[The following is an excerpt from our Q1 2026 client letter. Read the full newsletter here https://greenskeeper.ca/scorecard-newsletter/]

Berkshire Hathaway and Mr. Market

A feature article in this weekend’s Barron’s captured the current market sentiment and the disconnect regarding our largest holding—Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A/B).

The stock has declined 7% year-to-date and underperformed the S&P 500 by 40% over the past year. This marks one of the worst periods of relative performance in its history. We view Berkshire as fundamentally undervalued. Management appears to share our conviction, having resumed share buybacks last month. With its $370 billion cash pile, we suspect that it will continue to retire shares. The lower the price, the more aggressively they will act and capture value for long-term shareholders.

Fellow Canadian Greg Abel is now in charge. No successor to Buffett can ever hope to replicate his stock-picking genius. But we believe Greg brings a distinct set of strengths to the CEO role. Greg is hands-on, detail-oriented, and—crucially—willing to engage in the operational friction necessary to drive efficiency. Unlike the hands-off approach of the past, we believe Abel will hold subsidiary management teams to a higher standard of accountability, driving margin expansion across Berkshire’s diverse operations.

Berkshire Hathaway is positioned to grow operating earnings at a high-single-digit clip for decades. It possesses a fortress balance sheet and a collection of businesses largely insulated from AI-driven disruption. Yet, “Mr. Market” currently remains indifferent, favouring speculative AI narratives over proven cash flow.

Berkshire may not be “sexy,” but it is a rock-solid compounder. We expect the tide to turn as valuations eventually reconnect with reality. When it does, our discipline and patience will be rewarded.

The Internet bombards us daily with snapshots of people living their best lives. How did they get there? More importantly, how can we do the same? Much like value investing, the formula for success is simple, but not easy.

About 8 months ago, a glance in the mirror starkly revealed the loss of muscle mass that had been slowly accumulating in my 56-year-old frame. I have always been active, primarily cycling, but those skinny arms staring back at me suddenly made me aware of the natural ravages of time.

So I decided to go to the gym and incorporate weight training into my weekly routine, something that I had not done for 40 years.

I’m fairly bookish, so I thought I would share what I have learned about incorporating change and forming new habits. This formula for success doesn’t work for just fitness; it can be applied to almost anything you want to accomplish.

Define Your First Principles

Start with first principles. What is success? In my view, success means figuring out exactly what you want and then getting it. It is entirely subjective.

Take the time to thoughtfully figure out what you want to accomplish—be it a career milestone, a fitness goal, or financial independence.

For my grandparents, success meant providing their children and grandchildren with a better life by escaping the destruction and poverty caused by World War II and immigrating to Canada. Mission accomplished, Nonna and Nono. ❤️🙏

Whatever your goal, ensure it is genuinely worthwhile. I share Naval Ravikant’s view, that a goal should be driven by intrinsic factors, not the need for external validation. I suspect those pursuing extreme physical modifications via “looksmaxxing” will one day regret the health risks taken for a reward—attention—that is both shallow and fleeting.

My fitness goal is to increase muscle mass and strength, avoid injury, and improve my mobility and health as I approach my later years. Not for posting my workouts or physique on social media.

Clone Success

Next, study the paths of those who have already achieved what you want. A single $20 book can often reveal how they got there and detail mistakes you can avoid repeating.

The books I’ve shared above are just a few I have found invaluable. For example, James Clear’s Atomic Habits taught me to start ridiculously slow and stay consistent until the habit becomes ingrained before increasing intensity. I also learned that setting up your environment correctly beats relying on willpower. Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius’s private journal Meditations, taught me to constantly work on strengthening my mind (the “inner citadel”) to face life’s inevitable challenges.

Belief

Having a plan is one thing, believing that you can make it happen is another. Self-confidence and belief aren’t innate qualities. I certainly didn’t have them as a child or teenager. But they can be nurtured and built over time with effort.

I choose to approach life with a growth mindset. I genuinely believe that I can accomplish almost anything I put my mind to. I exert agency over my environment and reject the defeatist, fixed-mindset attitude that abilities are innate, static traits that cannot be changed. A winning attitude goes a long way in life.

The Work

The final step is where reality sets in: putting in the work. Like most New Year’s resolutions, this is where most dreams die.

Almost any worthwhile goal involves toil, sacrifice, pain, monotony, and deferred gratification. In fact, I believe that it is the struggle itself that gives a goal its meaning.

