The Top 1% Think on Paper. Here's How To Do It. | Sam Walton

And we started doing strange things like cranking up ice cream machines on the sidewalk on Saturday night.

We've got ideas from all 380,000 people in the company.

We've made partners out of our folks rather than employees.

Sam genuinely cared about other people.

As soon as I could afford it all, I started casting around for another location.

The focus was being the best at what we did.

I've been terrible about setting goals all my life.

His vision was to reduce the cost of living for people who shopped in our stores.

I wanted to gamble to a greater degree always than maybe you were ready to do.

And what is it, squirrel? Walmart!

He was an American businessman and entrepreneur. He's best known for founding Walmart and Sam's Club. Forbes ranked him as the richest person in the United States from 1982 to 1988. He's Sam Walton, and here are his top 10 rules for success.

Neither one of us knew the business.

True.

And we, and we, and we, and we, we knew so little about the variety store business that we had to take the book that was written by Ben Franklin and, and, and apply the principles and apply the, the controls, the, and the merchandise, uh, merchandising programs that, that they outlined for us. But of course, knowing you and knowing I myself a little bit, we added on, didn't we?

That's exactly right.

We were mavericks even then, and we started doing strange things like cranking up ice cream machines on the sidewalk on Saturday night, popcorn machines on the other end of the sidewalk, hawking anything we could hawk that looked like it might have a chance to sell wherever. It made an easy life, actually. We worked hard.

That's right.

But it gave us a vehicle to ride on.

That's right, exactly.

Without having to buy merchandise, you know, ourselves all the time, or distribution centers, not having to do the thing we'd had to do when we built Walmart.

We've had a lot of great leaders in this company, and the greatest thing is that we've got ideas from all 380,000 people in the company, and that's the best part. We're all working together, and I hope we can keep it going that way. That's, that's the secret. That's the key. And if we can, why, we'll lower the cost of living for everyone, not just in America, but we'll give the world an opportunity to see what it's like to save and have a better lifestyle and a better life, a better life for all.

Our company's built on people. The success we've had is because of our people, and I believe that. You believed it from the beginning. All of our associates believe it. We've made partners out of our folks rather than employees, and they know that we've been sincere in trying to share the profits with them, and they in turn have worked harder than our competitors. We've kept our prices lower than our competitors' prices. We've led the nation in cost of doing business, in sales per square foot, in all the measurements you can imagine over about a 15-year period in this business that we've all put together here in Bentonville, Arkansas.

I got to know Sam over a number of years before I joined the company. I watched how he operated. And more than anything else, I watched how he treated people. Sam genuinely cared about other people. Sam did not have an ego. It wasn't all about Sam. Sam would talk to people in the store who were coming out of a trailer, unloading a trailer in the middle of summer, sweaty people and everything. He treated them no different than he treated the President of the United States. Because in Sam's mind, we're all equal. We're created by our maker equally. And so Sam viewed his role in the company of being the person who showed and demonstrated respect for everybody. And I suppose that's the first thing that I really saw about him. I saw how he treated me. And then it's interesting, you can watch how people treat maybe waiters and waitresses or servant people, you know, people in the service industry, and you can tell a little bit about them by the way they treat them. And he was a very, very humble man.

The chain store bug had already bitten me.

All right.

And it wasn't long, as soon as I could afford it all, I started casting around for another location. And where did— where was that? Fayetteville on the square. It was that little 18-foot store.

Shotgun, 1952.

1952. We got the store at Fayetteville started, didn't we?

Right.

And it became very successful. So then one day I got a call from Ben Franklin and they said, hey, we got a store in Kansas City. And, uh, you remember the story?

I certainly do.

And I, I thought, well, if I've got to— if I've got to go to Kansas City, I got to get me an airplane. And I didn't— I had never flown.

Probably first looked at it in '53, I'd say. And this was our first venture in a shopping center.

Yeah, and there were practically no shopping centers in 1953. That's true.

That's exactly right. And this was something entirely new and different, and everybody was skittish of it.

No one else wanted the franchise. Really, another one of those situations. Right. And Bud said, well, I'll take half of it. I think I can put I said, "Well, if you can, I'll try to do my part, and we'll go up there and we'll just take another gamble." Sure right, and it was a gamble.

It was out 20 miles from the Kansas City city limits.

Time we got the store open, why, it was a winner from the day we opened. I mean, it was the best profit store. I know one year it made $30,000, which to us was more money than we'd ever heard or ever dreamed about. Being able to make out of one store.

His desire to always focus on being the best. We did not focus on being the largest. That wasn't the focus. The focus was being the best at what we did.

I've been terrible about setting goals all my life and, and trying to get there. And one of my, one of my goals, as you well know, was to make that the best store in Arkansas.

That's right.

And we got there before we left town. We came— became the biggest store, most profitable Ben Franklin store in the state of Arkansas.

And Sam was driven by the idea of, we're in business to serve people. Let me just share with you what Sam's vision was. His vision was to reduce the cost of living for people who shopped in our stores. And it began in small rural communities. Spread to mid-sized markets, spread to suburban areas, and ultimately to major metro areas. And he was absolutely driven by the fact that we're going to reduce the cost of living. The second part of his vision was do it with a group of people who believe in what I believe in. And so he— there was a natural gravitation to Sam. He was a tough manager. But it was very obvious he loved people. He loved to talk to people.

Very, very unusual, uh, the relationship that we've had. And I think the respect that we've always had for one another, uh, disagree, yes, uh, both, both, both of us at times. And you win some and you lose some. But, uh, after it's over with, we just go on down the road and what decision was made, and that was it. It, uh, it's been very rewarding and, uh, to look back, uh, you know, we're talking somewhere in the neighborhood of 40-some years now in close business.

Both of us didn't have any money. I borrowed most of mine and finally got it. Some of it paid out when we left Newport. So, uh, it's quite a story, but we relied on each other. You always, to me, seemed like a balance wheel. I wanted to gamble to a greater degree always than maybe you were ready to do. And I would listen to you. We'd argue a little bit, maybe, but once we decided we were going to do, go or not go, why, we were both together. And I think that was, that was something that we can be awfully proud of.

In 1983, when we hit the 8%, Sam— I don't know that I've ever told this story before, but Sam Walton came down to my office and he said, "Do you think anybody in the company remembers that I promised to do the hula if we made 8%?" And I said, "Everybody in the company remembers that." And he says, "Well, you got me into it, so—" You arrange it and don't screw it up. And left. Well, I had a trip that I had to make to New York, and so we got up there and we staged this thing, and there was press from everywhere.

This is so ridiculous, but I've tried for 3 months— well, I thought for 2 months that it would actually happen, but our numbers were just barely 8% pre-tax. 8.04. And everyone in the company said, Mr. Walton, you've got to perform. We did it, now you do it. Okay, you ready? All right, this is going to be terrible. Grab him by the hand. And I'll never do it again. I'll never challenge our folks again.

I'm fulfilling an obligation to our employees. I wagered with them a year and a half ago that in the year 1983 they never could possibly achieve a better than 8% net profit corporately.

Okay, thank you. Okay, give me a W. Give me an A. Give me an L. Give me a hyphen. Give me an M. Give me an A. Give me an R. T. And what does it spell? Walmart. We know it's number one. Thank you so much for watching.

I made this video because X xxwordalivexx asked me to. So if there's a famous entrepreneur that you want me to profile next, leave it in the comments below and I'll see what I can do. I'd also love to know which of Sam Walton's top 10 rules meant the most to you, had the biggest impact. Leave it in the comments and I'll join in the discussion. Thank you so much for watching. Continue to believe and we'll see you soon.