No. of Recommendations: 30
My family is indebted to Charlie Munger. We have an ample retirement nest egg thanks to Charlie Munger. Our children also have nest eggs because of gifted Berkshire stock and through investments they have made in Berkshire. My elderly mother is paying her assisted living home costs in part because of the continued appreciation in her Berkshire stock.
Just as importantly, our small company has benefited over the years from Charlie Munger's book recommendations. We were introduced to Dr. Robert Cialdini's awesome book, "Influence" through Charlie's book list. This has led to sending our staff to POP training in Arizona by Cialdini's fine group. We have employed Ciadini's Principles of Persuasion (POP) in our marketing, customer service, vendor interactions and in our staff relationships over the many years since seeing the book on Charlie's recommended book list. Our benefit has mostly not been increased sales so much as it has been in improved relationships amongst the above cited parties.
Charlie praised another book, "The Origin of Wealth" by Eric Beinhocker many years ago and among other ideas discussed, the book provided a mental framework for understanding how risk accumulates until a strain/breaking point is crossed leading to a sudden collapse that is followed by gradual rebuilding with the risk accumulation process starting again. The concept of risk/strains accumulating during good times has been an important mental model in our planning process. You must expect future periods of rapid collapse and be prepared. For our business this includes not being in debt or having contractural obligations that could trigger at an unfortunate time.
Lastly, Charlie was a realist and frequently spoke of the moat advantages accorded to the low cost producer of the product or service having the best customer desired properties. We cite this as our North Star when designing new generations of our products. To survive and eventually thrive, it is imperative to have operating and product/service cost advantages together with best-in-class customer service. This is presumably why Charlie admired Costco, BYD and Apple's business moats.
I daresay many thousands of other folks have similarly been touched by Charlie's benevolence with his time, thoughts, recommendations and investment acumen.
Thank you Charles T. Munger for all you have done for our family and our business.
Uwharrie
