A young shareholder asked Munger how to follow in his footsteps, and Munger brought down the house by saying, “We get these questions a lot from the enterprising young. It’s a very intelligent question: You look at some old guy who’s rich and you ask, ‘How can I become like you, except faster?’”
Munger’s reply was: “Spend each day trying to be a little wiser than you were when you woke up. Discharge your duties faithfully and well. Step by step you get ahead, but not necessarily in
fast spurts. But you build discipline by preparing for fast spurts… Slug it out one inch at a time, day by day, at the end of the day — if you live long enough — most people get what they deserve.”
Bruce Kovner is arguably one of the top hedge fund managers of the past 30 years, averaging a return of 21% net of fees over that period. In responding to a question about what makes a great investor/trader in the book Market Wizards, Mr. Kovner says: “I’m not sure one can really define why some traders make it, while others do not. For myself, I can think of two important elements. First, I have the ability to imagine configurations of the world different from today and really believe it can happen. I can imagine that soybean prices can double or that the dollar can fall to 100 yen.”
“Over the years I have observed that those individuals who do not keep stuff in their wallet and particularly currency in organised/aligned manner are generally at mess with storage and administration of their overall financial documents.”-Gaurav Mashruwala
