Charlie Munger died on Nov. 28 at age 99. These reflections on his life and career, which he wrote for CNBC Make It, are among his final writings.
My children and grandchildren might not think exactly the way I do, but I hope they can observe my life as an example of how to be successful in their careers and relationships — just as I did with the generations before me.
When I was very young, my father practiced law. One of his best friends, Grant McFayden, Omaha’s Pioneer Ford dealer, was a client. He was a brilliant and self-made man, with enormous charm and integrity.
In contrast, my father had another client who was pompous, unfair and difficult. One day, I asked my dad, “Why do you do so much work for Mr. X, this overreaching blowhard, instead of working more for wonderful men like Grant?”
“Grant treats his employees right, his customers right, and his problems right,” my father said. “He doesn’t have enough remunerative law business to keep you in Coca-Cola. But Mr. X is a walking minefield of wonderful legal business.”
This conversation taught me that sometimes, you may have to sell your services to an unreasonable blowhard, especially if that’s what you must do to feed your family. But you want to run your own life like Grant McFayden.
That was a great lesson that my father shared in a very clever way. Instead of just pounding it in, he told it to me in a way that required a slight mental reach. Since I had to reach for it, I’ve never forgotten it. And I’ve used his teaching method with my own children and grandchildren.
Here, two of my kids Charles and Wendy share key lessons they’ve learned from me over the years. My hope is that they’ll hold onto all of these until their 100th birthdays.
Always return a borrowed car with a full tank of gas.
“On the last day of a family ski vacation in Sun Valley, when I was about 15, my dad and I were driving back in the snow when he took a 10-minute detour to gas up the red Jeep we were driving.
He was pressed for…
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