Inside the 40-year business partnership of Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger, who both started out working in the same grocery store and reportedly haven't had a fight in 60 years
Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger have worked together for 41 years at Buffett's holding company, Berkshire Hathaway.
Together, the two have achieved success and respect in the business world.
Among other household names, Berkshire Hathaway wholly owns companies like Dairy Queen and Pampered Chef, along with having notable minority holdings with companies such as Apple and the Kraft Heinz Company.
Source: Berkshire Hathaway Inc.
Warren Buffett, hailed as the "Oracle of Omaha," notably started investing early, buying his first stock when he was 11 years old and accruing a small fortune from business ventures by the time he was a teenager. His pursuits included operating a successful pinball machine business in local barbershops, delivering newspapers, and washing cars.
Source: Business Insider
After attending Columbia’s School of Business, Buffett returned to Omaha, then moved back to New York to work for his mentor, Benjamin Graham.
Source: Business Insider
When Graham closed his firm in 1956, Buffett moved back home to Omaha and started Buffett Partnership Ltd. This quickly turned to seven partnerships, which led him to become a millionaire by age 32.
Source: Business Insider
He merged these partnerships in 1962 and invested in a textile-manufacturing firm called Berkshire Hathaway. In the late 60s, he pivoted the company from textiles to insurance, and he still leads it today.
Source: Business Insider
Buffett would eventually join forces with Charlie Munger, commonly referred to as his "right-hand man."
Source: Forbes
The pair were introduced by a mutual contact in 1959 in Omaha, where they dined with their wives at Johnny's Cafe.
Source: Google Maps, Omaha World-Herald
Along with enjoying each other's sense of humor, the men learned they both worked for Buffett's grandfather at his grocery store as teenagers. Though the two worked at the same store, they had never crossed paths, as Munger is seven years Buffett's senior.
Source: Omaha World-Herald, CNBC
A lawyer by trade and an architect on the side, Charlie Munger has worked for Berkshire Hathaway since the late 1970s.
Source: CNBC
... and even co-founded his own law firm — Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP —which still exists today. Buffett convinced Munger to leave the practice as he felt it did not utilize his full talents.
Source: CNBC
Over a decade later, Buffett convinced Munger to leave his second company, an investment practice called Wheeler, Munger & Co. In 1978, he became Vice Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, where the two have worked side-by-side ever since.
Source: CNBC
Alongside his duties as vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, Munger is also a chairman of Daily Journal Corp. and a board member of Costco.
Source: Forbes
After almost half a century of joined partnership, the two men remain the faces of Berkshire Hathaway, adding a personal element to the holdings company.
Source: Reuters
Their faces were especially popular at Berkshire Hathaway's 50th anniversary in 2015, which was held in Omaha as always.
Source: Reuters
Though Munger is 95 and and Buffett is 88, neither has announced plans to retire in the near future.
Source: U.S. News & World Report
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