Great Insight by a Great Man – Sam Walton’s Five Points of Creating a Successful Business

I am a firm believer of learning from past and present successful Entrepreneurs. One of the greats, Sam Walton the founder of Wal-Mart, if alive today would be the richest person in the world times TWO – being twice as rich as Mr. Bill Gates. I watched a documentary on his life and observed 5 true points of a creating a successful business: 

1. Love what you do 

As Confucius stated: “Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life” For all those aspiring Entrepreneurs it is imperative that you really believe in the company that you are trying to start. If you bring that passion and fire to work with you every day, all of your personal and professional problems tend to get resolved.

2. Ignore the conventional wisdom

Very similar to Warren Buffet’s finance strategy of investing: look at the opposite direction of what everyone is doing. Walton pointed out that his idea really came from looking at the complete new way for shoppers to buy their products and found a niche that he could focus on. 

3. Don’t take yourself too seriously

Having a work hard play hard attitude, will help the team have fun while driving the company forward. Taking things too seriously and not enjoying yourself will really start to be a burden on the team. Have fun; laugh off the good times and the bad. 

4. Celebrate your success

Make sure you show the team that you are striving forward and planting stakes in the ground. Celebrating your success, signals to the team, competitors, and the market  that things are going well. 

5. The customer is the boss

The team members who are in direct contact with your customers should be voicing their concerns and extending your customers feedback. Knowing your customers well, even the tough ones, will help you adjust, innovate, and continue on growing. 

Sam’s biggest point was that money and ownership is not the key to success but rather setting high goals, encouraging your team, and making sure that you keep score of your progress. The biggest secret of all was a few ‘well-chosen, well-timed, sincere words’ of praise; all worth a fortune but absolutely free.  

If you have any other points on helping Entrepreneurs create successful businesses, please share them below. 

If you have any other questions, send me an email or post a comment.

Ashkan

Ashkan [at] greenhornconnect [dot] com 

 photo credit: http://upeidisability.wordpress.com/2008/09/03/sam-walton-could-run-upei-better/&h=320&w=240&sz=16&tbnid=V5xMUqXZw1J8RM:&tbnh=118&tbnw=89&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dsam%2Bwalton&usg=__GTflqO0ytGuMKKX5AmGoxEgWryg=&sa=X&ei=eptNTLL-GIS8lQeRwMj4DQ&ved=0CDsQ9QEwBA