Patrick Stowe

You woke up today. Most people rush past that like it’s nothing. Before the stress, the bills, the noise, and the problems, there was already a gift. Another day. Another breath. Another chance to live better than yesterday. Don’t miss the miracle because you’re busy counting the burdens.

Trump going from Venezuela to Iran is basically like me trading. Venezuela? Perfect setup, worked but I sized too small. Next trade? I am euphoric, I go 10x size on a shitty setup: Iran. It goes wrong. But I am trapped, keep adding size and blame the market for being wrong.

Kinda crazy in 2026 you still see people wearing Covid masks. And when you do you know all their life views, political views, and they their entire body is riddled with mental illness from head to toe.

"As long as new investors keep coming, the Ponzi scheme won't unravel" - Bernie Madoff, maybe

A good rule of thumb for your life is to imagine one of your close friends or siblings in the situation that you are in What would you tell them to do? What would be the “obvious“ decision to make? Sometimes we need to step outside of the situation, even if just mentally, in order to see more clearly. We tend to make decisions for ourselves because of emotional attachments that we would think utterly foolish if we were observing it in another This speaks to the larger principle of forgiving in ourselves what we would judge in another, you must ensure that you’re taking a Birdseye view of what’s going on as well as an honest appraisal about your own actions at all times This is the only way to act clearly and not get stuck in traps or loops that keep you stagnant

I'm disgusted by the United States government after this Epstein Files drop. Sickened. We pay taxes to elite sexual degenerates and work as their slave laborers to help keep them rich and powerful. We need a hard restart. They're all pedophiles. Nobody is coming to save us.

“The Epstein Files are a democrat Hoax.” Trump is such a piece of shit for gaslighting us to protect pedophiles

🚨 Here is the full 42 minutes of my crew and I exposing Minnesota fraud, this might be my most important work yet. We uncovered over $110,000,000 in ONE day. Like it and share it around like wildfire! Its time to hold these corrupt politicians and fraudsters accountable We ALL work way too hard and pay too much in taxes for this to be happening, the fraud must be stopped.

Gratitude changes everything. It shifts you from, “Why don’t I have more?” to, “Wow… look at what I’ve been given.” Suddenly: • Stress lowers • Relationships deepen • Sleep improves • Joy returns You don’t need a new life. You need a new lens; gratitude.

