Over two centuries later, Charlie raised the stakes. If Ben said be prompt, Charlie said be early. Ben in his will created two small philanthropic funds that were designed to teach the magic of compound interest. Charlie opted to become a living lesson in compounding eschewing frivolous expenditures that might sap the power of his example. In the book's forward, Buffett added his advice on the Choice of a Partner: "Look for someone both smarter and wiser than you are...Seek a partner who will never second-guess you nor sulk when you make expensive mistakes. Look for a generous soul who will put up his own money and work for peanuts. Finally, join with someone who will constantly add to the fun as you travel a long road together."
Charlie has become known for values such as lifelong learning, intellectual curiosity, sobriety, avoidance of envy and resentment, reliability, learning from the mistakes of others, perseverance, objectivity, willingness to test one's own beliefs, and many others. Munger was quoted as saying: "If you skillfully follow the multidisciplinary path, you will never wish to come back. It would be like cutting off your hands." Physics-like problem solving was to become a passion for Charlie and is a skill he considers useful in framing the problems of life. He has often stated that anyone who wants to be successful should study physics because its concepts and formulas so beautifully demonstrate the powers of sound theory. "I had a brief immersion in elementary physics...given more models, I was less like that 'man with a hammer.'" When Buffett was asked what are Charlie's secrets of success. Buffett replied that "he comes equipped for rationality, and he applies it in business... that's made him a huge success. There is honesty and integrity... doing more than his share and not complaining about what the other person does."
Munger has spent a lifetime studying the lives of others-what has worked well and others that have glitches or have experienced failures. Charlie's philosophy while working as a partner in his law firm was to choose clients as you would friends and don't take the last dollar. When he left to focus on business, he didn't take his share of the firm's capital. Instead, he directed that his share go to the estate of his young partner. Munger ran the Wheeler, Munger investment partnership from 1962 to 1975. It did exceptionally well for the first eleven years, compounding at 28.3 percent gross vs. 6.7 percent for the Dow, without a single down year. But the partnership was hit hard in the vicious bear market of 1973 and 1974 when it fell 31.9 percent and 31.5 percent in back to back years. This decline was despite as Charlie puts it, "having its major investments virtually sure of eventually being saleable at prices higher than the quoted market prices." The partnership rebounded strongly in 1975, rising 73.2 percent, bringing the overall record over fourteen years to 19.8 percent vs. 5.0 percent for the Dow. After this difficult experience, Charlie followed Warren in concluding that he no longer wanted to manage funds directly for investors (Warren had closed his own partnership in 1969). Instead they decided to build equity through stock ownership in a holding company-Berkshire Hathaway.
Today Munger is on the Forbes list of 400 wealthiest individuals.
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