Sam Walton, the entrepreneur who build Walmart, had some great insights on life before he passed on. Here are some of his mantras:
“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. I think I overcame every single one of my personal shortcomings by the sheer passion I brought to my work. I don’t know if you’re born with this kind of passion, or if you can learn it. But I do know you need it.
Ignore the conventional wisdom. If everybody else is doing it one way, there’s a good chance you can find your niche by going in exactly the opposite direction. Commit to your business. Believe in it more than anybody else. Capital isn’t scarce. Vision is.
Celebrate your successes. Find some humor in your failures. Don’t take yourself so seriously. Loosen up, and everybody around you will loosen up. Have
fun. Show enthusiasm – always. When all else fails, put on a costume and sing a silly song. Then make everybody else sing with you. Don’t do a hula on Wall Street. It’s been done. Think up your own stunt. All of this is more important, and more fun, than you think, and it really fools the competition. “Why should we take those cornballs at Wal-Mart seriously?”
Money and ownership alone aren’t enough. Set high goals, encourage competition, and then keep score. Nothing else can quite substitute 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.
The folks on the front lines – the ones who actually talk to the customer – are the only ones who really know what’s going on out there. The two most important words I ever wrote were on that first Wal-Mart sign, ‘Satisfaction Guaranteed’. They’re still up there, and they have made all the difference. Each Wal-Mart store should reflect the values of its customers and support the vision they hold for their community. 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.“
ciao….
i.love.you