Live Episode! The Home Depot: Arthur Blank

How I Built This with Guy Raz

Guy Raz | Wondery

Business

4.8 • 31.1K Ratings

🗓️ 28 December 2017

⏱️ 34 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In 1978, Arthur Blank and his business partner Bernie Marcus were running a successful chain of hardware stores called Handy Dan – but then, they were unexpectedly fired. The next year, they conceived and launched a new kind of home improvement store that flopped on opening day, but went on to become one of the biggest private employers in the U.S. The Home Depot now earns annual revenue of almost $100 billion. Recorded live in Atlanta. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, Prime Members, you can listen to how I built this early and ad-free on Amazon Music.
0:07.0	Download the app today.
0:09.0	New Year's is here, and with it brings the possibility of change.
0:13.0	As one behavioral scientist put it, first starts are really powerful.
0:17.0	So as you head into 2023, LifeKit is a great resource to help you plan your life and tackle changes, both big and small.
0:24.0	Listen to the LifeKit podcast from NPR.
0:31.0	You open the doors to Home Depot and is there just a mad rush of people to come in?
0:37.0	Not as expected.
0:40.0	That would be a mile statement.
0:42.0	So we agreed.
0:44.0	We weren't going to talk to each other in the morning.
0:46.0	Open up the two stores and my three older children, they were each given $500.
0:53.0	$500, $1 in $1 bills.
0:56.0	So at six o'clock a night, they were standing in front of the store, still handing out $1 bills.
1:00.0	So we had this grand opening and nobody came.
1:08.0	From NPR, it's how I built this.
1:10.0	A show about innovators, entrepreneurs, idealists, and the stories behind the movements they built.
1:16.0	I'm Guy Ross and on this special live episode, when Arthur Blank got fired from his corporate job in his mid-30s,
1:29.0	within Wallow and South Piddy, he got revenge by building a business plan for a new company, the Home Depot.
1:36.0	So back in 1979, when Home Depot opened its first store in Atlanta, there were of course other hardware stores.
1:48.0	But at the time, there was nothing quite like Home Depot for starters.
1:52.0	It was huge, almost twice as big as its competitors.
	...

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