AI transcript
0:00:04 It’s the 1950s in Omaha.
0:00:07 Three well-paid Mohawk carpet attorneys square off
0:00:11 against a 4-foot-10 immigrant widow named Rose Blumpkin.
0:00:14 They accuse her of one outrageous act,
0:00:18 selling carpet at prices ordinary people can afford.
0:00:21 I picture her standing there, adjusting her glasses,
0:00:25 then telling the judge in a thick Russian accent,
0:00:28 Judge, I sell everything 10% above cost.
0:00:31 What’s wrong with giving my customers a good deal?
0:00:33 I know what it’s like to be poor.
0:00:34 Silence.
0:00:36 And then the gavel comes down.
0:00:38 Case dismissed.
0:00:43 The next morning, that same judge walks into Rose’s basement store
0:00:45 and buys $1,400 worth of carpet.
0:00:49 It’s the first of many miracles at Nebraska Furniture Mart.
0:00:52 Miracles born of one stubborn motto,
0:00:55 sell cheap, tell the truth, don’t cheat the customer.
0:00:59 How did this penniless refugee build a billion-dollar empire?
0:01:04 And why did Warren Buffett leaders say he’d rather wrestle grizzlies than compete with Miss B?
0:01:05 Let’s find out.
0:01:22 Welcome to The Knowledge Project.
0:01:25 I’m your host, Shane Parrish.
0:01:26 In a world where knowledge is power,
0:01:30 this podcast is your toolkit for mastering the best of what other people have already figured out.
0:01:36 In a world where MBA programs teach complex business strategies
0:01:38 and consultants sell elaborate frameworks,
0:01:44 one woman built an empire by taking three simple ideas very seriously.
0:01:48 Sell cheap, tell the truth, don’t cheat the customer.
0:01:51 When the world’s greatest investor, Warren Buffett, met Rose Blumpkin,
0:01:52 he said simply,
0:01:56 I’d rather wrestle grizzlies than compete with Miss B.
0:02:00 She arrived in America as a penniless immigrant who couldn’t read English,
0:02:06 fleeing Russia with just $66 in her purse after lying to a border guard about vodka.
0:02:10 At 43, at an age when most people settle into their career,
0:02:14 she borrowed $500 from her brother and opened a furniture store in her basement.
0:02:17 What followed was extraordinary.
0:02:21 Although she never spent a day in school and stood just 4’10”,
0:02:24 Rose could calculate complex carpet measurements instantly in her head,
0:02:27 beating salesmen with calculators every time.
0:02:30 She could detect a diluted shipment by touch alone.
0:02:33 She survived the depression, rebuilt after a devastating fire,
0:02:37 and when a tornado flattened her store, she built it back bigger.
0:02:42 Then, at 96 years old, she quit, started a competing business across the street,
0:02:45 and was so effective her family had to buy her out.
0:02:50 This is the story of Rose Blumpkin, a woman who revolutionized retail by never forgetting what it
0:02:51 was like to be poor.
0:02:57 The research for this episode comes mostly from women of Berkshire and oral history interviews
0:02:59 with Rose Blumpkin and her daughter, Frances.
0:03:04 Stick around at the end for my reflections on how her deceptively simple principles
0:03:07 might transform your own approach to business and life.
0:03:10 It’s time to listen and learn.
0:03:16 This podcast is for entertainment purposes only.
0:03:27 In 1893, in a village near Minsk, Russia, Rose Gorolik was born into a life of modest means.
0:03:33 Home was a two-room log cabin where she and seven siblings slept on straw mats.
0:03:36 Her father, a rabbi, devoted himself mostly to religious study
0:03:39 while her mother supported the family by running a small general store.
0:03:43 One night, six-year-old Rose awoke to find her mother washing clothes
0:03:46 and baking bread in the darkness, preparing for the next day.
0:03:49 Something in that moment crystallized in her mind.
0:03:52 When I grow up, the little girl told her mother,
0:03:53 you’re not going to work so hard.
0:03:54 I can’t stand it.
0:03:56 The way you work day and night.
0:03:58 When I grow up, I’m going to get a job.
0:03:59 I’m going to earn money.
0:04:01 I’m going to go to America.
0:04:03 And when I go to America, I’m going to make more money,
0:04:07 get another job, and send for you and the whole family.
0:04:13 While boys received education, Rose was absorbing business fundamentals in her mother’s store.
0:04:18 On an errand to the village shop, she noticed the shopkeeper’s calculation error.
0:04:22 She told him, Mr. Prost, you made a mistake in one Copic, one cent.
0:04:24 He responded, just a minute, little girl.
0:04:25 I’ll redo the addition.
0:04:28 Sure enough, he said, you know what?
0:04:28 You’re right.
0:04:30 I overcharged you one Copic.
0:04:32 Later at the synagogue, he told everyone,
0:04:37 here’s a six-year-old child who in her head with speed had the total before I ever had it.
0:04:40 At 13, Rose made an extraordinary decision.
0:04:44 With new shoes slung over her shoulder to preserve their souls,
0:04:49 she walked barefoot, barefoot, for 18 miles to the nearest train station,
0:04:51 heading to Gomo, 300 miles away.
0:04:54 Once there, she went door-to-door, seeking work.
0:04:57 You’re a kid, one store owner said dismissively.
0:04:59 I’m not a beggar, Rose shot back.
0:05:04 With just four cents in her pocket, she asked for a place to sleep that night.
0:05:07 Tomorrow, I go to work, she promised.
0:05:08 The owner relented.
0:05:10 Before dawn, she was cleaning the store.
0:05:15 By 16, she was managing it and supervising six married men.
0:05:18 In 1914, Rose married Isidore Blumpkin.
0:05:23 Their wedding feast was just two pounds of rice and two pounds of cookies provided by her mother.
0:05:28 When World War I erupted, Isidore fled to America to avoid conscription,
0:05:30 leaving Rose behind for three years.
0:05:34 In 1917, Rose made her escape without a passport.
0:05:38 At the Chinese-Siberian border, when confronted by a soldier, she improvised.
0:05:40 I’m on the way to buy leather for the army.
0:05:43 When I come back, I’ll bring you a big bottle of vodka.
0:05:45 I suppose she later laughed.
0:05:47 He’s still there waiting for his vodka.
0:05:52 After a six-week voyage on her freighter, she reached Seattle with no entry permit.
0:05:55 If you were healthy, you got in, she later recalled, and healthy I was.
0:05:59 She had 200 rubles, about $66 in her purse.
0:06:03 The Red Cross helped her locate her husband, Isidore, in Fort Dodge, Iowa.
0:06:08 There, despite the language barrier, she was overwhelmed by the kindness of Americans.
0:06:21 For many immigrants, this reunion would be the happy ending.
0:06:23 For Rose Blumpkin, it was just the beginning.
0:06:30 After a brief stay in Iowa, where their first daughter, Frances, was born, the Blumpkins moved to Omaha, Nebraska.
0:06:37 There was a large community of Russian and Yiddish speakers there, which Rose hoped would ease her isolation while she struggled to learn English.
0:06:43 In Omaha, Isidore opened a second-hand clothing store while Rose began running a household with growing children.
0:06:50 By 1922, they had saved enough to bring Rose’s family over from Russia, her parents, brothers, sisters, and a cousin.
0:06:54 And they all put down roots in Omaha, several living in the Blumpkin household.
0:06:56 But then came the Great Depression.
0:07:00 One day in 1930, Isidore came home from his store distraught.
0:07:01 We’ll starve to death.
0:07:02 Nobody walks in.
0:07:03 What will we do?
0:07:10 It was at this moment that Rose Blumpkin, homemaker, and mother of four, stepped forward to transform their fortunes.
0:07:14 You buy a pair of shoes for $3, sell them for $3.30, she told her husband.
0:07:20 Let’s sell 10% over cost, and I’ll come to the store to help you because I did big business in Russia for my boss, and I knew business.
0:07:22 And she certainly did.
0:07:29 As her daughter recalled years later, she had the most wonderful ability for figuring out how to get people into a store.
0:07:33 Isidore had been selling shotguns because America had a hunting culture.
0:07:38 But in the Depression, when people were having trouble affording food, no one could afford to buy a shotgun.
0:07:42 So Rose ran a bold ad in the newspaper, Shotguns for Rent.
0:07:44 It was $3 and a $25 deposit.
0:07:47 There was a line around the block the next day.
0:07:51 She was a natural with an instinct for what the market needed before others saw it.
0:07:56 If a customer came in and said what they needed in any way, Rose would go get it for them.
0:07:59 They’d be asking her where to get it, and she’d say, I can get it.
0:08:01 I can get it for you wholesale.
0:08:02 I have a wholesale house.
0:08:03 And she did.
0:08:05 It was an alley behind her husband’s store.
0:08:13 And as her daughter recalls, she would go there, take a coat that cost $10, and believe it or not, she might sell it for $11 or $12, not at the retail price.
0:08:16 The wholesale people were starving, so they were happy to do it.
0:08:19 Actually, that’s the way she started to become known.
0:08:22 Wherever she felt she could make even a dime, she would do it.
0:08:24 No opportunity was too small.
0:08:25 No customer too insignificant.
0:08:44 By 1937, Rose had grown tired of the constant gloom of the Depression.
0:08:50 With a $500 loan from one of her brothers, she opened a basement store beneath Isidore’s shop.
0:08:52 She called it Nebraska Furniture Mart.
0:08:58 The same day I opened, February 7th, another furniture store was opening, she recalled.
0:09:06 They had orchestra music and Hollywood stars, and I only had a three-line want ads because I was poor.
0:09:08 I did big business.
0:09:09 I couldn’t get over it.
0:09:15 It’s worth pausing here to consider something we’ve observed repeatedly in our series on outliers.
0:09:19 The best people often relish the worst times.
0:09:23 As John D. Rockefeller said, they feed during the Depressions.
0:09:27 I think of this as a taste for salt water, that is, an ability to take pain.
0:09:30 Rose was doing all of this during the Depression.
0:09:36 Her advantage wasn’t just talent, it was an ability to push through the discomfort that others choose to ignore.
0:09:43 Rose Blumpkin’s business model was the essence of taking a few simple ideas and taking them seriously.
0:09:48 Selling 10% above cost, going the extra mile for customers, and growing through volume.
0:09:53 Or more bluntly in her words, sell cheap, tell the truth, don’t cheat people.
0:09:55 It’s worth pausing just for a second here.
0:09:57 Sell cheap, tell the truth, don’t cheat people.
0:09:59 These are simple ideas.
0:10:01 They’re so basic that they often get overlooked.
0:10:05 But Charlie Munger had a rule that works wonders in business, science, and life.
0:10:09 Take a simple, basic idea and take it very seriously.
0:10:13 Most mornings, I start my day with a smoothie.
0:10:16 It’s a secret recipe the kids and I call the Tom Brady.
0:10:20 I actually shared the full recipe in episode 191 with Dr. Rhonda Patrick.
0:10:24 One thing that hasn’t changed since then, protein is a must.
0:10:29 These days, I build my foundation around what Momentus calls the Momentus 3.
0:10:32 Protein, creatine, and omega-3s.
0:10:38 I take them daily because they support everything, focus, energy, recovery, and long-term health.
0:10:42 Most people don’t get enough of any of these things through diet alone.
0:10:45 What makes Momentus different is their quality.
0:10:47 Their whey protein isolate is grass-fed.
0:10:51 Their creatine uses Creopure, the purest form available.
0:10:55 And their omega-3s are sourced for maximum bioavailability.
0:10:58 So your body actually uses what you take.
0:11:02 No fillers, no artificial ingredients, just what your body needs.
0:11:03 Backed by science.
0:11:10 Head to livemomentus.com and use code KNOWLEDGEPROJECT for 35% off your first subscription.
0:11:16 That’s code KNOWLEDGEPROJECT at livemomentus.com for 35% off your first subscription.
0:11:20 There used to be days I’d open my inbox and feel buried.
0:11:22 Like I was digging through noise just to find the signal.
0:11:25 Important messages got lost.
0:11:26 My focus slipped.
0:11:29 And I started feeling like I was managing email more than running my business.
0:11:35 As someone who values productivity above almost anything else, that just wasn’t sustainable.
0:11:38 Since I’ve switched to NotionMail, everything’s changed.
0:11:40 NotionMail is the inbox that thinks like you.
0:11:44 It’s automated, personalized, and flexible to finally work the way that you work.
0:11:49 With AI that learns what matters to you, it can organize your inbox, label messages, draft
0:11:51 replies, and even schedule meetings.
0:11:52 No manual sorting required.
0:11:55 Now the emails that matter rise to the top.
0:12:01 I write faster with content blocks and AI prompts that polish or draft replies in seconds.
0:12:06 And it integrates seamlessly with my Notion workspace, so I have full context right where I need it.
0:12:10 Plus, Notion is trusted by over half of Fortune 500 companies.
0:12:15 If those are the people that you’re looking to compete with, start upgrading for free to NotionMail.
0:12:37 One of the basic ideas Rose is employing is a win-win approach.
0:12:41 There are four basic permutations of any relationship.
0:12:44 Win-lose, win-win, lose-lose, and lose-win.
0:12:48 But only one of these permutations can survive across time.
0:12:51 We all know what it feels like to be taken advantage of.
