[Ads-l] Request Charlie Munger quotation in 1989 Annual Report of Wesco

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

Famous U.S. investor Charlie Munger wrote about strategies for
achieving wealth. The key was not concocting brilliant strategies;
instead, the successful long-term investor triumphed by being
"consistently not stupid".

[Begin quotation]
It is remarkable how much long-term advantage people like us have
gotten by trying to be consistently not stupid instead of trying to be
very intelligent.
[End quotation]

Apparently, the statement from Munger appeared in the Wesco Financial
Corporation Annual Report of 1989, but I have not been able to access
this document. This report might be in the ProQuest Historical Annual
Reports database. If someone can find and share an instance of this
quotation before 1994 that would be very helpful.

Here are details for the earliest match I could find in 1994:

[ref] 1994 Copyright, Of Permanent Value: The Story of Warren Buffett
by Andrew Kilpatrick, Chapter 35: Wesco: "A tourist-class ticket",
Quote Page 228, AKPE, Birmingham, Alabama. (Verified with scans)
[/ref]

[Begin excerpt]
Munger also makes the following point: "Wesco continues to try more to
profit from always remembering the obvious than from grasping the
esoteric. It is remarkable how much long-term advantage people like us
have gotten by trying to be consistently not stupid instead of trying
to be very intelligent. There must be some wisdom in the folk saying,
'It's the strong swimmers who drown.'"
[End excerpt]

Thanks for any help you can provide
Garson O'Toole
QuoteInvestigator.com

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