Law of Success (21st Century Edition)

THE HABIT OF DOING MORE THAN PAID FOR 581

In Walton's biography, Made in America: My Story, he outlines what he

believed to be the ten commandments of business management:

1. Commit to your goals


2. Share your rewards


3. Energize your colleagues


4. Communicate all you know


5. Value your associates


6. Celebrate your success


7. Listen to everyone


8. Deliver more than you. promise


9. Work smarter than others


10. Blaze your own path

By the 1980s Wal-Mart had over 300 stores across North America, with

sales in excess of one billion dollars, and by 1991, with 1,700 stores, Wal-

Mart was (and still is in 2004, with more than 4,200 stores worldwide) the

world's largest retailer. Walton believed that "individuals don't win, teams do. II

At the time he died, in 1992, Sam Walton was the world's richest man.

Marshall Field was probably the leading merchant of his time, and
the great Field's store in Chicago stands today as a monument to his
ability to apply the law of increasing returns.
A customer purchased an expensive garment at the Field's store
but did not wear it. Two years later she gave it to her niece as a wed-
ding present. The niece quietly returned the garment to the Field's
store and exchanged it for other merchandise-despite the fact that
it had been out for more than two years and was then out of style.
Not only did the Field's store take it back, but what is of more
importance, it did so without argument. Of course there was no obli-
gation, moral or legal, on the part of the store to accept the return at
that late date, which makes the transaction all the more significant.