Excellent Book: Charlie Munger For All Seasons
Wonderful Sprinkles of Wisdom from From Charlie Munger’s Daily Journal Meeting 2015.
Ref: http://www.marketfolly.com/2015/03/notes-from-charlie-mungers-daily.html
- 1. Comparing Venture Capital To Value Investing: “It’s a really difficult honest way to make a living. It’s not like shooting fish in a barrel, which is how I’ve made my living.”
2. On activist investors: “I like the new system even less … Carl Icahn is a very able man but that doesn’t mean he should be running the world.”
3. On Attention Span: “I did not succeed in life by intelligence. I succeeded because I have a long attention span.”
4. On Trying Too Hard: “When things are damn near impossible, maybe you should stop trying.”
5. On Idiocy: “Other people are trying to act smarter. I’m just trying to be non-idiotic.”
6. On Wrong Incentives: “If the incentives are wrong, the behavior will be wrong. I guarantee it.”
7. On Worrying: “I don’t spend too much time thinking about what is almost certain never to happen.”
8. On Shamans and Financial Advisers: “The finance industry is 5% rational people and 95% shamans and faith healers.”
9. On Camouflaged Casinos: “A lot of our respected financial institutions are just casinos in drag.”
10. If It Is Too Easy, it is Hard To Be Profitable: “I don’t think anything that any average person can do easily is likely to be worthwhile.”
11. When To Close Your Eyes A Little: “Before marriage, keep your eyes wide open. After marriage, keep them half shut.”
12. On Service Industry – Annoy Customers At Your Peril: On how to compete in a service oriented biz: identify things that annoy customers and go down the list and get rid of them
13. On Surviving Open Heart Surgery: “Nobody survives open heart surgery better than the guy who didn’t need the procedure in the first place.”
14. On Getting Rich: “The way to get rich is to keep $10 million in your checking account in case a good deal comes along.”