一代傳奇落幕：查理·芒格不僅僅是沃倫·巴菲特的助手

Schumpeter

Charlie Munger was a lot more than Warren Buffett’s
sidekick

In business, he was a paragon of common sense

Nov 29th 2023

熊彼特

查理·芒格不僅僅是沃倫·巴菲特的助手

在商界，他是常識的典範

Every May tens of thousands of the faithful flock to Omaha, Nebraska,
hometown of Berkshire Hathaway, to bask in the presence of the investment
firm’s two leaders: Warren Buffett, known for his folksy genius, and Charlie
Munger, for his killer zingers. But for the truly hard core, for many years a
more cloistered gathering took place near Schumpeter’s current abode in
Pasadena, a lush city on the edge of Los Angeles. At the Pasadena Convention
Centre, Mr Munger alone would hold forth, his dry wit in full flow. Recording
devices were not allowed, but notetakers scribbled furiously as they tried to
keep up.

每年五月，成千上萬的忠實投資者湧向內布拉斯加州的奧馬哈市，這裡是伯克希爾·哈撒韋公司的故鄉，他們爭相一窺這家投資公司兩位領袖的風采：以其接地氣的天才而聞名的沃倫·巴菲特，以及以其銳利的俏皮話而出名的查理·芒格。然而，對於真正的鐵桿粉絲來說，多年來在舒姆彼得目前居住的帕薩迪納市舉行了一個更為私密的聚會，這是洛杉磯郊外的一座鬱鬱蔥蔥的城市。在帕薩迪納會展中心，芒格先生獨自一個人發表演講，他的幽默機智完全展現出來。現場不允許錄音，但是參會者們卻忙碌地記錄，試圖跟上他的步伐。

The last one took place in 2011, when Mr Munger, who died in an la
hospital on November 28th aged 99, was a sprightly 87-year-old. It was his last
shareholder meeting as head of Wesco, a financial conglomerate about to be
wholly swallowed up by Berkshire, and hence the end of his one-man show. He
spoke for three hours. As usual, he poked gentle fun at the audience, telling
them, “You folks need to find a new cult hero.” Yet he clearly enjoyed
delivering what one scribe called his sermon from the “Church of Rationality”.
He beamed when they gave him a standing ovation.

最後一次聚會發生在2011年，當時芒格先生在洛杉磯的一家醫院去世，享年99歲，那時他還是一個精神矍鑠的87歲老人。那是作為Wesco——即將被伯克希爾全盤吸收的金融集團——的負責人，他舉行的最後一次股東大會，也就是他的獨角戲快結束時的情形。他連續講了三個小時。像往常一樣，他輕鬆調侃聽眾，告訴他們，“你們需要找一個新的崇拜英雄。”然而他顯然很喜歡傳達一位抄寫員所稱的來自“理性教堂”的佈道。當觀眾為他起立鼓掌時，他顯得非常高興。

Looking back through notes of that meeting, the themes he dwelt on seem
random. He discussed what he felt was his inadequate legacy, though he took
pride in attributes such as basic morality, self-discipline and objectivity. He
advised rich parents how to look after their children (don’t try to motivate
them with artificial hardships, he said, because they will inevitably hate you
for it). He discussed the importance of being rational amid mistaken biases
(which he called the “Lollapalooza effect”). He even put in a good word for The
Economist, describing it, according to one notetaker, as his favourite “adult
magazine”.

回顧那次會議的筆記，他關注的主題似乎很隨機。他討論了自己所感到不足的遺產，儘管他為自己的基本道德、自律和客觀感到驕傲。他向富有的父母們提出瞭如何照看他們的孩子的建議（他說，不要試圖用人為的艱苦來激勵他們，因為他們最終一定會因此討厭你）。他討論了在錯誤的偏見中保持理性的重要性（他稱之為“洛拉帕祖效應”）。他甚至對《經濟學人》說了幾句好話，根據一位記錄者的說法，他描述它是他最喜歡的“成人雜誌”。

And yet those were not scattershot thoughts. They echoed a carefully
thought out worldview on life, investment and business culture that he
expounded on extensively in writings and speaking engagements whenever he was
not in the spotlight as the Sage of Omaha’s curmudgeonly sidekick. As Mr
Buffett put it, Mr Munger influenced Berkshire’s entire investment philosophy
by introducing the wisdom that it is “better to buy a good business at a fair
price than a fair business at a good price”. In other words, he deserves a big
share of the credit for turning the financial conglomerate into the $785bn
powerhouse that it has become.

