#234 Sam Walton: Made In America

**David Senra** (0:00)
I want to tell you about a one-time only limited event that I don't think you're going to want to miss. I am doing a live show with Patrick O'Shaughnessy from the Invest Like the Best podcast in New York City on October 19th. Patrick has interviewed over 300 of the world's best investors and founders for his podcast. I've read over 300 biographies of history's greatest entrepreneurs for my podcast. We'll be talking about what we learned from seven years of podcasting, sharing our favorite ideas and stories, and doing a live Q&A. There will also be special event-only swag. If you live in New York City, I think it's a no-brainer. But if not, I think it's a great excuse to fly in. I've already heard from a bunch of people that bought tickets, they're flying in from other cities. Some people are flying in from other countries. That's setting the bar really high, so I will have at least four shots of espresso or four energy drinks before or during the show so we can make it a night that you'll never forget. If you're interested in attending this unique live event, I will leave a link down below. I highly recommend you get your tickets today, and I hope I get to see you in New York on October 19th. A lot of folks ask me two related questions all the time.
The first one is, could a Walmart-type story still occur in this day and age?
My answer is, of course it could happen again.
Somewhere out there right now, there's someone, probably hundreds of thousands of someones with good enough ideas to go all the way.
It will be done again, over and over, and over, providing that someone wants it badly enough to do what it takes to get there.
It's all a matter of attitude and the capacity to constantly study and question the management of the business.
The second question is, if I were a young man or woman starting out today with the same sorts of talents and energies and aspirations that I had 50 years ago, what would I do?
That answer is a little harder to figure out.
I don't know exactly what I would do today, but I feel pretty sure I'd be selling something.
Probably some kind of specialty retail. Something to do with computers, maybe. Or something like The Gap.
Anyway, the next time some overeager, slightly eccentric shopkeeper opens up a business in your neck of the woods, before you write them off too quickly, remember those two old people who gave me 60 days to last in my store down in Fayetteville.
Go check the new store out. See what they got to offer.
See how they treat you. And decide for yourself if you ever want to go back.
Because this is what it's really all about.
In this free country of ours, that shopkeeper's success is entirely up to you, the customer.
Those were the last words that Sam Walton wrote a few weeks before he died, and they appear in the book that I reread, and the one I'm gonna talk to you about today, which is Sam Walton, Made in America by Sam Walton. And I'm gonna tell you why I think this book is so important to read and to reread, and part of me explaining that to you is I need to read this section to you that comes from the biography of Jeff Bezos. It's The Everything Store by Brad Stone. And this is what it says. It says, on the last page, a section completed a few weeks before his death, Walton wrote, could a Walmart-type story still occur in this day and age? My answer is of course it could happen. Again, somewhere out there right now, there's someone, probably hundreds of thousands of someones with good ideas enough to go all the way. It will be done again over and over, providing that someone wants it badly enough to do what it takes to get there. It's all a matter of attitude and the capacity to constantly study and question the management of the business, and this is what Brad said. Jeff Bezos embodied the qualities Sam Walton wrote about. And if you've read The Everything Store, then you know that Sam Walton, and this book is mentioned over and over and over again.
Bezos read it, he loved it, he made executives in Amazon read it. He would stop by, let me read you another section from The Everything Store. He's literally handing out gifts of the book with underlines, highlights and annotations. So it says, Bezos stopped by Dazzle's home with flowers and a copy of Sam Walton's autobiography. Bezos had imbibed Walton's book thoroughly and wove the Walmart's Founders credo about frugality and a bias of action into the cultural fabric of Amazon. In the copy that he brought to Dazzle, that's the last, Catherine Dazzle is the person he's bringing it to, he had underlined one particular passage in which Walton described barring the best ideas of his competitors.