One Unbelievably Tough Entrepreneur

Rose founded her furniture store in Omaha in 1937 at the age of 43. It was acquired by Warren Buffett in 1983 for $60 million.

Rose could barely read or write.

She escaped extreme poverty in Minsk, Russia by walking barefoot for 18 miles to get to a train. She stowed away on the train and got off 300 miles away at a small town near the Ukrainian border. At the age of 13.

After working her way up to manager of a store, she thought she had achieved some security. She was wrong.

She found herself situated in the Eastern Front of World War 1. She saved up her money and fled to the United States.

When Rose got to America, she had $66 in her purse. After finding her husband had been settled in Omaha, she went there to reunite and restart her life.

She opened her furniture store in a basement.

Within a few years, her competition was attempting to block her suppliers from doing business with her because she kept her prices ‘too low’ to compete fairly.

This was nothing to Rose. She’d overcome far greater difficulties.

She eventually defeated all of her competitors and hung newspaper clippings announcing their bankruptcy on the walls of her office.

By the time Buffett came to buy her business, Rose was just shy of 90 years old.

You would assume that this change in ownership would signal retirement for Rose, but she still worked for more than a decade longer, 12 to 14 hours a day, 7 days a week until she reached the age of 103.

If you have 10% of Rose Blumkin’s grit, work ethic, and drive, you’ll be just fine.

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