When folks ask me “How did Wal-Mart do it?” I’ve usually been flip about answering them. “Friend, we just got after it and stayed after it” “If I had to single out one element in my life that has made a difference for me, it would be a passion to compete. …. It is a story about entrepreneurship, and risk, and hard work, and knowing where you want to go and being willing to do what it takes to get there. It’s a story about believing in your idea even when maybe some other folks don’t and about sticking to your guns. Ordinary working people joined together to accomplish extraordinary things”
* It is not necessary but anger could help launch a trillion dollar business, Sam Walton was angry about Ben Franklin stores not giving him a chance to try out his idea for a discount store which lead him to start his own...
Having a clear mission and vision i.e. when customers thought of Walmart, they should think of low prices and satisfaction guaranteed.
“Most everything I have done I’ve copied from somebody else” a few lessons for us to take away from Sam's Autobiography
1) Good artists copy, great artists steal. If something is great don’t be shy to take it and implement in your own product
2) Experiment, try a lot of things
3) Expand quickly when you see something is working, go broader with it
4) Jim Collins says “Bullets before Canon Balls”, Sam bought one small store at a time and proved out that the store could be stand alone profitable and then took the model and applied it to the next and the next store.
David Glass “Two things about Sam Walton that distinguish from almost everyone else I know.
First he gets up everyday bound and determined to improve something.
Second, he is less afraid of being wrong than anyone I’ve ever known. And once he sees he is wrong, he shakes it off and heads in another direction”