0:12:55 And when we perceive a person or store as taking advantage of us,
0:12:58 we stop dealing with them at the first moment we can.
0:13:00 However, when we feel like we’re getting a good deal,
0:13:03 we develop trust and we want to work with them again and again.
0:13:07 So, Rose understood the short-term sacrifice of less profit today
0:13:11 would be more than made up for in volume and customer goodwill that would come later.
0:13:14 She was playing a long-term game with her customers.
0:13:17 And the only long-term game across any relationship,
0:13:20 kids, parents, partners, colleagues, customers, suppliers,
0:13:22 literally any relationship in your life,
0:13:24 there’s only one permutation that survives.
0:13:25 That’s win-win.
0:13:27 Okay, back to our story.
0:13:31 During World War II, she appeared not just to a customer’s brain and wallet,
0:13:33 but also to their heart.
0:13:36 When a soldier came in looking for a table and chairs for his new family,
0:13:39 mentioning that his wife just had a baby, but they couldn’t afford a crib,
0:13:41 Rose didn’t hesitate.
0:13:43 Because you are going to fight for our country,
0:13:46 you’re going off to war, I’m going to give you the crib.
0:13:48 For Rose, it was a natural instinct.
0:13:50 When a young couple furnished their first apartment,
0:13:53 seeing what for them was a significant sum,
0:13:54 Rose would often add,
0:13:55 you’re renting a new apartment,
0:13:57 you bought all this from me, you are so nice,
0:13:59 you came to me to buy, you trust me,
0:14:01 I’m going to give you a present, a lamp.
0:14:03 Yet, Rose was nobody’s fool.
0:14:06 She could spot a freeloader like no one else.
0:14:08 She’d interrogate customers.
0:14:09 Now, what do you want?
0:14:09 Where do you work?
0:14:11 When can you pay me?
0:14:13 If satisfied, she’d declare, I trust you.
0:14:14 Maybe times are hard.
0:14:15 I know you’re going to pay me.
0:14:16 And pay they did,
0:14:17 returning year after year,
0:14:19 bringing family, friends,
0:14:19 neighbors,
0:14:20 even co-workers.
0:14:23 Rose turned these customers into scouts.
0:14:24 You want that bedroom set?
0:14:25 She’d ask.
0:14:26 Go to the downtown store.
0:14:28 Tell me exactly what they charge.
0:14:29 Give me all the numbers.
0:14:30 They’d return.
0:14:32 From her competitors’ downtown reporting,
0:14:35 I saw this Haymarket Wayfield bedroom set,
0:14:35 and it was $200.
0:14:38 She’d sell it to them for $100,
0:14:40 knowing her cost structure gave her that flexibility.
0:14:42 Word spread like wildfire.
0:14:45 The massive strategic air command base nearby
0:14:47 became a powerful source of customers.
0:14:49 New officers arriving at Omaha would ask,
0:14:50 where should I buy furniture?
0:14:52 And invariably here,
0:14:54 you go to Nebraska Furniture Mart
0:14:55 and see Miss Blumpkin.
0:14:57 Her daughter recalls with amazement
0:14:59 how far this reputation had traveled.
0:15:03 Lord and Lady Evans from Stratcom came to town.
0:15:04 He had heard about the store.
0:15:06 He came in and they had to furnish a house
0:15:07 and they bought all their furniture.
0:15:10 Soon they were shipping furniture to Hawaii, Guam,
0:15:11 even Israel,
0:15:13 with customers purchasing from Miss B,
0:15:14 sight unseen,
0:15:16 based on reputation alone.
0:15:20 But Rose’s approach made the established
0:15:21 Omaha retailers furious
0:15:24 because they weren’t just losing customers,
0:15:25 they were being exposed.
0:15:28 Everyday customers were coming in not to buy,
0:15:29 but to see their prices
0:15:31 and then heading over to Nebraska Furniture Mart
0:15:32 to see Miss B.
0:15:35 When she went to Chicago’s Merchandise Mart
0:15:36 to buy furniture wholesale,
0:15:40 she encountered the full force of entrenched interests,
0:15:41 such as Brandeis and Rogers,
0:15:44 huge department store competitors at the time.
0:15:46 The merchants were very rotten to me, she recalled.
0:15:47 When I walked in,
0:15:49 Merchandise Mart to buy furniture,
0:15:50 they used to kick me out and say,
0:15:51 don’t bother us,
0:15:53 we’re not going to sell to you, nothing.
0:15:56 Brandeis and Rogers won’t let us sell you anything.
0:15:59 Her face would redden with anger and humiliation.
0:16:01 But then she would make a promise to herself,
0:16:04 someday you’ll come to my store and try to sell to me
0:16:07 and I’ll kick you out the same way that you did to me.
0:16:09 Then she would add,
0:16:10 with quiet satisfaction years later,
0:16:12 and my wish came true.
0:16:14 With the wholesale route blocked,
0:16:15 Rose got creative.
0:16:17 She found retailers in other cities
0:16:20 willing to sell to her just at above their cost.
0:16:22 She managed to convince Marshall Fields
0:16:25 to sell her carpet wholesale at $3 per yard.
0:16:27 She resold it for $3.95,
0:16:32 while competitors charged $7.95 for the identical carpet.
0:16:34 They called her a bootlegger for these tactics.
0:16:36 You bet ya, she would reply,
0:16:38 I’m the best bootlegger in town.
0:16:41 It was after this bootlegger incident
0:16:42 that she was hauled into court
0:16:44 by the three lawyers from Mohawk Carpet,
0:16:47 who sued her for what they called unfair trade practices.
0:16:50 Rose made her case to the judge saying,
0:16:52 Judge, I sell everything, 10% above cost.
0:16:53 What’s wrong?
0:16:55 Can I give my customers a good deal?
0:16:57 The judge threw the case out immediately
0:16:59 and came by her store the next day,
0:17:01 buying $1,400 worth of carpet.
0:17:03 The publicity she got from this trial
0:17:05 was worth more than anything she could have paid for.
0:17:10 The 1950s and the Korean War brought new challenges
0:17:12 as sales slowed and the bills added up,
0:17:14 but Rose refused to fold.
0:17:15 She came up with a bold idea.
0:17:16 She said, I’m going to rent
0:17:19 the downtown Omaha City Auditorium.
0:17:21 I’m gonna take all the furniture out of my store
0:17:22 and we’re gonna hold a three-day sale.
0:17:25 The big store competitors actually went to the city
0:17:27 and said she couldn’t do this.
0:17:30 They asked the city not to rent to her.
0:17:33 The city ignored them and rented to her anyways.
0:17:37 She cleared $250,000 in revenue in three days,
0:17:39 which allowed her to pay all of her bills
0:17:41 and finally stopped her from having to sell the furniture
0:17:43 from her own house.
0:17:47 This more than anything is what Rose says put her in business.
0:17:49 Now, what’s instructive here
0:17:51 is Rose’s response to obstacles.
0:17:52 She doesn’t break.
0:17:55 When conventional channels were closed for her,
0:17:56 she didn’t complain about the unfairness,
0:17:58 she found alternative paths.
0:18:01 When established players tried to use their power to crush her,
0:18:04 she turned their attacks into opportunities for publicity.
0:18:07 Each attempt to constrain her became an opportunity.
0:18:10 This pattern repeats throughout business history.
0:18:13 Outliers don’t waste energy fighting the existing system
0:18:15 on its own terms.
0:18:23 That same year brought personal tragedy when her husband Isidore died of a heart attack
0:18:25 after 36 years of marriage.
0:18:28 Rose would be a widow for the next 48 years,
0:18:31 channeling all of her energy into her business.
0:18:35 While Nebraska Furniture Mart legend centers on Rose’s indomitable spirit,
0:18:40 Their daughter, Frances, reveals how Isidore quietly shaped the store’s customer service philosophy.
0:18:42 My father was really a teacher.
0:18:43 He said,
0:18:45 No matter what happens, you smile.
0:18:45 We need the customer.
0:18:46 They don’t need us.
0:18:47 They can go to our competition.
0:18:50 We have to do something to keep them here.
0:18:55 This immigrant couple who survived revolution, separation, and poverty
0:18:59 created a business approach based on lived experience.
0:19:03 They knew firsthand that every dollar mattered to their customers
0:19:06 because every dollar had once mattered desperately to them.
0:19:09 Their son, Louis, joined after the war in 1945,
0:19:12 providing a calming balance to Rose’s quick temper.
0:19:16 He would often hire back employees she just had fired.
0:19:20 By the mid-1950s, Rose could have retired comfortably.
0:19:25 Instead, at an age when most conclude careers, she was just hitting her stride.
0:19:29 Work, as one sales associate put it, was her narcotic.
0:19:32 Rose had the eye of a detective.
0:19:35 Her attention to detail was extraordinary.
0:19:37 Every morning, she would inspect shipments personally,
0:19:42 not just looking at carpet, but feeling the texture and the weight.
0:19:45 Once her trained fingers detected something off in a major shipment,
0:19:48 this is not the weight I bought, she declared.
0:19:49 I bought so many ounces.
0:19:51 This is not the correct weight.
0:19:52 She wasn’t using a scale.
0:19:54 The manufacturer confirmed her assessment,
0:19:59 uncovering an astonishingly large criminal operation at the mill
0:20:01 where workers were stealing yarn, diluting quality,
0:20:02 and pocketing the difference.
0:20:05 An entire fraud operation was exposed,
0:20:08 not by auditors or quality control systems,
0:20:11 but by a woman who couldn’t read English yet,
0:20:14 and she could feel the absence of a few ounces of wool
0:20:16 across hundreds of square yards of carpet.
0:20:18 As Buffett would later observe,
0:20:21 this wasn’t business acumen you could learn at Harvard.
0:20:26 What’s instructive here is how Rose maintained hands-on product knowledge,
0:20:27 even as her business group.
0:20:32 Many organizations separate senior leadership from direct product experience,
0:20:35 but Rose understood that quality control wasn’t a department,
0:20:38 it was a personal responsibility that couldn’t be delegated.
0:20:41 The Blumpkin partnership also reveals the strength
0:20:43 of having the right partner or co-pilot.
0:20:46 While Rose had a commercial intuition and fighting spirit,
0:20:51 Isidore provided the steady foundation of customer psychology and support.
0:20:54 A poor partner silently sabotages everything,
0:20:56 while a strong one amplifies your impact.
0:21:01 In August of 1961, disaster struck when a three-alarm fire
0:21:04 destroyed half of the Nebraska furniture market.
0:21:07 Now, an ordinary business would have closed for weeks.
0:21:08 The damage was severe.
0:21:11 The roof was completely open to the elements.
0:21:13 But Rose wouldn’t hear of it.
0:21:15 We’re opening tomorrow, she declared.
0:21:17 She mobilized every family member who could walk.
0:21:19 And once they had organized what remained,
0:21:20 she announced,
0:21:22 we’re going to have the biggest fire cell.
0:21:24 We’re going to tell the customers the truth.
0:21:26 All this furniture downtown was in the fire.
0:21:27 If you want to buy it, buy it.
0:21:29 People lined up by the hundreds.
0:21:32 Adversity meant nothing to Rose Blumpkin.
0:21:33 According to her daughter,
0:21:34 my mother always says,
0:21:36 I’ve been through a revolution.
0:21:37 I’ve been through a war.
0:21:38 I survived that.
0:21:39 I’ll survive this.
0:21:39 Then she said,
0:21:41 we’ll just start again.
0:21:41 That’s all.
0:21:45 A normal individual would sit down and cry and say,
0:21:46 what am I going to do?
0:21:47 But not my mother.
0:21:52 So grateful was Rose to the firefighters who saved what they could save,
0:21:55 that she gave a television set to every fire station in the city.
0:22:00 A gesture that was both genuinely appreciative and strategically generated a lot of goodwill.
0:22:01 14 years later,
0:22:02 14 years later,
0:22:03 in May 1975,
0:22:08 catastrophe returned again when a tornado cut a quarter mile path through Omaha,
0:22:12 leveling an entire Nebraska furniture mart building and warehouse.
0:22:13 Yet again,
0:22:16 Rose turned disaster into opportunity.
0:22:19 The other location saw an increase in business as a result,
0:22:23 and they rebuilt the destroyed store on an even grander scale.
0:22:24 You know,
0:22:28 what separates outliers from others isn’t the absence of setbacks,
0:22:30 it’s how they respond to them.
0:22:34 Rose’s approach to catastrophe demonstrates a mindset we see repeatedly,
0:22:36 viewing disasters not as endings,
0:22:38 but as forced opportunities for reinvention.
0:22:43 She understood intuitively that customers respond to transparency and authenticity,
0:22:45 or even,
0:22:46 perhaps especially,
0:22:47 during a crisis.
0:22:50 By immediately announcing a fire sale rather than hiding the damage,
0:22:56 she transformed potential ruin into a marketing opportunity that deepened customer trust.
0:23:00 Rose possessed an extraordinary talent for judging character.
0:23:05 Just as she understood customers’ needs and how to draw them into a store,
0:23:08 she naturally identified great talent for Nebraska furniture mart.
0:23:10 When she found a good worker,
0:23:13 she viewed their entire family as potential assets.
0:23:14 Miss Tusha,
0:23:15 I know your family,
0:23:17 she said when approached about a son needing summer work.
