Swim upstream. Go the other way. 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. But be prepared for a lot of folks to wave you down and tell you you're headed the wrong way. I guess in all my years, what I heard more often than anything was: a town of less than 50,000 population cannot support a discount store for very long.

You can't just keep doing what works one time, everything around you is changing. To succeed, stay out in front of change.

Focus on something the customer wants, and then deliver it.

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.

I think my constant fiddling and meddling with the status quo may have been one of my biggest contributions to the later success of Wal-Mart.

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

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.