Kaufman Mentorship Opportunity

A story about how Ryan Petersen met Charlie Munger through a chance encounter with Peter Kaufman at a party.

"I was at a party at one of my investors' houses and I was talking to this older guy - neither of us knew anybody at this party. He asked me what my favorite book was, and I started talking about Poor Charlie's Almanac. I told him why it was my favorite and shared the story about worldly wisdom, how I was living in China, was bored out of my mind, and bought all these books and started reading for hours every day.

He let me talk for a long time before he said, 'Yeah, I know that book really well. I wrote that book.' Turned out the guy I was talking to was Peter Kaufman, who wrote Poor Charlie's Almanac and was one of Charlie Munger's best friends.

He got such a kick out of me telling him how great his book was that he brought me to Charlie's house for dinner. I ended up going many times, became friends with several of Charlie's friends, and got invited to lots of dinners. When I first told Charlie about what Flexport does, he said, 'That's great, you have a great business because the key to success is dumb competition.' He started ranting about all his experience working with freight companies."