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  • 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 youre doing right and wrong.

  • Now I can say that weve 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 weve 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.

Well, here it is.

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