0:23:19 If you tell me you’ve got a good boy,
0:23:19 send him in.
0:23:20 One employee,
0:23:21 Mr. Watson,
0:23:25 became legendary because all eight of his children eventually worked at the mart,
0:23:28 creating a mini dynasty of retail talent under Rose’s cultivation,
0:23:32 Nebraska furniture mart’s version of succession planning,
0:23:33 family by family.
0:23:34 Her standards,
0:23:35 however,
0:23:37 were unreasonable and inflexible.
0:23:40 Character was the only currency that mattered.
0:23:41 If an employee ignored a customer,
0:23:44 Rose would materialize out of nowhere with her verdict.
0:23:45 This is not for you.
0:23:47 No second chances,
0:23:49 no performance improvement plans,
0:23:51 and Rose’s world customer focus wasn’t taught.
0:23:53 It was either innate or absent.
0:23:56 Rose subverted conventional hiring wisdom.
0:23:58 When a college graduate sought employment,
0:23:59 her response was deadpan.
0:24:01 I won’t hold it against you.
0:24:04 She looked past the credentials straight to the character,
0:24:06 preferring street smarts over book learning,
0:24:07 hustle over pedigree.
0:24:09 She would also study shoppers,
0:24:10 their questions,
0:24:11 demeanor,
0:24:12 and sincerity,
0:24:14 and occasionally making an unexpected pivot.
0:24:15 You know something?
0:24:16 I like the questions you ask me.
0:24:17 How would you like a job?
0:24:21 A woman might enter seeking a bedroom set within a tight budget,
0:24:23 and leave with a position in sales.
0:24:26 Rose had inverted the entire interview process,
0:24:27 observing people in their natural state,
0:24:29 rather than the rehearsed interview persona.
0:24:32 Even with her children’s friends who distribute a flyer,
0:24:34 she tracked performance meticulously.
0:24:36 Don’t ever bring little Johnny to me again.
0:24:39 He took the flyers and threw them in the sewers,
0:24:39 she declared.
0:24:41 He can never work for me again.
0:24:42 The message was clear.
0:24:45 Character reveals itself in the smallest actions.
0:24:50 What’s worth pointing out here is how high her standards were.
0:24:51 From the outside looking in,
0:24:53 it kind of looks crazy,
0:24:54 however it works.
0:24:57 We grow up with a set of standards and belief that become our norm,
0:25:01 and it takes outliers with their unreasonably high standards
0:25:03 to show us what’s possible.
0:25:11 A 1977 newspaper profile captured her single-minded focus
0:25:13 better than any words I can write.
0:25:14 Here’s how it goes.
0:25:17 Favorite thing to do on a Sunday afternoon?
0:25:19 Visit with my customers at my store.
0:25:21 Favorite thing to do on a nice evening?
0:25:25 Drive around to check the competition and plan my next attack.
0:25:28 Favorite movie or book in the last year?
0:25:29 Too busy.
0:25:30 Don’t have time.
0:25:31 Favorite place?
0:25:32 My stores.
0:25:36 By the late 1970s, Rose was in her 80s.
0:25:39 While her body slowed, her mental acuity remained extraordinary.
0:25:43 Unable to walk the vast expanse of her main store,
0:25:45 which now covered three square city blocks,
0:25:46 on two floors,
0:25:49 she began driving a motorized cart through the aisles.
0:25:52 Her mathematical abilities bordered on supernatural.
0:25:54 She couldn’t read or write English,
0:25:58 but she could perform complex calculations instantly in her head.
0:26:01 Her grandson, Larry Batt, recalled at one point,
0:26:03 where a price was about to be decided,
0:26:06 a race would commence between her and a salesman with a calculator.
0:26:08 The salesman always lost.
0:26:15 In 1990, on ABC’s 2020, a reporter tested this ability as Rose zoomed around her scooter.
0:26:18 Say the carpet’s $12.95 a yard, and I want 30 yards.
0:26:19 How much is that?
0:26:22 $3.90, Rose replied in less than a second.
0:26:24 And if my room is 12 by 14, how many?
0:26:27 19 yards, she answered before he could finish.
0:26:30 She was 96 years old during that interview.
0:26:33 Her mental sharpness was matched by physical resilience.
0:26:37 At 97, she drove her cart into a metal post and broke her ankle,
0:26:41 but didn’t seek medical attention until the next day when she couldn’t stand up.
0:26:42 It was just a crack.
0:26:44 It didn’t hurt, she explained.
0:26:46 She returned to work the following day.
0:26:49 Fires, tornadoes, broken bones.
0:26:50 Nothing could get Ms. B down.
0:26:52 She was relentless.
0:26:57 This extreme work ethic both inspired and intimidated those around her.
0:27:01 When Warren Buffett quipped at a Berkshire Hathaway meeting that
0:27:03 he’d like to introduce Berkshire Hathaway’s managers,
0:27:07 except Ms. B couldn’t take the time off for foolishness like a shareholders meeting,
0:27:08 he was only half joking.
0:27:11 The lesson here is simple.
0:27:13 Focus is a superpower.
0:27:16 In an age of fractured attention and constant distraction,
0:27:22 Rose’s singular focus on her business created a depth of experience that her competitors couldn’t match.
0:27:25 Scattered energy destroys impact.
0:27:27 Discipline focus multiplies it.
0:27:31 Most people drift between multiple priorities, never fully committing.
0:27:35 She wasn’t just present in her business, she was immersed in it,
0:27:39 creating an advantage that manifested in everything from pricing to quality control.
0:27:44 Warren Buffett had known of Nebraska Furniture Merck for many years.
0:27:49 A lifelong Omaha resident, he admired the Blumpkins’ business savvy from afar.
0:27:53 In the late 1960s, he actually offered $7 million for the store,
0:27:56 an offer Rose dismissed immediately calling him cheap.
0:28:01 But on his 53rd birthday in 1983, Buffett returned with a new proposal,
0:28:04 $60 million for 90% of the company.
0:28:05 This time, Rose accepted.
0:28:09 What follows was characteristically unconventional.
0:28:10 They shook hands on the deal.
0:28:13 No lawyers, no audit, no inventory count.
0:28:16 They later put their agreement in writing in a one-page document.
0:28:20 The document mainly states that we shook hands, Buffett explained.
0:28:23 If she ran a popcorn stand, I’d want to be in business with her.
0:28:27 What did Buffett see in Rose’s operation that others missed?
0:28:31 Later, Buffett would elaborate on what he saw in Miss B’s business.
0:28:34 I’d rather wrestle Grizzlies than compete with Miss B.
0:28:36 They buy brilliantly.
0:28:40 They operate at expense ratios competitors don’t even dream about.
0:28:42 And they pass that on to the customers.
0:28:46 It’s the ideal business, one built upon exceptional value to the customer,
0:28:50 that in turn translates into exceptional economics for its owners.
0:28:53 He would elaborate a little bit more on this later.
0:28:56 First of all, A, she’s just plain smart.
0:28:58 B, she’s a fierce competitor.
0:29:00 C, she’s a tireless worker.
0:29:02 And D, she has a realistic attitude.
0:29:06 The deal embodied Buffett’s investment philosophy perfectly.
0:29:10 A simple business with honest management, sustainable competitive advantage,
0:29:12 and outstanding economics.
0:29:15 Nebraska Furniture Mart had all three in abundance.
0:29:21 For Rose then nearing 90, the sale was a way to avoid family conflict after her death.
0:29:25 She split the proceeds five ways between her four children and herself.
0:29:28 Her son, Louis, and his family subsequently bought back 10%,
0:29:31 making Berkshire’s final purchase price about $55 million.
0:29:34 In a press conference announcing the deal,
0:29:38 Rose called Mr. Buffett my hero alongside the middle class and the immigrants.
0:29:39 He’s a genius.
0:29:41 I respect him a lot.
0:29:44 He’s very honest, very plain, and his word is as good as gold.
0:29:47 I think there’s not another one in the city who is so gentle,
0:29:49 so nice, so honest, and so friendly.
0:29:53 This partnership between two utterly different personalities,
0:29:57 the university-educated investor from a comfortable middle-class background,
0:30:00 and the self-taught immigrant who couldn’t read English,
0:30:03 represents something profound about American business.
0:30:08 Despite their contrasting past, they recognized in each other the same fundamental values,
0:30:10 honesty, focus on customer value,
0:30:15 and an ability to cut through the complexity to the essential truth of a business proposition.
0:30:21 One thing that’s interesting here is how both Rose and Buffett prioritize character over credentials.
0:30:25 Buffett would later elaborate on the three things that he looks for in a person.
0:30:28 He would say, intelligence, energy, and integrity.
0:30:30 And Miss B had all three in spades.
0:30:32 Their handshake deal wasn’t reckless.
0:30:35 It was built on mutual recognition of integrity.
0:30:40 The business world often substitutes complex legal agreements for genuine trust.
0:30:44 But as I tell my kids, there’s no such thing as a good deal with someone you can’t trust.
0:30:46 You can’t make a good deal with a bad person.
0:30:50 When character is the foundation, trust becomes possible.
0:30:57 In May 1989, a workplace dispute led to one of the most remarkable second acts in American business history.
0:31:03 Rose, then 96, had a disagreement with her grandson who had taken over daily operations from their father.
0:31:09 Rose walked out of the store telling reporters she might be the first 96-year-old woman to start a business.
0:31:13 After briefly considering retirement, she opened Miss B’s warehouse
0:31:18 in a converted grocery distribution center directly across the street from the Nebraska Furniture Mart.
0:31:24 When ABC’s 2020 asked if she would ever retire, her answer was unequivocal.
0:31:28 No, I love to be with people and my customers are so wonderful people.
0:31:32 Asked if she would like to see Nebraska Furniture Mart go out of business,
0:31:35 her response was characteristically blunt.
0:31:36 I would.
0:31:38 It should go up in smoke.
0:31:40 I like they should go down to hell.
0:31:44 The shocking statement captured Rose’s black and white worldview.
0:31:50 There were no gray areas for her, only right and wrong, good and bad, friends and enemies.
0:31:54 As Buffett observed, everything Miss B knew how to do, she would do fast.
0:31:55 She didn’t hesitate.
0:31:56 There was no second guessing.
0:32:00 She’d buy 5,000 tables or sign a 30-year lease or buy real estate or hire people.
0:32:02 There was no looking back.
0:32:03 She just swung.
0:32:06 Fortunately, the family rift eventually healed.
0:32:12 In 1991, on her 98th birthday, Buffett brought roses and chocolates to Rose at her new workplace,
0:32:13 ending their two-year silence.
0:32:16 He’s a real gentleman, she conceded.
0:32:23 By 1993, at age 99, she had reconciled with her grandsons and sold Miss B’s Warehouse back
0:32:26 to Nebraska Furniture Mart for $4.94 million.
0:32:33 This time, Buffett made sure she signed a non-compete agreement lasting five years beyond her separation
0:32:33 from the company.
0:32:36 I thought she might go on forever, Buffett explained.
0:32:39 I needed five years beyond forever with her.
0:32:41 Rose admitted, maybe I was wrong.
0:32:42 Maybe I was too hard on them.
0:32:43 I’m very independent.
0:32:46 If things aren’t run the way I want it, I don’t like it.
0:32:46 I get mad.
0:32:52 What’s remarkable about this episode isn’t just the audacity of starting a competing business
0:32:58 at 96 and wanting to drive your kids and grandkids out of business, but how it reveals Rose’s
0:33:00 unwavering commitment to principle.
0:33:05 Most people soften their standards as they age, making compromises in the name of harmony,
0:33:06 not Rose.
0:33:10 She did not optimize her life around what other people thought of her.
0:33:12 Her outrage wasn’t about carpet pricing.
0:33:15 It was about violating a core belief that had guided her for decades.
0:33:21 Rose Blumpkin’s story offers us something increasingly rare in business narratives.
0:33:23 absolute clarity of purpose.
0:33:28 In our era of complex strategies, elaborate frameworks, and disruption-obsessed startups,
0:33:32 Ms. B’s approach feels almost revolutionary in its simplicity.
0:33:35 Sell cheap, tell the truth, don’t cheat the customer.
0:33:37 Three principles she took deadly serious.
0:33:42 She began with just $500 in a basement, couldn’t read English, survived a fire that destroyed half
0:33:48 of her store, rebuilt after a tornado flattened it entirely, and at 96 started a competing business
0:33:49 just to prove a point.
0:33:52 Through it all, her principles never wavered.
0:33:55 Charlie Munger once observed, to get what you want, you have to deserve what you want.
0:33:59 The world is not yet crazy enough place to reward a whole bunch of undeserving people.
0:34:05 Rose Blumpkin deserved her success because she created genuine value for her customers every
0:34:07 single day of her 80-year career.
0:34:09 She didn’t just claim to put them first.
0:34:13 She proved it with every transaction, every decision, and every interaction.
0:34:17 Researching this story, I was struck by how she described her customers.
0:34:19 She never said they bought from her.
0:34:21 Instead, she repeatedly said they loaned her money.
0:34:24 This subtle phrasing reveals her unique perspective.
0:34:29 Transactions weren’t mere exchanges, but relationships built on trust and obligation.
0:34:35 Her customers were investing in her, and she felt obligated to give them a return on that investment.
