Charlie Daniels Quotes

Why am I always looking at life through a window?

There are so many doors to open. I am impatient to begin." --Charlie Gordan

Just leave me alone. I'm not myself. I'm falling apart, and I don't want you here.

But I've learned that intelligence alone doesn't mean a damned thing. Here in your university, intelligence, education, knowledge, have all become great idols. But I know now there's one thing you've all overlooked: intelligent and education that hasn't been tempered by human affection isn't worth a damn...Intelligence is one of the greatest human gifts. But all too often a search for knowledge drives out the search for love...Intelligence without the ability to give and receive affection leads to mental and moral breakdown, to neurosis, and possibly even psychosis.

The only question now is: How much can I hang on to?

The answer can't be found in books - or be solved by bringing it to other people. Not unless you want to remain a child all your life. You've got to find the answer inside you - feel the right thing to do. Charlie, you've got to learn to trust yourself

All the barriers were gone. I had unwound the string she had given me, and found my way out of the labyrinth to where she was waiting. I loved her with more than my body.

The more intelligent you become the more problems you’ll have, Charlie.

I may not have all the time I thought I had...

Because I want to see. I've got to know what's going to happen while I'm still enough in control to be able to do something about it.

And then I realize what Charlie's problem with Daniel is. He hates that Daniel doesn't hate himself. For all his uncertainties, Daniel is still more comfortable in his skin than Charlie will ever be in his.

Downhill. Thoughts of suicide to stop it all now while I am still in control and aware of the world around me. But then I think of Charlie waiting at the window. His life is not mine to throw away. I've just burrowed it for a while, and now I'm being asked to return it.

You want these back, don't you? You want me out of here so you can come back and take over where you left off. I don't blame you. It's your body and your brain-and your life, even though you weren't able to make much use of it. I don't have the right to take it away from you. Nobody does. Who's to say that my light is better than your darkness? Who's to say death is better than your darkness? Who am I to say?...

On the Ideal Business - Buffett: “Something that costs a penny, sells for a dollar and is habit forming.

Here look at me. I'm Charlie, the son you wrote off the books? Not that I blame you for it, but here I am, all fixed up better than ever. Test me. Ask me questions. I speak twenty languages, living and dead; I'm a mathematical whiz, and I'm writing a piano concerto that will make them remember me long after I'm gone.

The feeling of cold grayness was everywhere around me-a sense of resignation. There had been no talk of rehabilitation, of cure, of someday sending these people out into the world again. No one had spoken of hope. The feeling was of living death-or worse, of never having been fully alive and knowing. Souls withered from the beginning, and doomed to stare into the time and space of every day.

Strauss again brought up my need to speak and wrtie simply and directly so that people will understand me. He reminds me that language is sometimes a barrier instead of a pathway. Ironic to find myself on the other side of the intellectual fence.

No, you don't understand because it isn't happening to you, and no one can understand but me. I don't blame you. You've got your job to do, and your Ph.D. to get, and-oh, yes don't tell me, I know you're in this largely out of love of humanity, but you've got your life to live and we don't happen to belong on the same level. I passed your floor on the way up, nad now I'm passing it on the way down, and I don't think I'll be taking this elevator again. So let's just say good-bye here and now.

I may soon be coming to Warren, tos pend the rest of my life with the others...waiting.

The most important thing had always been what other people thought-appearances before herself or her family. And righteous about it. Time and again Matt had insisted that what others thought about you wasn't the only thing in life. But it did no good. Norma had to dress well; the house had to have fine furniture; Charlie had to be kept inside so that other people wouldn't know anything was wrong.

If investors only had to study the past, the richest people would be librarians.

After you have enough for daily life, all that matters is your health and those you love.

The more intelligent you become the more problems you’ll have, Charlie. Your intellectual growth is going to outstrip your emotional growth.

He wished me luk. I hope I have luk. I got my rabits foot and my luky penny and my horshoe. Dr Strauss said dont be so superstishus Charlie. This is sience. I dont know what sience is but they all keep saying it so maybe its something that helps you have good luk.

If I didn't understand what was happening at the time, he says, then it doesn't matter. I'm no more to blame than the knife is to blame in a stabbing, or the car in a collision. "But I'm not an inanimate object," I argued. "I'm a person." He looked confused for a moment and then laughed. "Of course, Charlie. But I wasn't referring to now. I meant before the operation." Smug, pompous—I felt like hitting him too. "I was a person before the operation. In case you forgot—" "Yes, of course, Charlie. Don't misunderstand. But it was different..." And then he remembered that he had to check some charts in the lab.

Unlike Charlie, I was incapable of making friends or thinking about other people and their problems. I was interested in myself, and myself only. Fr one long moment in that mirror I had seen myself through Charlie's eyes - looked down at myself and saw what I had really become. And I was ashamed.