“Decide what you would like your obituary to say and live the life to deserve it. Greatness does not come about through accumulating great amounts of money, great amounts of publicity or great power in government. When you help someone in any of thousands of ways, you help the world.” Great read in its entirety from Warren Buffett today, as both he and Berkshire prepare for the inevitable: “To My Fellow Shareholders: I will no longer be writing Berkshire’s annual report or talking endlessly at the annual meeting. As the British would say, I’m “going quiet.” Sort of. Greg Abel will become the boss at yearend. He is a great manager, a tireless worker and an honest communicator. Wish him an extended tenure. I will continue talking to you and my children about Berkshire via my annual Thanksgiving message. Berkshire’s individual shareholders are a very special group who are unusually generous in sharing their gains with others less fortunate. I enjoy the chance to keep in touch with you. Indulge me this year as I first reminisce a bit. After that, I will discuss the plans for distribution of my Berkshire shares. Finally, I will offer a few business and personal observations. As Thanksgiving approaches, I’m grateful and surprised by my luck in being alive at 95. When I was young, this outcome did not look like a good bet. Early on, I nearly died. It was 1938 and Omaha hospitals were then thought of by its citizens as either Catholic or Protestant, a classification that seemed natural at the time. Our family doctor, Harley Hotz, was a friendly Catholic who made house calls toting a black bag. Dr. Hotz called me Skipper and never charged much for his visits. When I experienced a bad bellyache in 1938, Dr. Hotz came by and, after probing a bit, told me I would be OK in the morning. He then went home, had dinner and played a little bridge. Dr. Hotz couldn’t, however, get my somewhat peculiar symptoms out of his mind and later that night he dispatched me to St. Catherine’s Hospital for an emergency appendectomy. During the next three weeks, I felt like I was in a nunnery, and began enjoying my new “podium.” I liked to talk – yes, even then – and the nuns embraced me. To top things off, Miss Madsen, my third-grade teacher, told my 30 classmates to each write me a letter. I probably threw away the letters from the boys but read and reread those from the girls; hospitalization had its rewards. The highlight of my recovery – which actually was dicey for much of the first week – was a gift from my wonderful Aunt Edie. She brought me a very professional-looking fingerprinting set, and I promptly fingerprinted all of my attending nuns. My theory – totally nutty, of course – was that someday a nun would go bad and the FBI would find that they had neglected to fingerprint nuns. The FBI and its director, J. Edgar Hoover, had become revered by Americans in the 1930s, and I envisioned Mr. Hoover, himself, coming to Omaha to inspect my invaluable collection. I further fantasized that J. Edgar and I would quickly identify and apprehend the wayward nun. National fame seemed certain. Obviously, my fantasy never materialized. But, ironically, some years later it became clear that I should have fingerprinted J. Edgar himself as he became disgraced for misusing his post. Well, that was Omaha in the 1930s, when a sled, a bicycle, a baseball glove and an electric train were coveted by me and my friends. Let’s look at a few other kids from that era, who grew up very nearby and greatly influenced my life but of whom I was for long unaware. I’ll begin with Charlie Munger, my best pal for 64 years. In the 1930s, Charlie lived a block away from the house I have owned and occupied since 1958. Early on, I missed befriending Charlie by a whisker. Charlie, 6 ⅔ years older than I, worked in the summer of 1940 at my grandfather’s grocery store, earning $2 for a 10-hour day. The following year I did similar work at the store, but I never met Charlie until 1959 when he was 35 and I was 28. After serving in World War II, Charlie graduated from Harvard Law and then moved permanently to California. Charlie, however, forever talked of his early years in Omaha as formative. For more than 60 years, Charlie had a huge impact on me and could not have been a better teacher and protective “big brother.” We had differences but never had an argument. “I told you so” was not in his vocabulary. In 1958, I bought my first and only home. Of course, it was in Omaha, located about two miles from where I grew up, less than two blocks from my in-laws, about six blocks from the Buffett grocery store and a 6-7-minute drive from the office building where I have worked for 64 years. Let’s move on to another Omahan, Stan Lipsey. Stan sold the Omaha Sun Newspapers to Berkshire in 1968 and a decade later moved to Buffalo at my request. The Buffalo Evening News, owned by a Berkshire affiliate, was then locked in a battle to the death with its morning competitor who published Buffalo’s only Sunday paper. And we were losing. Stan eventually built our new Sunday product, and for some years our paper earned over 100% annually on our $33 million investment. This was important money to Berkshire in the early 1980s. Stan grew up about five blocks from my home. One of Stan’s neighbors was Walter Scott, Jr. Walter, you will remember, brought MidAmerican Energy to Berkshire in 1999. He was also a valued Berkshire director until his death in 2021 and a very close friend. Walter was Nebraska’s philanthropic leader for decades and both Omaha and the state carries his imprint. Walter attended Benson High School, which I was scheduled to attend as well – until my dad surprised everyone in 1942 by beating a four-term incumbent in a Congressional race. Life is full of surprises. In 1959, Don Keough and his young family lived in a home located directly across the street from my house and about 100 yards away from where the Munger family had lived. Don was then a coffee salesman but was destined to become president of Coca-Cola as well as a devoted director of Berkshire. When I met Don, he was earning $12,000 a year while he and his wife Mickie were raising five children, all destined for Catholic schools. Our families became fast friends. In 1985, when Don was president of Coke, the company launched its ill-fated New Coke. Don made a famous speech in which he apologized to the public and reinstated “Old” Coke. Sales subsequently soared. Finally, Ajit Jain, born and raised in India, as well as Greg Abel, our Canadian CEO-to-be, each lived in Omaha for several years late in the 20th Century. Indeed, in the 1990s, Greg lived only a few blocks away from me on Farnam Street, though we never met at the time. Can it be that there is some magic ingredient in Omaha’s water? I lived a few teenage years in Washington, DC (when my dad was in Congress) and in 1954 I took what I thought would be a permanent job in Manhattan. There I was treated wonderfully by Ben Graham and Jerry Newman and made many life-long friends. New York had unique assets – and still does. Nevertheless, in 1956, after only 1½ years, I returned to Omaha, never to wander again. Subsequently, my three children, as well as several grandchildren, were raised in Omaha. My children always attended public schools (graduating from the same high school that educated my dad, my first wife Susie, as well as Charlie, Stan Lipsey, Irv and Ron Blumkin, and Jack Ringwalt, who founded National Indemnity and sold it to Berkshire in 1967 where it became the base upon which our huge P/C operation was constructed). Our country has many great companies, great schools, great medical facilities and each definitely has its own special advantages along with talented people. But I feel very lucky to have had the good fortune to make many lifelong friends, to meet both of my wives, to receive a great start in education at public schools, to meet many interesting and friendly adult Omahans when I was very young, and to make a wide variety of friends in the Nebraska National Guard. In short, Nebraska has been home. Looking back I feel that both Berkshire and I did better because of our base in Omaha than if I had resided anywhere else. Through dumb luck, I drew a ridiculously long straw at birth. Now let’s move on to my advanced age. My genes haven’t been particularly helpful – the family’s all-time record for longevity was 92 until I came along. But I have had wise, friendly and dedicated Omaha doctors, starting with Harley Hotz, and continuing to this day. At least three times, my life has been saved, each with doctors based within a few miles from my home. (I have given up fingerprinting nurses, however.) Those who reach old age need a huge dose of good luck, daily escaping banana peels, natural disasters, drunk or distracted drivers, lightning strikes, you name it. But Lady Luck is fickle and wildly unfair. In many cases, our leaders and the rich have received far more than their share of luck. Dynastic inheritors have achieved lifetime financial independence the moment they emerged from the womb, while others have arrived facing a hell-hole during early life or worse. I was born in 1930 healthy, reasonably intelligent, white, male and in America. Wow. Thank you, Lady Luck. Father Time, to the contrary, now finds me more interesting as I age. And he is undefeated. I was late in becoming old – its onset materially varies – but once it appears, it is not to be denied. To my surprise, I generally feel good. Though I move slowly and read with increasing difficulty, I am at the office five days a week where I work with wonderful people. My unexpected longevity, however, has unavoidable consequences of major importance to my family and the achievement of my charitable objectives. Let’s explore them. What Comes Next My children are all above normal retirement age, having reached 72, 70 and 67. To improve the probability that they will dispose of what will essentially be my entire estate before alternate trustees replace them, I need to step up the pace of lifetime gifts to their three foundations. I would like to keep a significant amount of A shares until Berkshire shareholders develop the comfort with Greg that Charlie and I long enjoyed. All three children now have the maturity, brains, energy and instincts to disburse a large fortune. All three children received a dominant dosage of their genes from their mother. The acceleration of my lifetime gifts to my children’s foundations in no way reflects any change in my views about Berkshire’s prospects. Greg Abel has more than met the high expectations I had for him when I first thought he should be Berkshire’s next CEO. Berkshire has less chance of a devastating disaster than any business I know. And Berkshire has a more shareholder-conscious management and board than almost any company with which I am familiar. Our stock price will move capriciously, occasionally falling 50% or so as has happened three times in 60 years under present management. Don’t despair; America will come back and so will Berkshire shares. A Few Final Thoughts I’m happy to say I feel better about the second half of my life than the first. My advice: Don’t beat yourself up over past mistakes – learn at least a little from them and move on. It is never too late to improve. Get the right heroes and copy them. Remember Alfred Nobel, later of Nobel Prize fame, who – reportedly – read his own obituary that was mistakenly printed when his brother died and a newspaper got mixed up. He was horrified at what he read and realized he should change his behavior. Don’t count on a newsroom mix-up: Decide what you would like your obituary to say and live the life to deserve it. Greatness does not come about through accumulating great amounts of money, great amounts of publicity or great power in government. When you help someone in any of thousands of ways, you help the world. Kindness is costless but also priceless. Whether you are religious or not, it’s hard to beat The Golden Rule as a guide to behavior. Keep in mind that the cleaning lady is as much a human being as the Chairman. I wish all who read this a very happy Thanksgiving. Yes, even the jerks; it’s never too late to change. Remember to thank America for maximizing your opportunities. Choose your heroes very carefully and then emulate them. You will never be perfect, but you can always be better.”

