The video discusses the importance of decision-making and learning from past mistakes to build wealth and live a fulfilling life. It emphasizes that everyone experiences missed opportunities but highlights the value of recognizing rare opportunities and making smart decisions when they present themselves. This is illustrated through life lessons and famous examples, such as Mozart's story, to stress the importance of developing skills independently.

Additionally, it points out that while some people seem to have everything figured out, it's not necessary to be the best at everything. The speaker reflects on their personal experiences with investing and managing companies like Berkshire Hathaway, emphasizing that success often comes from handling mistakes well and transitioning from difficult ventures to easier, more promising opportunities.

Main takeaways from the video:

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Key Vocabularies and Common Phrases:

1. apocryphal [əˈpɒkrɪfəl] - (adjective) - Of doubtful authenticity, although widely circulated as being true. - Synonyms: (fictitious, mythical, legendary)

Here's an apocryphal story that is very instructive.

2. mausoleums [ˌmɔːsəˈliəmz] - (noun) - Large stately tombs or buildings housing a tomb. - Synonyms: (tomb, crypt, sepulchre)

Another thing that people do like Grigard is amazing is they build these enormous mausoleums.

3. opportunities [ˌɑːpərˈtuːnətiz] - (noun) - Favorable set of circumstances that present possibilities for success. - Synonyms: (chances, options, prospects)

Now, there's a very competent bunch of people who sell securities, who act as though they've got an endless supply of wonderful opportunities

4. jealousies [ˈdʒɛləsiz] - (noun) - Feelings of envy towards another's achievements or advantages. - Synonyms: (envy, resentment, covetousness)

And the other thing was, he was full of jealousies and resentments.

5. scramble [ˈskræmbəl] - (verb) - Make one's way quickly or awkwardly upwards; to act quickly to handle difficulties. - Synonyms: (hurry, hustle, struggle)

How do you scramble out of your mistakes without them costing too much?

6. resentments [rɪˈzɛntmənts] - (noun) - Bitter indignation at having been treated unfairly. - Synonyms: (grudges, bitterness, dissatisfaction)

He was full of jealousies and resentments.

7. underspend [ˌʌndərˈspɛnd] - (verb) - To spend less money than one has, often as a strategy for saving. - Synonyms: (save, economize, budget)

We always underspend our incomes, and we invested.

8. mongers [ˈmʌŋɡərz] - (noun) - Promoters or traders of a commodity or idea, often used negatively for those spreading something disreputable. - Synonyms: (dealers, traders, hawkers)

In my life, to give another example, the mongers would have twice the assets they now have.

9. instructive [ɪnˈstrʌktɪv] - (adjective) - Useful and informative, often providing a lesson or insight. - Synonyms: (educational, enlightening, informative)

Here's an apocryphal story that is very instructive.

10. doomed [duːmd] - (adjective) - Destined to fail or suffer a terrible fate. - Synonyms: (fated, destined, condemned)

Think of its founding businesses, a doomed department store, a doomed New England textile company...

Charlie Munger on Mistakes To Avoid In Life | One of the Greatest Speeches Ever

In my life, to give another example, the mongers would have twice the assets they now have. If I hadn't made one mistake of omission back in the 1970s and really stupid and I blew an opportunity, would have doubled my present net worth. That is a normal life. You get one or two. And how things work out.

We all know people that are out married. I mean, their spouses are so much better. Think what a good decision that was for them and what a lucky decision, way more important than money. And a lot of them did it when they were young. Just, they stumbled into it. No, you don't have to stumble into it. You can be very careful. A lot of people are wearing signs, danger, danger. Do not touch. And people just charge right ahead. That's a mistake.

Well, you can laugh, but it's still a horrible mistake. There's still a couple of other stories, too, because you like stories. Here's an apocryphal story that is very instructive. A young man comes to visit Mozart, and he says, mozart, he says, I want to write symphonies. And Mozart says, how old are you? And the man says, I'm 23. Mozart says, you're too young to write symphonies.

He says, but Mozart says, you were writing symphonies when you were ten years old. Mozart says, yes, but I wasn't asking other people how to do it. Now there's another Mozart story. Here's the greatest musical talent maybe that ever lived. And what was his life like? Well, he was bitterly unhappy and he died young. That's the life of Mozart. What the hell did Mozart do to screw it up to make himself well, he did two things that are guaranteed to create a lot of misery. He overspent his income scrupulously. That's number one.

That is really stupid. And the other thing was, he was full of jealousies and resentments. If you'll overspend your income and be full of jealousy and resentments, you can have a lousy, unhappy life and die young. All you've got to do is learn from Mozart. You can also learn from that young man who was asking Mozart how to write symphony. The truth of the matter is that not everybody can learn everything. Some people are way the hell better. And of course, no matter how hard you try, there are always some guy that achieves more, some guy or gal. And my answer is, so what does any of us need to be the very top of the whole world? It's ridiculous.

Another thing that people do like Grigard is amazing is they build these enormous mausoleums. I think they figure they want people to walk by that mausoleum and say, gosh, I wish I were in there. Anyway, you can see we've had some fun as we go along, and it worked so well. But if you actually figure out how many decisions were made in the history of the daily journal Corporation or the history of Berkshire Hathaway, it wasn't very many per year that were meaningful. It's a game of being there all the time and recognizing the rare opportunity when it comes, and recognizing that a normal human allotment is to not have very many.

Now, there's a very competent bunch of people who sell securities, who act as though they've got an endless supply of wonderful opportunities. Those people are the equivalent of the racetrack tout. They're not even respectable. It's not a good way to live your life, to pretend to know a lot of stuff you don't know, and pretend to furnish you a lot of opportunities you're not furnishing. And my advice to you is, avoid those people, but not if you're running a stock brokerage firm. You need them, but it's not the right way to make money.

And this business of controlling the costs and living simply, that was the secret. How much money? Barton and I had, tiny little bits of money. We always underspend our incomes, and we invested. If you live long enough, you end up rich. It's not very complicated. Now, there is a part of life, which is, how do you scramble out of your mistakes without them costing too much? And we've done some of that, too.

If you look at Berkshire Hathaway, think of its founding businesses, a doomed department store, a doomed New England textile company, a doomed trading stamp company. Out of that came Berkshire Hathaway. No, we handled those losing hands pretty well, and we bought into them very cheaply. But, of course, the success came from changing our ways and getting into the better businesses. And it isn't that we were so good at doing things that were difficult. We were good at avoiding things that were difficult, finding things that are easy.

By the way, when we bought the daily Journal, that was easy. What we're doing now in this software business is difficult. But due to the accident of these good associations and the fact that these old colleagues have lived so long, we're doing pretty well in the new business. It has potential, and it's fun to do. And how many declining newspapers have hundreds of millions of marketable securities lying around? And a new business with some promise? We're like the last of the Mohegans.

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