If there was ever a president who could be called our Charlie Browniest, it would be Andrew Johnson.

The right manager can have an absolutely huge impact. Find people with brains, energy and integrity,

Yet the industry asks for more money from investors every year. The idea is to find investments that give you money, not take it.

Ben Franklin’s advice: “Keep your eyes wide open before marriage and half shut thereafter.

Value is what a business is worth. Price is what you have to pay to get it.

Am I a genius? I don't think so. Not yet anyway. As Burt would put it, mocking the euphemisms of educational jargon, I'm exceptional-a democratic term used to avoid the damning labels of gifted and deprived (which used to mean bright and retarded) and as soon as exceptional begins to mean anything to anyone they'll change it. The idea seems to be: use an expression only as long as it doesn't mean anything to anybody. Exceptional refers to both ends of the spectrum, so all my life I've been exceptional.

but what they don't understand is that I'm living at a peak of clarity and beauty I never knew existed. Every part of me is attuned to the work. I soak it up into my pores during the day, and at night-in the moments before I pass off to sleep-ideas explode into my head like fireworks. There is no greater joy than the burst of solution to a problem.

And other times there would be tenderness and holding-close liek a warm bath, and hands stroking my hair and brow, and the words carved about the cathedral of my childhood: 'He's like all the other children. He's a good boy.

My studies are going well. The university library is my second home now. They've had to get me a private room because it takes me only a second to absorb the printed page, and curious students invariably gather around me as I flip through my books.

what’s wrong with a person wanting to be more intelligent, to acquire knowledge, and understand himself and the world?” “If you’d read your Bible, Charlie, you’d know that it’s not meant for man to know more than was given to him to know by the Lord

Are you content? If so, you can afford to ignore the condemnation of the crowd.

I ain't askin' nobody for nothin'....so just leave this long haired country boy alone.

The Devil went down to Georgia, he was lookin' for a soul to steal. He was in a bind, 'cos he was way behind; he was willing to make a deal.

Tom Murphy, CEO of Capital Cities/ABC and considered by Buffett to be the best business manager in the country, prays every day to be humble.

Munger claimed that it is because professors are so enamored by modern portfolio theory. For the man with a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.

We’d buy great businesses with excellent management at a fair to bargain price and leave them alone.

Buffett continued, saying that MPT has no utility. It is elaborate with lots of little Greek letters to make you feel you are in the big leagues. The

Buffett pointed out that when the investment tide goes out, you will see who has been swimming naked.

Munger noted that high profits on capital often rely on information inefficiencies.

Buffett gave two criteria for evaluating the performance of management: 1) How well do they run the business? and 2) How well do they treat the owners?

One of Buffett’s annual themes is the value of learning. He noted that life properly lived is learning, learning, learning all the time. He observed that being wrong is when he learns the most.

There are essentially five things public corporations can do with a dollar earned: reinvest in the business, acquire other businesses or assets, pay down debt, pay dividends, and/or buy in shares. Deciding

Goodby Miss Kinnian and dr Strauss and evrybody ... P.S. please tel prof Nemur not to be such a grouch when pepul laff at him and he woud have more frends. Its easy to have frends if you let pepul laff at you. Im going to have lots of frends where I go. P.S. please if you get a chanse put some flowrs on Algernons grave in the bak yard

Buffett also noted that book value is seldom meaningful in analyzing the value of a business. Book value simply records what was put into the business. The key to calculating value is determining what will come out of the business.

He laughed and then he got up from his chair and went to the window. "The more intelligent you become the more problems you'll have, Charlie. Your intellectual growth is going to outstrip your emotional growth. And I think you'll find that as you progress, there will be many things you'll want to talk to me about. I just want you to remember that this is the place for you to come when you need help.

The more intelligent you become the more problems you'll have, Charlie

Dr Strauss said dont be so superstishus Charlie. This is sience. I dont no what sience is but they all keep saying it so mabye its something that helps you have good luk.

Buffett emphasized that the ability to generate cash and reinvest is critical. He noted that it is the ability to generate cash that gives Berkshire its value.

Buffett believes that real risk comes from the nature of certain kinds of businesses, by the simple economics of the business and from not knowing what you’re doing.

The idea of finding talented people to do what they do best is one of Buffett’s driving principles.

Diversification is a protection against ignorance, a confession that you do not know the businesses you own.

What matters most to him are micro factors, as opposed to the macro factors that so often get all the attention. He loves to know all the details of a business.

With imports exceeding exports, the world is doing the savings for us. China, with a much higher savings rate, will grow faster than us, and it probably needs to do so.

automatically compound. If you need cash, you can sell stock and pay capital gains tax at a lower rate than a dividend would be taxed.

Buffett chimed in that running a budget deficit of 10% of GDP is not sustainable.

Both Buffett and Munger are betting on higher, and maybe a lot higher inflation in the years to come.

