Well, here it is.
This is it.
The Nebraska Furniture Mart.
A legend.
So how did this all get started?
It got started by a woman. Her name was Rose Blumkin.
She came to the country in 1917.
When she got to be 89 she decided she was going to sell the store and there were some other people interested,
and she said no, I’m going to sell to Mr. Buffett.
She lived to 104, when she got to be 103, she retired of it.
I just wish Mrs. B was around to see this today.
Yeah, how well it’s done. It’s mind blowing.
So this is July 5, 1991.
We didn’t know why we were meeting each other until we met each other.
Exactly.
We thought our domains did not overlap.
Right.
But the domain of trying to understand how the world works and what was going on,
we both found each other's way of looking at that so fascinating
that they had to tear us apart and we became close friends as of that day.
My real vocational goal was to be a mattress tester. I thought that would be a terrific job.
I'd just test mattresses all day. But I never got that, but they did name a mattress after me,
the Warren.
Well there we go. Pretty nice.
Can you imagine? I mean this is the way to spend your time.
Wow. I think this is better than the mattress I sleep on.
I wouldn’t fool around with computers when I could be in this position.
Can you remember buying your first mattress, Warren?
Well, I didn’t do very much of the purchasing in our family.
I can't recall ever buying anything actually.
Check this man’s credit. See if he’s good.
Being successful at almost anything means having a passion for it.
If you see somebody with even reasonable intelligence and a terrific passion for what they do
and who can get people around them to march even when those people can’t see over the top of the next hill.
Things are going to happen.
Building Microsoft was incredibly fun, and because we were right about software we had the wind at our back.
So when I got into philanthropy, the idea of could I do it twice,
and in an area where the feedback isn’t quite as obvious as what you’re doing right and wrong.
Now I can say that we’ve got this organization that is so much fun to be a part of.
So it’s not only a great organization
but it’s got these metrics that at least on some of them we’ve exceeded our own expectations.
How do we get out of here?
Well, we don't want you to get out of here.
It’s well designed in that respect.
It’s like a casino.
Let me get oriented now.
The truth is I don’t know where we are.