Looking for a quote

[racemize]

I'm trying to find a quote that I think Buffett or Munger have said.  It goes something like:

 

"We have generally found that a good relationship tends to consistently surprise on the upside whereas a bad relationship consistently produces problems."

 

Anyone know it?

[Cigarbutt]

I'm trying to find a quote that I think Buffett or Munger have said.  It goes something like:

 

"We have generally found that a good relationship tends to consistently surprise on the upside whereas a bad relationship consistently produces problems."

 

Anyone know it?

 

This could be the beginning of a partial answer to your question:

 

"Fixable but unfixed bad performance is bad character and tends to create more of itself, causing more damage to the excuse giver with each tolerated instance."

---Charlie Munger

"If you surround yourself with people who are better than you are (high-grade people) you will end up behaving more like them, and they, in turn, will get it back from you. It’s like a planetary system. If you hang around with people who behave worse than you, pretty soon you’ll start being pulled in that direction.”

---Warren Buffett

 

Maybe, the quote you're looking for does not really exist and you'll have to create it yourself. :)

[racemize]

I think it is this one, but those two are good too:

 

"The difference between a good business and a bad business is that good businesses throw up one easy decision after another. The bad businesses throw up painful decisions time after time." -Munger

[CorpRaider]

I definitely remember the throwing up cupcakes/easy decisions quote.  Thought about it when you asked, but I didn't have the actual quote handy.

[Cigarbutt]

^A poster just suggested that a conglomerate discount could apply going forward and it made me look back to a report put out by Alice Schroeder in 1999: The Ultimate Conglomerate Discount.

And there was this more complete quote:

"“I’ve heard Warren say since very early in his life that the difference between a good business and a bad business is that a good business throws up one easy decision after another, whereas a bad business gives you horrible choices—decisions that are extremely hard to make...One way to determine which is the good business and which is the bad one is to see which one is throwing management bloopers—pleasant, no-brainer decisions—time after time after time.”—Charles Munger, 1998 Annual Shareholders’ Meeting, as quoted in Outstanding Investor Digest"