Born in 1966, on the eve of China’s Cultural Revolution, Li Lu spent his early years moving between peasant and coal-miner families while his parents and grandparents lost their freedom for being intellectuals. From that uncertain beginning, he looks back with amazement at the journey that eventually brought him to America and a life built on gratitude.
Li Lu’s message is simple: show up. Quoting Woody Allen, he reminds readers that “80 percent of success is just showing up.” Perseverance continuing through confusion, setbacks, or wrong turns, has been the key to his progress.
He stresses the importance of self-examination. Drawing on Socrates, he writes that “the unexamined life is not worth living.” Every decade, he reinvents himself, embracing change, rational reflection, and the guidance of honest friends who reveal his blind spots.
At fifty, he turns to Confucius, who said that by this age one should know one’s purpose in life. For Li Lu, that purpose lies in the art of subtraction and focus, simplifying to what truly matters.
Though he jokes that he’ll never excel at ballet or basketball, he feels deeply fortunate to have found his calling in value investing, a path that began by chance when he heard Warren Buffett speak at Columbia nearly 25 years ago, and later met Charlie Munger, who became his mentor and partner. Investing, he says, will be a lifelong pursuit “keeping score after each round of a long game.”
Having lived equally between China and the U.S., Li Lu now sees himself as “100 percent Chinese and 100 percent American.” He hopes to bridge the two cultures and promote understanding and education for the next generation.
As a father, he wants his daughters to inherit not wealth but values: responsibility, curiosity, and compassion.
He closes with a thought on aging, inspired by Norman Lear:
“I’m always the same age as the people I talk to.”
Li Lu’s wish for all of us: “May we grow wiser with age and younger at heart always.”