Mrs. B: a businesswoman with 90 years of experience (6 photos)

What does it take to build a successful business? A lot: and education, and start-up capital, and time, and desire, and much more. But this woman proved that aspiration alone is enough.





Rosa Gorelik was born in 1893 in a tiny village near Minsk. And from a young age she dreamed of escaping poverty and going to USA. Why go there? Apparently, out of a desire to at least slightly improve their lives.



And a teenage girl can be understood, because she had to huddle in two rooms of a fragile wooden house with their parents and seven brothers and sisters. She helped her mother in the grocery store from the age of 6. Therefore, at 13 she was quite an accomplished and experienced seller. So she told every owner of a shop in Gomel, where she had fled to looking for a better life. In the end, one of them believed the girl. And for good reason: she started so successfully that by the age of 16 she was already running a shop fabrics and a team of 6 adult men.

At the age of 20, the girl became the wife of a local shoe seller, Isadore. Blumkin. The situation in the country was restless, the First world. And the couple decided to move to the USA. We moved for a long time, because There was only enough money for one ticket. Isadore left first, and Rosa joined him only three years later.





The couple settled in Omaha, a city with a lot of immigrants. Blumkin opened a small shop, his wife took care of the house and two children. But then the Great Depression hit. And the woman too joined the business, offering her husband to make low prices a signature chip to attract buyers.

We started with clothes and little things. Then we moved on to furniture because there was a consistently high demand for it. And soon about the little "Mrs. B" (literally small, since the woman's height was only 120 centimeters) was recognized by the whole country.



"Sell cheap and don't cheat" is the motto guided by Rose. In 1950, her husband died. And the main son Louis became an assistant. By the 80s, the family had acquired the largest furniture store in North America. And its turnovers were about 100 million dollars a year.

It is clear that small competitors could not resist such titans of the market and left. Of course, they tried to apply the discount method and other sellers. But mother and son invariably found the best ways make prices even lower and outperform competitors.

Rose rushed through the store like a small hurricane. But age made itself felt, health problems began. The woman had both replaced knee, and she switched to go-karts, which are used on the golf course.



With Buffett

In 1983, it was decided to sell the family business. Deal became unique in its kind. After all, there was no team of lawyers on it, no financiers, no auditors, no insurers. Representative Berkshire Hathaway's acquiring billionaire Warren Buffett is simply gave Rosa a check for $45 million. They shook hands. And that's it.

Children and grandchildren stayed to work for Buffett - he wanted and continue to use the name Blumkin, as it has become a brand and symbol honesty. I must say that the iron business lady is pretty terrorized her sons and grandchildren, not to mention her employees. She demanded to give all the best, investing all her time and entire life resource. How did you do it yourself.

Buffett was brought in to arbitrate these disputes. But he preferred not to interfere in family disassembly. And finally, Mrs. Bee pouted like a mouse on rump at the grandchildren who canceled some of her deals, and in retaliation… opened a store across the street from the mall and became slowly win over customers.



Louis could not stand it and asked his mother to unite instead of to compete. And don't do nonsense. Blumkin returned to the department and led the sales of carpets until, for a minute, up to 103 years! She retired only a year before her death.

During her life she raised four children, built trading empire, but at the same time did not really learn English. Financial and other documents did not particularly study and did not understand. Rose I never went to school, but I calmly multiplied in my mind double digits and understood the very nature of businessand its essence.

"Mrs. B" has gone down in history as a business legend, a queen retail and the standard of crystal honesty and incredible diligence.