The late Charlie Munger built a fortune for himself as Warren Buffett’s right-hand man at Berkshire Hathaway Inc BRK NYSE: BRK/B). He also developed a wealth of knowledge over his lifetime and shared valuable lessons with his children along the way.
What To Know: Munger, who passed away in November at the age of 99, was known for being very opinionated and he certainly wasn’t afraid to speak his mind.
Some of his teachings over the years stuck with his children as he hoped they would. Before he died at the end of November, he reflected on his life and shared some of his final writings with CNBC.
“My children and grandchildren might not think exactly the way I do, but I hope they can observe my life as an example of how to be successful in their careers and relationships — just as I did with the generations before me,” Munger said in the reflections he wrote for CNBC.
Life Lessons: Munger recalled a conversation he had with his father at a young age. His father was an attorney who often worked for different kinds of people.
One day, he asked his dad why he did so much work for a man who he described as an “overreaching blowhard” and didn’t do as much for another man who he said was brilliant and had enormous charm and integrity.
The good man didn’t have enough law business to keep his father busy, but the “blowhard” was a “walking minefield of wonderful legal business,” he recalled.
Even though his father admired the good man, he did more business with the “blowhard,” which taught Munger that sometimes you have to be willing to sell your services to unreasonable people in order to keep food on the table. Munger went on to teach the same lesson to his children, he said.
See Also: 71-year-old Shares 22 Most Important Lessons Young People Should Know
Two of Munger’s kids, Charles and Wendy, also shared a couple of lessons they learned from their father with CNBC.
Charles recalled a time when he was riding in a rental vehicle with his father near the end of a family vacation. The pair were on their way to return the car to the rental company when Munger took a 10-minute detour to get gas.
They were already running late and the tank was halfway full, but Munger told his son that “when you borrow a man's car, you always return it with a full tank of gas."
That lesson stuck with Charles. During his freshman year at Stanford, he borrowed a car from someone who was barely an acquaintance at the time. He made sure to fill up the gas tank before returning the vehicle.
“He noticed. We've had many good times since, and he was a groomsman in my wedding,” Charles said.
Munger’s daughter Wendy also recalled a valuable lesson that Munger taught his children at the dinner table one night. She said her father called it the “Morality Tale.”
The story involves a financial officer at one of Munger’s companies who made a mistake that caused the company to lose hundreds of thousands of dollars. Once the officer realized the mistake, he went directly to the president of the company and admitted to it.
The president told the officer that if he had tried to hide the mistake, he would have been fired, but because he came clean, the company recognized his honesty and asked him to stay.
“I always remember this story every time I hear of yet another government official who chose to cover up their mistake, instead of being honest and leading with integrity,” Wendy said.
Photo: Nick Webb from Flickr.
This story is part of a series of features on the subject of success, Benzinga Inspire.
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