What You Can Learn From Sam Walton

For some Sam Walton is the devil incarnate and for others he is the model for all that is possible in America. If you do not already know, Sam Walton is the founder of Wal-mart. Regardless of what you personally think of Wal-mart's ethics and business practices, there is always something to learn from success stories (and things you may despise).

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There is no getting around human nature: From day one with his original Walton 5-10 stores, Sam Walton's strategy was to sell lower priced items with a smaller margin resulting in higher volume sales. There are a couple of things at play here. The first is that you don't have to completely reinvent sales methods and persuasion to get people to buy things from you. The second thing is that you should be competitive with things that you know matter to your target demographic.

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"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."

Intimately know your own standard of success: The legend is, is that Sam Walton still drove his pick-up truck long after he became wealthy. The same goes for Warren Buffet who still lives in his original modest ranch home in Omaha, Nebraska and frequently flies coach. You could even argue that Sam Walton was so able to successfully perpetuate his stores because he was always reminded of the needs and wants of his more modest customers though these very things.

"Ignore the conventional wisdom. If everyone else is doing it one way, there's a good chance you can find your niche by going exactly in the opposite direction. Commit to your business. Believe in it more than anyone else. Capital isn't scarce. Vision is."

Keep your own score: By this I mean set your own goals and try to meet them. Visualize these goals, write them down, or tell them to someone else to make them real to you and to make yourself accountable. From Sam Walton I take it that he rarely blamed other people for things they were responsible. The buck stopped with him and he encouraged his workers through this very method.

"Money and ownership alone aren't enough. Set high goals, encourage competition, and then keep score. Nothing else can quite subsititute for a few well-chosen, well-timed, sincere words of praise. They're absolutely free--and worth a fortune. We're all working together; that's the secret."