Charlie Munger was one in every of a form. That was extra evident than ever within the wake of the legendary investor and Berkshire Hathaway vice chairman’s dying final week at age 99. A raft of company CEOs and famend Wall Avenue buyers mirrored on—and lionized—Munger after his passing, sharing what the sharp-tongued, quick-witted proper hand man to Warren Buffett meant to them and others in finance and investing.
Probably the most transferring tributes to Munger got here from Li Lu, founder and chairman of Himalaya Capital Administration, a hedge fund recognized for its Munger-like self-discipline and value-oriented investing.
Lu is the one man moreover Buffett who Munger ever trusted to take a position his household’s fortune. And the hedge funder did so nicely with that activity—incomes a roughly 400% return on Munger’s authentic $90 million funding within the early 2000s—that the ‘Oracle of Pasadena’ took to calling him “the Chinese Warren Buffett.”
As an alternative of praising Munger’s investing chops or prophetic predictions, Lu touched on what he mentioned made the person actually nice—an imitable ethical compass and keenness for instructing.
“In our capitalist society, where do virtue, moral responsibility, truth-seeking and public service fit in? Charlie Munger answered these questions through his long exemplary life,” Lu wrote in a Thursday Facebook post.
He described how Munger at all times “insisted on making money in the most morally sound way,” getting into offers solely when, “if positions were reversed, he would comfortably take the other side.” He mentioned the “wisdom” that Munger earned via his dedication to “life-long learning,” and his ardour for sharing that knowledge. And he emphasised that Munger, though a billionaire many instances over, by no means forgot about constantly partaking with “family, friends, partners, and the border world with loving assiduousness.”
“He guided life with rationality devoid of mental deficiencies such as envy, resentment and self-pity. He faced and persevered through countless adversities with stoicism and equanimity,” Lu wrote, noting that Munger “showed little appetite for the trappings of that success, and instead spent his wealth on worthy causes and tirelessly spread his worldly wisdom to those who would listen, often with humor.”
Humor, and significantly humor in defending and educating the everyman, was definitely one in every of Munger’s favourite pastimes. From ripping cryptocurrencies as “partly fraud and partly delusion” and labeling monetary advisors “fortune tellers” to calling out company accountants for his or her invention of adjusted earnings statistics —which he labeled “bullsh*t earnings”— Munger by no means pulled his punches.
For Lu, Munger’s emphasis on investing with morality, particularly in comparison with his friends, made him a form of modern-day, capitalist thinker—one whose classes might be taught for generations to return.
The embodiment of modern-day Confucianism
Born in Tangshan, China, Lu studied economics and physics on the College of Nanjing College the place he turned one of many scholar leaders of the 1989 Tiananmen Sq. protest earlier than leaving for the US.
His life was ceaselessly modified after he heard Buffett give a chat whereas he was finding out at Columbia College. He started investing his personal cash after being impressed by the Oracle of Omaha, and would go on to a profession in company finance earlier than founding his personal hedge fund. After some success, Lu ended up assembly his idol, Munger, in 2003. Munger was so impressed with Lu that he invested a few of his personal fortune in his fund, and the 2 have been pals till the top.
“He had a profound impact on me as an investor and individual, and I could not be more grateful for his trust, support, and wisdom,” Lu says in a statement on Himalaya Capital’s web site.
In his eulogy on Thursday, Lu described how Munger’s concepts about investing—and the way to conduct oneself morally in a capitalist system—have made an enormous splash overseas.
The Mandarin language model of Munger’s autobiography, “Poor Charlie’s Almanack: The essential wit and wisdom of Charles T. Munger,” has offered over 1.2 million copies in China over the previous decade. “There, the educated class increasingly came to view Charlie as the embodiment of modern-day Confucianism, maintaining a virtuous and enlightened life while embracing the market forces of capitalism,” Lu defined.
And with China-U.S. tensions rising, Lu believes that “in time, that vision of modern Confucianism will be crucial for Chinese modernization and how China interacts with the rest of the world.”
“Charlie’s teachings will continue to spread, inspire and impact the world even more profoundly. That will be his eternal legacy,” he wrote.