For his successor, Buffett emphasized that proven capital allocation abilities would be the key.

good quality corporate bonds yielding 10% or better with great call protection.

In thinking about markets, it is important to remember that markets are there to serve you, not instruct you.

Você não pode construir um novo edifício em uma área até destruir o que existia antes, e o antigo Charlie não pode ser destruído. Ele existe.

Buffett quoted Marshall Fields: “We waste half of the money we spend on advertising . . . the problem is we just don’t know which half.” From

Holy smoke I reely pulled a Charlie Gordon that time.

It is much easier to pick the relative strength of Coca-Cola than it is to pick a winner in software.

—Cuanto más inteligente te vuelvas, más problemas tendrás, Charlie.

Buffett concluded that you can learn a lot about the durability of the economics of a business by observing price behavior.

The key to calculating value is determining what will come out of the business.

Buffett noted that he likes to put a lot of money in things he feels strongly about. Diversification makes no sense for someone who knows what they are doing.

The moat represents a barrier to competition and could be low production costs, a trademark, or an advantage of scale or technology.

Warren recommended doing what turns you on. Munger agreed, saying he’d never done anything really well that he didn’t like to do.

The valuation picture is very much affected by our zero-based interest rate structure. Clearly, stocks are worth far more when government bonds yield 1% than when they yield 5%.

Yet he knew that stocks would be better than bonds or cash over the long run.

So instead of copying, understand why they made the decisions they did. Then apply those insights to your own decisions and your own position.

one key element of a wonderful business: the cost structure.

Every year Buffett explains that he wants Berkshire to have great long-term shareholders and that splitting the stock would only work against that.

the real key is to be able to figure out what the average profitability of the business will be over the long term and how strong the business moat may be. Buffett’s

One ratio that Buffett is known to track is the total market cap to GDP. Recently, it was at 125%, which is a level approached in 1999 during the Internet bubble. Another

Being able to think and invest very long term and not worry about current earnings or Wall Street analysts can be a major competitive advantage in certain businesses. Acquire

Buffett observed that they do have filters. A key one is whether they have a good idea of how the business is going to do over the next five or 10 years.

the single biggest outcome of the Internet has been little understood: buyers are the winners.

The danger of relying on historical statistics or formulas is that you end up betting on a 14-year-old horse with a great record but is now ready for the glue factory.

With artificial intelligence, Buffett observed that more change will be coming. Almost certainly it will cause less employment in certain areas while being good for society overall.

Buffett’s formula for happiness is simple: “Do what I like with people I like.” He noted that he learned early in life that his favorite employer was himself. It avoids aggravation.

Buffett chimed in that most buybacks are done at any price, which makes no sense. Very rarely do you see metrics to govern the prices paid. Buybacks above intrinsic value destroy value.

At their best, conglomerates enable the tax efficient transfer of cash from businesses that cannot use the money intelligently to those that can. Berkshire is a very rational conglomerate.

Buffett wanted to make sure that Nebraska got their sales tax. He was adamant about making sure that Berkshire paid—not more taxes than it had to, but the taxes that it was responsible for.

At the same time, he held firm that it doesn’t serve to make decisions in anger. He quoted Berkshire board member Tom Murphy: “You can always tell a man to go to hell tomorrow if it’s such a good idea.

Buffett believed the rating agencies are good businesses: there are few competitors, they affect a large segment of the economy and they don’t require much capital (though they are still very much attackable).

Charlie and Daniel think money and happiness are not related. They don't know what poor is. They don't know that poverty is a sharp knife carving away at you. They don't know what it does to a body. To a mind.

He recommended realism in defining one’s circle of competence and discipline to stay within the circle. He added that it helps to insulate yourself from popular opinions. You’re better off sitting and thinking.6 Coping

In modern portfolio theory, beta is used as a measure of the volatility and, thus, the risk of an investment. However, Buffett sees the use of beta as nonsense, emphatically stating, “Volatility is no measure of risk to us.

As long as the writer, or any artist for that matter, keeps his mouth shut, there can be argument and discussion and various interpretations and meanings. But once the writer explains or analyzes, he trivializes his own work.

Door’s open!” she shouted. She was in her underwear, lying on the floor, arms outstretched and legs up against the couch. She tilted her head back and looked at me upside down. “Charlie, darling! Why are you standing on your head?

Buffett reminded folks that to buy a stock is to buy part ownership of a business. Don’t get hung up on daily price quotes. Instead, think about business performance and what you would pay for the business, just as you would a farm.

Dan, you don’t mean to tell me that you didn’t get in touch with the bookstores in Detroit and tell them about it.” “No,” I said. “I’m kind of shy. And I didn’t think it was my job.” “Dan, you shouldn’t hide your light under a bushel

Charlie Polard was a former news anchor, now field reporter, whose star had been falling rapidly the past year. Consequently, his constant need to use Jack Daniels as his career coach had caused him to nearly miss several assignments.

