I am reading the the autobiography of Sam Walton, founder of Walmart and it is an amazing read. Still going through it and would update this post as I move along-
- Sam Walton perfected being a merchant in his first store for the first 5 years. 5 years in a single store and then he was booted out of the store because the lease of the store expired. The lease was signed when he was still new to business. All his future leases would be of 99 years.
- He attempted to build a mall, could not and lost $25000 in the process. He realised it was going to be more blood. He cut his losses and moved on.
- His biggest store after around 10 years in business was in Kansas and was destroyed in a tornado. There was insurance on the merchandise so that was not a total disaster.
- He did not intent initially on launching a full fledged retail chain and was happy franchising out stores of other brands. But he understood one thing about market, his business was going to hit by people who have huge stocks and sell it cheap. After no one agreed to partner with him, he went out and started the company himself, putting in 95% of the investment from either saving or borrowing money from the bank on the everything that his family owned. Opportunities are sometimes hidden in failures and obstacles.
- He got the name Walmart from one of his store managers. He asked for input on the store name and the store manager thought that a small name would be better as it would require less money to paint and build and maintain neon lights for.
- He opened the first Walmart around 20 years of running a chain of small stores in the whole of United States. Today when every company wants to be valued at a high number, here is an example of value creation, which actually takes time.
- He was a great leader. Not just a manager, but a true leader, getting down to business and taking input from everyone. True hero to anyone who wants to learn things about business.
Two things about Sam Walton distinguish him from almost everyone that I know. First he gets up everyday bound and determined to improve something. Second he is less afraid of being wrong than almost everyone that I have ever known. And once he sees that he is wrong, he just shakes it off and heads in another direction.
By David Glass, Taken from the book Made In America
I think this is a fascinating read and it also showcases many of the sound business principals that are in many cases different from what you would hear in news these days but are very true. Highly recommended reading material.
neeraj's 