Sam Walton

“Give ordinary folk the chance to buy the same things as rich people.”

“We let folks know we're interested in them and that they're vital to us. cause they are.”

“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.”

“Each Wal-Mart store should reflect the values of its customers and support the vision they hold for their community.”

“In the beginning, I was so chintzy I really didn't pay my employees well.”

“Celebrate your successes. Find some humor in your failures.”

“Maybe I was born to be a merchant, maybe it was fate. I don't know about that. But I know this for sure: I loved retail from the very beginning.”

“The way management treats associates is exactly how the associates will treat the customers.”

“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 the person coming toward me. If I knew them I would call them by name, but even if I didn't I would still speak to them.”

“All of us profit from being corrected - if we're corrected in a positive way.”

“Most of us don't invent ideas. We take the best ideas from someone else.”

“Swim upstream. Go the other way. Ignore the conventional wisdom.”

“The key to success is to get out into the store and listen to what the associates have to say.”

“Control your expenses better than your competition. This is where you can always find the competitive advantage.”

“Share your profits with all your associates, and treat them as partners. In turn, they will treat you as a partner, and together you will all perform beyond your wildest expectations.”

“I probably have traveled and walked into more variety stores than anybody in America.”

“We're all working together; that's the secret.”

“I have always been driven to buck the system, to innovate, to take things beyond where they've been.”

“I've never been one to dwell on reverses.”

“If you love your work, you'll be out there every day trying to do it the best you possibly can, and pretty soon everybody around will catch the passion from you - like a fever.”