I so loved this list of 57 lessons from Charlie Munger, shared by David Senra of Founders Popcast, that I’ve shared the tweet and the full list here on the blog. I’m a fan of the Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger school of simple, direct, pithy wisdom 😉
If you like lists, my most popular blog posts have been lists:
- 17 Daily personal habits for a fulfilling life
- The Complete Guide to Personal Habits: 158 Positive Reflections in 7 Categories to Be The Best Version of Yourself
- 12 Vital Questions for Any New Business
- The 11 Differences Between Busy and Productive People
The tweet from David:
57 Lessons from Charlie Munger
David’s notes from the NEW Poor Charlie’s Almanack: The Wit and Wisdom of Charlie Munger turned into maxims:
- 1. Find a simple idea and take it seriously.
- 2. Good ideas are rare. When you find one bet heavily.
- 3. Humans have been writing down their best ideas for 5,000 years. Read them.
- 4. Avoiding stupid mistakes is more important than being smart.
- 5. Don’t work with anyone you don’t admire.
- 6. Don’t sell anything you wouldn’t buy.
- 7. Avoiding a bad habit is easier than breaking a bad habit.
- 8. Work on your best idea. Don’t diversify
- 9. Incentives rule everything around you.
- 10. Never, ever, think about something else when you should be thinking about the power of incentives.
- 11. The most important rule in management is: Get the incentives right.
- 12. The storyteller is the most powerful person in the world.
- 13. Education is the process whereby the ability to lead a good life is acquired.
- 14. Be dependable for your tribe.
- 15. Trust is one of the greatest economic forces on Earth.
- 16. Don’t over optimize for growth at the expense of durability.
- 17. Great businesses are built by going ridiculously far in maximizing or minimizing one or a few things. Think Costco.
- 18. The combination of scale and fanaticism is *very* powerful. Think Sam Walton.
- 19. Do the unpleasant task first.
- 20. Don’t multitask.
- 21. Learning is changing behavior.
- 22. Avoiding stupidity for a long time *is* genius.
- 23. Many hard problems are solved best when approached backwards.
- 24. Think of ideas as tools. When a better tool comes along use it.
- 25. Clip your business and personal expenses. Small leaks sink big ships.
- 26. Make friends with smart dead people. Adam Smith, Darwin, Cicero, Ben Franklin —whoever interests you. Read their writing. Steal their ideas. They don’t need them anymore.
- 27. Only focus on great businesses and great businesses have moats.
- 28. Dominating a niche can produce profit margins that make you salivate.
- 29. Telling people WHY increases compliance.
- 30. Stay in the game long enough to get lucky.
- 31. Stack cash to survive unexpected problems and seize unexpected opportunities.
- 32. Don’t confuse intelligence with invincibility.
- 33. Panic spreads and compounds quickly.
- 34. If you’re not winning —scale down and intensify.
- 35. Appeal to interest, not to reason.
- 36. Understanding opportunity cost is a superpower.
- 37. Don’t confuse the map for the territory.
- 38. People often interpret price as a signal for quality.
- 39. All human systems are gamed.
- 40. Beating back bureaucracy is a never ending battle.
- 41. The acquisition of knowledge is a moral duty.
- 42. Learning from history is a form of leverage.
- 43. Make sure your best players get the most playing time.
- 44. It is inevitable that bad things will happen to you. When they do get up, keep going, and remember the next maxim:
- 45. Self pity has no utility.
- 46. Find out what you are best at. Then pound away at it. Forever.
- 47. Envy is weakness.
- 48. The behavior of peer companies will be mindlessly imitated.
- 49. Emotion blurs judgement.
- 50. Only play games where you have an edge.
- 51. Avoid mob rule. Avoid demagogues. Avoid dogma. Avoid bureaucracy.
- 52. Optimize for independence.
- 53. Use money to buy freedom.
- 54. Aim for durability.
- 55. Keep the people who don’t matter from interfering with the work of the people who do.
- 56. What do you have an *intense* interest in? Do that for your living.
- 57. Self improvement has no end.
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