Sam Walton

'Money never has meant that much to me, not even in the sense of keeping score.' Drove pickup truck and got haircuts at local barbershop despite being richest American. 'I still can't believe it was news that I get my hair cut at a barbershop. Where else would I get it cut? Why do I drive a pickup truck? What am I supposed to do? Haul my dogs around in a Rolls Royce?'

'There hasn't been a day in my adult life when I haven't spent some time thinking about merchandising.' Started each day reviewing previous week's numbers at 2-3 AM. 'I come in every Saturday morning, usually around two or three in the morning and go over all the weekly numbers.' Kept yellow legal pad with 10-15 company priorities.

Believed in decentralized management with local store autonomy. Maintained open-door policy allowing any associate to meet with him. Maintained flexible, unscheduled management style rather than formal hierarchies.

'Friend, we just got after it and stayed after it.' When losing Newport store: 'I'm not whipped. I found Newport and I found the store. I can find another good town and another store. Just wait and see.' 'We started out swimming upstream and it's made us strong and lean and alert and we've enjoyed the trip.'

'You can learn from everybody. Most everything I've done, I've copied from somebody else.' When losing the Newport store lease: 'I'm not whipped. I found Newport and I found the store. I can find another good town and another store. Just wait and see.' 'I've always thought of problems as challenges.'

'There's not an individual in the whole United States who has been in more retail stores, all types of retail stores, than Sam Walton. Make that all over the world.' Used airplane extensively for store scouting and management. Maintained open-door policy allowing any associate to meet with him. Flew between stores constantly and recorded ideas on tape recorder during store visits.

'We're in it for the long haul. We couldn't care less about what is forecast or what the market says we ought to do.' Emphasized importance of staying close to business fundamentals and stressed long-term thinking over short-term profits.

'If you want the people in the stores to take care of the customers, you have to make sure you're taking care of the people in the stores. That is the most important single ingredient of Walmart's success.' Emphasized employee profit-sharing and stock ownership. 'The way management treats the associates is exactly how the associates will then treat the customers.'

Emphasized 'service leadership' based on Christian principles. 'Mr. Sam believed in leadership through service. This belief that true leadership depends on willing service was the principle on which Walmart was built.' Maintained frugal personal lifestyle despite wealth, setting example for expense control throughout organization.

'If you ask me if I'm an organized person, I would say flat out no, not at all. Being organized would really slow me down.' 'You've always got to stay flexible.' Maintained headquarters in small town of Bentonville rather than major city.

'It never occurred to me that I might lose. To me, it was almost as if I had a right to win.' '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.' 'I have always pursued everything I was interested in with a true passion. Some would say obsession to win.'

'You can learn from everybody.' Visited competitors' stores constantly to learn and copy best practices. Traveled extensively to study retail operations worldwide. 'I was always looking for offbeat suppliers or sources.' Maintained that business success required constant experimentation.

'If we work together, we'll lower the cost of living for everyone...we'll give the world an opportunity to see what it's like to save and have a better life.' Company motto: 'Saving people money so they can live better.' Maintained that customer satisfaction was key to success and insisted on everyday low prices as core strategy.

'Our money was made by controlling expenses. Every time Walmart spends $1 foolishly, it comes right out of our customers' pockets.' 'We don't make a dime out of the merchandise we sell. We only make our profit out of the paper and string we save.' Never owned jets until company reached $40 billion in sales.

'One of the main reasons we've been able to roll this company out nationally was all the pressure put on me to invest so heavily in technology.' Built extensive distribution and logistics network. Emphasized technology investment for competitive advantage with detailed profit/loss tracking for every store.

We were protected by our small town market. It would have been unthinkable for them to have tried to put a competing store in a small town. They gave us a 10-year period to grow