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- Charlie Munger - Feeling Like a Victim is Perfectly Disastrous
Charlie Munger - Feeling Like a Victim is Perfectly Disastrous
"It is counterproductive for an individual to feel like a victim - even if he is"
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Charlie Munger is best known as Warren Buffett’s longtime business partner and vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway. Independent of his work with Buffett, Munger is a successful businessman and philanthropist in his own right. An avid reader and life-long, multidisciplinary learner, he is admired for his witty life lessons and often-too-blunt pieces of advice. Born in 1924, he is 96 years young.
When handing out misfortune, life has no obligation to be fair.
In 1953, Charlie was 29 years old when he and his wife divorced. He had been married since he was 21. Charlie lost everything in the divorce, his wife keeping the family home in South Pasadena. Munger moved into “dreadful” conditions at the University Club…
Shortly after the divorce, Charlie learned that his son, Teddy, had leukemia. In those days, there was no health insurance, you just paid everything out of pocket and the death rate was near 100% since there was nothing doctors could do. Rick Guerin, Charlie’s friend, said Munger would go into the hospital, hold his young son, and then walk the streets of Pasadena crying.
One year after the diagnosis, in 1955, Teddy Munger died. Charlie was 31 years old, divorced, broke, and burying his 9 year old son.
If you are misfortunate, a victim mentality is incredibly useful if you wish to remain miserable…
Whenever you think that some situation or some person is ruining your life, [think that] it’s actually you who are ruining your life. It’s such a simple idea. Feeling like a victim is a perfectly disastrous way to go through life.
If you just take the attitude that, however bad it is in anyway, it’s always your fault and you just fix it as best you can – the so-called ‘iron prescription’ – I think that really works.
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