The Canadian Investor - Celebrating Charlie Munger: Five Famous Quotes (Special Episode)

Episode Date: November 28, 2023

Braden hops on the mic for a few minutes to celebrate the life of Charlie Munger. Rest in Peace, Charlie.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The game of life is the game of everlasting learning. At least it is if you want to win. End quote. Charlie Munger. Today is November 28th, just before 5pm. It's just Brayden here on a solo episode. Simone and I recorded no longer than an hour ago, as we usually do on Tuesday afternoons. As soon as we kind of hung up the mic, we heard the news that Charlie Munger had just passed away at the age of 99. He would have turned 100 years old on January 1st, 2024. I'm just going to read a couple of quotes and reflect on his life and talk about some things that everyone has learned and can continue to learn from the legacy that is Charlie Munger. I sent out a quick tweet when I got the chance to kind of decompress my thoughts. And the outpour of respect,

the outpour of memories, photos with him at Berkshire Hathaway meetings, things that people have learned in the business and investing community from him over his great life. And it made me realize this is what legacy looks like. This is what 99 years of doing exactly what you're going to say you're going to do, be helpful to other people, to be kind, and to provide a lot of value for people over 99 years compounds to a tremendous legacy. Spend each day trying to be a little wiser than you were when you woke up. The best thing a human being can do is to help another human being know more. It is remarkable how much long-term advantage people like us have gotten by trying to be consistently not stupid instead of trying to be very intelligent. In my whole life, I have known no wise people who didn't read all the time. None. zero. I like this quote because so much of what he has to say

and those four quotes that I just read are about being a lifelong learner. That's been a common theme of Charlie's teachings through the years has been very successful people all have that trait of being continuous lifelong learners. And Charlie was sharp up until his very last days at 99. I had the chance of going to Berkshire Hathaway's annual shareholder meeting this past spring. And I'm so grateful that I finally went after saying I was going to go for the previous five years. Now, of course, I'm wishing that I went to all of them, but now I'm very grateful that I did go recently with one of my co-founders and just to see it in person and see Charlie in person. I never allow myself to have an opinion on anything that I don't know

the other side's argument better than they do. The big money is not in the buying and selling, but in the waiting. You don't have to be brilliant, only a little bit wiser than the other guys on average for a long, long time. And the quote I'll leave you with is the one I started with. The game of life is the game of everlasting learning. At least it is if you want to win. This podcast, this project that we've done over the last several years, nearing 350 episodes, has been extremely fulfilling. But reading these quotes and reflecting on Charlie's amazing life, I hope that it has made just a handful of people a little wiser.

Or perhaps, you know, he says, in my old life, I've never known no wise people who didn't read all the time, none, zero. I think here in 2023, we can say that just generally across many different mediums, whether it's reading or listening to podcasts or even audio books. The whole concept of going to bed a little bit wiser than you were in the morning and trying to consistently, in his words, be, quote, consistently not stupid instead of

trying to be very intelligent. If you look at Charlie's life of the last 99 years, he has been the prime example of compounding in multiple ways. Compounding of wealth, his famous quote, never interrupt compounding unnecessarily. I think about that a lot. I think about his quotes around incentive structures and how to live a good life around incentives, both in business and in life. And just being very influential and helping people and sharing his knowledge, compounding, compounding, compounding to now many people sharing stories like this of how he has affected their life through his readings, through his interviews, and through, of course, his long form discussions with Mr. Warren Buffett at the annual shareholder meetings

for Berkshire Hathaway. And of course, not to be forgotten, his many long talks for the Daily Journal Corp, his annual shareholder meetings that he has for that company. And so what I'll leave you with is a thank you for listening to this podcast over the years. We hope that we have helped people try to, quote, be consistently not stupid. And we thank you very much. And rest in peace to the king, Charlie Munger. Those of you who are about to enter business school or there, I recommend you learn to do it our way, but at least until you're out of school,

you have to pretend to do it their way. People don't seem to get that point. You have any idea why, Charlie? Warren, if people weren't so often wrong, we wouldn't be so rich. Yeah, I think you would understand any presentation using the word EBITDA. Every time you saw that word, you just substituted the phrase bullshit earnings. So, no, I'm optimistic about life. I can be optimistic when I'm nearly dead. Surely the rest of you can handle a little inflation. And, of course, that's the other advice.

The best way to get what you want in life is to deserve what you want. How could it be otherwise? It's not crazy enough so that the world is looking for a lot of undeserving people to reward. Everybody wants fiscal virtue, but not quite yet. They're like that guy who felt that way about sex. He was willing to give it up, but not quite yet. Well, you don't want to be like the motion picture executive in California.

And they said the funeral was so large because everybody wanted to make sure he was dead. It was investment banker aided fraud. Yeah, not exactly novel. That does not mean we approve of every buyback at all, though. I mean, we've seen... No, no, no. I think some people just buy it to keep the stock up. And that, of course, is insane and immoral. But apart from that, it's fine. I've listened to so many nonsensical cost of capital discussions that I've never heard an intelligent one. Yeah. Charlie's big on lowering expectations.

Absolutely. That's the way I got married. My wife lowered her expectations. Sure, there are a lot of things in life way more important than wealth. All that said, some people do get confused. I play there are a lot of things in life way more important than wealth. All that said, some people do get confused. I play golf with a man. He says, what good is health? You can't buy money with it. Well, there are a whole lot of things I don't think about. And one of them is companies that are losing two or three billion dollars a year and going public. And accounting,

you can do things like they do in Italy when they have trouble with the mail. You know, it piles up and irritates the postal employees. They just throw away a few carloads and then everything flows smoothly thereafter. That happened in some unnamed international country. Yeah, Italy. The general system for money management requires people to pretend that they can do something that they can't do and to pretend to like it when they really don't. I think that's a terrible way to spend your life but it's

very well paid. Well I can't give you a formulaic approach because I don't use one. If you want a formula you should go back to graduate school. I'll give you a formulaic approach because I don't use one. If you want a formula, you should go back to graduate school. They'll give you lots of formulas that won't work. As Samuel Johnson said famously, I can give you an argument, but I can't give you an understanding. It's extraordinary how resistant some people are learning anything. The answer is no, the board at Lubbers Hall did not breach its duty because we were not going to participate in the transaction if they didn't do it our way. Has anybody else got an easy question? And yet it's perfectly obvious, at least to me,

that to say that derivative accounting in America is a sewer is an insult to sewage. It's not that great a business as a business, casualty insurance. It's a tough game. There are temptations to be stupid in it. It's like banking. But competency is a relative concept. And what a lot of us need, including the one speaking, what I needed to get ahead was to commit against idiots. And luckily, there's a large supply. I don't like multitasking. I see these people doing three things at once,

and I think, God, what a terrible way that is to think. I like cryptocurrencies a lot less than you do. And I think the people who are professional traders that go into trading cryptocurrencies, it's just disgusting. It's like somebody else is trading turds and you decide I can't be left out. Warren reminds me once I asked a man who just left a large investment bank and I said, how does your firm make its money? He said, off the top, off the bottom, off both sides, and in the middle. Well, I would rather throw a viper down my shirt front than hire a compensation consultant. I think I've offended enough people.

There's two or three in the balcony.