Charlie Munger and Mozart

Remember to think and create for yourself — it’s what Mozart and Munger do.

I have been reading about Charlie Munger for years. For those who don’t know, Munger is Warren Buffett’s business partner. He’s witty and has hundreds of stories to tell. One of these stories comes from his annual Daily Journal Meeting.

The story I am about to share demonstrates the kind of wisdom Munger possesses and what he believes in. A guest asked Munger about company moats and how he can make money finding companies with the best moats. In the world of value investing, a moat is considered a company trait that serves a defensive purpose from competitors. It could be a brand name like Coca-Cola or it could be technological advantage like Amazon’s AWS. In its simplest form a moat is the competitive advantage one company has over its competitors.

It’s said that Munger and Buffett base most of their investment decisions on the size of the moat they think a company has. So when Munger was asked this question about moats he responded like this:

“There’s an apocryphal story about Mozart. A 14-year-old came to him and said, “I want to learn to be a great composer.” And Mozart said, “You’re too young.” The young man replied, “But I’m 14 years old and you were only 8 or 9 when you started composing.” To which Mozart replied, “Yes, but I wasn’t running around asking other people how to do it.”

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