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“Mr. Market” might be a manic depressive, but he is an equal opportunity manic depressive. The global market does not care what your name is or who you know. It does not care about ethnicity, religious affiliation, gender, or age.

Warren’s interests are not limited to the market, however. Warren has another rare skill: He is an accomplished gossip. Quality gossip is first-hand information about someone interesting, but the gossip should not be of interest to the authorities such as the Securities and Exchange Commission. It has to be known to enough people that it cannot be easily traced back to you because, if those you gossip about know you are doing it, you will be slightly embarrassed. Yet, it isn’t as if the person you are passing it along to couldn’t have found it out anyway with enough diligent digging.

Warren told me some background about a famous American family—albeit one I did not know personally—and steps they had taken for money. “But surely they didn’t need the money,” I protested in surprise. He paused and his eyes flashed with conspiratorial delight, then he nodded with a knowing smile. As fate would have it, Warren’s gossip earned extra bonus points many months later when I had dealings with the son of the famous patriarch. Now, that is great gossip.

Warren had given me much more value during this meeting than I had given him, but I did not grab the check—he had asked me to lunch. This news will dismay his detractors, who seem to have concluded that because Warren doesn’t spend his money the way they would spend it—feeding their vanity and lording it over the less fortunate—Warren must live like a miser. Yet it seems to me Warren lives a great life while being subject to the same curve balls life throws all of us. He has loyal and happy employees and investors, a loving home life, a stimulating business, and access to anyone on the planet. He has the means to take a private jet to Las Vegas for an afternoon of poker or was able to fly to the bedside of his late wife every weekend during months of chemotherapy treatments. He has created enough wealth to live well and leave a legacy that could make a lasting difference in the lives of many others. He lives his life according to what is most important to him, and he has created the means to do it. Don’t tell his detractors, they will just find someone else to complain about.

As we drove back to the office, Warren reminisced about Rosa Blumkin, whose retail furniture business Berkshire Hathaway had invested in years ago. She was a Russian Jew and evaluated people by sizing up whether or not they would hide her if it ever came to that. Trust was very important to her. I think trust is important, too, but sometimes you have to be the one willing to step up and hide someone else.Warren also mentioned that I should not neglect my love life, since that is the most important thing, as far as he is concerned. He did not discuss his personal life, other than to talk about his late wife, Susie. He was then living with his long-time companion, Astrid, whom he married on his 76th birthday.

A year after our lunch, I saw his late wife Susie in a brief clip on a Charlie Rose interview with Warren, after he had just announced that—over time—he was giving away the major part of his fortune to the Gates Foundation for charitable works.Warren sent me a CD of the original full-length interview from which the clip had been taken with a note that it captured her in depth: “After you have viewed it, I would appreciate it if you would return the copy to me.”

When I returned the copy, I sent a note:

Susie’s interview is the good news that you are loved . . . Susie struck me as a very happy woman.

Bertrand Russell described how he achieved personal happiness: “Gradually I learned to be indifferent to myself and my deficiencies; I came to center my attention increasingly upon external objects: the state of the world, various branches of knowledge, individuals for whom I felt affection.” He could have been writing about