As Munger put it, “Basically, we’re a hedgehog that knows one big thing. If you generate float at 3% per annum and buy businesses that earn 13% per annum with the proceeds of that float, we have figured out that’s a pretty good position to be in.

occasional outbreaks of those two super-contagious diseases, fear and greed, will forever occur in the investment community. The timing of these epidemics will be unpredictable. And the market aberrations produced by them will be equally unpredictable, both as to duration and degree. Therefore, we never try to anticipate the arrival or departure of either disease. Our goal is more modest: we simply attempt to be fearful when others are greedy and to be greedy only when others are fearful. As

The humble, self-effacing Charlie you were all talking about a while ago is just waiting patiently. I’ll admit I’m like him in a number of ways, but humility and self-effacement are not among them. I’ve learned how little they get a person in this world.

He said he doesn’t really care whether they’re buying into raw-material-intensive businesses, people-intensive businesses or capital-intensive businesses. The key is to understand a company’s costs and why it’s got a sustainable edge against its competitors.

Thoughts of suicide to stop it all now while I am still in control and aware of the world around me. But then I think of Charlie waiting at the window. His life is not mine to throw away. I've just borrowed it for a while, and now I'm being asked to return it.

Buffett believes that real risk comes from the nature of certain kinds of businesses, by the simple economics of the business and from not knowing what you’re doing. If you understand the economics and you know the people, then you’re not taking much risk. For

Intelligence without the ability to give and receive affection leads to mental and moral breakdown... the mind absorbed in and involved in itself as a self-centered end, to the exclusion of human relationships, can only lead to violence and pain. -Charlie Gordon

Buffett also shared some of his classic bits of wisdom about growing wealth. Spend less than what you make. Know and stay within your circle of competence. The only businesses that matter are the ones you put your money in. Keep learning over time. Don’t lose. Insist on a margin of safety.

As a value investor, your ideal situation is to find a company increasing its intrinsic value. Ideally, the company would be one with a declining stock price, thus creating an even better bargain as time unfolds. No one has employed these principles more effectively than Buffett and Munger.

The best protection against inflation, according to Buffett, is your own earning power. If you constantly increase your earning power, you’ll be sure to get your share of the economic pie. The next best thing is to own wonderful businesses, especially those that have low capital requirements.

Buffett explained that buying a business is much like buying a bond with no maturity and with a blank coupon. You must write in the coupon, and the accuracy of that coupon is the essence of intelligent investing. If you cannot guess the coupon with any accuracy, then do not invest in the business.

The more intelligent you become the more problems you’ll have, Charlie. Your intellectual growth is going to outstrip your emotional growth. And I think you’ll find that as you progress, there will be many things you’ll want to talk to me about. I just want you to remember that this is the place for you to come when you need help.

Seeing Charlie huddled beneath the covers I wish I could give him comfort, explain to him that he has done nothing wrong, that is beyond him to change his mother's attitude back to what it was before his sister came. There on the bed, Charlie did not understand what they were saying, but now it hurts. If I could reach out into the past of my memories, I would make her see how much she was hurting me.

Nevertheless, their dishonesty upset Buffett. They were trying to chisel him out of 12.5 cents per share. So Buffett went the other way and started buying increasingly more shares of Berkshire until he took control. He then booted out the guy who had tried to chisel him out. In 1964, Warren Buffett took control of that small New England textile firm, and it became his new base for making investments.

Seeing Charlie huddled beneath the covers I wish I could give him comfort, explain to him that he has done nothing wrong, that it is beyond him to change his mother's attitude back to what it was before his sister came. There on the bed, Charlie did not understand what they were saying, but now it hurts. If I could reach out into the past of my memories, I would make her see how much she was hurting me.

While reading, you may wonder, If Berkshire got out of the market, shouldn’t I do the same? or If Berkshire bought it, should I buy it too? Buffett and Munger are clear in their advice—people should learn from them and model their advice rather than copy their behavior. The main reason is this: Unless you find yourself in the enviable position that Berkshire operates in, you would do well not to copy its moves.

In a fascinating digression, Buffett noted that “the fact that you are being obsoleted does not mean you should go into the successor business.” As an example, he explained that if you were a person of vision in the passenger train business in 1930, you might have seen the coming of the airplane. But the answer was not to get into the airline business, which is a terrible business. The answer was to get out of the passenger business altogether.

You're damned right, something is happening! A cloud of smoke was hanging in front of my eyes, and with one breath you blew it away. A simple idea. Trust myself. And it never occurred to me before." "Charlie, you're wonderful." I caught her hand and held it. "No, it's you. You touch my eyes and make me see." She blushed and pulled her hand back. "The last time we were here," I said, "I told you I liked you. I should have trusted myself to say I love you.

