2014年伯克希尔股东会问答：
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Hello, Mr. Buffett, and hello, Mr. Munger. Thank you for being extremely generous with sharing your wisdom. My name is Chander Chawla, and I am visiting from San Francisco.
股东：你好，巴菲特先生，你好，芒格先生。谢谢你如此慷慨地分享你的智慧。我叫Chander Chawla，从旧金山来。
In the past, you have said that people should operate within their circle of competence. My question is, how does one figure out what one’s circle of competence is? (Laughter)过去，您说过人们应该在自己的能力圈内工作。我的问题是，一个人怎么知道自己的能力圈是什么？(笑声)
WARREN BUFFETT: Good question. (Laughs)沃伦·巴菲特: 好问题。(笑)
Some of the people in the audience are identifying with it, I can hear them.观众中有些人对此有同感，我能听到他们的声音。
The — it’s — you know, it is a question of being self-realistic, and that applies outside of business as well.你知道，这是一个自我现实的问题，这也适用于商业之外。
And, I think Charlie and I have been reasonably good at identifying what I would call the perimeter of that circle of competence, but obviously we’ve gone out of it.而且，我认为查理和我在确定我称之为能力圈的周长方面做得相当好，但显然我们已经超出了这个范围。
I would say that in my own case, I’ve gone out of it more often in retail than in any other arena. I think it’s easy to sort of think you understand retail, and then subsequently find out you don’t, as we did with the department store in Baltimore.我想说的是，就我自己而言，我在零售领域比在其他任何领域都更经常地脱离这种模式。我认为人们很容易认为自己了解零售业，但随后发现自己并不了解，就像我们在巴尔的摩的百货公司所做的那样。
You could say I was outside of my circle of competence when I bought Berkshire Hathaway, although I bought it, really, to resell as a stock, originally.你可以说，当我购买伯克希尔哈撒韦公司时，我已经超出了自己的能力范围，尽管我最初购买伯克希尔哈撒韦公司是为了将其作为股票转售。
I probably was out of my circle of competence when I decided that I should go in and buy control of the company. That was a dumb decision — which worked out.当我决定收购公司的控制权时，我可能已经超出了我的能力范围。那是一个愚蠢的决定，但最终成功了。
The — being realistic in appraising your own talents and shortcomings, I think — I don’t know whether that’s innate, but some people seem a whole lot better at it than the others. And I certainly know of a number of CEOs that I feel have no idea of where their circle of competence begins and ends.实事求是地评价自己的才能和缺点，我不知道这是不是天生的，但有些人似乎比其他人更擅长这一点。我当然知道有很多首席执行官，我觉得他们不知道自己能力圈的起点和终点在哪里。
But, we’ve got a number of managers who I think are just terrific at it. I mean, they really know when they’re playing in the game they’re going win in, and they don’t go outside of that game.但是，我们有很多经理，我认为他们在这方面非常出色。我的意思是，他们真的知道当他们在比赛中他们会赢，他们不会离开这个游戏。
The ultimate was Mrs. B, at the Furniture Mart. She told me that she did not want stock, in terms of the Berkshire Hathaway deal. Now, that may sound like it was a bad decision. It was a splendid decision.最终是家具市场的B夫人。她告诉我，她不想在伯克希尔·哈撒韦的交易中要股票。现在，这听起来可能像是一个糟糕的决定。其实这是一个明智的决定。
She did not know anything about stock, but she knew a lot about what to do with cash. She knew real estate, she knew retailing, and she knew exactly what she knew and what she didn’t know, and that took her a long, long, long, long way in business life.她对股票一窍不通，但对如何处理现金却很在行。她了解房地产，她了解零售，她清楚地知道自己知道什么，不知道什么，这让她在商业生涯中走了很长很长很长的路。
And that — that ability to know when you’re playing the game in which you’re going to win, and playing outside of that game, is a huge asset.这种能力——知道什么时候你在游戏中会赢，什么时候在游戏之外玩，是一种巨大的资产。
I can’t tell you the best way to develop a great sense of that about yourself. You might get some of your friends that know you well to offer contributions. Charlie’s given me a few contributions occasionally, saying, “What the hell do you know about that?” That’s one way of putting it, of course. (Laughs)我无法告诉你培养这种自我意识的最好方法。你可能会得到一些熟悉你的朋友的帮助。查理偶尔会给我一些建议，说，“你到底懂什么?”当然，这是一种说法。(笑)
But Charlie, do — can you help him out?查理，你能帮帮他吗?
CHARLIE MUNGER: Well, I don’t think it’s as difficult to figure out competence as it may appear to you. If you’re five-foot-two, you don’t have much of a future in the National Basketball League. And if you’re 95 years of age, you probably shouldn’t try and act the romantic lead part in Hollywood. (Laughter)查理·芒格：嗯，我认为判断能力并不像你想象的那么难。如果你身高五英尺二英寸，你在国家篮球联盟的未来可能不太光明。如果你95岁了，你可能不应该尝试在好莱坞扮演浪漫男主角。（笑声）
And if you weigh 350 pounds, you probably shouldn’t try and dance the lead part in the Bolshoi Ballet. And if you can hardly count cards at all, you probably shouldn’t try and win chess tournaments playing blindfolded, and so on and so on.如果你体重350磅，你可能不应该尝试在莫斯科大剧院芭蕾舞团担任主角。如果你根本不会算牌，你可能就不应该蒙住眼睛去赢得国际象棋比赛，等等。
WARREN BUFFETT: You’re ruling out everything I want to do. (Laughter)沃伦·巴菲特:你排除了我想做的一切。(笑声)
CHARLIE MUNGER: But competency is a relative concept. And what a lot of us need, including the one speaking, is — what I needed to get ahead was to compete against idiots, and luckily there’s a large supply. (Laughter)查理·芒格: 但是能力是一个相对的概念。我们很多人需要的，包括讲话的人，是——我需要的是与白痴竞争，幸运的是，有大量的供应。(笑声)
WARREN BUFFETT: OK, Carol. (Laughter)
关于如何发现自己的能力圈，我们可以看出芒格的思考框架是反过来想，通过排除法来过滤，比如个子不高的人就不适合去NBA，很胖的人不适合去跳芭蕾。
此外，能力圈是一个相对的概念，所以在资本市场上，要去寻找竞争相对弱的地方（比如流动性差，分析师少有涉及的B股），或者自己有竞争优势的领域，不管创业还是投资。
比音勒芬的创始人谢秉政曾在央视的采访中谈到创业之路的选择，他的建议是走小路，因为小路的竞争没那么激烈，就像他曾经选择进军高尔夫服饰领域一样。
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