0:34:38 Remember how Rose navigated obstacles.
0:34:41 When wholesalers wouldn’t sell to her, she became the best bootlegger in town.
0:34:45 When competitors sued her, she turned the publicity into increased sales.
0:34:49 When catastrophe struck, she reopened immediately rather than waiting.
0:34:53 When she lacked formal education, she relied on her mathematical brilliance.
0:34:57 When she could no longer walk her store, she zoomed through it on a motorized cart.
0:35:01 With each challenge, she demonstrated the advantages of bouncing and not breaking.
0:35:09 Today, Nebraska Furniture Mart spans 77 acres in Omaha with a million square feet of retail
0:35:10 and warehouse space.
0:35:13 The company has expanded to Iowa, Kansas, and Texas.
0:35:15 Miss B’s likeness appears throughout the stores.
0:35:18 And her grandson, Robert Batt, says simply,
0:35:22 My grandmother is still the front man of Nebraska Furniture Mart.
0:35:23 She’s the symbol of the company.
0:35:27 Rose Blumpkin’s lifespan from Tsarist Russia to the digital age.
0:35:30 She witnessed two world wars, survived the Great Depression,
0:35:33 and saw the complete transformation of the retail industry.
0:35:36 Through it all, she remained steadfast in her core beliefs.
0:35:39 If you want to work hard and tell the truth and sell cheap,
0:35:40 she said near the end of her life,
0:35:42 you can make a success.
0:35:45 Anybody who lies and cheats around people don’t get anywhere.
0:35:49 In our complex age, there’s something profoundly refreshing about such clarity.
0:35:52 That’s the greatest lesson from this immigrant who built an empire.
0:35:55 Success doesn’t just have to be complicated.
0:35:56 It just has to be earned.
0:35:59 And when Warren Buffett, the world’s greatest investor,
0:36:01 was asked about Rose after her death,
0:36:02 he said simply,
0:36:03 We were partners.
0:36:06 And in most ways, she was the senior partner.
0:36:08 She’s forgotten more than I’ll ever know.
0:36:17 Okay, let’s talk about a few afterthoughts before we get into the lessons here.
0:36:19 One, what a force.
0:36:21 Rose was unstoppable.
0:36:24 In fact, she reminds me a lot of Estee Lauder.
0:36:27 Remember the story when she went to Chicago’s Merchandise Mart,
0:36:29 and they refused to sell to her
0:36:32 because her competitors were telling the wholesalers not to sell to her.
0:36:33 And she’s like,
0:36:37 One day, you’ll come in my store, and I will refuse to sell to you.
0:36:41 And it’s that sort of chip that just stays with you.
0:36:44 And it reminded me of the Estee Lauder story.
0:36:46 Remember at the beginning in 218,
0:36:49 where she asked the woman where she got the blouse,
0:36:51 and the woman responded with,
0:36:52 It doesn’t matter.
0:36:53 You’ll never be able to afford it.
0:36:55 And in both cases,
0:36:58 these remarkable women turn that slight into fuel.
0:37:01 The fuel that puts a chip on your shoulder,
0:37:02 the fuel that never burns out.
0:37:05 For anybody who’s ever been discounted,
0:37:08 anybody who’s ever felt a chip on their shoulder,
0:37:11 anybody who’s ever been overlooked or slighted,
0:37:12 they remember these things.
0:37:14 And that fuel never goes out.
0:37:15 And the fuel,
0:37:17 people say you shouldn’t be driven by this,
0:37:19 but it really drives a lot of outliers.
0:37:20 You think of Tom Brady.
0:37:23 Tom Brady is one of my favorite examples of this.
0:37:26 And he has so many of these sort of like little moments,
0:37:27 these little slights.
0:37:29 So Tom Brady,
0:37:31 it’s his senior year.
0:37:32 It’s Autograph Day.
0:37:33 There’s this kid,
0:37:34 Drew Hudson,
0:37:35 I think his name was,
0:37:37 that they brought on to play after Tom Brady.
0:37:41 And Drew was like this all-American,
0:37:42 five-star recruit.
0:37:45 Everybody wanted Drew to be successful.
0:37:49 And Tom Brady is just like overlooked.
0:37:51 He’s just the placeholder until Drew can start.
0:37:53 But on Autograph Day,
0:37:55 Tom Brady’s standing in this tunnel.
0:37:59 And he’s watching the lineup of people.
0:38:02 And they’re all lined up for Drew.
0:38:03 They all want Drew’s signature.
0:38:06 Drew hasn’t done anything at this point.
0:38:09 And Brady’s just standing there watching all these people.
0:38:10 And he’s seething.
0:38:13 It’s like burning inside of him.
0:38:14 And his friend’s like,
0:38:14 come on, let’s go.
0:38:15 And Brady says,
0:38:17 no, I want to watch this.
0:38:19 And he just stands there and watches.
0:38:21 And it gets etched into his mind.
0:38:21 And then, you know,
0:38:22 he gets drafted.
0:38:23 What was it?
0:38:24 96 overall.
0:38:27 And every one of these slights,
0:38:30 you bet your bottom dollar he remembers.
0:38:31 And it fueled him.
0:38:33 And when he didn’t want to work out,
0:38:34 he thought about it.
0:38:35 When he didn’t want to get out of bed and practice,
0:38:36 he thought about it.
0:38:38 And when he had a bad game,
0:38:39 he thought about it.
0:38:41 And it fueled him and pushed him further.
0:38:43 Michael Jordan was the exact same way.
0:38:47 He would even antagonize his opponents
0:38:48 into saying something
0:38:51 or manufacture things that they did say
0:38:52 if they wouldn’t say anything
0:38:55 just to give him an extra edge.
0:38:57 I think it’s worth thinking about that stuff.
0:38:59 And you have to think about
0:39:01 the episode I did with Brent Beshore,
0:39:03 whether this is dirty fuel
0:39:06 or clean fuel for you and your situation.
0:39:08 But it’s definitely something
0:39:08 that I think about a lot.
0:39:12 Okay, let’s get into some of the lessons
0:39:14 we can take away from Rose Bumpkin.
0:39:17 Number one, a taste for salt water.
0:39:18 What separates exceptional people
0:39:21 is their capacity to endure discomfort.
0:39:23 Rose walked barefoot for 18 miles
0:39:26 at the age of 13 to save her only pair of shoes.
0:39:28 Later, she opened a furniture store
0:39:29 during a depression.
0:39:32 She rebuilt after a fire gutted half of her building.
0:39:34 She came to work the day
0:39:36 after breaking her ankle at 97.
0:39:38 Most people avoid pain.
0:39:40 Outliers work through it.
0:39:42 Number two, high agency.
0:39:44 Most people see circumstances as fixed.
0:39:46 High agency people see them as variables.
0:39:48 When depression era customers
0:39:49 couldn’t afford shotguns,
0:39:51 Rose didn’t complain about the economy.
0:39:53 She created a rental program overnight.
0:39:55 The line stretched around the block
0:39:55 the next morning.
0:39:58 High agency isn’t magical thinking.
0:40:01 It’s the refusal to accept artificial constraints.
0:40:04 Three, bias towards action.
0:40:07 While average performers wait for perfect conditions,
0:40:08 exceptional ones create momentum
0:40:10 through immediate action.
0:40:11 After a devastating fire,
0:40:13 Rose didn’t wait for the dust to settle.
0:40:14 Instead, she said,
0:40:15 we’re opening tomorrow
0:40:19 and turned that disaster into a successful sale.
0:40:21 When business slowed during the Korean War,
0:40:23 she rented the city auditorium
0:40:27 and cleared $250,000 in a three-day sale.
0:40:31 Action creates options that passivity never discovers.
0:40:34 When wholesalers refused to sell to Rose
0:40:35 calling her bootlegger,
0:40:36 she embraced it.
0:40:36 You betcha,
0:40:38 and I’m the best bootlegger in town.
0:40:40 And she found backdoor suppliers.
0:40:41 When competitors sued her,
0:40:44 she turned the courtroom into free advertising.
0:40:46 Resilience isn’t about avoiding knockdowns.
0:40:49 It’s about how you use them as launching pads.
0:40:51 Five, dark hours.
0:40:54 Excellence happens when nobody’s watching.
0:40:58 Rose cleaned stores before dawn as a teenager.
0:41:01 She inspected every carpet shipment personally into her 90s.
0:41:04 Remember, she detected yarn theft at a mill supplier
0:41:06 just by feeling the carpet,
0:41:07 and it was slightly underweight.
0:41:09 The public sees the outcome,
0:41:10 but never the work.
0:41:13 Six, your reputation is the room.
0:41:15 Rose understood that your reputation creates opportunities
0:41:18 before you even enter the conversation.
0:41:21 Military officers stationed across the world
0:41:22 would buy furniture unseen
0:41:24 because Miss B doesn’t lie.
0:41:27 A judge who ruled in her favor bought carpet the next day.
0:41:29 Your reputation isn’t what you claim.
0:41:31 Rather, it’s the collective experience
0:41:32 that others have of you,
0:41:35 and it determines which rooms you walk into.
0:41:38 Seven, choose the right co-pilot.
0:41:40 Partnerships are forced multipliers.
0:41:42 Isidore balanced Rose’s intensity
0:41:44 with steady customer service principles.
0:41:47 Warren Buffett bought her business on a handshake
0:41:47 with no audit
0:41:50 because character recognition works both ways.
0:41:53 The right partners don’t just add to your strengths,
0:41:54 they compensate for your weaknesses
0:41:56 while amplifying your impact.
0:41:58 Eight, it takes what it takes.
0:42:00 Every exceptional achievement
0:42:02 has a non-negotiable price.
0:42:07 Rose worked 12-hour days from 13 until 103,
0:42:09 calling her work her narcotic.
0:42:12 At a luncheon honoring her,
0:42:15 she stood up at 1.15 and announced,
0:42:16 what’s wrong with you people?
0:42:17 Don’t you have jobs?
0:42:18 I’m going back to work.
0:42:21 Ordinary results come from ordinary effort.
0:42:24 Extraordinary results demand unreasonable commitment.
0:42:27 Number nine, focus is a superpower.
0:42:29 In today’s fractured attention economy,
0:42:31 Rose’s single-minded concentration
0:42:32 would be her greatest advantage.
0:42:35 She had one tab open, her business,
0:42:37 while her competitors scattered their attention
0:42:38 across multiple priorities.
0:42:41 This wasn’t mere workaholism,
0:42:43 it was the elimination of distractions,
0:42:45 creating depth of knowledge
0:42:47 that no competitor could match.
0:42:49 Simple scales, fancy fails.
0:42:52 Rose’s entire business philosophy
0:42:53 fit on an index card.
0:42:54 Sell cheap, tell the truth,
0:42:56 don’t cheat the customers.
0:42:58 While competitors built complex systems
0:42:59 and layers of management,
0:43:01 her straightforward approach
0:43:02 eliminated friction.
0:43:04 Complex businesses move slowly,
0:43:07 simple ones can scale with less overhead
0:43:08 and fewer bottlenecks.
0:43:10 I hope you really enjoyed
0:43:11 learning about Rose Blumpkin.
0:43:13 She’s a tremendous force,
0:43:14 a great story,
0:43:15 and I hope she inspires you
0:43:17 as much as she inspired me.
0:43:29 Thanks for listening and learning with us.
0:43:30 And be sure to sign up
0:43:31 for my free weekly newsletter
0:43:33 at fs.blog slash newsletter.
0:43:35 I hope you enjoyed my reflections
0:43:37 at the end of this episode.
0:43:39 That’s normally reserved for members.
0:43:40 But with this Outliers series,
0:43:43 I wanted to make them available to everyone.
0:43:44 The Farnam Street website
0:43:46 is where you can get more info
0:43:47 on our membership program,
0:43:49 which includes access
0:43:50 to episode transcripts,
0:43:52 reflections for all episodes,
0:43:54 my updated repository
0:43:55 featuring highlights
0:43:57 from the books used in this series,
0:43:58 and more.
0:44:00 Plus, be sure to follow myself
0:44:00 and Farnam Street
0:44:03 on X, Instagram, and LinkedIn.
0:44:04 If you like what we’re doing here,
0:44:06 leaving a rating and review
0:44:07 would mean the world.
0:44:08 And if you really like us,
0:44:09 sharing with a friend
0:44:10 is the best way
0:44:11 to grow this special series.
0:44:12 Until next time.
0:00:07 Three well-paid Mohawk carpet attorneys square off
0:00:11 against a 4-foot-10 immigrant widow named Rose Blumpkin.
0:00:14 They accuse her of one outrageous act,
0:00:18 selling carpet at prices ordinary people can afford.
0:00:21 I picture her standing there, adjusting her glasses,
0:00:25 then telling the judge in a thick Russian accent,
0:00:28 Judge, I sell everything 10% above cost.
0:00:31 What’s wrong with giving my customers a good deal?
0:00:33 I know what it’s like to be poor.
0:00:34 Silence.
0:00:36 And then the gavel comes down.
0:00:38 Case dismissed.
0:00:43 The next morning, that same judge walks into Rose’s basement store
0:00:45 and buys $1,400 worth of carpet.
0:00:49 It’s the first of many miracles at Nebraska Furniture Mart.
0:00:52 Miracles born of one stubborn motto,
0:00:55 sell cheap, tell the truth, don’t cheat the customer.
