Charlie Munger

In early 2014, Charlie Munger, Warren Buffet’s business partner, will turn 90 years old. Munger believes that even though professionals have more information and can trade faster than individual investors, the individual can still outperform the profession, as long as the individual plays a different game. For example, the individual can be patient, the professional cannot; the individual does not have to be part of the herd, the professional is; and most importantly, the individual can be brave, the professional is almost never brave.

Munger believes in patience—sitting in cash until a good opportunity arises. By tuning out day-to-day distractions, Munger makes fewer decisions. When asked in the late 1980s what accounted for his enormous success in the stock market, Munger replied, “I’m rational.”