Charlie Munger once said he and Warren Buffett weren't interested in emulating Elon Musk: 'We don't want that much failure'

• Charlie Munger once said that Elon Musk "likes taking on the impossible job and doing it."
• Musk runs multiple businesses, including Tesla, SpaceX, and the social media platform X.
• But the late Munger said he and Warren Buffett didn't want to emulate Musk's lifestyle.

Elon Musk may be one of the most influential businessmen around, but investing legend Charlie Munger once said he didn't intend to imitate Musk's lifestyle.

Munger, Warren Buffett's longtime business partner, died at 99 on Tuesday. He offered his views on Musk during Berkshire Hathway's annual meeting in May.

"He likes taking on the impossible job and doing it. We're different. Warren and I are looking for the easy job that we can identify. We have a wholly different way of going about life," Munger said.

"But we don't want to compete with Elon in a lot of things," Buffett added.

"We don't want that much failure," Munger continued.

Musk has built his fortune by disrupting several industries, ranging from manufacturing electric vehicles with Tesla to building reusable rockets with SpaceX.

The billionaire has often talked about his massive ambitions for humanity — he once described his work at SpaceX as being "the key to getting life to be multi-planetary."

"Appreciate the kind words from Warren and Charlie," Musk wrote in response to a video of Buffet's and Munger's comments back in May.

Munger, who passed on Tuesday, played a critical role as Buffett's second-in-command, where he helped to oversee Berkshire Hathaway as its vice-chair.

The late financial titan may have amassed a net worth of nearly $2.3 billion, but he avoided ostentatious displays of wealth. Munger told CNBC in a recent interview that he "decided not to live a life where I look like the Duke of Westchester or something,"

"I didn't think it would be good for the children," said Munger, who has a total of eight children across two marriages.

Representatives for Musk did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider sent outside regular business hours.