Move only when you have an advantage. It's very basic. You have to understand the odds and have the discipline to bet only when the odds are in your favor. Charlie Munger More Quotes by Charlie Munger More Quotes From Charlie Munger I think there's an awful lot of twaddle and bullshit on EVA. The whole game is to turn retained earnings into more earnings. EVA has ideas about cost of capital that make no sense. Of course, if a company generates high returns on capital and can maintain this over time, it will do well. But the mental system as a whole does not work. Charlie Munger games ideas thinking We like our current shareholders and don't want to entice anyone to become one. It would help current shareholders to hear our CEOs [of the Berkshireoperating subsidiaries], but we promised them they could spend 100% of their time on their business. We place no impediments on them running their businesses. Many have expressed to me how happy they are that they don't have to spend 25% of time on activities they didn't like. Charlie Munger want helping running This is an amazingly sound place. We are more disaster-resistant than most other places. We haven't pushed it as hard as other people would have pushed it. I don't want to go back to Go. I've been to Go. A lot of our shareholders have a majority of their net worth in Berkshire, and they don't want to go back to Go either. Charlie Munger majority sound people Wells Fargo behaves better than the average big bank. But nobody's perfect. Charlie Munger fargo perfect average ...by regularly reading business newspaper and magazines I am exposed to an enormous amount of material at the micro level.. I find that what I see going on there pretty much informs me about what's happening at the macro level. Charlie Munger magazines levels reading Berkshire's past record has been almost ridiculous. If Berkshirehad used even half the leverage of, say, Rupert Murdoch, it would be five times its current size. Charlie Munger records would-be past Is anyone really surprised that Warren, who is the ultimate embodiment of concentrated decision-making power, picked somebody [Bill and Melinda Gates] who he thinks is like him in many important ways? It was a noble and sensible decision. Charlie Munger important decision thinking If you rise in life, you have to behave in a certain way. You can go to a strip club if you're a beer-swilling sand shoveler, but if you're the Bishop of Boston, you shouldn't go. Charlie Munger boston clubs beer Over many decades, our usual practice is that if something we like goes down, we buy more and more. Sometimes something happens, you realize you’re wrong, and you get out. But if you develop correct confidence in your judgment, buy more and take advantage of stock prices. Charlie Munger investing usual practice To finish first you have to first finish. Don't get in a position where you go back to go. What's interesting is that some guy whose grandfather was a lawyer and a judge-hurriedly going to Harvard Law with a wave of veterans-I was willing to go into so many different businesses. I was constantly going right into the other fellow's business and doing better than the other fellow did. The reason it was possible? Self-education- developing mental discipline, big ideas that really work. Charlie Munger self law ideas Just keep your head down and do your best. Charlie Munger maximum-effort down-and We’re partial to putting out large amounts of money where we won’t have to make another decision. Charlie Munger amount decision Our success has come from the lack of oversight we've provided, and our success will continue to be from a lack of oversight. But if you're going to provide minimal oversight, you have to buy carefully. It's a different model from GE's. GE's works - it's just very different from ours. Charlie Munger oversight working-it different The general culture of investment banking has deteriorated over the years. We did a $6 million deal years ago for Diversified Retailing and we were rigorously and intelligently screened. They bankers cared and wanted to protect their clients. The culture now is that anything that can be sold for a profit will be. 'Can you sell it?' is the moral test, and that's not an adequate test. Charlie Munger culture bankers years The world is getting very much more competitive. Charlie Munger world Berkshireis not as good as it was in terms of percentage compounding [going forward], but it's still a hell of a business. Charlie Munger percentages hell term People calculate too much and think too little. Charlie Munger investing people thinking The best armor of old age is a well-spent life preceding it. Charlie Munger bearing-witness armor age It's dangerous to short stocks. Charlie Munger dangerous If you have only a little capital and are young today, there are fewer opportunities than when I was young. Back then, we had just come out of a depression. Capitalism was a bad word. There had been abuses in the 1920s. A joke going around then was the guy who said, 'I bought stock for my old age and it worked - in six months, I feel like an old man!' "It's tougher for you, but that doesn't mean you won't do well - it just may take more time. But what the heck, you may live longer." Charlie Munger opportunity men mean
