正要介绍巴菲特的时候,看到了芒格去世的消息。

我是在2018年3月看的芒格的《穷查理宝典》,比看巴菲特等人的图书更早 一些,那时候压根不知道芒格是谁。现在看起来,他所说的很多事情都是“常识”,而让我们忽略常识的,恰恰是我们的人性。

这是昨天写的《福布斯2022排行榜TOP100学习记录(01金融)》里的一个故事。由于目前还是墨问便签里的付费内容,所以不好直接免费出来。上午碰巧用了一下chatGPT和Grammarly,嘿嘿,你猜怎么着?给它全翻译成英语了!

那么,就让我们投资和英语一起双修,以此​缅怀一下芒格老师吧。


Can Ordinary People Replicate Warren Buffett's Success?

Just as I was about to introduce Warren Buffett, I saw the news of Charlie Munger's passing.

I read Charlie Munger's 'Poor Charlie's Almanack' in March 2018, a bit earlier than reading books by Buffett and others. At that time, I had no idea who Munger was. Now, in hindsight, many things he said seem like 'common sense,' and our human nature makes us overlook common sense.

A few years ago, after suffering heavy losses from blind stock trading, I realized something was wrong with my approach. So, I picked up some books on fundamental stock investing. I didn't read many, but among them were Benjamin Graham's 'The Intelligent Investor,' who was Buffett's mentor, and Buffett's 'Letters to Shareholders.' After reading them, I felt even worse about myself because if I had read these two books earlier, I wouldn't have lost so much money!

When I realized how exceptional Buffett was, I looked at the calendar. He was already in his 90s. How could I get benefit from him? How much time did he have left? I was late to the party!

Now, back to the question: Can ordinary people replicate Buffett's success? The answer is both yes and no.

No, because Buffett's success is unique and challenging to replicate. Simply put, he has been investing for over 75 years, and unfortunately, most people can't even live that long.

Yes, because of his investment approach, which is something that can be learned. Both of the books I mentioned before contain the methods. For ordinary people, following the guidance in the early chapters of 'The Intelligent Investor' can help them outperform 70% of investors in the market.

Some might wonder whether you can learn Buffett's success from just two books. Honestly, it's possible. If you summarize his secrets to success, they could fit on two sheets of A4 paper. However, whether people can do it depends entirely on their ability. On the contrary, people like me, who knew nothing and entered the stock market with overconfidence, make up 90% of investors in the market.

In this Forbes Top 100 list, only Buffett's success can be replicated. We can profit from the investment market by learning and using common sense. The key is quite simple: read those two books. Also, the book I recommended a few weeks ago, 'The Psychology of Money,' is good and can be a valuable supplement.

From various book chapters and video clips, you can see and feel the wisdom, simplicity, and kindness of both Buffett and Munger. Although Buffett is on the Forbes list, he and Munger have no distinction; they support and complement each other. Having a partner like that is undoubtedly lucky (it suddenly reminds me of Guo Degang and Yu Qian). This is another reason that ordinary people cannot emulate Buffett's success.