It’s been a personal habit to read books on successful people. Humans, as I see it, are creatures who can learn through the osmosis of ideas. We can become something through continued exposure to certain elements. Sam Walton, arguably the most successful entrepreneur of the 20th century, is an idol worth holding in everyone’s minds. At the time of his death in 1992, he had a net worth of $65 billion which, even by today’s standards, is a sum way over all of our heads. I find that inspirational, particularly since he sits in a paradigm level far beyond the horizon I can see. Despite passing away the year before I was born, his thoughts and history can be transmitted through his paper time machine – Sam Walton – Made in America – to me, the young buck fighting his fears in life.
It is a great story which I urge people to read. It
describes a man who has been innovative, aggressive yet simultaneously humble throughout
his life. It is surprising to learn that the first Wal-mart was not open until
Walton was 27 – an age in modern times which seems old for an average future billionaire
young buck. Yet, it shows that age is not a limiting factor in producing a
great business. Rather, it’s the necessity of driving your ambitions to better
serve the needs of people. Walton decided earlier on that he wanted to help the
customer save money, which in turn would help his business prosper. That was
it. The simplest of thoughts paved the way for Wal-mart’s incredible success.
Yet the story didn’t start with complex models of store growth and expansion
into new markets, rather, it was simply to buy in bulk and sell sell sell.
Simplicity is the beauty of it all. Of course, complexity was inevitably added
once the empire rolled into its’ growth stage but, by that time, Walton was
more than capable of leveraging his business expertise to gain growth.
In our noisy, information-filled metropolis world, books
like this remind us of the importance of simplistic core values. More
importantly, everyone must look at their core values and view them as the
foundations for future growth. Much like building construction, if the
foundations are shaky, then our future plans are going to be in jeopardy. For those
who want to build something better, start by reading the book by a man who
built a global empire.