0:00:59 How did this penniless refugee build a billion-dollar empire?
0:01:04 And why did Warren Buffett leaders say he’d rather wrestle grizzlies than compete with Miss B?
0:01:05 Let’s find out.
0:01:22 Welcome to The Knowledge Project.
0:01:25 I’m your host, Shane Parrish.
0:01:26 In a world where knowledge is power,
0:01:30 this podcast is your toolkit for mastering the best of what other people have already figured out.
0:01:36 In a world where MBA programs teach complex business strategies
0:01:38 and consultants sell elaborate frameworks,
0:01:44 one woman built an empire by taking three simple ideas very seriously.
0:01:48 Sell cheap, tell the truth, don’t cheat the customer.
0:01:51 When the world’s greatest investor, Warren Buffett, met Rose Blumpkin,
0:01:52 he said simply,
0:01:56 I’d rather wrestle grizzlies than compete with Miss B.
0:02:00 She arrived in America as a penniless immigrant who couldn’t read English,
0:02:06 fleeing Russia with just $66 in her purse after lying to a border guard about vodka.
0:02:10 At 43, at an age when most people settle into their career,
0:02:14 she borrowed $500 from her brother and opened a furniture store in her basement.
0:02:17 What followed was extraordinary.
0:02:21 Although she never spent a day in school and stood just 4’10”,
0:02:24 Rose could calculate complex carpet measurements instantly in her head,
0:02:27 beating salesmen with calculators every time.
0:02:30 She could detect a diluted shipment by touch alone.
0:02:33 She survived the depression, rebuilt after a devastating fire,
0:02:37 and when a tornado flattened her store, she built it back bigger.
0:02:42 Then, at 96 years old, she quit, started a competing business across the street,
0:02:45 and was so effective her family had to buy her out.
0:02:50 This is the story of Rose Blumpkin, a woman who revolutionized retail by never forgetting what it
0:02:51 was like to be poor.
0:02:57 The research for this episode comes mostly from women of Berkshire and oral history interviews
0:02:59 with Rose Blumpkin and her daughter, Frances.
0:03:04 Stick around at the end for my reflections on how her deceptively simple principles
0:03:07 might transform your own approach to business and life.
0:03:10 It’s time to listen and learn.
0:03:16 This podcast is for entertainment purposes only.
0:03:27 In 1893, in a village near Minsk, Russia, Rose Gorolik was born into a life of modest means.
0:03:33 Home was a two-room log cabin where she and seven siblings slept on straw mats.
0:03:36 Her father, a rabbi, devoted himself mostly to religious study
0:03:39 while her mother supported the family by running a small general store.
0:03:43 One night, six-year-old Rose awoke to find her mother washing clothes
0:03:46 and baking bread in the darkness, preparing for the next day.
0:03:49 Something in that moment crystallized in her mind.
0:03:52 When I grow up, the little girl told her mother,
0:03:53 you’re not going to work so hard.
0:03:54 I can’t stand it.
0:03:56 The way you work day and night.
0:03:58 When I grow up, I’m going to get a job.
0:03:59 I’m going to earn money.
0:04:01 I’m going to go to America.
0:04:03 And when I go to America, I’m going to make more money,
0:04:07 get another job, and send for you and the whole family.
0:04:13 While boys received education, Rose was absorbing business fundamentals in her mother’s store.
0:04:18 On an errand to the village shop, she noticed the shopkeeper’s calculation error.
0:04:22 She told him, Mr. Prost, you made a mistake in one Copic, one cent.
0:04:24 He responded, just a minute, little girl.
0:04:25 I’ll redo the addition.
0:04:28 Sure enough, he said, you know what?
0:04:28 You’re right.
0:04:30 I overcharged you one Copic.
0:04:32 Later at the synagogue, he told everyone,
0:04:37 here’s a six-year-old child who in her head with speed had the total before I ever had it.
0:04:40 At 13, Rose made an extraordinary decision.
0:04:44 With new shoes slung over her shoulder to preserve their souls,
0:04:49 she walked barefoot, barefoot, for 18 miles to the nearest train station,
0:04:51 heading to Gomo, 300 miles away.
0:04:54 Once there, she went door-to-door, seeking work.
0:04:57 You’re a kid, one store owner said dismissively.
0:04:59 I’m not a beggar, Rose shot back.
0:05:04 With just four cents in her pocket, she asked for a place to sleep that night.
0:05:07 Tomorrow, I go to work, she promised.
0:05:08 The owner relented.
0:05:10 Before dawn, she was cleaning the store.
0:05:15 By 16, she was managing it and supervising six married men.
0:05:18 In 1914, Rose married Isidore Blumpkin.
0:05:23 Their wedding feast was just two pounds of rice and two pounds of cookies provided by her mother.
0:05:28 When World War I erupted, Isidore fled to America to avoid conscription,
0:05:30 leaving Rose behind for three years.
0:05:34 In 1917, Rose made her escape without a passport.
0:05:38 At the Chinese-Siberian border, when confronted by a soldier, she improvised.
0:05:40 I’m on the way to buy leather for the army.
0:05:43 When I come back, I’ll bring you a big bottle of vodka.
0:05:45 I suppose she later laughed.
0:05:47 He’s still there waiting for his vodka.
0:05:52 After a six-week voyage on her freighter, she reached Seattle with no entry permit.
0:05:55 If you were healthy, you got in, she later recalled, and healthy I was.
0:05:59 She had 200 rubles, about $66 in her purse.
0:06:03 The Red Cross helped her locate her husband, Isidore, in Fort Dodge, Iowa.
0:06:08 There, despite the language barrier, she was overwhelmed by the kindness of Americans.
0:06:21 For many immigrants, this reunion would be the happy ending.
0:06:23 For Rose Blumpkin, it was just the beginning.
0:06:30 After a brief stay in Iowa, where their first daughter, Frances, was born, the Blumpkins moved to Omaha, Nebraska.
0:06:37 There was a large community of Russian and Yiddish speakers there, which Rose hoped would ease her isolation while she struggled to learn English.
0:06:43 In Omaha, Isidore opened a second-hand clothing store while Rose began running a household with growing children.
0:06:50 By 1922, they had saved enough to bring Rose’s family over from Russia, her parents, brothers, sisters, and a cousin.
0:06:54 And they all put down roots in Omaha, several living in the Blumpkin household.
0:06:56 But then came the Great Depression.
0:07:00 One day in 1930, Isidore came home from his store distraught.
0:07:01 We’ll starve to death.
0:07:02 Nobody walks in.
0:07:03 What will we do?
0:07:10 It was at this moment that Rose Blumpkin, homemaker, and mother of four, stepped forward to transform their fortunes.
0:07:14 You buy a pair of shoes for $3, sell them for $3.30, she told her husband.
0:07:20 Let’s sell 10% over cost, and I’ll come to the store to help you because I did big business in Russia for my boss, and I knew business.
0:07:22 And she certainly did.
0:07:29 As her daughter recalled years later, she had the most wonderful ability for figuring out how to get people into a store.
0:07:33 Isidore had been selling shotguns because America had a hunting culture.
0:07:38 But in the Depression, when people were having trouble affording food, no one could afford to buy a shotgun.
0:07:42 So Rose ran a bold ad in the newspaper, Shotguns for Rent.
0:07:44 It was $3 and a $25 deposit.
0:07:47 There was a line around the block the next day.
0:07:51 She was a natural with an instinct for what the market needed before others saw it.
0:07:56 If a customer came in and said what they needed in any way, Rose would go get it for them.
0:07:59 They’d be asking her where to get it, and she’d say, I can get it.
0:08:01 I can get it for you wholesale.
0:08:02 I have a wholesale house.
0:08:03 And she did.
0:08:05 It was an alley behind her husband’s store.
0:08:13 And as her daughter recalls, she would go there, take a coat that cost $10, and believe it or not, she might sell it for $11 or $12, not at the retail price.
0:08:16 The wholesale people were starving, so they were happy to do it.
0:08:19 Actually, that’s the way she started to become known.
0:08:22 Wherever she felt she could make even a dime, she would do it.
0:08:24 No opportunity was too small.
0:08:25 No customer too insignificant.
0:08:44 By 1937, Rose had grown tired of the constant gloom of the Depression.
0:08:50 With a $500 loan from one of her brothers, she opened a basement store beneath Isidore’s shop.
0:08:52 She called it Nebraska Furniture Mart.
0:08:58 The same day I opened, February 7th, another furniture store was opening, she recalled.
0:09:06 They had orchestra music and Hollywood stars, and I only had a three-line want ads because I was poor.
0:09:08 I did big business.
0:09:09 I couldn’t get over it.
0:09:15 It’s worth pausing here to consider something we’ve observed repeatedly in our series on outliers.
0:09:19 The best people often relish the worst times.
0:09:23 As John D. Rockefeller said, they feed during the Depressions.
0:09:27 I think of this as a taste for salt water, that is, an ability to take pain.
0:09:30 Rose was doing all of this during the Depression.
0:09:36 Her advantage wasn’t just talent, it was an ability to push through the discomfort that others choose to ignore.
0:09:43 Rose Blumpkin’s business model was the essence of taking a few simple ideas and taking them seriously.
0:09:48 Selling 10% above cost, going the extra mile for customers, and growing through volume.
0:09:53 Or more bluntly in her words, sell cheap, tell the truth, don’t cheat people.
0:09:55 It’s worth pausing just for a second here.
0:09:57 Sell cheap, tell the truth, don’t cheat people.
0:09:59 These are simple ideas.
0:10:01 They’re so basic that they often get overlooked.
0:10:05 But Charlie Munger had a rule that works wonders in business, science, and life.
0:10:09 Take a simple, basic idea and take it very seriously.
0:10:13 Most mornings, I start my day with a smoothie.
0:10:16 It’s a secret recipe the kids and I call the Tom Brady.
0:10:20 I actually shared the full recipe in episode 191 with Dr. Rhonda Patrick.
0:10:24 One thing that hasn’t changed since then, protein is a must.
0:10:29 These days, I build my foundation around what Momentus calls the Momentus 3.
0:10:32 Protein, creatine, and omega-3s.
0:10:38 I take them daily because they support everything, focus, energy, recovery, and long-term health.
0:10:42 Most people don’t get enough of any of these things through diet alone.
0:10:45 What makes Momentus different is their quality.
0:10:47 Their whey protein isolate is grass-fed.
0:10:51 Their creatine uses Creopure, the purest form available.
0:10:55 And their omega-3s are sourced for maximum bioavailability.
0:10:58 So your body actually uses what you take.
0:11:02 No fillers, no artificial ingredients, just what your body needs.
0:11:03 Backed by science.
0:11:10 Head to livemomentus.com and use code KNOWLEDGEPROJECT for 35% off your first subscription.
0:11:16 That’s code KNOWLEDGEPROJECT at livemomentus.com for 35% off your first subscription.
0:11:20 There used to be days I’d open my inbox and feel buried.
0:11:22 Like I was digging through noise just to find the signal.
0:11:25 Important messages got lost.
0:11:26 My focus slipped.
0:11:29 And I started feeling like I was managing email more than running my business.
0:11:35 As someone who values productivity above almost anything else, that just wasn’t sustainable.
0:11:38 Since I’ve switched to NotionMail, everything’s changed.
0:11:40 NotionMail is the inbox that thinks like you.
0:11:44 It’s automated, personalized, and flexible to finally work the way that you work.
0:11:49 With AI that learns what matters to you, it can organize your inbox, label messages, draft
0:11:51 replies, and even schedule meetings.
0:11:52 No manual sorting required.
0:11:55 Now the emails that matter rise to the top.
0:12:01 I write faster with content blocks and AI prompts that polish or draft replies in seconds.
0:12:06 And it integrates seamlessly with my Notion workspace, so I have full context right where I need it.
0:12:10 Plus, Notion is trusted by over half of Fortune 500 companies.
0:12:15 If those are the people that you’re looking to compete with, start upgrading for free to NotionMail.
0:12:37 One of the basic ideas Rose is employing is a win-win approach.
0:12:41 There are four basic permutations of any relationship.
0:12:44 Win-lose, win-win, lose-lose, and lose-win.
0:12:48 But only one of these permutations can survive across time.
0:12:51 We all know what it feels like to be taken advantage of.
0:12:55 And when we perceive a person or store as taking advantage of us,
0:12:58 we stop dealing with them at the first moment we can.
0:13:00 However, when we feel like we’re getting a good deal,
0:13:03 we develop trust and we want to work with them again and again.
0:13:07 So, Rose understood the short-term sacrifice of less profit today
0:13:11 would be more than made up for in volume and customer goodwill that would come later.
0:13:14 She was playing a long-term game with her customers.
0:13:17 And the only long-term game across any relationship,
0:13:20 kids, parents, partners, colleagues, customers, suppliers,
0:13:22 literally any relationship in your life,
0:13:24 there’s only one permutation that survives.
0:13:25 That’s win-win.
0:13:27 Okay, back to our story.
0:13:31 During World War II, she appeared not just to a customer’s brain and wallet,
0:13:33 but also to their heart.
0:13:36 When a soldier came in looking for a table and chairs for his new family,
0:13:39 mentioning that his wife just had a baby, but they couldn’t afford a crib,
0:13:41 Rose didn’t hesitate.
