What makes Buffet tick?

At the recent Wesco Financial Corporation meeting, Chairman Charlie Munger talked about key aspects of Warren Buffet (and hence Berkshire Hathaway) that have made him so successful over the years. Munger is also Vice-Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, which owns more than 80% of Wesco. Very simple and basic points -

• Mental Aptitude - no substitute for smarts, but of course smarts aren't enough.
• Intense Interest - a strong interest and a passion for investing is necessary - but isn't that true about being successful anywhere!
• Early Start - the power of compounding ....
  
• Constant Learning - the ability to learn continuously, reinvent, and change with the times.
• Concentration - I am not sure what Munger was trying to say here - but from what I understand, he means to say that concentrating Berkshire's strategy in the hands of someone as astute as Buffet as paid off handsomely.

Again - simple concepts - hard to follow, and easier said than done.

Munger also doled out advice for 'living a well-examined life':

• Many smart people handicapped themselves with "nuttiness." One example is being an "extreme ideologue," which is the equivalent of "having taken your brain and started pounding it with a hammer."
• Your life must focus on the "maximization of objectivity."
• "You must learn the method of learning."
• "It is totally unproductive to think the world has been unfair to you. Every tough stretch is an opportunity."
• "You can get away with more than you deserve in life by being slightly more rational."
• "I'm not going to complain about my age because without it, I'd be dead."

Certainly plenty of food for thought right there ...

Investment mistakes

A very nice article from Morningstar.comabout common investment mistakes - however straightforward these rules seem to be, its just easier said than done:

• Don't rely on the past too much - as every mutual fund prospectus will tell you, past performance is no guarantee of future returns, don't extrapolate too much ....
• Overestimating yourself - Everyone likes to think of themselves as being above average - that's statistically impossible, but being average is good in investing! Don't trade too much - you might be better of buying and holding, and just matching benchmarks.
• Discipline - be systematic, be regular, be disciplined.

He closes out with a quote from Warren Buffet

Success in investing doesn't correlate with IQ once you're above the level of 25. Once you have ordinary intelligence, what you need is the temperament to control the urges that get other people into trouble in investing.

A humbling one indeed ...