然而那些並不是散漫無序的想法。它們呼應了他在生活、投資和商業文化上深思熟慮的世界觀，在他不作為奧馬哈聖人的暴躁小夥伴出場時，在他的寫作和演講中廣泛地闡述。正如巴菲特先生所言，芒格先生透過引入“以公道的價格買入一家好公司勝過以好價格買入一家一般公司”的智慧，影響了伯克希爾的整個投資哲學。換句話說，他功不可沒，他為將這個金融集團轉變為如今的7850億美元的商業巨頭，貢獻了巨大的功勞。

Though the two men bore an uncanny physical resemblance (Munger, at least
later in life, was more portly), intellectually they had different strengths.
Mr Buffett is a master of the plain and simple; Mr Munger was a complex thinker
(“Charlie does the talking, I just move my lips,” Mr Buffett once quipped).
Like the best duos—think Bill Gates and Paul Allen at Microsoft, Mickey Mantle
and Roger Maris at the New York Yankees, and John Lennon and Paul McCartney in
The Beatles—their strengths complemented each other, producing something almost
magical. In the case of Messrs Buffett and Munger the magic lasted for 60
years. During that time they famously never had a row.

儘管這兩個人在外表上有著驚人的相似性（芒格至少在晚年更為魁梧），但在智力方面他們各有所長。巴菲特先生擅長簡單明瞭；芒格先生則是一個複雜的思考者（“查理負責說話，我只是動動嘴唇，”巴菲特曾經開玩笑說）。就像最佳搭檔一樣——想想微軟的比爾·蓋茨和保羅·艾倫，紐約洋基隊的米奇·曼托爾和羅傑·馬里斯，披頭士樂隊的約翰·列儂和保羅·麥卡特尼——他們的長處相互補充，創造出了幾乎是魔術般的東西。在巴菲特和芒格的情況下，這種魔力持續了60年。在此期間，他們出名地從未有過爭吵。

As with many successful partnerships, they shared common roots. Like Mr
Buffett, Mr Munger grew up in Omaha. As teenagers both worked in the Buffett
family store at different times. They met in Omaha in 1959, not long after Mr
Buffett, then owner of a fledgling investment firm, had been told by a
potential client that he resembled the erudite Mr Munger, who was six years his
senior. Mr Munger came to replace Benjamin Graham, a legendary “value“
investor, as Mr Buffett’s sounding board, with four qualities that Janet Lowe,
his biographer, said resembled Graham’s. He was honest, realistic, profoundly
curious and unfettered by conventional thinking. Those are as good traits as
any to summarise his approach to business.

與許多成功的合作關係一樣，他們有共同的起點。和巴菲特一樣，芒格在奧馬哈長大。少年時代的他們在不同的時間都曾在巴菲特家族的商店工作。他們於1959年在奧馬哈相見，那時巴菲特剛成為一家初創投資公司的老闆，不久後被一位潛在客戶告知他長得像多學識的芒格，芒格比他大六歲。芒格取代了傳奇的“價值”投資者本傑明·格雷厄姆，成為巴菲特的智囊團，他的傳記作家珍妮特·洛威說芒格有四個品質與格雷厄姆相似。他誠實、現實、好奇心強烈，不受傳統思維的束縛。這些品質足以概括他對商業的方法。

In terms of honesty, he put the trustworthiness of business leaders, and
the soundness of their accounts, above all else. He hated gimmickry (the
accounting term ebitda, he said, should be substituted with “bullshit
earnings”). He was openly scornful of the “megalomania” of some investment
bankers, whom he blamed for the financial crisis of 2007-09. In a deft parody
penned in 2011 he described the perpetrators as Wantmore, Tweakmore, Totalscum
and Countwrong. America was Boneheadia.

