“ If everybody is doing it one way, there's a good chance you can find your niche by going exactly in the opposite direction. Sam Walton
“ I learned early on that one of the secrets of campus leadership was the simplest thing of all: speak to people coming down the sidewalk before they speak to you. I would always look ahead and speak to… Sam Walton
“ I learned this early on in the variety business: You've got to give folks responsibility, you've got to trust them, and then you've got to check on them. Sam Walton
“ There is only one boss. The customer. And he can fire everybody in the company from the chairman on down, simply by spending his money somewhere else. Sam Walton
“ INEZ THREET, CLERK, WALTON’S FIVE AND DIME, BENTONVILLE: I guess Mr. Walton just had a personality that drew people in. He would yell at you from a block away, you know. He would just yell at everybod… Sam Walton
“ Actually, during this whole early period, Wal-Mart was too small and insignificant for any of the big boys to notice, and most of the promoters weren’t out in our area so we weren’t competitive. That… Sam Walton
“ Our main real estate effort should be directed at getting out in front of expansion and letting the population build out to us. Just like in the beginning, we start around these small towns, people dr… Sam Walton
“ If American business is going to prevail, and be competitive, we’re going to have to get accustomed to the idea that business conditions change, and that survivors have to adapt to those changing cond… Sam Walton
“ I made up my mind I was going to learn something about IBM computers. So I enrolled in an IBM school for retailers in Poughkeepsie, New York. One of the speakers was a guy from the National Mass Retai… Sam Walton
“ The two most important words I ever wrote were on that first Wal-Mart sign: Satisfaction Guaranteed. They’re still up there, and they have made all the difference. Sam Walton
“ I remember him saying over and over again: go in and check our competition. Check everyone who is our competition. And don’t look for the bad. Look for the good. If you get one good idea, that’s one m… Sam Walton
“ Here’s the thing: money never has meant that much to me, not even in the sense of keeping score. If we had enough groceries, and a nice place to live, plenty of room to keep and feed my bird dogs, a p… Sam Walton
“ The larger truth that I failed to see turned out to be another of those paradoxes—like the discounters’ principle of the less you charge, the more you’ll earn. And here it is: the more you share profi… Sam Walton