In a revealing aside, Buffett admitted that years ago he was terrified of public speaking. He got physically ill at the thought. He said he even signed up for a $100 Dale Carnegie course but cancelled the check when he got home. Later, he did a communication course in Omaha. Doing it with others in the same boat helped him to “get outside of himself.” He’s very glad he did it, noting that effective communication is under taught, and recommended that many could benefit by forcing themselves to learn public speaking at an early age.

Everything but treat me as a human being. You've boasted time and again that I was nothing before the experiment, and I know why. Because if I was nothing, then you were responsible for creating me, and that makes you my lord and master. You resent the fact that I don't show my gratitude every hour of the day. Well, believe it or not, I am grateful. But what you did for me-wonderful as it is-doesn't give you the right to treat me like an experimental animal. I'm an individual now, and so was Charlie before he ever walked into that lab.

For months beforehand, I fielded calls from British media. A couple of the reporters asked me to name some British chefs who had inspired me. I mentioned the Roux brothers, Albert and Michel, and I named Marco Pierre White, not as much for his food as for how—by virtue of becoming an apron-wearing rock-star bad boy—he had broken the mold of whom a chef could be, which was something I could relate to. I got to London to find the Lanesborough dining room packed each night, a general excitement shared by everyone involved, and incredibly posh digs from which I could step out each morning into Hyde Park and take a good long run around Buckingham Palace. On my second day, I was cooking when a phone call came into the kitchen. The executive chef answered and, with a puzzled look, handed me the receiver. Trouble at Aquavit, I figured. I put the phone up to my ear, expecting to hear Håkan’s familiar “Hej, Marcus.” Instead, there was screaming. “How the fuck can you come to my fucking city and think you are going to be able to cook without even fucking referring to me?” This went on for what seemed like five minutes; I was too stunned to hang up. “I’m going to make sure you have a fucking miserable time here. This is my city, you hear? Good luck, you fucking black bastard.” And then he hung up. I had cooked with Gordon Ramsay once, a couple of years earlier, when we did a promotion with Charlie Trotter in Chicago. There were a handful of chefs there, including Daniel Boulud and Ferran Adrià, and Gordon was rude and obnoxious to all of them. As a group we were interviewed by the Chicago newspaper; Gordon interrupted everyone who tried to answer a question, craving the limelight. I was almost embarrassed for him. So when I was giving interviews in the lead-up to the Lanesborough event, and was asked who inspired me, I thought the best way to handle it was to say nothing about him at all. Nothing good, nothing bad. I guess he was offended at being left out. To be honest, though, only one phrase in his juvenile tirade unsettled me: when he called me a black bastard. Actually, I didn’t give a fuck about the bastard part. But the black part pissed me off.

I have often reread my early progress reports and seen the illiteracy, the childish naivete, the mind of low intelli­gence peering from a dark room, through the keyhole, at the dazzling light outside. In my dreams and memories I've seen Charlie smiling happily and uncertainly at what people around him were saying. Even in my dullness I knew I was inferior. Other people had something I lacked— something denied me. In my mental blindness, I had be­lieved it was somehow connected with the ability to read and write, and I was sure that if I could get those skills I would have intelligence too. Even a feeble-minded man wants to be like other men.

Basically, Graham breaks the art of investing down into two simple variables – price and value. Value is what a business is worth. Price is what you have to pay to get it. Given the stock market’s manic-depressive behavior, numerous occasions arise where a business’ market price is distinctly out of line with its true business value. In such instances, an investor may be able to purchase a dollar of value for just 50 cents. Note that there is no mention here of interest rates, economic forecasts, technical charts, market cycles, etc. The only issues are price and value. I should also note that Graham emphasizes a large margin of safety. The strategy is not to buy a dollar of value for 97 cents. Rather, the gap should be dramatic so as to absorb the effects of miscalculation and worse-than-average luck.

Buffett declared the best inflation hedge is a company with a wonderful product that requires little capital to grow. As a test, he invited each of us to look at our own earning ability. In inflation, your compensation can go up without any additional investment. As a business example, Buffett noted that when See’s Candy was purchased in 1971, it had the revenues of $25 million and sold 16 million pounds of candy annually with $9 million in tangible assets. Today, See’s sells $300 million of candy with $40 million of tangible assets. Berkshire needed to invest only $31 million to generate a more than 10-fold increase in revenues. In aggregate, Buffett noted that Berkshire has earned $1.5 billion in profits at See’s over the years. See’s inventory turns fast, has no receivables and has little fixed investment – a perfect inflation hedge. Buffett allowed that if you have tons of receivables and inventory, that’s a lousy business in inflation. The railroad and MidAmerican Energy both have these undesirable characteristics, but that is offset by their utility to the economy and subsequent allowable returns. Buffett rued that there simply aren’t enough “See’s Candys” to buy. Buffett added that being an investor has made him a better businessman and that being a businessman has made him a better investor.(125) Munger noted that they didn’t always know this inflation-business element, which shows how continuous learning is so important.