0:13:43 Because you are going to fight for our country,
0:13:46 you’re going off to war, I’m going to give you the crib.
0:13:48 For Rose, it was a natural instinct.
0:13:50 When a young couple furnished their first apartment,
0:13:53 seeing what for them was a significant sum,
0:13:54 Rose would often add,
0:13:55 you’re renting a new apartment,
0:13:57 you bought all this from me, you are so nice,
0:13:59 you came to me to buy, you trust me,
0:14:01 I’m going to give you a present, a lamp.
0:14:03 Yet, Rose was nobody’s fool.
0:14:06 She could spot a freeloader like no one else.
0:14:08 She’d interrogate customers.
0:14:09 Now, what do you want?
0:14:09 Where do you work?
0:14:11 When can you pay me?
0:14:13 If satisfied, she’d declare, I trust you.
0:14:14 Maybe times are hard.
0:14:15 I know you’re going to pay me.
0:14:16 And pay they did,
0:14:17 returning year after year,
0:14:19 bringing family, friends,
0:14:19 neighbors,
0:14:20 even co-workers.
0:14:23 Rose turned these customers into scouts.
0:14:24 You want that bedroom set?
0:14:25 She’d ask.
0:14:26 Go to the downtown store.
0:14:28 Tell me exactly what they charge.
0:14:29 Give me all the numbers.
0:14:30 They’d return.
0:14:32 From her competitors’ downtown reporting,
0:14:35 I saw this Haymarket Wayfield bedroom set,
0:14:35 and it was $200.
0:14:38 She’d sell it to them for $100,
0:14:40 knowing her cost structure gave her that flexibility.
0:14:42 Word spread like wildfire.
0:14:45 The massive strategic air command base nearby
0:14:47 became a powerful source of customers.
0:14:49 New officers arriving at Omaha would ask,
0:14:50 where should I buy furniture?
0:14:52 And invariably here,
0:14:54 you go to Nebraska Furniture Mart
0:14:55 and see Miss Blumpkin.
0:14:57 Her daughter recalls with amazement
0:14:59 how far this reputation had traveled.
0:15:03 Lord and Lady Evans from Stratcom came to town.
0:15:04 He had heard about the store.
0:15:06 He came in and they had to furnish a house
0:15:07 and they bought all their furniture.
0:15:10 Soon they were shipping furniture to Hawaii, Guam,
0:15:11 even Israel,
0:15:13 with customers purchasing from Miss B,
0:15:14 sight unseen,
0:15:16 based on reputation alone.
0:15:20 But Rose’s approach made the established
0:15:21 Omaha retailers furious
0:15:24 because they weren’t just losing customers,
0:15:25 they were being exposed.
0:15:28 Everyday customers were coming in not to buy,
0:15:29 but to see their prices
0:15:31 and then heading over to Nebraska Furniture Mart
0:15:32 to see Miss B.
0:15:35 When she went to Chicago’s Merchandise Mart
0:15:36 to buy furniture wholesale,
0:15:40 she encountered the full force of entrenched interests,
0:15:41 such as Brandeis and Rogers,
0:15:44 huge department store competitors at the time.
0:15:46 The merchants were very rotten to me, she recalled.
0:15:47 When I walked in,
0:15:49 Merchandise Mart to buy furniture,
0:15:50 they used to kick me out and say,
0:15:51 don’t bother us,
0:15:53 we’re not going to sell to you, nothing.
0:15:56 Brandeis and Rogers won’t let us sell you anything.
0:15:59 Her face would redden with anger and humiliation.
0:16:01 But then she would make a promise to herself,
0:16:04 someday you’ll come to my store and try to sell to me
0:16:07 and I’ll kick you out the same way that you did to me.
0:16:09 Then she would add,
0:16:10 with quiet satisfaction years later,
0:16:12 and my wish came true.
0:16:14 With the wholesale route blocked,
0:16:15 Rose got creative.
0:16:17 She found retailers in other cities
0:16:20 willing to sell to her just at above their cost.
0:16:22 She managed to convince Marshall Fields
0:16:25 to sell her carpet wholesale at $3 per yard.
0:16:27 She resold it for $3.95,
0:16:32 while competitors charged $7.95 for the identical carpet.
0:16:34 They called her a bootlegger for these tactics.
0:16:36 You bet ya, she would reply,
0:16:38 I’m the best bootlegger in town.
0:16:41 It was after this bootlegger incident
0:16:42 that she was hauled into court
0:16:44 by the three lawyers from Mohawk Carpet,
0:16:47 who sued her for what they called unfair trade practices.
0:16:50 Rose made her case to the judge saying,
0:16:52 Judge, I sell everything, 10% above cost.
0:16:53 What’s wrong?
0:16:55 Can I give my customers a good deal?
0:16:57 The judge threw the case out immediately
0:16:59 and came by her store the next day,
0:17:01 buying $1,400 worth of carpet.
0:17:03 The publicity she got from this trial
0:17:05 was worth more than anything she could have paid for.
0:17:10 The 1950s and the Korean War brought new challenges
0:17:12 as sales slowed and the bills added up,
0:17:14 but Rose refused to fold.
0:17:15 She came up with a bold idea.
0:17:16 She said, I’m going to rent
0:17:19 the downtown Omaha City Auditorium.
0:17:21 I’m gonna take all the furniture out of my store
0:17:22 and we’re gonna hold a three-day sale.
0:17:25 The big store competitors actually went to the city
0:17:27 and said she couldn’t do this.
0:17:30 They asked the city not to rent to her.
0:17:33 The city ignored them and rented to her anyways.
0:17:37 She cleared $250,000 in revenue in three days,
0:17:39 which allowed her to pay all of her bills
0:17:41 and finally stopped her from having to sell the furniture
0:17:43 from her own house.
0:17:47 This more than anything is what Rose says put her in business.
0:17:49 Now, what’s instructive here
0:17:51 is Rose’s response to obstacles.
0:17:52 She doesn’t break.
0:17:55 When conventional channels were closed for her,
0:17:56 she didn’t complain about the unfairness,
0:17:58 she found alternative paths.
0:18:01 When established players tried to use their power to crush her,
0:18:04 she turned their attacks into opportunities for publicity.
0:18:07 Each attempt to constrain her became an opportunity.
0:18:10 This pattern repeats throughout business history.
0:18:13 Outliers don’t waste energy fighting the existing system
0:18:15 on its own terms.
0:18:23 That same year brought personal tragedy when her husband Isidore died of a heart attack
0:18:25 after 36 years of marriage.
0:18:28 Rose would be a widow for the next 48 years,
0:18:31 channeling all of her energy into her business.
0:18:35 While Nebraska Furniture Mart legend centers on Rose’s indomitable spirit,
0:18:40 Their daughter, Frances, reveals how Isidore quietly shaped the store’s customer service philosophy.
0:18:42 My father was really a teacher.
0:18:43 He said,
0:18:45 No matter what happens, you smile.
0:18:45 We need the customer.
0:18:46 They don’t need us.
0:18:47 They can go to our competition.
0:18:50 We have to do something to keep them here.
0:18:55 This immigrant couple who survived revolution, separation, and poverty
0:18:59 created a business approach based on lived experience.
0:19:03 They knew firsthand that every dollar mattered to their customers
0:19:06 because every dollar had once mattered desperately to them.
0:19:09 Their son, Louis, joined after the war in 1945,
0:19:12 providing a calming balance to Rose’s quick temper.
0:19:16 He would often hire back employees she just had fired.
0:19:20 By the mid-1950s, Rose could have retired comfortably.
0:19:25 Instead, at an age when most conclude careers, she was just hitting her stride.
0:19:29 Work, as one sales associate put it, was her narcotic.
0:19:32 Rose had the eye of a detective.
0:19:35 Her attention to detail was extraordinary.
0:19:37 Every morning, she would inspect shipments personally,
0:19:42 not just looking at carpet, but feeling the texture and the weight.
0:19:45 Once her trained fingers detected something off in a major shipment,
0:19:48 this is not the weight I bought, she declared.
0:19:49 I bought so many ounces.
0:19:51 This is not the correct weight.
0:19:52 She wasn’t using a scale.
0:19:54 The manufacturer confirmed her assessment,
0:19:59 uncovering an astonishingly large criminal operation at the mill
0:20:01 where workers were stealing yarn, diluting quality,
0:20:02 and pocketing the difference.
0:20:05 An entire fraud operation was exposed,
0:20:08 not by auditors or quality control systems,
0:20:11 but by a woman who couldn’t read English yet,
0:20:14 and she could feel the absence of a few ounces of wool
0:20:16 across hundreds of square yards of carpet.
0:20:18 As Buffett would later observe,
0:20:21 this wasn’t business acumen you could learn at Harvard.
0:20:26 What’s instructive here is how Rose maintained hands-on product knowledge,
0:20:27 even as her business group.
0:20:32 Many organizations separate senior leadership from direct product experience,
0:20:35 but Rose understood that quality control wasn’t a department,
0:20:38 it was a personal responsibility that couldn’t be delegated.
0:20:41 The Blumpkin partnership also reveals the strength
0:20:43 of having the right partner or co-pilot.
0:20:46 While Rose had a commercial intuition and fighting spirit,
0:20:51 Isidore provided the steady foundation of customer psychology and support.
0:20:54 A poor partner silently sabotages everything,
0:20:56 while a strong one amplifies your impact.
0:21:01 In August of 1961, disaster struck when a three-alarm fire
0:21:04 destroyed half of the Nebraska furniture market.
0:21:07 Now, an ordinary business would have closed for weeks.
0:21:08 The damage was severe.
0:21:11 The roof was completely open to the elements.
0:21:13 But Rose wouldn’t hear of it.
0:21:15 We’re opening tomorrow, she declared.
0:21:17 She mobilized every family member who could walk.
0:21:19 And once they had organized what remained,
0:21:20 she announced,
0:21:22 we’re going to have the biggest fire cell.
0:21:24 We’re going to tell the customers the truth.
0:21:26 All this furniture downtown was in the fire.
0:21:27 If you want to buy it, buy it.
0:21:29 People lined up by the hundreds.
0:21:32 Adversity meant nothing to Rose Blumpkin.
0:21:33 According to her daughter,
0:21:34 my mother always says,
0:21:36 I’ve been through a revolution.
0:21:37 I’ve been through a war.
0:21:38 I survived that.
0:21:39 I’ll survive this.
0:21:39 Then she said,
0:21:41 we’ll just start again.
0:21:41 That’s all.
0:21:45 A normal individual would sit down and cry and say,
0:21:46 what am I going to do?
0:21:47 But not my mother.
0:21:52 So grateful was Rose to the firefighters who saved what they could save,
0:21:55 that she gave a television set to every fire station in the city.
0:22:00 A gesture that was both genuinely appreciative and strategically generated a lot of goodwill.
0:22:01 14 years later,
0:22:02 14 years later,
0:22:03 in May 1975,
0:22:08 catastrophe returned again when a tornado cut a quarter mile path through Omaha,
0:22:12 leveling an entire Nebraska furniture mart building and warehouse.
0:22:13 Yet again,
0:22:16 Rose turned disaster into opportunity.
0:22:19 The other location saw an increase in business as a result,
0:22:23 and they rebuilt the destroyed store on an even grander scale.
0:22:24 You know,
0:22:28 what separates outliers from others isn’t the absence of setbacks,
0:22:30 it’s how they respond to them.
0:22:34 Rose’s approach to catastrophe demonstrates a mindset we see repeatedly,
0:22:36 viewing disasters not as endings,
0:22:38 but as forced opportunities for reinvention.
0:22:43 She understood intuitively that customers respond to transparency and authenticity,
0:22:45 or even,
0:22:46 perhaps especially,
0:22:47 during a crisis.
0:22:50 By immediately announcing a fire sale rather than hiding the damage,
0:22:56 she transformed potential ruin into a marketing opportunity that deepened customer trust.
0:23:00 Rose possessed an extraordinary talent for judging character.
0:23:05 Just as she understood customers’ needs and how to draw them into a store,
0:23:08 she naturally identified great talent for Nebraska furniture mart.
0:23:10 When she found a good worker,
0:23:13 she viewed their entire family as potential assets.
0:23:14 Miss Tusha,
0:23:15 I know your family,
0:23:17 she said when approached about a son needing summer work.
0:23:19 If you tell me you’ve got a good boy,
0:23:19 send him in.
0:23:20 One employee,
0:23:21 Mr. Watson,
0:23:25 became legendary because all eight of his children eventually worked at the mart,
0:23:28 creating a mini dynasty of retail talent under Rose’s cultivation,
0:23:32 Nebraska furniture mart’s version of succession planning,
0:23:33 family by family.
0:23:34 Her standards,
0:23:35 however,
0:23:37 were unreasonable and inflexible.
0:23:40 Character was the only currency that mattered.
0:23:41 If an employee ignored a customer,
0:23:44 Rose would materialize out of nowhere with her verdict.
0:23:45 This is not for you.
0:23:47 No second chances,
0:23:49 no performance improvement plans,
0:23:51 and Rose’s world customer focus wasn’t taught.
0:23:53 It was either innate or absent.
0:23:56 Rose subverted conventional hiring wisdom.
0:23:58 When a college graduate sought employment,
0:23:59 her response was deadpan.
