{"id":158,"date":"2017-01-12T07:51:45","date_gmt":"2017-01-12T07:51:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/charliemungersays.com\/?p=158"},"modified":"2017-10-25T00:48:09","modified_gmt":"2017-10-25T00:48:09","slug":"14-if-you-think-your-life-is-tough-what-should-you-do-to-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/charliemungersays.com\/index.php\/2017\/01\/12\/14-if-you-think-your-life-is-tough-what-should-you-do-to-win\/","title":{"rendered":"14. If You Think Your Life Is Tough, What Should You Do To Win?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Excellent Book: Charlie Munger For All Seasons<\/a><\/p>\n

Life is not meant to be easy. If it is too easy, it is not going to be very meaningful. Can you imagine a life without any problems whatsoever? Dead men have got no problems, so go figure.<\/p>\n

And often when we are in a difficult situation, it is not just one problem that\u2019s troubling us but a myriad of problems. In Hamlet, Shakespeare said it beautifully: \u201cWhen sorrows come, they come ot single spies but in battalions.\u201d<\/p>\n

And there is the old saying to the effect that \u201ctrouble comes in threes\u201d. It is very old and hence determining its origin is going to be tough. So, for now, I\u2019ll pool this in Charlie Munger\u2019s proverbial \u201ctoo difficult\u201d box. For example, the advertisement industry lamented the proximity of the deaths of the icons: Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawcett, and Ed McMahon. Historians referred to the three cruel figures of Hitler, Mussolini and Hirohito. Also, you are not supposed to light three cigarettes at one go. The story goes that during the first or second world war, a soldier lighted up three cigarettes and a sniper was alerted to it and kaboom.
\nThere\u2019s an unconfirmed story along this narrative. A caveman was trying to do very simple mathematics. So he went, one divided by one equals one and one divided by two equals half. One divided by three equals 0.333333333 \u2026 and after three days of hard work, it was still going on. So the caveman said: \u201cThis is trouble.\u201d<\/p>\n

Most of us like to think that we had it tough. Yeah, I had it tougher than you, now can I sulk? Well then, read what Charlie Munger had gone through at one stage.<\/p>\n

Ref: http:\/\/www.joshuakennon.com\/if-charlie-munger-didnt-quit-when-he-was-divorced-broke-and-burying-his-9-year-old-son-you-have-no-excuse\/<\/p>\n

\u201cCharlie Munger did not get to complete his first degree because of the war. In 1949, Charlie Munger was 25 years old when he was hired at the law firm of Wright & Garrett for $3,300 per year, or $29,851 in inflation-adjusted dollars as of 2010. He had $1,500 in savings, equal to $13,570 now.<\/p>\n

A few years later, in 1953, Charlie was 29 years old when he and his wife divorced.\u00a0 He had been married since he was 21.\u00a0 Charlie lost everything in the divorce, his wife keeping the family home in South Pasadena. Munger moved into \u201cdreadful\u201d conditions at the University Club and drove a terrible yellow Pontiac, which his children said had a horrible paint job. According to the biography written by Janet Lowe, Molly Munger asked her father, \u201cDaddy, this car is just awful, a mess.\u00a0 Why do you drive it?\u201d\u00a0 The broke Munger replied: \u201cTo discourage gold diggers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shortly after the divorce, Charlie learned that his son, Teddy, had leukemia. In those days, there was no health insurance, you just paid everything out of pocket and the death rate was near 100% since there was nothing doctors could do. Rick Guerin, Charlie\u2019s friend, said Munger would go into the hospital, hold his young son, and then walk the streets of Pasadena crying.<\/p>\n

One year after the diagnosis, in 1955, Teddy Munger died.\u00a0 Charlie was 31 years old, divorced, broke, and burying his 9 year old son.\u00a0 Later in life, he faced a horrific operation that left him blind in one eye with pain so terrible that he eventually had his eye removed.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a fair bet that your present troubles pale in comparison.\u00a0 Whatever it is, get over it.\u00a0 Start over.\u00a0 He did it.\u00a0 You can, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

Say it outloud. \u201cWell, you bet. I can too.\u201d That\u2019s what I believe Charlie Munger would encourage you to do. And how do you win against all your troubles and problems which I guarantee will come your way?
\nWell, I\u2019ll share with you the quintessentially brilliant Charlie Munger quote:<\/p>\n

\u201cAssume life will be really tough, and then ask if you can handle it. If the answer is yes, you’ve won.\u201d<\/p>\n

www.facebook.com\/groups\/charliemungersays\/<\/span><\/u><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Excellent Book: Charlie Munger For All Seasons Life is not meant to be easy. If it is too easy, it<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-158","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-charlie-mungers-3-categories-of-investment-in-out-too-tough"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/charliemungersays.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/charliemungersays.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/charliemungersays.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/charliemungersays.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/charliemungersays.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=158"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/charliemungersays.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":922,"href":"https:\/\/charliemungersays.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158\/revisions\/922"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/charliemungersays.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/charliemungersays.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/charliemungersays.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}