Poor Charlie's Almanack

Poor Charlie’s Almanack explores the life of the famous investor Charlie Munger, the right hand of Warren Buffett, and teaches its readers how his inspirational take on life helped him achieve a fortune and still have time and money to dedicate towards philanthropic causes.

Charlie Munger wasn’t always a successful investor. In fact, he didn’t even hold a bachelor’s degree. During his teenage years, he had a passion for studying and reading. He spent most of his days in libraries and lived through the books he was reading. After he dropped out of college, he learned a series of informal skills that proved to be useful during his lifetime.

Among the subjects he studied were medicine and science, then mathematics and physics. In WWII, he became a pilot and served in the army. Eventually, he finished Harvard Law with Magna Cum Laude.

His cross-disciplinary skills proved to be of utmost importance when it came to his later career in finance. No matter how many challenges crossed his path, he managed to learn something from each and every one of them.

The lesson here is to keep on learning and pushing through despite life’s hardships. No matter what you read about, make it a habit to absorb more and more information as you go through life. You never know when it’ll be useful for you.

Moreover, improve your work ethic. Munger insisted on finishing things the first time instead of going back to repeat the process. A strong determination to do things right and learn every day will get you far in life, just as it happened with him.

Early in his professional life, Munger started a law firm that went on with its operations successfully, yet something didn’t sit right with him. It wasn’t long after when he had to take a trip to Omaha to close on some real estate he inherited, where he met Buffett. Their shared interest in the business world and investing was enough to spark a long-lasting business relationship between them. As a result, Munger joined Buffett in managing Berkshire Hathaway, one of the most successful investing enterprises ever. Their immense success was built on a strong work ethic, and more importantly, a series of moral principles. Unlike most Wall Street investors, who con people for a living, Berkshire made it a mission to do away with insider trading and doctoring the books to make certain securities look more promising. For a company with 175,000 employees, the cases of litigations and scandals are very few. The company sees tax evasion and cutting corners as something unaligned with its principles. And its two managers took it quite personally when middlemen did so. Of course, with so…