0:24:01 I won’t hold it against you.
0:24:04 She looked past the credentials straight to the character,
0:24:06 preferring street smarts over book learning,
0:24:07 hustle over pedigree.
0:24:09 She would also study shoppers,
0:24:10 their questions,
0:24:11 demeanor,
0:24:12 and sincerity,
0:24:14 and occasionally making an unexpected pivot.
0:24:15 You know something?
0:24:16 I like the questions you ask me.
0:24:17 How would you like a job?
0:24:21 A woman might enter seeking a bedroom set within a tight budget,
0:24:23 and leave with a position in sales.
0:24:26 Rose had inverted the entire interview process,
0:24:27 observing people in their natural state,
0:24:29 rather than the rehearsed interview persona.
0:24:32 Even with her children’s friends who distribute a flyer,
0:24:34 she tracked performance meticulously.
0:24:36 Don’t ever bring little Johnny to me again.
0:24:39 He took the flyers and threw them in the sewers,
0:24:39 she declared.
0:24:41 He can never work for me again.
0:24:42 The message was clear.
0:24:45 Character reveals itself in the smallest actions.
0:24:50 What’s worth pointing out here is how high her standards were.
0:24:51 From the outside looking in,
0:24:53 it kind of looks crazy,
0:24:54 however it works.
0:24:57 We grow up with a set of standards and belief that become our norm,
0:25:01 and it takes outliers with their unreasonably high standards
0:25:03 to show us what’s possible.
0:25:11 A 1977 newspaper profile captured her single-minded focus
0:25:13 better than any words I can write.
0:25:14 Here’s how it goes.
0:25:17 Favorite thing to do on a Sunday afternoon?
0:25:19 Visit with my customers at my store.
0:25:21 Favorite thing to do on a nice evening?
0:25:25 Drive around to check the competition and plan my next attack.
0:25:28 Favorite movie or book in the last year?
0:25:29 Too busy.
0:25:30 Don’t have time.
0:25:31 Favorite place?
0:25:32 My stores.
0:25:36 By the late 1970s, Rose was in her 80s.
0:25:39 While her body slowed, her mental acuity remained extraordinary.
0:25:43 Unable to walk the vast expanse of her main store,
0:25:45 which now covered three square city blocks,
0:25:46 on two floors,
0:25:49 she began driving a motorized cart through the aisles.
0:25:52 Her mathematical abilities bordered on supernatural.
0:25:54 She couldn’t read or write English,
0:25:58 but she could perform complex calculations instantly in her head.
0:26:01 Her grandson, Larry Batt, recalled at one point,
0:26:03 where a price was about to be decided,
0:26:06 a race would commence between her and a salesman with a calculator.
0:26:08 The salesman always lost.
0:26:15 In 1990, on ABC’s 2020, a reporter tested this ability as Rose zoomed around her scooter.
0:26:18 Say the carpet’s $12.95 a yard, and I want 30 yards.
0:26:19 How much is that?
0:26:22 $3.90, Rose replied in less than a second.
0:26:24 And if my room is 12 by 14, how many?
0:26:27 19 yards, she answered before he could finish.
0:26:30 She was 96 years old during that interview.
0:26:33 Her mental sharpness was matched by physical resilience.
0:26:37 At 97, she drove her cart into a metal post and broke her ankle,
0:26:41 but didn’t seek medical attention until the next day when she couldn’t stand up.
0:26:42 It was just a crack.
0:26:44 It didn’t hurt, she explained.
0:26:46 She returned to work the following day.
0:26:49 Fires, tornadoes, broken bones.
0:26:50 Nothing could get Ms. B down.
0:26:52 She was relentless.
0:26:57 This extreme work ethic both inspired and intimidated those around her.
0:27:01 When Warren Buffett quipped at a Berkshire Hathaway meeting that
0:27:03 he’d like to introduce Berkshire Hathaway’s managers,
0:27:07 except Ms. B couldn’t take the time off for foolishness like a shareholders meeting,
0:27:08 he was only half joking.
0:27:11 The lesson here is simple.
0:27:13 Focus is a superpower.
0:27:16 In an age of fractured attention and constant distraction,
0:27:22 Rose’s singular focus on her business created a depth of experience that her competitors couldn’t match.
0:27:25 Scattered energy destroys impact.
0:27:27 Discipline focus multiplies it.
0:27:31 Most people drift between multiple priorities, never fully committing.
0:27:35 She wasn’t just present in her business, she was immersed in it,
0:27:39 creating an advantage that manifested in everything from pricing to quality control.
0:27:44 Warren Buffett had known of Nebraska Furniture Merck for many years.
0:27:49 A lifelong Omaha resident, he admired the Blumpkins’ business savvy from afar.
0:27:53 In the late 1960s, he actually offered $7 million for the store,
0:27:56 an offer Rose dismissed immediately calling him cheap.
0:28:01 But on his 53rd birthday in 1983, Buffett returned with a new proposal,
0:28:04 $60 million for 90% of the company.
0:28:05 This time, Rose accepted.
0:28:09 What follows was characteristically unconventional.
0:28:10 They shook hands on the deal.
0:28:13 No lawyers, no audit, no inventory count.
0:28:16 They later put their agreement in writing in a one-page document.
0:28:20 The document mainly states that we shook hands, Buffett explained.
0:28:23 If she ran a popcorn stand, I’d want to be in business with her.
0:28:27 What did Buffett see in Rose’s operation that others missed?
0:28:31 Later, Buffett would elaborate on what he saw in Miss B’s business.
0:28:34 I’d rather wrestle Grizzlies than compete with Miss B.
0:28:36 They buy brilliantly.
0:28:40 They operate at expense ratios competitors don’t even dream about.
0:28:42 And they pass that on to the customers.
0:28:46 It’s the ideal business, one built upon exceptional value to the customer,
0:28:50 that in turn translates into exceptional economics for its owners.
0:28:53 He would elaborate a little bit more on this later.
0:28:56 First of all, A, she’s just plain smart.
0:28:58 B, she’s a fierce competitor.
0:29:00 C, she’s a tireless worker.
0:29:02 And D, she has a realistic attitude.
0:29:06 The deal embodied Buffett’s investment philosophy perfectly.
0:29:10 A simple business with honest management, sustainable competitive advantage,
0:29:12 and outstanding economics.
0:29:15 Nebraska Furniture Mart had all three in abundance.
0:29:21 For Rose then nearing 90, the sale was a way to avoid family conflict after her death.
0:29:25 She split the proceeds five ways between her four children and herself.
0:29:28 Her son, Louis, and his family subsequently bought back 10%,
0:29:31 making Berkshire’s final purchase price about $55 million.
0:29:34 In a press conference announcing the deal,
0:29:38 Rose called Mr. Buffett my hero alongside the middle class and the immigrants.
0:29:39 He’s a genius.
0:29:41 I respect him a lot.
0:29:44 He’s very honest, very plain, and his word is as good as gold.
0:29:47 I think there’s not another one in the city who is so gentle,
0:29:49 so nice, so honest, and so friendly.
0:29:53 This partnership between two utterly different personalities,
0:29:57 the university-educated investor from a comfortable middle-class background,
0:30:00 and the self-taught immigrant who couldn’t read English,
0:30:03 represents something profound about American business.
0:30:08 Despite their contrasting past, they recognized in each other the same fundamental values,
0:30:10 honesty, focus on customer value,
0:30:15 and an ability to cut through the complexity to the essential truth of a business proposition.
0:30:21 One thing that’s interesting here is how both Rose and Buffett prioritize character over credentials.
0:30:25 Buffett would later elaborate on the three things that he looks for in a person.
0:30:28 He would say, intelligence, energy, and integrity.
0:30:30 And Miss B had all three in spades.
0:30:32 Their handshake deal wasn’t reckless.
0:30:35 It was built on mutual recognition of integrity.
0:30:40 The business world often substitutes complex legal agreements for genuine trust.
0:30:44 But as I tell my kids, there’s no such thing as a good deal with someone you can’t trust.
0:30:46 You can’t make a good deal with a bad person.
0:30:50 When character is the foundation, trust becomes possible.
0:30:57 In May 1989, a workplace dispute led to one of the most remarkable second acts in American business history.
0:31:03 Rose, then 96, had a disagreement with her grandson who had taken over daily operations from their father.
0:31:09 Rose walked out of the store telling reporters she might be the first 96-year-old woman to start a business.
0:31:13 After briefly considering retirement, she opened Miss B’s warehouse
0:31:18 in a converted grocery distribution center directly across the street from the Nebraska Furniture Mart.
0:31:24 When ABC’s 2020 asked if she would ever retire, her answer was unequivocal.
0:31:28 No, I love to be with people and my customers are so wonderful people.
0:31:32 Asked if she would like to see Nebraska Furniture Mart go out of business,
0:31:35 her response was characteristically blunt.
0:31:36 I would.
0:31:38 It should go up in smoke.
0:31:40 I like they should go down to hell.
0:31:44 The shocking statement captured Rose’s black and white worldview.
0:31:50 There were no gray areas for her, only right and wrong, good and bad, friends and enemies.
0:31:54 As Buffett observed, everything Miss B knew how to do, she would do fast.
0:31:55 She didn’t hesitate.
0:31:56 There was no second guessing.
0:32:00 She’d buy 5,000 tables or sign a 30-year lease or buy real estate or hire people.
0:32:02 There was no looking back.
0:32:03 She just swung.
0:32:06 Fortunately, the family rift eventually healed.
0:32:12 In 1991, on her 98th birthday, Buffett brought roses and chocolates to Rose at her new workplace,
0:32:13 ending their two-year silence.
0:32:16 He’s a real gentleman, she conceded.
0:32:23 By 1993, at age 99, she had reconciled with her grandsons and sold Miss B’s Warehouse back
0:32:26 to Nebraska Furniture Mart for $4.94 million.
0:32:33 This time, Buffett made sure she signed a non-compete agreement lasting five years beyond her separation
0:32:33 from the company.
0:32:36 I thought she might go on forever, Buffett explained.
0:32:39 I needed five years beyond forever with her.
0:32:41 Rose admitted, maybe I was wrong.
0:32:42 Maybe I was too hard on them.
0:32:43 I’m very independent.
0:32:46 If things aren’t run the way I want it, I don’t like it.
0:32:46 I get mad.
0:32:52 What’s remarkable about this episode isn’t just the audacity of starting a competing business
0:32:58 at 96 and wanting to drive your kids and grandkids out of business, but how it reveals Rose’s
0:33:00 unwavering commitment to principle.
0:33:05 Most people soften their standards as they age, making compromises in the name of harmony,
0:33:06 not Rose.
0:33:10 She did not optimize her life around what other people thought of her.
0:33:12 Her outrage wasn’t about carpet pricing.
0:33:15 It was about violating a core belief that had guided her for decades.
0:33:21 Rose Blumpkin’s story offers us something increasingly rare in business narratives.
0:33:23 absolute clarity of purpose.
0:33:28 In our era of complex strategies, elaborate frameworks, and disruption-obsessed startups,
0:33:32 Ms. B’s approach feels almost revolutionary in its simplicity.
0:33:35 Sell cheap, tell the truth, don’t cheat the customer.
0:33:37 Three principles she took deadly serious.
0:33:42 She began with just $500 in a basement, couldn’t read English, survived a fire that destroyed half
0:33:48 of her store, rebuilt after a tornado flattened it entirely, and at 96 started a competing business
0:33:49 just to prove a point.
0:33:52 Through it all, her principles never wavered.
0:33:55 Charlie Munger once observed, to get what you want, you have to deserve what you want.
0:33:59 The world is not yet crazy enough place to reward a whole bunch of undeserving people.
0:34:05 Rose Blumpkin deserved her success because she created genuine value for her customers every
0:34:07 single day of her 80-year career.
0:34:09 She didn’t just claim to put them first.
0:34:13 She proved it with every transaction, every decision, and every interaction.
0:34:17 Researching this story, I was struck by how she described her customers.
0:34:19 She never said they bought from her.
0:34:21 Instead, she repeatedly said they loaned her money.
0:34:24 This subtle phrasing reveals her unique perspective.
0:34:29 Transactions weren’t mere exchanges, but relationships built on trust and obligation.
0:34:35 Her customers were investing in her, and she felt obligated to give them a return on that investment.
0:34:38 Remember how Rose navigated obstacles.
0:34:41 When wholesalers wouldn’t sell to her, she became the best bootlegger in town.
0:34:45 When competitors sued her, she turned the publicity into increased sales.
0:34:49 When catastrophe struck, she reopened immediately rather than waiting.
0:34:53 When she lacked formal education, she relied on her mathematical brilliance.
0:34:57 When she could no longer walk her store, she zoomed through it on a motorized cart.
0:35:01 With each challenge, she demonstrated the advantages of bouncing and not breaking.
0:35:09 Today, Nebraska Furniture Mart spans 77 acres in Omaha with a million square feet of retail
0:35:10 and warehouse space.
0:35:13 The company has expanded to Iowa, Kansas, and Texas.
0:35:15 Miss B’s likeness appears throughout the stores.
0:35:18 And her grandson, Robert Batt, says simply,
0:35:22 My grandmother is still the front man of Nebraska Furniture Mart.
0:35:23 She’s the symbol of the company.