Books can teach you wisdom. But only life can reveal it. You don’t grow wise by reading what the wise once said. You grow wise by living what they were trying to explain. Every setback is a mirror. Every “unfair” moment is a lesson. You stop being a victim the moment you realize no one else is steering your life. Your reflection is your teacher. Your choices are the exam. And your response determines your future.

Man being unbothered is such a cheat code Life is so easy when you just decide not to care about things you can't change

One day, you’ll look in the mirror, older, wiser, and wondering how time slipped away so quietly. Your greatest regrets won’t be your failures. They’ll be the chances you never took. Manage your risks. Protect your peace. But take some shots. Because without risk… there is no story worth telling.

It's unbelievable to me that researchers and administrators can just decide not to publish research when it's politically inconvenient and would damage business interests, and nothing happens to them legally, especially when it involves the health and future of our children. If any corporation does internal studies on a product and finds out it's maiming and killing children, and then they bury that study so it can still be released on the market, how can we consider that anything other than assault/manslaughter/murder/etc? We've seen this happen with vaccine and drug research way too many times to count now and no one has ever been held responsible other than a fine that is a measly percent of total profit, so they have no fear of retribution and justice. This fraud will continue to happen until there is a precedent set and people actually go to prison for things like this, or deservedly worse considering the implications and future of the country... It's an inarguable crime against humanity and heads have to roll for it.

It’s insane that people need zero proof to believe a lie, but demand endless proof to accept the truth.

Lutnick’s proposal: - give 600,000 Chinese students spots at all the top universities - push Americans to the back of the list - make Americans take spots at the bottom 15% of schools instead, so they don’t go out of business This is, quite literally, “Americans Last.” You couldn’t screw the American people harder if you tried.

The litmus test is pedophilia guys. Anybody who in any way is defending or covering for elite pedophiles is the enemy. Don’t care your race, religion, or ethnicity. If you are with pedophiles, you are against me.

Time... Is the only currency you spend without ever knowing your remaining balance. Use it wisely.

Calmness is a human superpower. The ability to not overreact or take things personally keeps your mind clear and your heart at peace.