I couldn’t have given her $200 million worth of Berkshire Hathaway stock when I bought the business because she doesn’t understand stock. She understands cash. She understands furniture. She understands real estate. She doesn’t understand stocks, so she doesn’t have anything to do with them. If you deal with Mrs. B in what I would call her circle of competence… She is going to buy 5,000 end tables this afternoon (if the price is right). She is going to buy 20 different carpets in odd lots, and everything else like that [snaps fingers] because she understands carpet. She wouldn’t buy 100 shares of General Motors if it was at 50 cents a share.

　　我买她的公司的时候，不能给她价值2亿美金的伯克希尔·哈撒韦公司的股票，因为她不懂股票。她懂现金。她懂家具。她懂房地产。她不懂股票，所以她和股票没有任何的关系。B太太的能力圈是什么？... 如果价格合适，她今天下午会买5000个茶几。她会零零碎碎的买20个不同的地毯，和其他所有类似的东西（都是瞬间的事情）因为她了解地毯。她不会买100股通用汽车公司股票，哪怕它是50美分一股。

　　It did not hurt Mrs. B to have such a narrow area of competence. In fact, one could argue the opposite. Her rigid devotion to that area allowed her to focus. Only with that focus could she have overcome her handicaps to achieve such extreme success.

　　对B太太而言，atv，拥有这么狭窄的能力圈丝毫没有伤害。事实上，人们可以得出相反的结论。她对那个领域看似死板的投入让她可以集中精力。只有那么的专注，她才可以克服自己的短板，实现如此非凡成就。

　　In fact, Charlie Munger takes this concept outside of business altogether and into the realm of life in general. The essential question he sought to answer: Where should we devote our limited time in life, in order to achieve the most success? Charlie’s simple preion:

　　事实上，查理·芒格把这个概念带到了企业之外，运用到生活的一般情况。他希望回答的关键问题是：我们应该把我们生命有限的时间花在什么地方，才能实现最大的成功？查理有一个简单的处方：

　　You have to figure out what your own aptitudes are. If you play games where other people have the aptitudes and you don’t, you’re going to lose. And that’s as close to certain as any prediction that you can make. You have to figure out where you’ve got an edge. And you’ve got to play within your own circle of competence.

　　你必须弄清楚自己的才能是什么。如果你玩游戏，其他人拥有才能，而你不具备，你肯定会输。这种预测基本确定无疑。你必须找到你有优势的地方。然后，你在你的能力圈里面发挥。

　　If you want to be the best tennis player in the world, you may start out trying and soon find out that it’s hopeless—that other people blow right by you. However, if you want to become the best plumbing contractor in Bemidji, that is probably doable by two-thirds of you. It takes a will. It takes the intelligence. But after a while, you’d gradually know all about the plumbing business in Bemidji and master the art. That is an attainable objective, given enough discipline. And people who could never win a chess tournament or stand in center court in a respectable tennis tournament can rise quite high in life by slowly developing a circle of competence—which results partly from what they were born with and partly from what they slowly develop through work.

　　如果你想成为世界上最好的网球选手，你不用多试就会很快发现，这是毫无希望的——其他人轻而易举灭了你。但是，如果你想成为Bemidji地区最好的管道承包商，对你们当中三分之二的人都是可行的。它需要有意志。也需要智慧。但是，一段时间后，你就会渐渐地知道所有关于Bemidji地区管道生意的事情并掌握这个艺术。只要有足够的纪律，这是一个可以实现的目标。普通人，即使从来没赢过一场国际象棋比赛，或站在一个体面的网球比赛的球场中央过，也可以通过慢慢的发展自己的能力圈，使自己在人生中达到相当的高度——能力圈部分来自与生俱来的天赋，部分来自后天通过工作发展起来的知识。