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Charlie Munger was known for never taking credit for his achievements, despite spending decades as Warren Buffett’s right-hand man and playing a key role in shaping the strategies behind Berkshire Hathaway Inc.
Munger said during an interview at the Redlands Forum in California in 2020, sponsored by geographic information system software company Esri, the University of Redlands, and local nonprofit Town & Gown, that his financial success was not the result of exceptional ability, but instead came from a few simple tricks he learned early in life.
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“What caused the financial success was not extreme ability,” he said. “I have a good mind, but I’m way short of prodigy, and I’ve had results in life that are prodigious, and that came from tricks. I just learned a few basic tricks. There are all kinds of tricks that I just got into by accident in life.”
Munger said his favorite strategy was to invert, which meant asking what could prevent him from reaching his goals and then avoiding those paths at all costs. When he was working as a weather forecaster in the U.S. Army Air Corps, Munger’s job was to prepare weather reports used by pilots. He said he tried to do the job well by starting with a question most people would never ask.
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“I said, ‘How can I kill these pilots?’ That’s not the question that most people would ask,” Munger said. “But I want to know what’s the easiest way to kill them would be so I could avoid it. There are only two ways I’m gonna kill a pilot, I’m gonna get him into icing his plane can’t handle and that will kill him or I’m gonna get him someplace we gonna run out of gas before he can land. I just was fanatic about avoiding those two hazards.”
Munger said he learned another mental trick during his training to fire artillery and mortar shells, in which he was taught to judge the distance, sometimes going a little over and sometimes a little short, until the shell landed exactly where it was supposed to explode.
“Well, I never shot any damns shells but I’ve been using that mental trick all my life, that’s how I determine what size to make something,” Munger said. “Over and under and kapow.”