Buffett-Munger: Temperament is more important than IQ

December 2, 2013 Leave a comment

Temperament is more important than IQ

by SHANE PARRISH on NOVEMBER 25, 2013

Munger

During a recent interview Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger had some interesting comments on how to outsmart people who are smarter than you.

Munger: We’ve learned how to outsmart people who are clearly smarter [than we are.]

Buffett: Temperament is more important than IQ. You need reasonable intelligence, but you absolutely have to have the right temperament. Otherwise, something will snap you.

Munger: The other big secret is that we’re good at lifelong learning. Warren is better in his 70s and 80s, in many ways, than he was when he was younger. If you keep learning all the time, you have a wonderful advantage.

Buffett: And we have a wonderful group of friends, from whom we can learn a lot.Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger’s best advice

By Patricia Sellers October 31, 2013: 11:50 AM ET

The world’s greatest investing duo talk about how they’ve helped each other exceed at investing–and life.

Warren Buffett and his lifelong investing partner Charlie Munger are rarely interviewed together except in front of 30,000-plus shareholders at the Berkshire Hathaway (BRKA) annual meeting in Omaha each spring.

So, my recent sit-down with the two investing legends was a special event.

The new issue of Fortune features Buffett, 83, and Munger, 89 and other super-successful duos who have thrived by sharing advice with one another over the years. Here’s an expanded piece of my interview that didn’t make it into the magazine. You don’t have to be a billionaire to understand that following  this advice can lead to a truly successful life.

Buffett (about Munger): He’s given me a lot more advice than I’ve given him. He lives a very rational life. I’ve never heard him say a word that expressed envy of anyone. He doesn’t waste time on senseless emotions.

Munger: There’s an old saying, “What good is envy? It’s the one sin you can’t have any fun at.” It’s 100% destructive. Resentment is crazy. Revenge is crazy. Envy is crazy. If you get those things out of your life early, life works a lot better.

Buffett: It so clearly makes sense.

Munger: We’ve learned how to outsmart people who are clearly smarter [than we are.]

Buffett: Temperament is more important than IQ. You need reasonable intelligence, but you absolutely have to have the right temperament. Otherwise, something will snap you.

Munger: The other big secret is that we’re good at lifelong learning. Warren is better in his 70s and 80s, in many ways, that he was when he was younger. If you keep learning all the time, you have a wonderful advantage.

Watch Buffett sharing more wisdom–on investing, the economy, and life—here at the recentFortune Most Powerful Women Summit 

in Washington, D.C.

And here’s the playlist of all the Fortune MPW Summit main-stage interviews, including IBM (IBM) CEO Ginni Rometty, Lockheed Martin (LMT) chief Marillyn Hewson, Facebook’s (FB) Sheryl Sandberg–and my conversations with Tory Burch, Chelsea Clinton, Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan, tennis legend Martina Navratilova, and Yahoo (YHOO) CEO Marissa Mayer

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Unknown's avatarAbout bambooinnovator
Kee Koon Boon (“KB”) is the co-founder and director of HERO Investment Management which provides specialized fund management and investment advisory services to the ARCHEA Asia HERO Innovators Fund (www.heroinnovator.com), the only Asian SMID-cap tech-focused fund in the industry. KB is an internationally featured investor rooted in the principles of value investing for over a decade as a fund manager and analyst in the Asian capital markets who started his career at a boutique hedge fund in Singapore where he was with the firm since 2002 and was also part of the core investment committee in significantly outperforming the index in the 10-year-plus-old flagship Asian fund. He was also the portfolio manager for Asia-Pacific equities at Korea’s largest mutual fund company. Prior to setting up the H.E.R.O. Innovators Fund, KB was the Chief Investment Officer & CEO of a Singapore Registered Fund Management Company (RFMC) where he is responsible for listed Asian equity investments. KB had taught accounting at the Singapore Management University (SMU) as a faculty member and also pioneered the 15-week course on Accounting Fraud in Asia as an official module at SMU. KB remains grateful and honored to be invited by Singapore’s financial regulator Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to present to their top management team about implementing a world’s first fact-based forward-looking fraud detection framework to bring about benefits for the capital markets in Singapore and for the public and investment community. KB also served the community in sharing his insights in writing articles about value investing and corporate governance in the media that include Business Times, Straits Times, Jakarta Post, Manual of Ideas, Investopedia, TedXWallStreet. He had also presented in top investment, banking and finance conferences in America, Italy, Sydney, Cape Town, HK, China. He has trained CEOs, entrepreneurs, CFOs, management executives in business strategy & business model innovation in Singapore, HK and China.

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