Why Does Everyone Love Charlie Munger? His Life Will Make You Speechless - YouTube

One of the greatest minds of the 20th century. He is known for his wisdom as well as his

generosity. He is a businessman a rational and sensible investor. He is the vice chairman

of Berkshire Hathaway, chairman of the Daily Journal Corporation, and a director at Costco

Wholesale Corporation. He has earned a multibillion-dollar fortune which consists of a net worth of $2.5

billion. Now, that s a business magnate!!! And he is, Charlie Munger! The way his mind

works is truly incomparable. But hang in there, let's try to get a glimpse of his life.

He is known as the right-hand man to the world s eighth richest man, Warren Buffet.

In the words of Buffet, Charlie is one who Marches to the beat of his music, and its

music like virtually no one else is listening to.

Charles Thomas Munger was born in 1924 in Omaha, Nebraska. He pursued his education

at the University of Michigan and studied mathematics. Just a few days had passed following

his 19th birthday, Pearl Harbor was attacked and the US declared war, he dropped out of

college to serve in the U.S Army Air Corp. Here, he worked to become the second lieutenant.

Upon receiving a high score on the Army General Classification Test, he was pushed to study

meteorology at Caltech, California. He even studied many advanced courses in several universities

through the GI Bill. Charlie s children often elaborated him as a book with a couple of

legs sticking out In his childhood, Charlie was working at a

grocery store, Buffet & Son. It was Warren Buffet s grandfather s store. Charlie was

paid $2 for 10 hours of work. Following his advanced educational experience, his career

aspects were now bright and vivid. In California, he began working at a law firm, Wright & Garrett.

A few years later he founded Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP, and here proceeded his career

as a real estate attorney. In 1959, Charlie met Warren during a dinner

party in Omaha. Charlie, continuing his practice as a real estate attorney, and Warren, building

his investment firm. The iconic pair made sure to keep in touch over the next few years.

Later, he decided to end his career as a lawyer and focused on managing investments.

Charlie, today is known to be Warren Buffet s partner and close friend. But what many

are unaware of is that Charlie managed his investment partnership. He was and is a legendary

icon in the investment community and is a great public speaker. He was the previous

chairman of Wesco Financial Corporation and was known for his ability to maintain a network

of connections with shareholders of Wesco. The same characteristics of Charlie tagged

along to Daily Journal Corporation when he became the chairman. Here, It is known that

investors pour into meetings just to listen to Charlie speak.

As Warren began purchasing shares of Berkshire Hathaway in 1962 and subsequently 3 years

later, he managed to gain the position of Chairman and CEO. In 1978 Charlie became the

Vice Chairman of the company. His ways of interacting and influencing the investment

community are no different from Warren's at Berkshire Hathaway. Charlie, a second-in-command

to Warren, the pair, is highly compatible and makes the best out of every situation.

Their combined efforts and tactics brought Berkshire Hathaway to the summit of the industry

by becoming the largest public company in the world! The company fully owns Long & Foster,

Duracell, Dairy Queen, and Helzberg Diamonds among many others.

Warren does not forget to credit Charlie for being an inspiration to the company and ensuring

Warren is making the correct decisions. In 1989, in a letter to shareholders, Warren

praised Charlie for guiding him to comprehend the setbacks of the cigar-butt version of

value investing. Cigar-butt you ask? Investors purchasing dying

businesses usually with a worth of $1 for $0.75 to get the $0.25 of free puff

In his letter, Warren proudly pointed out Charlie understood this early, I was a slow

learner Charlie, known for his rational thinking,

would often speak wisely. During operations of the business, he keeps a balance between

work and life and often interacts with his ethical and honest life principle in his work.

Charlie is self-driven, searching for success at every nook and corner. His attempt to maintain

the industry s leading spot is truly inspiring. He often admits that his constant ethical

approach is what drives him to his success. "Good businesses are ethical businesses. A

business model that relies on trickery is doomed to fail."

He is an enthusiastic reader and a keen learner though out his experience in the industry

and most importantly a vibrant and strong conversationalist. He has a born talent to

keep his listeners hooked. if you keep learning all the time, you have a huge advantage

A key characteristic of Charlie is that he is simple, though he is very much more advanced

than almost all of us, he prefers when his business is uncomplicated which is another

reason why he was able to reach the top and most importantly to maintain his position

at the top. As educated and ethical as he is, he is equally

generous and compassionate. He has donated millions of dollars to universities, $23 million

to the University of Michigan Law School, and Stanford Univerity, and $43.5 million

Berkshire Hathaway stock to build a graduate student housing complex. He has also made

generous donations to many other educational institutes.

As great as he is, there are setbacks he encountered over the years. The most extreme mistakes

in Berkshire s history have been mistakes of omission These opportunity costs don t

show up on financial statements but have cost us many billions. Charlie believes and regrets

that the amount of stock bought from Apple was not sufficient. I wish we owned more of

it. I think we ve been a little too restrained. Warren and Charlie have both confessed that

not buying Google was a great failure on their part. They had even discussed the countless

opportunities and great potential Google holds, yet never invested in it We just sat there

sucking our thumbs However, as part of personal and business

growth, Charlie believes that it s important to review your past stupidities so you are

less likely to repeat them. Charlie s success is credited to him admitting mistakes and

moving forward with lessons well learned. Sadly, when Charlie s marriage of 8 years

to his first wife Nancy Huggins ended in divorce, Charlie lost everything, including the house.

He was occupied all week, working hard to gain back the money lost in the divorce. Saturdays,

with his children, were what kept him hopeful. Later, Teddy, 8 years old, was diagnosed with

leukemia. Charlie paid everything he earned to keep his child alive. This was a very difficult

time for Charlie, watching his son grow weaker day by day. Teddy passed away a year later.

Charlie was hit with divorce, financial trouble, and then, losing a child. But he kept going,

never gave in. Charles Munger is one of the greatest minds

of today s world, his success was powered by pain and suffering as well as his wisdom

and bravery. There is plentiful to be learned from this iconic individual who keeps making

headlines. It is quite difficult to capture his knowledge in one sitting.

Thank you for watching! Hope to see you at the next one!