Top 106 Quotes & Sayings by Sam Walton

I learned early on that one of the secrets of campus leadership was the simplest thing of all: speak to people coming down the sidewalk before they speak to you. I would always look ahead and speak to the person coming toward me. If I knew them I would call them by name, but even if I didn't I would still speak to them.

Exceed your customer's expectations. If you do, they'll come back over and over. Give them what they want - and a little more.

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

Nothing else can quite substitute for a few well-chosen, well-timed, sincere words of praise. They're absolutely free and worth a fortune.

I learned this early on in the variety business: You've got to give folks responsibility, you've got to trust them, and then you've got to check on them.

I've never been one to dwell on reverses.

High expectations are the key to everything.

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.

In the beginning, I was so chintzy I really didn't pay my employees well.

Celebrate your successes. Find some humor in your failures.

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

I probably have traveled and walked into more variety stores than anybody in America.

Control your expenses better than your competition. This is where you can always find the competitive advantage.

I don't know what would have happened to Wal-Mart if we had laid low and never stirred up the competition. My guess is that we would have remained a strictly regional operator.

One person seeking glory doesn't accomplish very much.

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.

Appreciate everything your associates do for the business.

Give ordinary folk the chance to buy the same things as rich people.

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

Capital isn't scarce; vision is.

All that hullabaloo about somebody's net worth is just stupid, and it's made my life a lot more complex and difficult.

The key to success is to get out into the store and listen to what the associates have to say.

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 had to pick myself up and get on with it, do it all over again, only even better this time.

What am I supposed to haul my dogs around in, a Rolls-Royce?

All of us profit from being corrected - if we're corrected in a positive way.

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.

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

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

There is only one boss. The customer. And he can fire everybody in the company from the chairman on down, simply by spending his money somewhere else.

Each Wal-Mart store should reflect the values of its customers and support the vision they hold for their community.

Loosen up, and everybody around you will loosen up.

I got into retailing because I wanted a real job.

Maybe I was born to be a merchant, maybe it was fate. I don't know about that. But I know this for sure: I loved retail from the very beginning.

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

Most of us don't invent ideas. We take the best ideas from someone else.

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.

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

Most everything I've done I've copied from somebody else.

Individuals don't win in business, teams do.

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.

Nothing else can quite substitute for a few well-chosen, well-timed, sincere words of praise. They're absolutely free and worth a fortune

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

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

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

Leaders must always put their people before themselves. If you do that, your business will take care of itself.

Celebrate your success and find humor in your failures. Don't take yourself so seriously. Loosen up and everyone around you will loosen up. Have fun and always show enthusiasm. When all else fails, put on a costume and sing a silly song.

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

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.

There are only four things in life that matter. The first is happiness and I'll sell you the other three for a dollar.

Keep everybody guessing as to what your next trick is going to be. Don't become too predictable.

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

Commit to your business. Believe in it more than anybody else.

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

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

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

If you don't listen to your customers, someone else will.

To succeed in this world, you have to change all the time.

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.

Job security lasts only as long as the customer is satisfied. Nobody owes anybody else a living.