The next book in our Dave Reads series is another classic in the business book category, Poor Charlie’s Almanack: The Essential Wit and Wisdom of Charles T. Munger
If you follow “The Oracle of Omaha”, Warren Buffett and his business partner, Charlie Munger, you know both of them have some very insightful and very funny opinions on many current events and economic news items. This book presents a summary of eleven talks Charlie has done over the years for various groups. As you can probably already tell, the title is an ohmage to Benjamin Franklin’s Poor Richard’s Almanack. Charlie has a thing for Ben Franklin. Here are a few of my favorite points from the book:
In the Talk Two, the 1994 presentation to the USC Marshall School of Business, Charlie makes an interesting comment about Walmart. This particular point of view is exactly the opposite of the point of view I previously held in the mid-1990s. I was one of the many who felt Walmart was crushing local and small businesses like a bug and our small town societies and communities would be forever ruined. Charlie offers: “…Capitalism is a brutal place. …you can idealize small-town life, but … you shouldn’t get too idealistic about all those businesses he destroyed.” Charlie goes on to talk about how Walmart is able to give more stable employment and benefits the small-town businesses never would be able to provide. We’re not talking about holiday decor boutique shops in Napa Valley, we’re talking about corner convenience stores in Middle America.
Later in the same talk, Charlie discusses some of our previous post on the Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham. I am paraphrasing here, but Charlie mentions the methods have served him and Warren Buffett well over the years, but they have had to make some decisions not exactly following Graham’s teachings. This goes with what I was saying in my last post, Graham’s teachings mostly hold up, but we do need to make our own decisions in light of the new economic conditions we have today.
I think my favorite quote in the book is in Talk Ten, his 2007 address to the USC Gould School of Lay Commencement Address. Here, Charlie says, ‘Another think you have to do is have a lot of assiduity. I like that word because to me it means you have to sit down on your ass until you do it.” Classic Charlie comedic wit.
Stay tuned for the next Dave Reads post where I will be putting down my thoughts on another great business book; Michael Lewis’ Liar’s Poker.