1: Billionaire Charlie Munger was once asked: What should a young person look for in a career?
“I have three basic rules—meeting all three is nearly impossible, but you should try anyway,” he writes in Poor Charlie’s Almanack: The Wit and Wisdom of Charlie Munger.
Rule #1: Don’t sell anything you wouldn’t buy yourself.
Rule #2: Don’t work for anyone you don’t respect and admire.
Rule #3: Work only with people you enjoy.
Charlie Munger worked with Warren Buffett for 45 years, serving as Vice Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway. They were business partners, and Charlie played a pivotal role in shaping the company’s investment philosophy and growth.
Reflecting on their partnership, Charlie said, “I have been incredibly fortunate in my life: With Warren I had all three.”
2: Getting better at getting better is what RiseWithDrew is all about. Monday through Thursday, we explore ideas from authors, thought leaders, and exemplary organizations. To end the week for the past nineteen weeks, I’ve been sharing some of Charlie’s wit and wisdom.
Charlie also understood that not all work situations are always as optimal as what he and Warren experienced.
Charlie was trained as a lawyer before joining forces with Warren. Speaking at Stanford Law School in 1996, he said: “Occasionally, you get into borderline stuff. For instance, suppose you’ve got a client who really wants to commit tax fraud. If they don’t push the tax law way beyond the line, they can’t stand it.
“They can’t shave in the morning if they thinks there’s been any cheating they could get by with that they haven’t done. And there are people like that. They just feel they aren’t living aggressively enough.”
Charlie advises the law students: “You can approach that situation in either of two ways: You can say, ‘I just won’t work for them,’ and duck it. Or you can say, ‘Well, the circumstances of my life require that I work for them. And what I’m doing for him doesn’t involve my cheating. Therefore, I’ll do it.'”
And what if the client wants to do something foolish?
“It probably won’t work to tell him, ‘What you’re doing is bad. I have better morals than you.'”
Why? Because “that offends them. You’re young. they’re old. Therefore, instead of being persuaded, they’re more likely to react with ‘Who in the hell are you to establish the moral code of the whole world?'”
Instead, we are wise to appeal to the client’s interests.
We say: “You can’t do that without three other people beneath you knowing about it,” Charlie recommends. “Therefore, you’re making yourself subject to blackmail. You’re risking your reputation. You’re risking your family, your money, etc.”
That just might work. Because we’re telling them something that is true and appeals to their interests.
3: The bigger question is: Do we want to spend our careers working for people, he asks, “where you have to use methods like that to get them to behave well?”
The short answer? No.
But, if we find ourselves in that situation, Charlie suggests, “appealing to their interests is likely to work better as a matter of human persuasion than appealing to anything else.
“That, again, is a powerful psychological principle with deep biological roots.”
More next week!
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Reflection: Am I choosing to work with people I respect and on projects I truly believe in?
Action: Review my current work relationships and commitments, and identify one area where I can better align with Munger’s rules-either by seeking more meaningful collaborations or by appealing to shared interests when faced with ethical challenges.
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