You can't put up a building on a site until you destroy the old one, and the old Charlie can't be destroyed.

The key is to remember that the market exists to serve you, not instruct you. Volatility is a huge plus to real investors.

He suggests the “newspaper” standard: behave as if your actions will be on the front page of the local newspaper.

Munger went even further by suggesting that if you disagree with someone, you should understand their side better than they do before you open your mouth.

Fill your mind with competing ideas, and see what makes sense to you.

At age 19, Buffett read The Intelligent Investor. He shared that at age 76, he’s still running through the same thought processes he learned from the book at age 19.

He said that he read the book when he was young and that the book taught him to under-spend his income and invest the difference.

In past years, we have privately accused the University of Berkshire Hathaway of becoming a party school. This year Buffett admitted as much, calling it the “capitalist’s version of Woodstock.

While intelligence is helpful, Buffett and Munger asserted that having the proper temperament was far more critical.

Buffett claimed that successful investing requires not extraordinary intellect but extraordinary discipline.

Buffett concluded, “This is not something that causes me to salivate.

Buffett quoted Emerson, “The power that resides within you is new in nature.

Munger observed that it’s a problem to prevent success and wealth from creating your demise. General Motors was the most successful company in the world at one time and then became a victim of its success with large unionization and very tough competition eventually wiping out the shareholders.

Seriously, he noted the importance of a good mental attitude, to love what you do and to do it with other people who love what they do. He said he feels blessed in so many ways, especially with great partners and great managers.

He strongly recommended Robert Cialdini’s book, Influence, for the task. He also recommended Cialdini’s newest book, Yes, noting that Cialdini is the rare social psychologist who can connect the world of theory and daily life.

Someone giving up a trip to Disneyland to make a donation is the one making a real sacrifice.

Buffett concluded, “If you think about business and buy businesses for less than they’re worth, you’re going to make money.

GEICO’s advertising budget soon exceeded the ad spend of the rest of the auto insurance industry combined.

You want to be able to have a decent idea of what the business will look like in 5-10 years – then wait for a crazy price.

Meanwhile, medical costs equal 17% of GDP, a seven-point disadvantage to the rest of the world. Medical costs are the tapeworm of American industry.

Operating at 80% of capacity in seats/miles, Buffett sees it as very likely that revenues per passenger mile will rise for the next 5–10 years.

In valuing businesses, it is important to understand the language of accounting, to stay within your circle of competence, and to focus on what is meaningful and sustainable.

The key with markets is that you cannot allow yourself to be forced to sell (from using too much leverage) and that you must not sell in a panic mode, emotionally pulling the rug out from under yourself.

change will continue, but it won’t happen that quickly—so people don’t need to worry so much.

Our goal is more modest: we simply attempt to be fearful when others are greedy and to be greedy only when others are fearful. As this is written, little fear is

Munger concluded with a joke. The man says, “Would you still love me if I lost all our money?” The wife replies, “Yes, I will love you always, and I would miss you terribly.

However, where the deranged few could do little more than throw rocks for centuries, modern technology has enormously increased our ability to inflict damage. He added that, unfortunately, humankind has not progressed similarly in our ability to get along.

The Ultimate Inflation Hedge What can we do then to mitigate the effects of inflation? The same thing that Buffett and Munger would do if there were no inflation. We’d buy great businesses with excellent management at a fair to bargain price and leave them alone. While inflation is still undesirable, well-run businesses that employ relatively little capital, that throw off lots of cash and that have pricing flexibility will cope well with inflation.

Poor Charlie’s Almanack by Charlie Munger, compiled by Peter D Kaufman3 The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari by Robin Sharma4 Letters from a Stoic by Seneca5 Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman6 Mastery by Robert Greene7 Meditations by Marcus Aurelius8 12 Rules for Life by Jordan Peterson9 The Obstacle Is the Way

concluded, quoting Bertrand Russell, “Most men would rather die than think. Many have.

What we learn from history is that people do not learn from history.

As Buffett summed up, “If investors only had to study the past, the richest people would be librarians.

jealousy is the only sin you can never have any fun at.

As for Sturridge, he comes across as quite possibly the most likable man to ever wear the Liverbird. The chicken teriyaki enthusiast has been defying expectations and unfounded prejudice since he arrived at the club to a lukewarm fan response. He was a troublemaker, you see. He had a poor attitude and was a he Big Time Charlie, don't you know? The Chelsea guys said so and Jose Mourinho has never been anything other than ethical and sincere, right? Right? "The England front man was quick to disabuse dubious fans of their misguided assumptions. From his first interview he spoke with a candour and earnest enthusiasm that were utterly endearing. His performance on the pitch has been nothing short of remarkable and his prodigious tally of 35 goals in 49 appearances to date is worthy of far more adulation than he has received. Doubtless the dancing striker has suffered by comparison with the frankly unequalled brilliance of a certain now-departed flesh gourmand, but the Birmingham native is worthy of so much more praise and, with time on his side, he has the potential to become the nonpareil of Liverpool's recent strikers.

