Sam Walton: Made In America

Inspiring. Educational. This is a story of a gutsy entrepreneur told by himself. This is also an account of what a man can achieve if he is hell bent on achieving his goals and willing to do what it takes to reach there- come hail or sunshine. Sam Walton has disclosed the secrets of his stupendous success in building one of the largest and most successful organization in the world. He could be described as intelligent fanatic who focused all his energy on his Life's work- discount retailing. He was maverick. He was humble, hard working, friendly and down to earth. But above all he was a learning machine. He says he did not come up with even a single new idea. All his ideas were taken from others. He just executed those ideas better than any one else. Sam Walton also demonstrates that genius is not in deconstructing complex things but is in simplifying matter to its essential truth. Sam Walton simplified whole retail into a simple idea - Reasonable quality goods at every day low price and customer satisfaction guaranteed. He devoted all his energy to achieve this goal of lowest price. He built sophisticated systems, hired people, designed incentives to accomplish this single goal. He developed a recipe to execute this retailing idea and then he just used same recipe again and again starting with his first discount store in Newport in 1945. You can learn so many things from Sam Walton's life. This is required reading for entrepreneurs, students and all those who want to become successful in life.

After reading book felt should read early working in food retail industry for 14 years felt most of retailers using the idea which written in this book.

Very happy to read the book, where we come to know how Walmart started from small size and grew to giant size. Highly recommended for everyone to learn about how to build a company. Happy that Sam Walton took time to share his knowledge with wider community. Highly appreciated.

Sam Walton was definitely the O.G. of retail. As mentioned in Brad Stone's book about Amazon, there's no doubt that Jeff Bezos took a number of pages out of San Walton's playbook. I enjoyed reading about his journey, his hard work and customer-first mentality, and how Wal-Mart completely changed the face of retail. There wasn't a lot of personal detail here, it was more a biography of Wal-Mart, kind of like how Walter Isaacson's book was more a biography of Apple than of Steve Jobs. The tone of the book is informal, kind of folksy, like he's talking to you, with many bits with people who had worked with Sam Walton over the years. It fit well, I think, with what he was trying to convey, ie that Wal-Mart is an everyman's type of company. Good read, I recommend it.

This book seems like a promotion sometimes but if you can just figure that out than its an ok book to read.

The book gives us an insightful journey into building of the Wal-Mart. It tells us how the biggest private employer in the world started with one store and it still grows and takes care of one store at a time. It also tells how the trust and faith of people in Sam was the basic foundation of Wal-Mart. The way his family and friends had helped him achieve his single goal. The appreciation the man shows for his employees is also noteable. It's a must read book for anyone who wants to start a company. The lessons in it are suitable across personal and professional life.

i find it very good for its price point.

I was worked as a retail manager in a supermarket and I bought this book as a wedding for my owner amma's son.