Quote

You can make a lot of mistakes and still recover if you run an efficient operation. Or you can be brilliant and still go out of business if you're too inefficient.

Sam Walton

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Sam Walton
Age: 74 †
Born: 1918
Born: March 29
Died: 1992
Died: April 5
Businessman
Businessperson
Economist
Entrepreneur
Kingfisher
Oklahoma
Samuel Moore Walton
Mistake
Business
Inefficient
Running
Recover
Stills
Operation
Still
Efficient
Make
Operations
Brilliant
Mistakes

More quotes by Sam Walton

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If one of our customers comes into the store without a smile, I'll give them one of mine.
Sam Walton
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Nothing else can quite substitute for a few well-chosen, well-timed, sincere words of praise. They're absolutely free and worth a fortune
Sam Walton
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I loved retail from the beginning, and I still love it today.
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Leaders must always put their people before themselves. If you do that, your business will take care of itself.
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I believe in always having goals, and always setting them high.
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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.
Sam Walton
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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.
Sam Walton
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Most everything I've done I've copied from somebody else.
Sam Walton
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When all else fails, put on a costume and sing a silly song.
Sam Walton
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Individuals don't win in business, teams do.
Sam Walton
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Information is power, and the gain you get from empowering your associates more than offsets the risk of informing your competitor.
Sam Walton
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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.
Sam Walton
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We're all working together that's the secret. And 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, a better life for all. We're proud of what we've accomplished we've just begun.
Sam Walton
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I probably have traveled and walked into more variety stores than anybody in America. I am just trying to get ideas, any kind of ideas that will help our company. Most of us don't invent ideas. We take the best ideas from someone else.
Sam Walton
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I not only knew I wanted to go into retailing, I also knew I wanted to go into business for myself.
Sam Walton
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Curiosity doesn't kill the cat it kills the competition.
Sam Walton
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A computer can tell you down to the dime what you've sold, but it can never tell you how much you could have sold.
Sam Walton
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I'd hate to see any descendants of mine fall into the category of what I'd call 'idle rich' - a group I've never had much use for.
Sam Walton
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The goal as a company is to have customer service that is not just the best, but legendary.
Sam Walton
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I pay low wages. I can take advantage of that. We're going to be successful, but the basis is a very low-wage, low-benefit model of employment.
Sam Walton