This episode is a tribute to the legendary Charlie Munger, an unsung hero behind the success of Berkshire Hathaway and the right-hand man to Warren Buffett. Mike commemorates Munger’s life and wisdom by delving into the pages of “The Tao of Charlie Munger” by David Clark – a compilation of Munger’s enlightening and profound quotes on life, business, and wealth. Who knew the key to success could be as simple as adaptation and flexibility? Munger had an unusual take on this, stating that sticking to a rigid master plan was a straight road to failure as it blinds us to new, crucial information.
Munger’s propensity for simplicity and pragmatism also led him to compare the educational value of an Ivy League institution to a fast-food giant – yes, you heard it right, McDonald’s! Join Mike as he appreciates and absorbs the essence of Charlie Munger. Through selected quotes from the book, he’ll give you a snapshot of his incredible perspective. Let’s pay homage to his brilliance, his wisdom and the legacy he leaves behind, reminding us all that the pursuit of wisdom is the richest wealth of all.
Episode resources:
Get the book: Tao of Charlie Munger by David Clark
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Episode transcript below:
0:00:09 – Mike Malatesta:
Hey everybody, thank you for joining me for this free Thinking Friday solo episode of the how’d it Happen podcast.
Today I am going to do a little tribute to tribute of sorts to Charlie Munger. Charlie Munger passed away at the age of 99, about a month short of 100 a few days ago, and this book that I read, the towel of Charlie Munger, is something that I’ve been wanting to do a podcast about for a while and just didn’t get to it. And now I thought, well, there’s no better time to get to it than right now. So while Charlie’s name isn’t as universally known as Warren Buffett’s name, he and Warren have sort of been tied at the hip, kind of like really great partners, for many decades. And while Charlie may have played a backstage role in public, he was certainly a major front stage player in the success of the world’s, or one of the world’s most successful companies ever Berkshire Hathaway. And, as I said, I’ve been wanting to do an episode on this book. I read it earlier this year the books by David Clark. Again, it’s called the towel T A O of Charlie Munger and it’s a simple book. It’s a compilation of quotes by Charlie, who’s the vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway and it’s quotes on life, business and the pursuit of wealth. And with his passing, I thought that today was the perfect time to do it. So, right off the bat, I thought I’d let you know what towel T A O means, because I wasn’t sure what it meant. And according to chat, gpt towel again T A O is considered the essence, pattern and substrate of everything that exists, guiding the natural and harmonious functioning of the world. Okay, so I think you and I can agree that means it’s pretty special being a towel, pretty special. My only goal today is to give you a flavor of the man through a few of the quotes five in fact that I randomly selected from the book. If you have any interest in how great minds work and I know you do I highly recommend that you buy the book so you can explore and learn more from Charlie’s particularly great mind. So first up, charlie’s thoughts on master plans. Here’s what he had to say at Berkshire there has never been a master plan. Anyone who wanted to do it we fired. Because it takes on a life of its own and it doesn’t cover new reality. We want people taking into account new information. Next quote these is Charlie’s thoughts on McDonald’s, and evidently he was at a college when he made this statement. And here it goes this is a nice college, but the great educator is McDonald’s. I think that a lot of what goes on here is better than at Harvard. I meant to say I’m going to start over again. All right, three, two, one. Everybody.
Welcome back to the how to Happen podcast. This is a free Thinking Friday solo episode with me and you, and today this episode is a tribute of sorts to Charlie Munger. Charlie passed away this week at the age of 99, about one month short of becoming a what do you call that? A centenarian being a hundred? And while Charlie’s name isn’t as universally known as, say, warren Buffett, he and Warren have been tied at the hip kind of partners for many decades. He may have played a backstage role in public, and he often did, but he certainly played a very major front stage role in the success of one of the world’s most successful companies ever Berkshire Hathaway and I’ve been wanting to do an episode on this book that I read earlier this year by David Clark.
It’s called the Tau TAO of Charlie Munger. Subtitle is a compilation of quotes from Berkshire Hathaway’s vice chairman on life, business and the pursuit of wealth. And with his passing, I thought that today was the perfect time to do it. In fact, that might be overdue. You might say so right off the bat. I thought I let you know what Tau means. Tao, because I wasn’t sure what it meant. And according to chat GPT, tau is considered the essence, pattern and substrate of everything that exists, guiding the natural and harmonious functioning of the world. Well, I think you and I can agree. That means it’s pretty special. Being a Tau is pretty special. And look, my only goal today is to give you a flavor of the man through a few of the quotes five in fact that I randomly selected from the book. And if you have any interest in how great minds work and I know you do I highly recommend that you buy the book so you can explore and learn more from Charlie’s particularly great and acute mind.
So here we go. First up, charlie’s thoughts on master plans. At Berkshire, there has never been a master plan. Anyone who wanted to do it we fired because it takes on a life of its own and doesn’t cover new reality. We want people taking into account new information. And this is his thoughts. Next, on McDonald’s. He says this is a nice college, but the great educator is McDonald’s. I think that a lot of what goes on there is better than at Harvard. That’s a powerful statement.
So here’s the third quote, charlie’s thoughts on career advice. Three rules for career. One don’t sell anything you wouldn’t buy yourself. Two don’t work for anyone you don’t respect and admire. Three work only with people you enjoy.
The fourth quote Charlie’s thoughts on know it all. I try to get rid of people who always confidently answer questions about which they don’t have any real knowledge. And the fifth one Charlie’s thoughts on making mistakes. There’s no way that you can live an adequate life without many mistakes. In fact, one trick in life is to get so you can handle mistakes.
Failure to handle psychological denial is a common way for people to go broke, and so in the book there are a total of 138 Charlieisms In his book. It’s a very easy read or you can just take one at a time. Spend five minutes, 10 minutes reading, because David writes a little thing after the quote to give it a little more nuance. But if this five flavor sample has impacted you or, better yet, left you wanting all 138, pick up the Towel of Charlie Munger by David Clark, on Amazon or wherever you get your books I’ll leave a link in the show notes for it, for sure, and I just want to end by saying we lost a great mind and a genuine person when Charlie died. The thing I keep thinking about is which of you, which of us, will pick up where he left off.
