"Every person who dreams of building a great business mustread this book. Sam Walton set the standard for listening to his customers and listening to the people who do the work. In addition to being a great entrepreneur and business leader, Sam Walton was, above all, a fine, decent, kind, generous man. I will miss him. We all will miss him." --H. Ross Perot

Life has been great to me, probably better than any man has a right to expect. At home, I've been blessed with a wife and family who've stuck together and loved each other and indulged my lifelong obsession with minding the store. At work, my business life has been spent in lockstep with an incredible group of Wal-Mart associates who have put up with all my aggravation and bullheadedness and pulled together to make what once appeared truly impossible now seem expected and routine.

So first, I want to dedicate this book to Helen Robson Walton and the four fine kids she raised--with some help along the way from the old man--our sons Rob, John, and Jim, and our daughter Alice.

Acknowledgments

Foreword

Learning to Value a Dollar

Starting on a Dime

Bouncing Back

Swimming Upstream

Raising a Family

Recruiting the Team

Taking the Company Public

Rolling Out the Formula

Building the Partnership

Stepping Back

Creating a Culture

Making the Customer Number One

Meeting the Competition

Expanding the Circles

Thinking Small

Giving Something Back

Running a Successful Company:

Ten Rules That Worked for Me

Wanting to Leave a Legacy

A Postscript

Index