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Founders

#295 I had dinner with Charlie Munger

Founders

David Senra

Technology, Business, History, Entrepreneurship

4.82.4K Ratings

🗓️ 21 March 2023

⏱️ 80 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

What I learned from having dinner with Charlie Munger and rereading The Tao of Charlie Munger. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes ---- Follow Founders Podcast on YouTube  ---- Follow one of my favorite podcasts Invest Like The Best ! (5:45) The blueprint he gave me was simple: Forget what you know about buying fair businesses at wonderful prices; instead, buy wonderful businesses at fair prices. (8:48) He has never forgotten the importance of having friends in high places. (9:04) Most people systematically undervalue their time. — Peter Thiel (11:08) Franklin & Washington: The Founding Partnership by Edward Larson. Founders #251) (12:23) Meet You in Hell: Andrew Carnegie, Henry Clay Frick, and the Bitter Partnership That Changed America by Les Standiford. (Founders #284) (15:02) Charlie took the excess capital out of Blue Chip Stamp and invested it in profitable businesses. (16:56) Charlie started seeing the advantages of investing in better businesses that didn't have big capital requirements and did have lots of free cash that could be reinvested in expanding operations or buying new businesses. (17:38) Go for great. (21:33) In everything I’ve done it really pays to go after the best people in the world. —Steve Jobs (27:15) If you're in a good business just know that it's human nature to mess it up. Don't mess it up. Just stay there and let time do its work. (27:34) One truly great business will make your unborn grandchildren wealthy. (28:08) All I Want To Know Is Where I'm Going To Die So I'll Never Go There: Buffett & Munger – A Study in Simplicity and Uncommon, Common Sense by Peter Bevelin. (Founders #286) (34:39) I did not succeed in life by intelligence. I succeeded because I have a long attention span. (34:54) Charlie Munger on how he made $400 or $500 million by reading Barron’s for 50 years. (35:11) One of the reasons Charlie and Warren have never worried about anyone mimicking their investment style is because no other institution or individual has the discipline are the patience to wait as long as they can.  (35:47) Wisdom is prevention. (36:50) Only play games where you have an edge. — A Man for All Markets: From Las Vegas to Wall Street, How I Beat the Dealer and the Market by Ed Thorp. (Founders #222) (38:31) Wise people step on big and growing troubles early. (44:51) I am continually amazed at the number of people who are presented with an opportunity and pass. There’s your basic dividing line between the people who shoot up in their careers like a rocket ship, and those who don’t — right there. — Marc Andreessen's Blog Archive (Founders #50) (46:28) The most inspiring biography I’ve read so far: Born of This Land: My Life Story by Chung Ju-yung. (Founders #117) (47:11) Invest Like The Best #204 Sam Hinkie Find Your People (42:42) Rober Caro’s Books: The Power Broker The Path to Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson I Means of Ascent: The Years of Lyndon Johnson II Master of the Senate: The Years of Lyndon Johnson III The Passage of Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson IV (48:46) We just got after it and we stayed after it. — Sam Walton: Made In America by Sam Walton. (Founders #234) (52:39) Some brand names own a piece of consumer's minds and they do not have any direct competition. (55:30) We are individual opportunity driven. (57:08) Size and market domination can create their own kind of durable competitive advantage. (56:15) Jony Ive: The Genius Behind Apple's Greatest Products by Leander Kahney. (Founders #178) (1:01:57) Extreme specialization is the way to succeed. Most people are way better off specializing than trying to understand the world. (1:04:44) Wise people want to avoid other people who are just total rat poison and there are a lot of them. (1:05:35) Charlie and I have seen so much of the ordinary in business that we can truly appreciate a virtuoso performance. (1:09:00) Am I Being Too Subtle?: Straight Talk From a Business Rebel by Sam Zell. (Founders #269) (1:10:15) Charlie looks at nearly everything through the lens of history. You aren't changing human nature. Things will just keep repeating forever. (1:13:13) There should be more willingness to take the blows of life as they fall. That's what manhood is, taking life as it falls. Not whining all the time and trying to fix it by whining. (1:14:40) Hard Drive: Bill Gates and the Making of the Microsoft Empire by James Wallace and Jim Erickson. (Founders #290) (1:17:00) Arnold Schwarzenegger autobiographies and episodes: Total Recall: My Unbelievably True Life Story by Arnold Schwarzenegger. (Founders #141) Arnold: The Education of a Bodybuilder by Arnold Schwarzenegger. (Founders #193) ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes ---- Follow Founders Podcast on YouTube  ---- Join my free email newsletter to get my top 10 highlights from every book ---- “I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work.  Get access to Founders Notes here.  ---- “I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast

Transcript

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0:14.5

One of my favorite things about making this podcast is that I get to talk to so many founders. Now a lot of those founders are dead so I get to have one-sided conversations in the form of reading their biographies or reading their autographies and this is what Charlie Munger refers to as becoming friends with the eminent debt. But in addition to that because so many founders listen to this

0:18.8

podcast I get to actually meet and talk to people still building companies today

0:22.4

and a recurring theme that pops up again and again in these

0:26.0

conversations is that a large part of your life is actually searching for your life's work.

0:32.8

And so almost all of us are looking for something

0:35.0

that is unique to us that we can do forever.

0:38.3

And in almost every single case that requires

0:41.7

starting more than one company. As you're about to hear, that was

0:45.0

certainly the case in Charlie Munger's life. He was in his 40s

0:48.0

before he was finally doing full time what he was put on this earth to do.

0:52.0

And so this reoccurring theme that you're likely gonna have full-time what he was put on this earth to do.

0:52.8

And so this reoccurring theme that you're likely going to have to start more than one company

0:56.1

before you find in life's work is so common that the presenting sponsor of this episode, Tiny,

1:00.5

has built an entire business around buying other businesses.

1:05.0

And the founders of Tiny Andrew and Chris are doing something really smart.

1:08.0

They know that there's a ton of entrepreneurs that listen to this podcast that are building businesses,

1:12.0

some of which will have a business that they want to sell today. to this

1:13.3

that are building businesses, some of which will have a business that they want to sell today,

1:14.5

and some of which will have a business that they want to sell in the future.

1:18.0

And what I like about Tiny is a way they differentiate their offering

1:21.3

compared to other people that buy businesses.

1:23.8

There's just no BS when you deal with Tiny.

...

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