly simple answer is actually the principle that Munger has adhered to throughout his life: to get on the right track. In his speech, he used reverse thinking to tell children that to live a happy life, you must avoid the ways that make you live a miserable life.

When he answers how young people can find a good partner, he humorously says that the best way is to make yourself worthy of him or her. When asked how companies can become bigger and stronger, he said that he should first study how companies fail.

He believes that the world is complex and changeable, that human cognition is always flawed, and that all people have blind spots in their thinking. Different stages of life face different problems, and everyone needs to continue to learn in order to expand their circle of ability.

So Munger maintained a strong curiosity and a strong thirst for knowledge throughout his life, saying: "There is not a single intelligent person I have met in my life who does not read every day - no, none". His children called him a two-legged book, and the greatest joy of his life was to read and learn and keep improving.

Munger has been constantly improving himself throughout his life, and in his 90s, he reads two or three books every day. The longest time you can see the early hours of the morning, his enthusiasm for learning is really respected. Munger says he wants to be wiser every night than in the morning. "A little bit of progress every day. Ultimately, if you live long enough, most people will get what they deserve. ”

He was extremely strict with himself throughout his life, always arriving early on appointments and occasionally being late, and he would sincerely apologize no matter who it was. Munger still lives in a house built decades ago, and he never takes a private jet when he goes out alone, which he thinks is a serious waste. But he would agree that his family would enjoy private jets, he thought his wife was giving too much for his family and his children, he was grateful to her, and he felt that he should give his children and family a better life. He believes that life decisions are more important than investment decisions.

To achieve financial independence, he is passionate about philanthropy and is passionate about benefiting the people of the world. In his early days, he always donated silently, until he donated to build important buildings such as the Harvard-Westlake Middle School Education Center and the Huntington Library's Scientific Research Center.

Charlie donated a large number of educational projects in his lifetime, aiming to improve the education of human civilization and promote the development of society, and in his speech, he called on fund managers to do more valuable work for others, rather than just obsessed with wealth management.

He used practical actions to realize his reward for human civilization. Today, at the age of 95, Munger is still marching in the final stages of his life in his unique way of behavior, maintaining his objective positive attitude in both good times and bad times.

Okay, so here we go, and we'll share the last part. This part we shared: in his later years, Munger still maintained a noble feeling of constantly improving himself and helping others, and he was still seriously alive in his 90s.

Now let's review the three main contents of the book, the book first talks about Munger's intelligence and studiousness in his youth, and begins to emerge; then tells Munger's fall into the bottom of his life in middle age, and after successful entrepreneurship, he landed on the Forbes wealth list; and finally talks about Munger in his later years after achieving financial freedom, not stingy with money and giving back to society. |

In this book we see that Charlie's success depends entirely on investment, and the success of investment depends entirely on his noble qualities and continuous learning. Munger admired Franklin, and the virtues of thrift, diligence, responsibility, and simplicity that his Poor Richard's Yearbook disseminated influenced Munger's life. Munger struggled to emulate him throughout his life, and every time in public, Charlie exuded infinite admiration for him.

Munger spent his life studying the causes of human failure and had a deep understanding of human nature's weaknesses. Therefore, he has been extremely strict with himself all his life, and has been constantly improving his cultivation all his life to overcome the weaknesses of human nature.

To outsiders, Munger may look like an ascetic, but he himself does not think so, and he feels that it is both rational and pleasant, and can lead a successful and happy life.

As an upright and kind person, he used the cleanest method and relied on his own wisdom to achieve great success in the commercial society, and his success has nothing to do with the power and money transactions, commercial fraud, etc. that we see in today's society, which is the best example of a "businessman's soul", and he eventually became the person he wanted to become, that is, Buffett said that the modern version of Franklin.

If you want to be a true believer, be a true believer in that person, and practice it with all your life like Charlie Munger.