Quotes from Sam Walton


Sorted by Popularity


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.


I don't know what would have happened to Wal-Mart if we had laid low and never stirred up the competition. My guess is that we would have remained a strictly regional operator.


What am I supposed to haul my dogs around in, a Rolls-Royce?


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


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


I had to pick myself up and get on with it, do it all over again, only even better this time.


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


I've never been one to dwell on reverses.


Appreciate everything your associates do for the business.


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


Loosen up, and everybody around you will loosen up.


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


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


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.


Exceed your customer's expectations. If you do, they'll come back over and over. Give them what they want - and a little more.


One person seeking glory doesn't accomplish very much.


I got into retailing because I wanted a real job.


Nothing else can quite substitute for a few well-chosen, well-timed, sincere words of praise. They're absolutely free and worth a fortune.


Capital isn't scarce; vision is.


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.