I sent a friend this text this week.
I said, I'm working on another Li Liu episode, but this one is about his remarkable investing career can be summarized by number one, studied Buffett and Munger.
Number two did that in all the talks and interviews that Li Lu gave over the last two decades, he's constantly referencing the lessons that he learned from studying Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger, and he shares their obsession with finding great companies.
So many times when I was reading the words and listening to the words of Li Lu and I was researching the podcast, I thought of this book, which I've mentioned multiple times in this episode I think is the best book on Buffett and Munger I've ever read.
It's called all I want to know is where I'm going to die, so I'll never go there.
Buffett and Munger, a study in simplicity and uncommon common sense.
And there's a few sections from this book that I want to read to you because it's really Buffett describing what makes a great business.
And he says, every day, in countless ways, the competitive position of each of our businesses grows either weaker or stronger.
If we are delighting customers, eliminating unnecessary costs, and improving our products and services, we gain strength.
But if we treat customers with indifference or tolerate bloat, which means don't watch our cost, our businesses will wither on a daily basis.
The effect of our actions are imperceptible cumulatively, though, their consequences are enormous.
Later on in the book, Buffett is asked, how should you be running your business?
He says, just do what you always do.
Widen the moat, build enduring competitive advantage, delight your customers, and relentlessly fight costs.
On the same page, Munger talks about that most people don't do this, especially companies, after they get successful.
So Munger is now describing the other side of this what happens when you don't do this?
Successful places tend to get bloated, fat, complacent.
It's the nature of human life.
Most places, when they get rich, they get sloppy.
And there's another great line from Buffett.