Sam Walton Quotes

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

Individuals don't win in business, teams do.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

You can learn from everybody.

Celebrate your successes. Find some humor in your failures.

High expectations are the key to everything.

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.

I'd still say that visiting the stores and listening to our folks was one of the most valuable uses of my time as an executive. But really, our best ideas usually do come from the folks in the stores. Period.

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