“Assiduity is the ability to sit on your ass and do nothing until a great opportunities presents itself”

– Charlie Munger

Charlie Munger is Warren Buffett's right-hand-man. Munger is known for his quotable investing wisdom. The above quote talks about not doing anything until a great opportunity presents itself.

Once a great opportunity has presented itself – and you've purchased the stock – what do you do?

The answer is at once incredibly simple and incredibly difficult to follow: Do nothing.

Doing nothing is a core principle of both dividend growth investing and the Buffett-Munger approach to buying high quality businesses trading at fair or better prices.

When you buy a high quality business, all you have to do is sit back and let it compound your wealth. Case in point: the amazing 25-year total returns of these 9 Dividend Aristocrats.

Growth is not linear, even in high quality businesses with strong competitive advantages. There are very few businesses that grow earnings-per-share every year. Johnson & Johnson's (JNJ) streak of 31 years of consecutive earnings increases is an extreme outlier, not the rule.

Most people can agree that Coca-Cola (KO) is a high quality business. The company sells non-alcoholic beverages and has 20 brands that generate over $1 billion a year in sales. Even though the company has a strong and durable competitive advantage in a slow changing industry – it doesn't generate earnings-per-share growth each and every year. Note the facts below:

Coca-Cola is one of streak of 31 years of consecutive earnings increases. Do you think Warren Buffett sold in 2009 or 2014? Of course not. Business results naturally fluctuate. As long as a business keeps its competitive advantage, and keeps rewarding shareholders with dividends, it should not be sold.