在誠實方面，他把商業領袖的信譽和他們賬目的準確性置於首位。他討厭噱頭（他說，會計術語EBITDA應該被替換為“胡說八道的盈利”）。他公開鄙視某些投資銀行家的“妄想狂”，他指責他們是2007-09年金融危機的罪魁禍首。他在2011年巧妙地諷刺中描述了這些肇事者為Wantmore（想要更多），Tweakmore（調整更多），Totalscum（完全騙子）和Countwrong（統計錯誤）。美國成了Boneheadia（愚蠢國）。

As for realism, he was no softy when it came to business. He believed in
“moats” that safeguarded firms’ brand value, pricing power and scale. Take
Wrigley’s Chewing Gum versus a cheaper competitor, for instance. “Am I going to
take something I don’t know and put it in my mouth—which is a pretty personal
place, after all—for a lousy dime?” Handle new technologies with care, he
preached. Know your “circle of competence”. Don’t rush into new ventures you
don’t understand.

在現實主義方面，當涉及到商業時，他絕不軟弱。他相信維護公司品牌價值、定價權和規模的“護城河”。以箭牌口香糖對比一個更便宜的競爭對手為例。“我會把一個完全不認識的東西放進我嘴裡嗎？畢竟嘴巴是很私人的地方——為了區區十分錢？”他傳道，要謹慎對待新技術。瞭解你的“能力圈”。不要急於進入你不瞭解的新企業。

For him, curiosity was a lifelong project, and he believed that business
people should constantly refresh their knowledge, challenging their assumptions
and learning from mistakes more than successes. As he said on the first page of
“Poor Charlie’s Almanack”, a compilation of his writings and speeches: “Acquire
worldly wisdom and adjust your behaviour accordingly. If your new behaviour
gives you a little temporary unpopularity with your peer group…then to hell
with them.”

對他來說，好奇心是一生的事業，他相信商人應該不斷更新他們的知識，挑戰他們的假設，從錯誤中學習，超越成功。正如他在他的著作和演講合集《窮查理寶典》第一頁所說：“獲取世俗的智慧並相應地調整你的行為。如果你的新行為使你在同齡人群中有一點暫時的不受歡迎……那他們見鬼去吧。”

Invert, always invert

Finally, think unconventionally. Don’t follow the herd. He loved
Confucius and boldly encouraged America to “get along with China” despite the
current tensions. Apple, he said, was an example of how engaging with China was
both good for business and good for China. Everything that worked in the
opposite direction, he said earlier this year, was “stupid, stupid, stupid”.
Even by Mr Munger’s standards, that was blunt; he normally expressed himself
with humour, not exasperation. But it summed up what was probably his greatest
contribution to business thinking. He was a paragon of that old-style
virtue—common sense.

“反過來思考，總是反過來思考”

最後，要有非傳統的思維。不要隨波逐流。他熱愛孔子，並大膽鼓勵美國“與中國和睦相處”，儘管當前局勢緊張。他說，蘋果公司就是一個例子，它展示了與中國接觸對商業和中國都有好處。他在今年早些時候說，所有背道而馳的行為都是“愚蠢，愚蠢，愚蠢”。即使按照芒格先生的標準，這也是直白的；他通常用幽默而不是懊惱來表達自己。但這概括了他對商業思維可能最偉大的貢獻。他是那種古老美德的典型——常識。■

英語知識點：

1.
sidekick [ˈsaɪd.kɪk]：副手，亦稱搭擋，指的是幫助另一位主角的角色。

2.
paragon [ˈpær.ə.ɡɑːn]：模範。在此，指 Charlie Munger 以其常識在商界堪稱模範。

3.
zingers ['ziŋərz]：嘲笑或諷刺的言論。在這篇文章中，是指 Munger 的犀利言論。

4.
cloistered ['klɔɪstərd]：閉門不出的，像在修道院中的。這裡用來形容那個私密的集會。