Be candid with everyone.

If you're a leader and you're the smartest guy in the world - in the room, you've got real problems.

A company has only so much money and managerial time. Winning leaders invest where the payback is the highest. They cut their losses everywhere else.

What business could be mature when you have economies with more than 2 billion people in India, China and Southeast Asia?

We've only been wealthy in this country for 70 years. Who said we ought to have all this? Is it ordained?

What Sam Walton did was to go into one of the most mature industries of all and find a way to make it grow, grow, grow, double-digit, month after month, year after year. He did it by innovation, customer focus, and above all, speed.

The operative assumption today is that someone, somewhere, has a better idea; and the operative compulsion is to find out who has that better idea, learn it, and put it into action-fast.