The reality is that we all tell ourselves false stories to avoid the truth. Even if you spend a lot of time studying behavioral economics, you can only improve your skills on the margin. You will always make mistakes. Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman, who has spent most of his professional life researching behavioral economics, has said: “Except for some effects that I attribute mostly to age, my intuitive thinking is just as prone to overconfidence, extreme predictions, and the planning fallacy.”2 Even though you cannot be perfect, you can get marginally better at avoiding mistakes and have an edge in the market over people who do not understand Munger’s tendencies and other aspects of behavioral economics.

Mostly, though, he worked in the woods with Charlie McDonald. Charlie had decided he needed a new roof on his farmhouse.

sometimes took an hour or more for Joe and Charlie to fell just one, pulling an eighty-four-inch two-man saw back and forth through the soft white heartwood. In the spring, when the sap was running, it jetted up out of the stumps three or four feet into the air after the trees finally toppled over.

With that focus on quality and discipline, NI has been profitable nearly every year, a record that Buffett claimed has left others in the dust. The key has been having incentives in place to get the right employee behavior. And for that, you must think the business through. Munger

humanity will always include a certain percentage of psychotics, megalomaniacs and religious fanatics. However, where the deranged few could do little more than throw rocks for centuries, modern technology has enormously increased our ability to inflict damage. He

As long as politicians lack self-restraint, they will print a lot of money at some point.

Buffett said he pays no attention to economic outlooks. His decisions are based simply on intrinsic business values. Interestingly,

Everyone talks about the big money made in realestate, but they forget to talk about the big money lost in real estate.” Foreign

Buffett also reaffirmed that they like John Gutfreund, Chairman of Salomon Brothers, very much. Munger (whose favorite expression seemed to be, “It’s one tough business.”) made one of his only enthusiastic comments of the day: “Salomon is deep in talent—the ultimate meritocracy—and with that talent may do very well over time.” It appears to me that Salomon Brothers, which is selling below book value, may be an excellent long-term core holding. On

rather than worry about economic projections, these brilliant investors focus on finding good businesses at bargain prices within our resilient economy. On

To a question about what books to read, Munger replied that he is a biography nut and heartily recommended biographies as a way to “make friends among the eminent dead.” Buffett quipped, “And they don’t talk back.” Munger

Buffett noted that investing is really all about laying out cash now to get more back later. Buffett

Munger opined that many corporations are run stupidly, forcing things down from headquarters, worrying about quarterly profits. For

Buffett asserted that the tendency to project out very high rates of growth has caused investors to lose tons of money. The “new economy” bubble was characterized by many such projections.4 Buffett

Munger noted the common error is not thinking through the consequences of the consequences.6

average college student has the same standard of living as he does. Same food. No important difference in clothes, cars, TVs.

Buffett added that there is a big difference between identifying a growth industry and minting money. He noted that AT&T’s return on equity over the years has been poor. Change has hurt the company more than it has helped. Similarly,

You just go and lay your hand on a Pittsburgh Steelers’ fan and I think you’re gonna finally understand. —Charlie Daniels Band

When you develop an attitude of “I’m going to accomplish what I want even if I have to work twice as hard as anybody else,” you’re going to get there.

There is an art to entertaining a crowd. If you’ve got a bevy of hit songs, you can entertain by simply playing them one after another. If you’re a knockout in size 28 jeans who can take away the breath of the females in the audience by simply walking on the stage, you’re entertaining. But since I have never fallen into either category, I have had to rely on other attributes.

They’re always there, nipping at your heels. If you can’t hold your spot, they’ll gladly take it.

So many young artists get the impression that bigger is always better when it comes to record companies, booking agencies, and managers. This is true only to the degree that they believe in you, only when you have at least one important person that goes to bat for you every day. One of the problems with any music business entity is that there is always an internal game of musical chairs going on. There is a very good possibility that the person or persons that believe in you will be fired or move on to greener pastures, leaving you to the mercy of those who are not so impressed with you. I’ve had that happen to me a couple of times. It can really take the wind out of your sails for a while. But you just have to batten down the hatches and deal with it. More than likely if the new regime doesn’t believe in you, it’ll be willing to suspend any contracts and let you go anyway. If you’re in it for the long run, just pick up the pieces and move along.

So, at least from my perspective of stability and longevity, what you’re looking for in representation, labels, agencies, or record producers is people who believe in you, and sometimes the smaller entities are where you’ll find them.

What they didn’t realize is that it was my world they were getting ready to go out into. I had been making my way in it since before they were born and had some things to say about life after cutting the apron strings that could prove just as beneficial as anything they had gotten out of their books.