Humans are naturally hard-wired to conserve energy and avoid discomfort. But remember, just like steel forged in fire, muscle is only built by repeatedly pushing the body to its limits.

Motivation is Optional

Personal growth isn’t glamorous day-to-day. It is often unpleasant, and on many days, you will not feel motivated. This is an unavoidable part of the process. There is no shortcut, no “hack”, which is why most people fall short.

Getting back in the gym isn’t fun. At first, you feel like an idiot as you don’t know the proper technique, lack a routine, and can’t lift much weight. But after months of YouTube videos, Gemini chat sessions, and pushing weight, my routine emerged, my technique improved, and that intimidation faded. The new habit has started to take hold, but the unpleasantness of resistance training persists. I still don’t like gym days.

Motivation is a fleeting state; discipline is a practice. The truly successful keep putting in the work, even when they don’t feel like it. This internal battle is where the difference between success and failure lies.

Successful people have trained their minds to ignore the excuses their brains constantly serve up, urging them to take the easy way out. They’ve built the habits needed to win that internal battle, day in and day out.

“I don't stop when I'm tired. I stop when I'm done.”

― David Goggins, Can’t Hurt Me

For me, I find inspiration in books like Angela Duckworth’s Grit and David Goggins’ remarkable transformation as told in Can’t Hurt Me. When I need an extra push, I turn to videos I have curated that inspire me. I’ve shared a few of my favourites below.

Successful people develop the necessary resiliency needed to weather inevitable setbacks and failures. They have built the grit required to simply keep going.

Patiently Compound

My strength-training goal was to build muscle and improve strength. Not being able to lift a certain amount of weight by a certain date. In fact, I have no set goals on either front. I focus on the process, not the outcome.

I simply strive to get a little better each day. A few more reps. Some additional weight. Small gains usually aren’t noticeable over a week or a month, but over time, they compound into a visible transformation. My sagging pants are an early sign that things are starting to change.

It is this compounding effect that actually gets posted on social media—the end goal, the “overnight” success. You don’t see the years of daily grind it took to get there.

The Bottom Line

The path to success for any goal is clear:

1. Decide what you want.

2. Figure out what you need to do to get it.

3. Believe that you can do it.

4. Do it.

This formula is available to anyone who wants something badly enough to pay the price. If you’ve read this far, it suggests to me you have the focus necessary to take on your challenge and achieve what you desire.

Short Videos That Fire Me Up

NSFW warning: many contain extremely foul language:

David Goggins:

• It’s You Against You

• The Mental Lab

• I Hate It, But I Do It Like I Love It

• I Fail, I Fail, I Fail, I Succeed

Shaolin Master Shi Heng Yi:

• Do Not Give Up

Joe Rogan:

• Almost All Successful People Go Through Hell

Nick Saban:

• Discipline

• What You Are Willing to Do to Get It

Motivational Montages:

• The Price of Progress is Pain

• Daily Progress is Invisible

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These weren’t just enjoyable reads. Each one sharpened how I think about decision-making, human behaviour, risk, and the world we’re collectively building.

[Look for my bonus pick at the end].

1) The Selfish Gene —

Published in 1976, yet it feels startlingly modern. Evolutionary mental models help explain altruism, tribalism, aggression, and war—essentially, the human animal in context. An unforgettable insight: the book coined the term meme, framing culture as an accelerator of evolution. Genes fade in generations. Ideas can outlive us.

2) Clear Thinking — Shane Parrish

I’ve long been a fan (and subscriber) of the Farnam Street blog and Shane Parrish and this book delivered. At its core: understanding how we make decisions, where we fool ourselves, and how to remove friction from good outcomes.

Practical, accessible, and immediately useful.

3) No Shortcuts to the Top — Ed Viesturs

On the surface, it’s about mountaineering. In reality, it’s a masterclass in risk management and resisting herd mentality. Ed Viesturs summited all 14 eight-thousanders without supplemental oxygen—and turned back multiple times, even steps from the top.

A reminder that discipline often matters more than ambition.

4) How Minds Change —

A modern companion to Cialdini’s Influence. In a post-fact world, rational arguments rarely change beliefs—and you can’t force someone else to change their mind. What does work? Trust, psychological safety, and helping people reflect for themselves. The discussion on assimilation vs. accommodation explains why we default to: “I might be wrong… but probably not.”

P.S. The “strawberry illusion” alone is worth the read 🍓

5) Sandworm — Andy Greenberg

Part thriller, part warning. A chilling look at state-sponsored cyber warfare and attacks that cross from digital into physical infrastructure. The takeaway: we’re living through a shift in warfare as consequential as the dawn of the nuclear age—just less visible.

