Never Enough, Poor Ben Franklin, and a Podcast

A compilation of recent thoughts and a podcast appearance

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Never enough

In December, CNBC shared the last interview Becky Quick did with Charlie Munger in November, shortly before his passing.

As usual, Munger’s commentary was full of wisdom. This part of the discussion, however, stood out:

CHARLIE MUNGER: Knowing your circle of competency. Right. And that kept me away from those businesses totally. but I'm not all that pleased. I could of done a lot better if I had been a little smarter, a little quicker.

BECKY QUICK: What are you talking about? Like, you've had success in everything you've done in life. What would you like to do differently.

CHARLIE MUNGER: Well, no, but I might have had multiple trillions instead of multiple billions.

BECKY QUICK: Do you sit around thinking about this? What would you have done differently?

CHARLIE MUNGER: Yes, I do think about it. I think about it. Yes, I think about it, about what I nearly missed by being just not quite smart enough or hardworking enough.

What surprised some observers was that, despite his massive success, Munger wasn’t satisfied. He thought he should have made even more money.

Perhaps it shouldn’t be all that surprising. Munger was in the top 0.001% of people who understood the power of compounding.

There’s a dark side of understanding compounding and always thinking about it. It helps you build wealth, but once you have it you can’t easily turn it off.

There’s always more compounding.

Kurt Vonnegut once told the now-famous story about the time he and fellow author Joseph Heller were at a fancy party hosted by a hedge-fund billionaire. Vonnegut asked Heller if it bothered him that the hedge-fund manager made more money that day than Heller made from writing Catch 22. Heller replied that he had something the hedge fund manager will never have: Enough.

It’s a brilliant insight and one I like to think I have taken to heart when it comes to personal wealth. Yet we all have something that keeps us restless.

For company founders, it might be getting their products or services into as many hands as possible to improve their customers’ lives. For teachers, it might be helping more students realize their potential. For Munger, it might have been maximizing compounding through self-discipline and reason. To do otherwise would be unthinkable.

It’s this restlessness - the deep feeling there’s always more to be done - that gets us out of bed in the morning and makes life worth living. And assuming it’s a virtuous calling, this restlessness is what drives our society and economy. Enough in some things, never enough in others.

Poor Ben Franklin

Munger’s personal hero was Benjamin Franklin, whose likeness was recently given “laser eyes” in a tweet last night by the investment firm Franklin Templeton following the SEC’s approval of Bitcoin-based exchange-traded funds.

I typically don’t comment on an investment firm’s marketing strategies, but I’m bothered anytime I think our industry is taking non-professional investors down the path of speculation rather than investment.

It’s disappointing that a firm named (per the company’s website) “for US founding father Benjamin Franklin because Franklin epitomized the ideas of frugality and prudence when it came to saving and investing," would employ a marketing strategy that promotes neither of those traits.

Investing by the Books

I was a recent guest on the Investing by the Books podcast, hosted by Eddie Palmgren and Niklas Sävås of Redeye AB, based in Sweden. The focus of our discussion was the excellent book Lessons from the Titans by Scott Davis, Carter Copeland, and Rob Wertheimer. Among the lessons from the book are the importance of stewardship, culture, and systems in long-term business success.

In addition to the book, we talked about five other books and discussed 16 companies. We covered a lot of ground in an hour!

You can listen to the conversation on Spotify, Apple, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Stay patient, stay focused.

Todd

At the time of publication, Todd and/or his family owned shares of Berkshire Hathaway.

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