For the first time in more than twenty years, I was without a recording contract. We were no longer an act that a major label would want to sign. We did not even remotely resemble what was happening on radio, which was increasingly being dominated by younger acts.

We were a band without a radio format but not without a following. As always, our concerts were our bread and butter. We continued crisscrossing the country, playing our music and entertaining hundreds of thousands of concertgoers each year. I decided that as far as my recording career was concerned, from then on I would record whatever struck my fancy, without being concerned about it having to fit mainstream radio formats, whatever genre, whatever style.

My manager came up with the idea of our own independent label. We had a recording studio that I had seriously upgraded and was capable of handling any kind of project we wanted to attempt. We had a distribution network. We could hire independent promotion people if we felt the need. Most importantly, we could record anything we danged well pleased, with no interference from outside interests. So, why not? Enter Blue Hat Records.

I will never run out of new projects. I’ve got them backed up in my mind, and when I feel one is complete enough, we just get the band together, call our engineer, and proceed to make some new music. I did a duet album called Deuces with artists ranging from

As I approach my golden years, I find that the creative juices still flow bountifully. I’ve got enough album concepts and ideas to take me years down the road, and as long as God gives me the strength, I’ll be writing and recording new music.

You’re concerned with the people who showed up, not the ones who didn’t. So always give them a show, and never look at the empty seats!

Charlie, don't push me. I don't know. Already, you've gone beyond my intellectual reach. In a few months or even weeks, you'll be a different person. When you mature intellectually, we may not be able to communicate. When you mature emotionally, you may not even want me. I've got to think of myself too, Charlie. Let's wait and see. Be patient.

When we got to her doorway, she turned quickly and kissed my cheek. "Good night, Charlie. I'm glad you called me. I'll see you at the lab." She closed the door and I stood outside the building and looked at the light in her apartment window until it went out. There is no question about it now. I'm in love.

It was time for another album, and as so often happens, you’ll set off in one direction, change horses in the middle of the stream, and the whole thing turns into something better than you had envisioned it.

In November 2007, we were doing a show called Christmas for Kids at the Ryman Auditorium. It’s a show to benefit underprivileged children at Christmastime, started by the drivers who drive the touring buses used by the Nashville artists.

It was to be another one of those moments when just a few words will change your whole life. She said, “You have been invited to join the Grand Ole Opry!” Did I hear her right? Did she really say what I thought she said? At the age of seventy-one, was I really going to realize one of my longest-held and fondest dreams?

Competition is good, and the only way to win is to try a little harder than everybody else in the game. The sooner young people find that out, the better off they’ll be.

HEART OF MY HEART, ROCK OF MY SOUL, YOU CHANGED MY LIFE WHEN YOU TOOK CONTROL

In case you think I am just making some sort of wild speculation here about Daniel Keyes’s Flowers for Algernon coming true, think again. In Keyes’s story, a mentally disabled janitor named Charlie is healed of his handicap with an experimental medical procedure shortly after it does the same for a mouse named Algernon.10 Charlie’s tale was the stuff of fiction when it was written in the 1950s, but—based upon work being done in cellular biology—it does not look as if it will remain fiction for much longer. Robert Naviaux, a cellular biologist at UC San Diego, was fascinated by autistic savants and curious about what precisely was happening in their brains that granted them their incredible abilities. “Neurons that are developing contacts in the brain ‘look’ for little lights in the darkness, the metabolic activity of other neurons that have been activated by use,” explained Dr. Naviaux. Once they find these lights, they send out projections called axons to handshake with them and form connections.

You have to recognize opportunity, no matter how subtle the knock. Everything doesn’t happen at once. One thing leads to another as the building blocks of your life start to take form.

I had tried. I had worked hard and established a toehold and had a chance at a future in the behind-the-scenes end of the music business. But to be honest, it could never compare with the thrill of walking on stage in front of a crowd of people and turning them on with a live performance. In the end, I had to follow my heart and admit that I’d never be completely happy until I had proven to myself and everybody else that I had some world-class music in me and the guts and tenacity to meet the competition head on and breathe the rarified air of sweet success in the business that I loved so very much. I was thirty-four years old and starting all over again, going up against guys ten years younger and ten times better looking than me, but none of them could possibly want to make it more than I did.

I’ve always ascribed to the theory that if you can’t get what you want, take what you can get and make what you want out of it, and we tried to make the best situation we could out of whatever we were presented with. If there were only twenty people in the place, you played for those twenty people. If what you do pleases them, they’ll be back and probably bring somebody else with them. And it snowballs. That’s how you build a following. Bring your “A” game every night, and never look at the empty seats. CHAPTER 24 GEARING UP FOR THE LONG RUN Jeffrey Myer left the band to join Jesse Colin Young, who quit The Youngbloods to start a solo career.