Charlie Munger was the extraordinary partner to Warren Buffett at Berkshire Hathaway. His teachings on business and life are invaluable to anyone in pursuit of living a better life but more importantly the mental models that Charlie applied throughout his life are a must have toolbox for anyone venturing to build insanely great products.
Charlie Munger was a month short of 100 years of age when he passed away and throughout his life, he was learning and putting various models he has learned into practice. Four attributes of his success are preparation, patience, discipline and objectivity. Here are some lessons he shared in his talks that we can use in building insanely great products.
- Don’t sell anything you wouldn’t buy yourself
- Don’t work for anyone you don’t respect and admire
- Work only with people you enjoy
- Spend each day trying to be wiser than you were when you woke up
- Discharge your duties faithfully and well
- Step-by-step you get ahead, not necessarily in fast spurts
- Three things I found helpful in coping with life’s challenges are:
- Have low expectations, Charlie often quips “That’s how my wife married me”
- Have a sense of humor
- Surround yourself with the love of friends and family