0:35:27 Rose Blumpkin’s lifespan from Tsarist Russia to the digital age.
0:35:30 She witnessed two world wars, survived the Great Depression,
0:35:33 and saw the complete transformation of the retail industry.
0:35:36 Through it all, she remained steadfast in her core beliefs.
0:35:39 If you want to work hard and tell the truth and sell cheap,
0:35:40 she said near the end of her life,
0:35:42 you can make a success.
0:35:45 Anybody who lies and cheats around people don’t get anywhere.
0:35:49 In our complex age, there’s something profoundly refreshing about such clarity.
0:35:52 That’s the greatest lesson from this immigrant who built an empire.
0:35:55 Success doesn’t just have to be complicated.
0:35:56 It just has to be earned.
0:35:59 And when Warren Buffett, the world’s greatest investor,
0:36:01 was asked about Rose after her death,
0:36:02 he said simply,
0:36:03 We were partners.
0:36:06 And in most ways, she was the senior partner.
0:36:08 She’s forgotten more than I’ll ever know.
0:36:17 Okay, let’s talk about a few afterthoughts before we get into the lessons here.
0:36:19 One, what a force.
0:36:21 Rose was unstoppable.
0:36:24 In fact, she reminds me a lot of Estee Lauder.
0:36:27 Remember the story when she went to Chicago’s Merchandise Mart,
0:36:29 and they refused to sell to her
0:36:32 because her competitors were telling the wholesalers not to sell to her.
0:36:33 And she’s like,
0:36:37 One day, you’ll come in my store, and I will refuse to sell to you.
0:36:41 And it’s that sort of chip that just stays with you.
0:36:44 And it reminded me of the Estee Lauder story.
0:36:46 Remember at the beginning in 218,
0:36:49 where she asked the woman where she got the blouse,
0:36:51 and the woman responded with,
0:36:52 It doesn’t matter.
0:36:53 You’ll never be able to afford it.
0:36:55 And in both cases,
0:36:58 these remarkable women turn that slight into fuel.
0:37:01 The fuel that puts a chip on your shoulder,
0:37:02 the fuel that never burns out.
0:37:05 For anybody who’s ever been discounted,
0:37:08 anybody who’s ever felt a chip on their shoulder,
0:37:11 anybody who’s ever been overlooked or slighted,
0:37:12 they remember these things.
0:37:14 And that fuel never goes out.
0:37:15 And the fuel,
0:37:17 people say you shouldn’t be driven by this,
0:37:19 but it really drives a lot of outliers.
0:37:20 You think of Tom Brady.
0:37:23 Tom Brady is one of my favorite examples of this.
0:37:26 And he has so many of these sort of like little moments,
0:37:27 these little slights.
0:37:29 So Tom Brady,
0:37:31 it’s his senior year.
0:37:32 It’s Autograph Day.
0:37:33 There’s this kid,
0:37:34 Drew Hudson,
0:37:35 I think his name was,
0:37:37 that they brought on to play after Tom Brady.
0:37:41 And Drew was like this all-American,
0:37:42 five-star recruit.
0:37:45 Everybody wanted Drew to be successful.
0:37:49 And Tom Brady is just like overlooked.
0:37:51 He’s just the placeholder until Drew can start.
0:37:53 But on Autograph Day,
0:37:55 Tom Brady’s standing in this tunnel.
0:37:59 And he’s watching the lineup of people.
0:38:02 And they’re all lined up for Drew.
0:38:03 They all want Drew’s signature.
0:38:06 Drew hasn’t done anything at this point.
0:38:09 And Brady’s just standing there watching all these people.
0:38:10 And he’s seething.
0:38:13 It’s like burning inside of him.
0:38:14 And his friend’s like,
0:38:14 come on, let’s go.
0:38:15 And Brady says,
0:38:17 no, I want to watch this.
0:38:19 And he just stands there and watches.
0:38:21 And it gets etched into his mind.
0:38:21 And then, you know,
0:38:22 he gets drafted.
0:38:23 What was it?
0:38:24 96 overall.
0:38:27 And every one of these slights,
0:38:30 you bet your bottom dollar he remembers.
0:38:31 And it fueled him.
0:38:33 And when he didn’t want to work out,
0:38:34 he thought about it.
0:38:35 When he didn’t want to get out of bed and practice,
0:38:36 he thought about it.
0:38:38 And when he had a bad game,
0:38:39 he thought about it.
0:38:41 And it fueled him and pushed him further.
0:38:43 Michael Jordan was the exact same way.
0:38:47 He would even antagonize his opponents
0:38:48 into saying something
0:38:51 or manufacture things that they did say
0:38:52 if they wouldn’t say anything
0:38:55 just to give him an extra edge.
0:38:57 I think it’s worth thinking about that stuff.
0:38:59 And you have to think about
0:39:01 the episode I did with Brent Beshore,
0:39:03 whether this is dirty fuel
0:39:06 or clean fuel for you and your situation.
0:39:08 But it’s definitely something
0:39:08 that I think about a lot.
0:39:12 Okay, let’s get into some of the lessons
0:39:14 we can take away from Rose Bumpkin.
0:39:17 Number one, a taste for salt water.
0:39:18 What separates exceptional people
0:39:21 is their capacity to endure discomfort.
0:39:23 Rose walked barefoot for 18 miles
0:39:26 at the age of 13 to save her only pair of shoes.
0:39:28 Later, she opened a furniture store
0:39:29 during a depression.
0:39:32 She rebuilt after a fire gutted half of her building.
0:39:34 She came to work the day
0:39:36 after breaking her ankle at 97.
0:39:38 Most people avoid pain.
0:39:40 Outliers work through it.
0:39:42 Number two, high agency.
0:39:44 Most people see circumstances as fixed.
0:39:46 High agency people see them as variables.
0:39:48 When depression era customers
0:39:49 couldn’t afford shotguns,
0:39:51 Rose didn’t complain about the economy.
0:39:53 She created a rental program overnight.
0:39:55 The line stretched around the block
0:39:55 the next morning.
0:39:58 High agency isn’t magical thinking.
0:40:01 It’s the refusal to accept artificial constraints.
0:40:04 Three, bias towards action.
0:40:07 While average performers wait for perfect conditions,
0:40:08 exceptional ones create momentum
0:40:10 through immediate action.
0:40:11 After a devastating fire,
0:40:13 Rose didn’t wait for the dust to settle.
0:40:14 Instead, she said,
0:40:15 we’re opening tomorrow
0:40:19 and turned that disaster into a successful sale.
0:40:21 When business slowed during the Korean War,
0:40:23 she rented the city auditorium
0:40:27 and cleared $250,000 in a three-day sale.
0:40:31 Action creates options that passivity never discovers.
0:40:34 When wholesalers refused to sell to Rose
0:40:35 calling her bootlegger,
0:40:36 she embraced it.
0:40:36 You betcha,
0:40:38 and I’m the best bootlegger in town.
0:40:40 And she found backdoor suppliers.
0:40:41 When competitors sued her,
0:40:44 she turned the courtroom into free advertising.
0:40:46 Resilience isn’t about avoiding knockdowns.
0:40:49 It’s about how you use them as launching pads.
0:40:51 Five, dark hours.
0:40:54 Excellence happens when nobody’s watching.
0:40:58 Rose cleaned stores before dawn as a teenager.
0:41:01 She inspected every carpet shipment personally into her 90s.
0:41:04 Remember, she detected yarn theft at a mill supplier
0:41:06 just by feeling the carpet,
0:41:07 and it was slightly underweight.
0:41:09 The public sees the outcome,
0:41:10 but never the work.
0:41:13 Six, your reputation is the room.
0:41:15 Rose understood that your reputation creates opportunities
0:41:18 before you even enter the conversation.
0:41:21 Military officers stationed across the world
0:41:22 would buy furniture unseen
0:41:24 because Miss B doesn’t lie.
0:41:27 A judge who ruled in her favor bought carpet the next day.
0:41:29 Your reputation isn’t what you claim.
0:41:31 Rather, it’s the collective experience
0:41:32 that others have of you,
0:41:35 and it determines which rooms you walk into.
0:41:38 Seven, choose the right co-pilot.
0:41:40 Partnerships are forced multipliers.
0:41:42 Isidore balanced Rose’s intensity
0:41:44 with steady customer service principles.
0:41:47 Warren Buffett bought her business on a handshake
0:41:47 with no audit
0:41:50 because character recognition works both ways.
0:41:53 The right partners don’t just add to your strengths,
0:41:54 they compensate for your weaknesses
0:41:56 while amplifying your impact.
0:41:58 Eight, it takes what it takes.
0:42:00 Every exceptional achievement
0:42:02 has a non-negotiable price.
0:42:07 Rose worked 12-hour days from 13 until 103,
0:42:09 calling her work her narcotic.
0:42:12 At a luncheon honoring her,
0:42:15 she stood up at 1.15 and announced,
0:42:16 what’s wrong with you people?
0:42:17 Don’t you have jobs?
0:42:18 I’m going back to work.
0:42:21 Ordinary results come from ordinary effort.
0:42:24 Extraordinary results demand unreasonable commitment.
0:42:27 Number nine, focus is a superpower.
0:42:29 In today’s fractured attention economy,
0:42:31 Rose’s single-minded concentration
0:42:32 would be her greatest advantage.
0:42:35 She had one tab open, her business,
0:42:37 while her competitors scattered their attention
0:42:38 across multiple priorities.
0:42:41 This wasn’t mere workaholism,
0:42:43 it was the elimination of distractions,
0:42:45 creating depth of knowledge
0:42:47 that no competitor could match.
0:42:49 Simple scales, fancy fails.
0:42:52 Rose’s entire business philosophy
0:42:53 fit on an index card.
0:42:54 Sell cheap, tell the truth,
0:42:56 don’t cheat the customers.
0:42:58 While competitors built complex systems
0:42:59 and layers of management,
0:43:01 her straightforward approach
0:43:02 eliminated friction.
0:43:04 Complex businesses move slowly,
0:43:07 simple ones can scale with less overhead
0:43:08 and fewer bottlenecks.
0:43:10 I hope you really enjoyed
0:43:11 learning about Rose Blumpkin.
0:43:13 She’s a tremendous force,
0:43:14 a great story,
0:43:15 and I hope she inspires you
0:43:17 as much as she inspired me.
0:43:29 Thanks for listening and learning with us.
0:43:30 And be sure to sign up
0:43:31 for my free weekly newsletter
0:43:33 at fs.blog slash newsletter.
0:43:35 I hope you enjoyed my reflections
0:43:37 at the end of this episode.
0:43:39 That’s normally reserved for members.
0:43:40 But with this Outliers series,
0:43:43 I wanted to make them available to everyone.
0:43:44 The Farnam Street website
0:43:46 is where you can get more info
0:43:47 on our membership program,
0:43:49 which includes access
0:43:50 to episode transcripts,
0:43:52 reflections for all episodes,
0:43:54 my updated repository
0:43:55 featuring highlights
0:43:57 from the books used in this series,
0:43:58 and more.
0:44:00 Plus, be sure to follow myself
0:44:00 and Farnam Street
0:44:03 on X, Instagram, and LinkedIn.
0:44:04 If you like what we’re doing here,
0:44:06 leaving a rating and review
0:44:07 would mean the world.
0:44:08 And if you really like us,
0:44:09 sharing with a friend
0:44:10 is the best way
0:44:11 to grow this special series.
0:44:12 Until next time.
Rose Blumkin didn’t just build a business. She revolutionized retail. After fleeing Russia with $66 in her purse, she opened a basement furniture store in Omaha at 43 years old—with no English, no education, and no connections. Her formula? Sell cheap, tell the truth, don’t cheat the customer. Nebraska Furniture Mart would survive depressions, fires, lawsuits, tornadoes—and eventually become a billion-dollar empire Warren Buffett called “the ideal business.”
Learn how Mrs. B’s relentless focus, radical simplicity, and unbreakable work ethic built an empire from scratch—and what her story teaches us about business, resilience, and the power of earned trust.
This episode is for informational purposes only and most of the research came from “Women of Berkshire Hathaway” and oral history interviews with Rose Blumkin and her daughter Frances.
(03:20 ) PART 1: Early Childhood
(07:10) A Natural Entrepreneur
(09:37) PART 2: Building an Empire
(12:53) The Competition
(15:54) The Passing of Isadore
(18:32) Expansion through Hardship
(20:32) Natural Instinct for Character
(25:15) PART 3: The $60m Handshake / The Buffett Connection
(28:25) A Rebel at 96
(33:47) Reflections, afterthoughts, and lessons
Thanks to our sponsors for supporting this episode:
MOMENTOUS: Head to livemomentous.com and use code KNOWLEDGEPROJECT for 35% off your first subscription.
NOTION MAIL: Get Notion Mail for free right now at notion.com/knowledgeproject
Check out highlights from this books in our repository, and find key lessons from Blumkin here — fs.blog/knowledge-project-podcast/outliers-rose-blumkin
Upgrade — If you want to hear my thoughts and reflections at the end of all episodes, join our membership: fs.blog/membership and get your own private feed.
Newsletter — The Brain Food newsletter delivers actionable insights and thoughtful ideas every Sunday. It takes 5 minutes to read, and it’s completely free. Learn more and sign up at fs.blog/newsletter
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices