Sam Walton Quotes

I guess in all my years, what I heard more than anything else was: a mere town cannot support a discount store for very long.

I pay low wages. I can take advantage of that. We're going to be successful, but the basis is a very low-wage, low-benefit model of employment.

Some families sell their stocks off a little bit at a time to live high, and then - boom - somebody takes them over, and it all goes down the drain.

I think I overcame every single one of my personal shortcomings by the sheer passion I brought to my work. I don't know if you're born with this kind of passion, or if you can learn it. But I do know you need it.

Appreciate everything your associates do for the business.

I probably have traveled and walked into more variety stores than anybody in America. I am just trying to get ideas, any kind of ideas that will help our company. Most of us don't invent ideas. We take the best ideas from someone else.

Capital isn't scarce; vision is.

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

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

After a lifetime of swimming upstream, I am convinced that one of the real secrets to Wal-mart's phenomenal success has been that very tendency.

The goal as a company is to have customer service that is not just the best, but legendary.

The way management treats their associates is exactly how the associates will then treat the customers.

A computer can tell you down to the dime what you've sold, but it can never tell you how much you could have sold.

High expectations are the key to everything.

Expenses should never exceed one percent of our purchases.

The secret of successful retailing is to give your customers what they want. And really, if you think about it from the point of view of the customer, you want everything: a wide assortment of good quality merchandise; the lowest possible prices; guaranteed satisfaction with what you buy; friendly, knowledgeable service; convenient hours; free parking; a pleasant shopping experience.

I had confidence that as long as we did our work well and were good to our customers, there would be no limit to us.

Celebrate your successes. Find some humor in your failures.

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.

I'd still say that visiting the stores and listening to our folks was one of the most valuable uses of my time as an executive. But really, our best ideas usually do come from the folks in the stores. Period.

I loved retail from the beginning, and I still love it today.

It was almost as if I had a right to win. Thinking like that often seems to turn into sort of a self-fulfilling prophecy.

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

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.

When all else fails, put on a costume and sing a silly song.

Money and ownership alone aren't enough. Set high goals, encourage competition, and then keep score.

Lose your smile and lose your customers.

Capital isn't hard to find; intuition, yes.

If you want a successful business, your people must feel that you are working for them - not that they are working for you.

I had to get up everyday with my mind set on improving something.

Outstanding leaders go out of their way to boost the self-esteem of their personnel. If people believe in themselves, it's amazing what they can accomplish.

I learned a lesson which has stuck with me all through the years: you can learn from everybody. I didn't just learn from reading every retail publication I could get my hands on, I probably learned the most from studying what John Dunham was doing across the street

Ignore the conventional wisdom. If everybody else is doing it one way, there’s a good chance you can find your niche by going in exactly the opposite direction.

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.

We're all working together; that's the secret. And we'll lower the cost of living for everyone, not just in America, but we'll give the world an opportunity to see what it's like to save and have a better lifestyle, a better life for all. We're proud of what we've accomplished ; we've just begun.

You can make a lot of mistakes and still recover if you run an efficient operation. Or you can be brilliant and still go out of business if you're too inefficient.

I'd hate to see any descendants of mine fall into the category of what I'd call 'idle rich' - a group I've never had much use for.

High expectations is the key to everything.

Our best ideas come from clerks and stockboys.

Information is power, and the gain you get from empowering your associates more than offsets the risk of informing your competitor.

Communicate everything you can to your associates. The more they know, the more they care. Once they care, there is no stopping them.

There's absolutely no limit to what plain, ordinary, working people can accomplish if they're given the opportunity and encouragement to do their best.

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

Don't get so stuck in your ways that you can't change.

Take the best out of everything and adapt it to your needs.

Great ideas come from everywhere if you just listen and look for them. You never know who's going to have a great idea.

I was asked what I thought about the recession. I thought about it and decided not to take part.

The key to success is to get out into the store and listen to what the associates have to say. It's terribly important for everyone to get involved. Our best ideas come from clerks and stockboys.