The Women of Berkshire Hathaway

Grinder

Rose Blumkin became the first-ever female Berkshire Hathaway manager when Nebraska Furniture Mart was acquired by Berkshire Hathaway in 1983. Rose was just shy of 90 years old at the time and still working 60-plus hours per week in the store. You would assume that this change in ownership would signal retirement for Rose, Chairman of the Board of “the Mart,” but she still worked for more than a decade longer, 12 to 14 hours each day, seven days a week, until she reached age 103.

Like most people who love what they do, she did not do it for the money! You could not pay her to stop. She worked until the day she died because she absolutely loved it.

With her children grown and out of the house, Mrs. B devoted her entire existence to growing Nebraska Furniture Mart. She loved the game of selling. She didn’t care a bit about the money; it was all about making a sale. As one of the Mart’s sales associates said, “Work was her narcotic.”

I find this to be the case for a lot of the “late” bloomers. Estee Lauder famously only started her business after her children grew up as well.

Mrs. B had a passion for work. Success was already hers by the mid-1950s. She could have quit working at any time, letting Louis and other members of the family run the business, but the simple action of going to work and being productive kept her interested in life and energized.

More proof she obviously wasn’t doing this for the money.

“When I was poor, I wanted [things], sure. I was ambitious,” she said. “I always wanted my kids should have what I didn’t have, and I wanted to show poor people there is a future in life. Even if you don’t have money, if you try, you could have it. I only had ambition, that’s all. Money doesn’t bother me. I don’t get thrill out of money.”

The phrase “love of the game” wasn’t invented, but it’s obviously what she’s saying.

Favorite thing to do on a Sunday afternoon: Visit with customers at my store. Favorite thing to do on a nice evening: Drive around to check the competition and plan my next attack. Favorite movie in the last year: Too busy. Favorite book in the last year: Don’t have time. Favorite dessert: Fresh fruit. Favorite cocktail: None. Drinkers go broke. If you want to be in business, be sober. Favorite singer: Beverly Sills. Favorite sport in which you take part: Not interested. Pet peeve: Deadbeats. Favorite TV show: 60 Minutes. Favorite place: My stores. What one thing most needs to be done, either locally or in our state or nation: Clean out all the lazy ones. There are plenty of jobs for those who want to work. Unemployment payments should be only for the sick and elderly.

At one point a local newspaper has her fill out a questionaire for a local celebrities piece. There is no better illustration of her personality than this. An absolute killer who is obsessed with her craft.

Mrs. B was able to stretch out time and delay aging by keeping busy doing what she loved. But eventually her legs threatened to force her to slow down. Rather than accept that, Mrs. B started driving a motorized cart in the store.

I love it! Never takes no for answer.

One day in 1990, Mrs. B drove her cart into a metal post and broke her ankle. “I got mad. I drove the cart too fast and I drove into a post.” She didn’t go to the hospital until the next day when she couldn’t stand up. “It was just a crack, it didn’t hurt.” She was back at work the next day.34 The next year she took a corner with too much speed and turned the cart completely over, gashing her head on a grandfather clock. The wound required several stitches, yet she was back in the store two hours later.

There’s just story after story like this. Just hours after getting stitches she’s back to work.

Rose began retailing right out of the Blumkin home with home furnishings and accessories. This practice continued throughout her lifetime. Visitors to the Blumkin’s house would admire the furniture with attached price tags and lampshades still covered in plastic wrap. If a guest expressed interest in a piece, it was available for sale.

It’s funny how similar all these great entrepreneurs are. This is the exact same thing Larry Gogosian used to do! Everything in his house was for sale.

Mrs. B and Feminism

Mrs. B thrived in an era of what would now be considered a “harsh” management style. She was tough, but earned respect from her employees and the community alike.

One of the great ironies of this book is that Mrs. B so obviously subverts the purported agenda. This book is a focus piece on how women can get ahead in the modern workplace and be CEO’s, but Mrs. B holds so clearly illiberal and “outdated” ideas!

Mrs. B had a rule for the female members of her own family: None of her daughters would work in the business. Only her son, Louie, and her sons-in-law were allowed to work at the store. This was based on Mrs. B’s theory of how to preserve healthy marriages and the rule has been followed by the grandchildren as well. The company’s current board of directors consists of Warren Buffett and a few male members of the family.

She forbids her daughters from owning the business, even though she herself owned the business. She is extremely harsh and masculine. And perhaps most importantly, she does not believe in the modern discrimination agenda! She never viewed herself as having been discriminated against in the first place.

Rose left home at age 13, walking barefoot for 18 miles to preserve the soles of her shoes.

This is a hard woman who had a harsh childhood. She grew up seeing how brutally hard her mother had to work just to get by.

As a child, she once woke up in the middle of the night and saw her mother washing clothes and baking bread for the next day. Young Rose said, “When I grow up you’re not going to work so hard. I can’t stand it, the way you work day and night.”

Rose went from shop to shop looking for a job and a place to stay. “You’re a kid,” one store owner said. “I’m not a beggar,” Rose shot back. With only four cents in her pocket, she asked to sleep in the house that night. “Tomorrow I go to work,” she said. The owner relented and Rose got up before dawn the next morning and cleaned the store. She stayed, becoming manager of the store and overseeing the work of six married men by the age of 16.

She wakes up before dawn the day after walking 18 miles. Assuming a rather quick pace, that’s a six hour walk.

“I had no passport. At the China-Russia frontier a soldier was standing guard with a rifle. I said to him ‘I am on the way to buy leather for the Army. When I come back I’ll bring you a big bottle of vodka.’ I suppose he’s still there waiting for his vodka,” she laughed.

She smuggles her way into America - she’s extremely resourceful.

“The Depression came and my husband came home and said, ‘We’ll starve to death. Nobody walks in. What will we do?’ I already had my four children—in 1930.” Often, Isadore would sell clothing at the same price he had paid for it. He didn’t understand how to make a profit. Rose would teach him about overhead costs. “Well, there’s only one thing to do,” she said. “You buy a pair of shoes for $3, sell them for $3.30. Let’s sell 10 [percent] over cost and I’ll come to the store and show you and help you because I did build a big business in Russia for my boss and I knew business.”

This is the type of woman who rolls her eyes at you if you complain during the Depression. Is this really the person you think is going to support some great feminist movement? You think this person would have given you sympathy if you complained about not being able to achieve everything you set out to do because of some mysterious patriarchy?

Mrs. B was once asked if she believed she had had a tougher time succeeding because she was a woman. “Me? No, sir,” she answered. “When it comes to business, I could beat any man and any college graduate. I mean I use my own common sense. That’s what I use for business, for anything. There is plenty dumb women, and there’s plenty of people who use their common sense. It didn’t stay in my way one bit.”

And her opinion of these complaining women was not good.

Her opinion of women in 1970 was along the lines of her contemporary male business owners and managers. “I wish I could find some women who want to work. They have all kinds of excuses. One day they come in and the next day you don’t see them.”

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This book is mostly a skip in my opinion - except for the very first chapter about Rose Blumkin. I’ve decided to skip my highlights on all other chapters and focus on that one alone for this book.