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.

I got into retailing because I wanted a real job.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

Capital isn't scarce; vision is.

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.