Following the chapters on Blue Chip Stamps and Wesco, the book covers events that are increasingly familiar to most readers who have followed the history of Berkshire Hathaway, including the rapid growth of the company throughout the 1980s and the transformation of the company in the 1990s with the General Re and GEICO acquisitions. I met the towering intellectuals in books, not in the classroom, which is natural. [4] He then gave up the practice of law to concentrate on managing investments and later partnered with Otis Booth in real estate development. "If you cater to those gambling chips, when people have money in their pocket for the first time, and you tell them they can make 30 or 40 or 50 trades a day, and you're not charging them any commission, but you're selling their order flow or whatever, I hope we don't have more of it. 1999 was the last year that Berkshire disclosed Sees results as a separate business segment. [46] In each case, Munger promotes key architectural concepts of his own liking, and cedes professional architectural responsibility to a licensed architect of record, e.g., Hartman-Cox Architects in the case of the dormitory at UMichigan, and the firm of VTBS for the U.C. The panel cited the risk of COVID-19 transmission and other illnesses, safer evacuation routes, and less of a psychological strain on students linked to living in rooms without natural air or sunlight as a few issues that factored into their recommendations. Who could have known that he would still be active in business and philanthropy nearly a quarter century later? I thought it was undignified to have to send invoices to other people. [5] In early 1943, a few days after his 19th birthday, he dropped out of college to serve in the U.S. Army Air Corps, where he became a second lieutenant. Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube. The meeting will not have an in-person audience and will bewebcastby CNBC with questions asked by Becky Quick. Would Charlie Munger have embarked on a career in business and investing if he had not been introduced to Warren Buffett in 1959? The Rational Walkwebsite was founded by Ravi Nagarajan in 2009 who is the author of all its content. As the vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, Munger is worth $1.7 billion, according to Forbes. Munger believes that holding a concentrated number of stocks that he knows extremely well will in the long term produce superior returns. Nancy Munger was an alumna of Stanford, and Wendy Munger, Charlie Munger's daughter from a previous marriage, was also an alumna (A.B. This led to an unpleasant investigation of the tangled web of ownership between Berkshire, Diversified Retailing, Blue Chip, and Wesco that was eventually settled for $115,000. Buffet has described Munger as " [his] partner." Munger served as chairman of Wesco Financial Corporation from 1984 through 2011. My goal is to eventually write one article on each of the twenty-five tendencies. It is always preferable to locate primary records where possible. Munger has had, by almost any standard, a wildly successful life and a long one, at that. is that it is now quite outdated. Weve Chosen Carol Benson-Cobb Works for Kennon-Green & Co. Nintendos Metroid Dread Blows Out Franchise Sales Figures. That is, on the relatively few occasions when he had something to add to Mr. Buffetts commentary. This was despite the fact that the 1973-74 bear market was brutal for the partnership with a loss of 31.9% in 1973 and 31.5% in 1974, far in excess of the DJIAs decline of 13.1% and 23.1%, respectively. Munger believes that by coping as best he could with the tragedy of Teddys death, he was doing the only rational thing. In 2000, Janet Lowe publishedDamn Right!, the only book about Mr. Munger that can be called a traditional biography. [71][72], In his 50s, after a failed eye cataract surgery that rendered his left eye blind, Munger had his left eye removed due to severe pain. But opposition to the building has been significant. However, after many years, the web of ownership interests became extremely complex and this resulted in trouble with the Securities and Exchange Commission in 1974. [35], Munger is a major benefactor of the University of Michigan. Young Charlie had a reputation for being a star student, but he could be challenging for teachers to deal with due to his fierce independence. Kaufman, Peter (2005, 2006 for the second edition and 2008 for the third edition). Munger was born in Omaha, Nebraska. While Mr. Munger saw a great deal of merit in Grahams value-oriented approach, he recognized that there are situations where it makes sense to pay a significant premium to book value when a business has proven superior economics. Charlie Munger made headlines last year when news broke that he had designed a massive dorm building with almost no windows that could house 4,500 students. In the essay The Superinvestors of Graham-and-Doddsville, published in 1984, Buffet wrote that the compound annual returns of Mungers investment partnership were of 19.8% during the 196275 period compared to the 5.0% annual appreciation rate for the Dow. Elon Musk is losing the plot by making basic security a paid feature on Twitter. Would Warren Buffett have spent his life searching for cigar-butt stocks, never expanding into better business if he had not been introduced to Charlie Munger? Janet Lowes access to the Munger family provided much insight into Charlie Mungers personality from the perspective of his wife, children, grandchildren, and friends. Lowe describes this episode in considerable detail and explains how it led to the untangling of the complex web. In the decades since the publication of the book, Charlie Munger has remained active at Berkshire Hathaway. Source: Sees Candies was purchased by Blue Chip Stamps, a company that Buffett and Munger controlled which eventually merged into Berkshire Hathaway in 1983. When doctors told him that he had developed a condition that may cause his remaining eye to fill up with blood and become blind too, Munger started taking braille lessons. He was a student of the University of Michigan, California Institute of Technology, and several other colleges before enrolling at Harvard to study law. I read this book several years ago although I have not yet written a book review. Last year, a group of architecture history professors at UCSB created a petition to halt construction, calling the proposed housing small windowless cells, without natural light, natural air, or views of the world outside., Munger said he was intimately familiar with university housing, because of his experience with his children and grandchildren, in an interview with Architectural Record last year. Behind the Scenes with Charlie Munger, Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window), Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window), Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window), Click to share on Skype (Opens in new window), Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window), Click to share on Telegram (Opens in new window), Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window), Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window), Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window). Charles Munger, vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., left, and Warren Buffett, chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., attend a BYD Co. press event in China, on Monday, Sept. 27, 2010. Dubbed Dormzilla, the project was intended to solve the universitys housing crisis driven by an increase in enrollment, and a lack of funding. A ship on land. The broad contours of this part of the story are quite well known. Charlie Munger. Three rules for a career: 1) Don't sell anything you wouldn't buy yourself; 2) Don't work for anyone you don't respect and admire; and 3) Work only with people you enjoy. According to Buffett's essay "The Superinvestors of Graham-and-Doddsville", published in 1984, Munger's investment partnership generated compound annual returns of 19.8% during the 196275 period compared to a 5.0% annual appreciation rate for the Dow. This led to an unpleasant investigation of the tangled web of ownership between Berkshire, Diversified Retailing, Blue Chip, and Wesco that was eventually settled for $115,000. Per records, Munger doled out $11 million for a French Normandy-esque mansion in the oceanfront enclave, a guard-gated community known for its 22-acre collection of luxury estates, all of them . Weight, Hair color In October 2014, he revealed that he was making a donation of $65 million to the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Although the bond between Munger and Buffett could be seen as one in a million, Munger can truly say he spent his life working with someone he enjoyed and advises that others do the same. The secret is "easy, because it's so simple," Munger told Quick. Fr nhere Informationen zur Nutzung Ihrer Daten lesen Sie bitte unsere Datenschutzerklrung und Cookie-Richtlinie. : Behind the Scenes with Berkshire Hathaway Billionaire Charlie Munger. Munger grew up in Omaha, Nebraska, as did his investing partner (Buffett's birthplace explains his nickname, the "Oracle of Omaha"), and worked in Buffett's grandfather's grocery store, as did Buffett himself. Your privacy is taken very seriously. [6] After receiving a high score on the Army General Classification Test, he was ordered to study meteorology at Caltech in Pasadena, California,[7] the town he was to make his home. Janet Lowe does an admirable job of explaining the various entities that Warren Buffett, Charlie Munger, and other close associates used to acquire control of different businesses during the 1960s and 1970s. All Rights Reserved. Through entities such as Diversified Retailing, Blue Chip Stamps, and Berkshire Hathaway itself, deals were structured in ways that appeared to make the most sense at the time. Eventually, with the help of Roscoe Pound, a former dean of Harvard Law and a Munger family friend, he got into the university. His desire to arrange financial affairs so as to never go back to go has depression-era roots.2 ", Instead of living with high expectations and worrying about what will come next, Munger suggests you "slug it out one inch at a time, day-by-day, and at the end of the day if you live long enough like most people, you will get out of life what you deserve. Charles Thomas Munger (born January 1, 1924) is an American investor, businessman, and philanthropist. I was first introduced to Charlie Munger in the pages of Roger Lowensteinsbiography of Warren Buffett which I read shortly after it was published in 1995. When the merger was defeated, Wesco shares fell and Blue Chip moved to acquire control. Charlie Munger's family tree includes a number of presidential kin including, but not limited to, Warren G. Harding, William Taft, Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter, and James Madison. After the war, a family friend helped Mr. Munger gain admittance to Harvard Law School even though he did not have a college degree. 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. Happy New Year! However, after many years, the web of ownership interests became extremely complex and this resulted in trouble with the Securities and Exchange Commission in 1974. Here is Charlie Munger's list of thoughts that are lauded by Warren Buffett. At 95, Charlie Munger is best known for his steady role as the right-hand man of investing legend Warren Buffett. I had Thomas Jefferson over my bed at seven or eight. The seven year age difference between the two men left them growing up in different social circles despite Charlie Munger working at the Buffett family grocery store during the 1930s. In 1978, he was appointed the vice-chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, where he and Buffett have worked together ever since. Not because I wanted Ferraris I wanted the independence. His desire to arrange financial affairs so as to never go back to go has depression-era roots.2. Passive consumption of information is not enough to earn true wisdom. They had four children: Charles T. Munger Jr., Emilie Munger Ogden, Barry A. Munger, and Philip R. Munger. Once a saver, always a saver: Warren Buffett says generational wealth isnt what it used to be in his annual letter Its bigger than the housing crisis: An influential economist just blamed NIMBYs for American decline, and Elon Musk CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice, Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information. Although it took years, ownership interests in all of the firms were eventually consolidated into Berkshire Hathaway. is not among the hundred-plusbook reviewsI have written since 2009 so it seemed appropriate to re-read the book and share a few thoughts on Charlie Mungers 99th birthday. Its such a simple idea. Although not known for extravagance, the Munger family has long enjoyed reuniting for summer vacations at a family compound at Star Island which is situated in a lake in northern Minnesota. Careers, People, Three. After the war, a family friend helped Mr. Munger gain admittance to Harvard Law School even though he did not have a college degree.