Quote of the day by Charlie Munger: “My advice would be, if you have a fixable disadvantage, remove it. If it's unfixable...” — What can we fix, accept and endure? Timeless life lessons on struggle, acceptance, resilience, endurance, growth, control and being pragmatic

Quote of the day by Charlie Munger starts with a question most people face at some point: can this problem actually be fixed? His words speak to everyday struggles, from mistakes and self-doubt to difficult choices and circumstances we cannot change. The idea is simple but demanding: act where you have control, and stop wasting energy on what you do not. Munger's own life gives that advice added weight because he built his career around learning, adapting and recognizing his limits.

What Did Charlie Munger Mean by “Fix What Can Be Fixed”?

“My advice would be, if you have a fixable disadvantage, remove it. If it's unfixable, learn to live without it. What else can you do? You fix what can be fixed, and what can't be fixed, you endure.”

Munger gave this answer during the 2021 Daily Journal annual meeting. He was responding to a question about people whose knowledge was being challenged by rapid technological change. His point was not really about technology alone. It was about how a person responds when reality exposes a weakness.


There is a practical honesty in the distinction. Some disadvantages are temporary. A lack of knowledge can often be corrected. A poor habit can be changed. A professional weakness can sometimes be improved through study, practice or experience.

Other problems are different. They may involve circumstances outside our control, decisions made by other people or facts about life that cannot simply be negotiated away. Munger's advice was to stop treating both situations as if they require the same response.

That sounds obvious until life becomes difficult. People often spend months trying to change something that was never theirs to control. At the same time, they may accept weaknesses that could have been improved with a little effort.

The harder question is this: How do you know which kind of problem you are facing?

Munger's answer throughout his career was closely tied to intellectual honesty. He repeatedly argued for understanding one's own limits rather than pretending to know more than one does. In his investing philosophy, recognizing what you do not understand was not a weakness. It was part of avoiding unnecessary mistakes.

Why This Advice Matters Beyond Investing

It is easy to hear Munger's words and think only about money or business. But the distinction works just as well in ordinary life.

Consider a person who repeatedly struggles at work because they lack a particular skill. Complaining about unfair circumstances may feel easier than admitting the gap. But if the skill can be learned, the useful response is fairly clear: learn it.

The same applies to communication. Someone who regularly creates conflict because they react too quickly may not be able to control how other people behave. They can, however, examine their own reactions. That is a disadvantage with room for change.

Then there are situations where effort has limits. You cannot make another person think differently. You cannot rewrite an event that has already happened. You cannot always control whether a plan succeeds, even after doing everything reasonably well.

Munger's philosophy leaves room for that reality. Acceptance, in this sense, is not the same as giving up. It means recognizing where effort stops producing a useful return.

That distinction can save a person from two opposite mistakes. One is helplessness: believing nothing can be changed. The other is endless struggle: believing everything must be changed.

Charlie Munger's Early Life Shaped His Way of Thinking

Charles Thomas Munger was born in Omaha, Nebraska, on January 1, 1924. His father, Alfred Munger, was a lawyer. As a teenager, Charlie worked at Buffett & Son, a grocery store owned by Warren Buffett's grandfather. The two men would not meet until much later.

Munger studied mathematics at the University of Michigan but left college in 1943 to serve in the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II. He later studied meteorology at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

His education took another unexpected turn after the war. Munger entered Harvard Law School without completing an undergraduate degree and graduated magna cum laude in 1948. He then returned to California and built a career in law before moving increasingly toward investing.

That path matters because Munger was never simply an investor who learned about investing. His thinking drew from mathematics, law, psychology, business and other fields. He became known for combining ideas from different areas rather than viewing every problem through a single professional lens.

From Lawyer to Warren Buffett's Longtime Partner

Munger initially practiced law in California and eventually helped establish the law firm Munger, Tolles & Olson. Investing began as another part of his life rather than an immediate replacement for his legal career.

He met Warren Buffett in 1959 in Omaha. Their friendship developed into a long business partnership. Munger later became vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway and played a major role in shaping the company's investment philosophy.

Buffett credited Munger with helping change his approach from searching mainly for cheap businesses toward buying high-quality businesses at reasonable prices. That shift became an important part of Berkshire Hathaway's development.

Munger's influence, however, went beyond individual investments. He became known for a broader philosophy built around patience, rational thinking, reading, avoiding predictable mistakes and understanding human behavior.

His career also contained setbacks and personal hardship. He lost his first marriage and later experienced the death of his young son, Teddy, from leukemia. These experiences do not prove that hardship automatically produces wisdom. They do, however, provide important context for why Munger often spoke plainly about adversity and endurance.

What Can You Change in Your Own Life?

Munger's quote becomes most useful when it is brought down from the level of investment philosophy to ordinary decisions.

A person may not be able to change a disappointing result, but they can examine what produced it. They may not be able to undo a poor decision, but they can learn why they made it. They may not control another person's reaction, but they can decide how they respond.

That requires a degree of self-awareness that is often uncomfortable.

It is easier to blame circumstances than to identify a weakness. It is also tempting to call something “unavoidable” when changing it would require sustained effort. Munger's distinction forces a more honest question: Am I accepting something because it truly cannot change, or because changing it would be difficult?

That question has no universal answer. Different people have different circumstances. But asking it can make a problem clearer.

The same thinking applies to comparison. Someone may spend years measuring their progress against people with different opportunities, abilities or circumstances. That comparison rarely changes the underlying situation. Focusing on the parts that can actually be improved is usually a more concrete exercise.

The Difference Between Acceptance and Defeat

Munger's word “endure” can sound harsh. Yet there is a useful difference between endurance and resignation.

Resignation says nothing can be done. Endurance begins after you have identified what cannot be done.

That is why the first half of his advice matters as much as the second. He does not tell people to accept every disadvantage. He says to remove the ones that are fixable first.

The sequence matters. Learn what you can learn. Correct what you can correct. Change what is within reach. Then, when something remains outside your control, stop treating it as a personal failure.

This is perhaps the most relatable part of the quote. Life rarely gives people complete control. It gives them partial control, mixed with uncertainty, other people's decisions and unexpected events.

Munger's answer is not to pretend otherwise.

Charlie Munger's Lasting Lesson

Munger died on November 28, 2023, at the age of 99. By then, he was widely known as Warren Buffett's longtime partner and as one of the central thinkers behind Berkshire Hathaway's approach to business and investing.

His most lasting ideas were not limited to stock selection. He spoke about human behavior, judgment, ignorance, incentives and the importance of correcting one's own thinking.

That is why this particular quote continues to feel relevant. It does not promise that every problem has a solution. It does not pretend that effort can overcome every circumstance.

Instead, it asks for something more practical.

Know the difference.

If the weakness can be fixed, work on it. If the situation cannot be changed, learn how to live with it without allowing it to consume all your attention.

For Munger, good judgment often began with seeing reality clearly. Sometimes that meant changing course. Sometimes it meant admitting a limitation. And sometimes it meant accepting that the best available answer was simply to endure.