Lesson 22: Love Admirable People

“A man who is so constructed that he loves admirable persons and ideas with special intensity has a huge advantage in life.”

—Charlie Munger, late billionaire and Warren Buffett’s business partner, in Poor Charlie’s Almanack

A few years ago, my wife asked what I wanted for Christmas. “Well, there is one thing…,” I said. (Anytime I answer like that, she knows I’m about to say something unusual.)

“A bronze bust of Warren Buffett.”

She wasn’t surprised — we’ve been married for 15 years. That Christmas, I received my $1,200 bust. Mini-Buffett keeps a patient eye on me from the bookshelf in my home office.

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, love is “affection based on admiration, benevolence, or common interests” and “warm attachment, enthusiasm, or devotion”.

I love Warren Buffett.

I love Charlie Munger, Richard Branson, the Dalai Lama, and a few other leaders both living and deceased. I admire and feel enthusiasm for those great people.

Such love has given me a huge advantage in life.

None of those people are perfect, but the good in them far outweighs the bad. Admiring such people while trying to emulate them and act in accordance with their principles helps me flourish.

Learn from All

Learn all you can from a wide variety of people. One of Munger’s favorite tools to acquire wisdom was learning from those who made big, obvious mistakes. In many cases, those mistakes ruined their lives. By recalling those stories, he removed what he would call “much common stupidity” from his life.

There was once an entrepreneur who owned a thriving and legitimate investment brokerage firm. He innovated using new technology to make the business more efficient and effective for his clients. At one point, his company was the largest market maker on the Nasdaq. The entrepreneur wasn’t satisfied. He let greed, envy, curiosity, or likely a combination of all three lead him to creating an illegitimate investment business that ruined his life and cost others billions of dollars. Bernie Madoff died in jail in 2021 at 82 years old.

Learn from those who lost everything.

And, learn from those who are successful, yet don’t fully live up to the values you most admire. Learn what they do well in areas in which they excel. Uncover their strategies and thinking habits in those areas.

But, stop there. Don’t want to learn too much from them if you don’t want to be like them. Reserve that level of admiration and devotion to only a few who you are confident a truly great, admirable, virtuous people.

Love a Few

Six or seven years ago, I wrote down the five or so business leaders I admired most. I wanted to emulate the greatest of them to create greater success, happiness, and fulfillment.

I researched each leader to uncover the good and the bad. One stood above the others: Warren Buffett.

On his Wikipedia page, you find few scandals, lawsuits, or events tarnishing his reputation or making his character uncertain. He’s achieved the highest level of financial success and public respect while being honest and ethical.

I’ve created a better life for myself modeling Buffett’s values and habits.

Don’t confine your love for admirable people to the selection of those still living. Find those you most admire and believe lived in accordance with the values that matter most to you. Go deep, learning as much as possible about them. How did they live? How did they think? What did they value? What challenges did they face and how did they deal with them?

See further by standing on the shoulders of giants.