Life will have terrible blows, horrible blows, unfair blows. It doesn’t matter. And some people recover and some don’t.- Charlie Munger.

The year was 1949. A young 25-year-old lawyer named Charlie Munger was beginning to make his way in the competitive legal world. With great enthusiasm, he accepted a job at the prestigious law firm Wright & Garrett, with a salary of $3,300 a year. Charlie had $1,500 in savings in the bank, money he had collected penny by penny. The future at that time looked bright.

But just a few years later, his perfect world was beginning to fall apart. When Charlie was 29, his marriage to his wife since he was 21 came to an end in the worst way: in a torturous divorce that left him broke. He lost the family home in South Pasadena and all of his assets. He had to move in terrible conditions to the Pasadena University club and drive a hideous yellow Pontiac, with paint so horrible that his own children were ashamed. “Dad, this car is a mess, why are you driving it?” his daughter Molly asked him, incredulous. The now very poor Charlie only managed to respond: “To avoid gold diggers.”

But the worst was yet to come. Shortly after the divorce, his 9-year-old son Teddy was diagnosed with leukemia. At that time, medical insurance did not exist like today; so most of the expense came out of pocket. Worse still, the mortality rate from the disease was around 100%. There was nothing the doctors could do. Heartbroken, Charlie went to the hospital every day to hug his son, and then wander the streets of Pasadena crying. A year after the diagnosis, in 1955, Teddy died. Charlie had hit rock bottom: at 31, he was divorced, broke and burying his son.

But life still had more tests in store for him. Years later, a horrible operation occurred that left him blind in one eye, with pain so unbearable that it finally had to be removed. It seemed that tragedy and suffering followed him.

However, despite all adversity, Charlie managed to overcome. With tenacity and discipline, he made his way in the business world. Before he turned 70, he had become one of the 400 richest men in the world. He had been happily married to his second wife for 35 years. He had eight wonderful children and countless grandchildren. And above all, he had earned a place as one of the most respected thinkers and businessmen in history.

Charlie Munger’s life was a roller coaster, full of immense challenges but also marked by great triumphs. Behind every chapter of his life is an inspiring lesson that Charlie bequeaths us with strength and clarity: never give up, no matter what storms hit our path.

If Charlie Munger didn’t quit when he was divorced, broke, and burying his 9-year-old son, the truth is that most of us have no excuse to simply not move on, no matter what difficulties we have.

As he said: “Life will have terrible blows, horrible blows, unfair blows. It doesn’t matter. And some people recover and others don’t. And here I think Epictetus’s attitude is the best. He thought that every setback in life was a opportunity to behave well. Every setback in life was an opportunity to learn something and your duty was not to wallow in self-pity, but to use the terrible blow constructively.”

I can’t imagine a better beginning to live life.