Bonus Pick: The Almanack of Naval Ravikant — Eric Jorgenson

A short book with long-term returns.

This one blends Stoicism, Munger-style thinking, science, and business into timeless mental models.

If you’re looking for books that upgrade your mental models rather than just your bookshelf, these are all worth your time.

For more of my favourites, visit our bookshelf. I would love to hear what stood out for you this year!

WSJ: The Untold Story of Charlie Munger’s Final Years

If you want to build unshakeable mental toughness, this book is a great introduction to Stoic philosophy. Suggested further reading can be found in my essay: The Stoic Investor

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For [Michel de Montaigne], books are not like men, who impose themselves and burden him with their chatter, and of whom it is hard to be rid. When you don’t call for them they say put;

Books offer him their opinion and he responds with his own… They do not disturb him when he is silent; they only speak when he questions them. Here is his realm.

Stefan Zweig — Montaigne

h/t to for recommending this wonderfully obscure biography.

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[The following is an excerpt from our Q3 2025 client letter.]

As bottom-up investors, we typically focus on fundamentals rather than macroeconomics. Yet, with the global economic order strained by trade wars and a rising tide of nationalism, we find ourselves turning to history to grasp the long-term implications.

Human progress is the story of Enlightenment values—reason, liberty, and science—unleashed by capitalism. The system’s genius lies in its ability to unlock human potential, empowering individuals to pursue their ambitions and capitalize on their unique talents.

When people are free to invent, invest, and spend in their own self-interest, they create powerful market signals. Billions of individual decisions determine what gets made and what fades away. This process mirrors biological evolution: useful innovations reward their creators, displace inferior alternatives, and propel society forward. It is the invisible hand and creative destruction working in tandem.

For millennia, humanity endured a grueling existence rooted in subsistence farming. The Industrial Revolution, fueled by scientific discovery and cumulative knowledge, marked the inflection point. An explosion of ingenuity has since given us everything from the steam engine to artificial intelligence. The result? The average person today enjoys a quality of life unimaginable to even the wealthiest robber baron of the Gilded Age.

China’s modern economic miracle was born from catastrophe. After decades of famine and stagnation under a failed ideology, Deng Xiaoping’s free-market reforms in the late 1970s unleashed a wave of prosperity that has lifted over 800 million people from extreme poverty—an unprecedented achievement in reducing human suffering.

For capitalism to truly work its magic, certain conditions need to be in place. First, the rule of law (the protection of private property rights and the equal application of the law) is required to create a stable environment for businesses and individuals. When the rules of the game are constantly changing or are dictated by government fiat, capital remains unspent and migrates to where it is welcomed. Had China’s reforms gone further to include the rule of law, its economic miracle would have been even more impressive.

Another essential ingredient is the freedom to innovate and fail. Governments should avoid the temptation to pick winners and interfere with market signals. Governments serve their citizens’ interests best when they focus on addressing market shortcomings through regulation, taxation, redistribution, and matters of national security or common good (e.g., infrastructure, education).

When governments abandon this role in favour of heavy-handed intervention, it results in inefficiency, misallocated resources, and slower growth. Europe, with its dirigiste policies, has perfected this model. It may be surprising to learn that the average European is less prosperous than the average resident of Mississippi, America’s poorest state. As you can see in the graphic (above right) ⁽³⁾, on this metric, Canada doesn’t fare much better.

State-directed economies are corrosive for a more fundamental reason: they breed a culture of corruption. When success depends on political favour rather than merit, private interests inevitably seek to bribe and influence those in power. This tragic satellite image of the Korean Peninsula at night illustrates what works and what doesn’t.

The people of these two sister nations share the same heritage and potential. Yet their fates could not be more different. One nation embraced a market system that allowed its citizens to flourish. The other is controlled by a despotic family that sacrifices its people’s well-being to maintain its grip on power, plunging an entire country into literal and figurative darkness.

Capitalism’s power is unlocked through specialization and comparative advantage, which requires the free trade of goods and services. While this system lowers costs for everyone, it inevitably creates winners and losers. This is the inherent social contract of free trade: to remain politically viable, the immense value it creates must be shared, by supporting the displaced through redistribution and retraining. If that social contract is broken, demagogues will harness the resulting frustration to seize power and wealth for themselves and their cronies.

