Shane Parrish

Blue Ribbon has been kicked out of multiple banks for being too leveraged.

Nobody wants to touch them.

By 1970, the company is legally insolvent.

They have zero cash and the banks are getting hostile.

A shipment of shoes is sitting on the docks and it needs to be paid for.

In every meaningful sense, they're finished.

And then Bob Whittle rolls into Knight's office.

Whittle, the man in the wheelchair who runs operations, tells Knight that his parents want to lend the company their life savings, $5,000 with no interest.

Knight is stunned.

He drives to the Woodall house and sits with Bob's parents.

And he can see, looking at this modest home, that these people are not rich.

$5,000 is a lot of their savings.

He knows that taking this check is reckless.

If the company fails, he will have destroyed the retirement of the parents of one of his most loyal employees.

He doesn't want to take their money, but he has no choice.

And then they ask if he needs more.

They have another $3,000.

It'll drain their savings to zero, but they'll do it.

And Knight says, yes, he has to.

As he walks out the door, check in hand, he asks Miss Woodall why she's doing this.