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and, though he had experience in
operating businesses, he still had a lot to learn about being a professional
investor.
    "You know the cliche that opposites attract?" Munger said. "Well, opposites don't attract. Everybody engaged in complicated work needs colleagues. Just the discipline of having to put your thoughts in order with
somebody else is a very useful thing.""
    In Munger, Buffett found someone who shared his values and goals
and to whom he could talk on a sophisticated level.
    One of the greatest similarities between the two men is their sense
of humor. Like many Midwesterners, they have learned to deal with discomfort, stress, surprise, and even grief by making jokes. Humor breaks
the tension, provides psychological protection, and allows them to assert
dominance over their circumstances. 12
    Munger brought more than comradeship to the mix. Though Buffett
had inherited a group of former Graham-Newman investors and was
busily recruiting money from Nebraskans, Munger spread the word about
Buffett's skills in California, bringing millions more dollars into his investment pool. To a large extent, Berkshire's early success was due to the
acquisition of Blue Chip Stamps, See's Candy, and other California companies, most of which were discovered by Munger and his circle of West
Coast investors.

    Just as Munger looked on in amusement at Buffet parochial food preferences, Buffet came to understand Munger's unusual personality. In
1967, in one of their early ventures, Munger and Buffett went to New
York to buy a small company called Associated Cotton Shops. Buffett recalls walking along a street in Manhattan with Charlie, talking about the
business deal. Suddenly Buffett looked around and discovered he was talking to himself. Charlie was gone. Later Buffett learned that Munger remembered he had to catch a plane, and just walked off.
    Despite Munger's ungraceful abruptness, said Buffett, "He is a sensational friend. The niceties are not there. None of the superficial acts, but
all of the real ones. We've never had an argument. We've disagreed at
times and we've done a lot of things together, but there's never been one
time we've been mad or irritated or anything. If you talk about ideas, he's
not going to get emotional about it. But if he has superior facts or reasoning, he won't back off. We both think the other one is worth listening to."
    His OWN LIFE, insists Munger, is "not a big story-long dull stretches are
possible. 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? Selfeducation-developing mental discipline, big ideas that really work."
    Munger's life story reveals a number of large, though perhaps loosely
organized, ideas that served him well: Live within your income and save
so that you can invest. Learn what you need to learn. As Buffett likes to
say, "if it's trite, it's right."
    Warren Buffett often counsels college students to develop early the
right habits of thought and behavior, since most of the time, people act on
habit. This goes hand in hand with another big idea promoted by
Munger-always act as honorably as possible. "How you behave in one
place," he says, "will help in surprising ways later."

     

C H A P T E R T W O

THE LAKEA PLACE THAT
DEFINES MUNGER

    There are a lot of things in life way more important than
money. All that said, some people do get confused. I play golf
with a man who says, "What good is health? You can't buy
money with it."'
    Charlie Munger
    t IS THE LAST SUMMER OF the twentieth century and Charles and Nancy
Munger clamber from the motorboat onto the dock at their Star Island
house,