The case for free trade, however, extends beyond prosperity. Critics who attack it are dismantling more than just an engine of wealth; they are undermining a powerful force for peace. When nations trade, their economies become intertwined, dramatically raising the cost of war. After centuries of bloodshed, Europe—the central battleground for two world wars—was rebuilt on this very principle. The economic integration that created the European Union has resulted in the longest period of sustained peace in the continent’s modern history.

With the last world war having faded from living memory, we risk forgetting that conflict is innate to every species, including our own. Centuries of warfare offer a clear lesson: the surest path to peace is shared prosperity, built on trade. Those who fail to learn from the past are doomed to repeat it.

Equally concerning is the renewed appeal of socialism, particularly among younger generations grappling with economic insecurity (higher unemployment, housing affordability). We want to introduce them to our friends Bogumil and Vitaliy, who grew up behind the Iron Curtain and now live in America. They both lived through the privations of the Soviet Union and are aghast at the romanticization of their former lives. While we are sympathetic to young people’s frustrations, history has delivered a clear verdict on this debate. To paraphrase Sir Winston Churchill:

Capitalism is the worst form of economic system except for all those other forms that have been tried. — GreensKeeper

One of Democracy’s advantages is its self-correcting mechanism: every few years, citizens can peacefully vote out their leaders when a change is needed. Autocracy, in addition to violating a fundamental law of nature—the universal desire for freedom— is a high-stakes economic gamble. It may occasionally produce a philosopher-king like Marcus Aurelius, but it offers no safety valve when a tyrant like Caligula holds rule. Free and fair elections by an informed citizenry are an important element in the story of human progress.

Yet the liberal world order, which has produced unprecedented prosperity since World War II, is starting to fray. We are witnessing a rising tide of nationalist governments run by strongmen spouting anti-immigrant and racist rhetoric. There is also an increasing tendency for Western governments to embrace state industrial policy.

Despite capitalism’s shortcomings—including the need to address income inequality through taxation and redistribution—there is no viable alternative if we wish to continue on the path of human progress. One must first create wealth before discussing how to redistribute it.

Postscript: For those not yet persuaded, just this morning, the 2025 Nobel Prize in Economics was awarded to three economists for their work explaining how innovation, free trade, and creative destruction drive economic growth.

The laureates’ work has stressed the importance of science-based innovation and a willingness to accept change, even when it has some negative consequences for particular businesses or groups of workers. We should not take progress for granted.

— Nobel Committee for the Prize in Economics

Oh Canada

Closer to home, there has been a clear and accelerating divergence of the Canadian economy from that of our larger neighbour to the south. Canadians and Americans are equally talented and educated. But through a series of poor policy choices (interprovincial trade barriers, excessive immigration), we are stifling our country’s potential. We would also argue that Canada’s protectionist attitude has played a part.

Canada is the land of oligopolies (banking, telecom, airlines, supermarkets) and quotas (dairy, poultry). Our experience trying to move US currency between two Canadian banks this past week was comically painful. Protected industries in Canada are not just trade irritants to our trading partners; they are bad for Canadians. Industry concentration and protectionist measures hurt every Canadian, especially the poor, who pay disproportionately more for basic goods when filling up their shopping baskets.

This retreat into protectionism betrays our own legacy. We are a nation of innovators who gave the world the telephone, insulin, and basketball. We are an educated, peaceful country blessed with abundant resources and favorable geography. Canada’s national balance sheet is in great shape due to decades of fiscal discipline. Government policy should be driven by the courage of what Canada has to offer the world, not by a fear of competition.

While Canada must always stand firm against unfair treatment from any nation, our default stance should be one of openness. We shouldn’t fear a level playing field; we should compete on it, confident in our ability to export Canadian goods and services to the rest of the world.

Let’s encourage the government to get out of the business of running the economy and back to its central role: ensuring the rules are transparent, fair, and applied equally to everyone. It’s time to dismantle the barriers and protectionist policies that shield politically connected industries at the expense of everyone else. When other nations mistreat us, we must respond decisively. Otherwise, we should let the prosperity engine work its magic.

Embracing capitalism’s creative destruction improves our lot. But it does create dislocations, winners and losers. A just society should also be measured by how well it treats its less fortunate. We think that Canada deserves high marks on this front.

Canada gets many things right, and we are proud and blessed to live in this wonderful country. By making a few astute policy changes—choosing courage over fear and competition over protectionism—we can unlock an even brighter future for all Canadians.

Happy Thanksgiving!