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“Back when I was general merchandise manager, we didn’t have much computer support. So every Friday morning for six years, I would take my columnar pad with all the numbers on it into Sam’s office for him to review. Every morning that I went through those numbers, Sam would jot them down on his own pad and work through all the calculations himself. I never felt that he didn’t trust my judgment. He just felt that it was his function to make sure of everything. Sometimes he would work the numbers a little differently from the way I had, or argue with some of my conclusions, which kept me on my toes. The point is: I always knew I could not just go in there and lay a sheet of numbers in front of him and expect him to just accept it.
“As famous as Sam is for being a great motivator—and he deserves even more credit than he’s gotten for that—he is equally good at checking on the people he has motivated. You might call his style: management by looking over your shoulder.”

BOB CLARK, WAL-MART TRUCK DRIVER, BENTONVILLE, ARKANSAS:

“I went to work for Mr. Walton in 1972, when he only had sixteen tractors on the road. The first month, I went to a drivers’ safety meeting, and he always came to those. There were about fifteen of us there, and I’ll never forget, he said, ‘If you’ll just stay with me for twenty years, I guarantee you’ll have $100,000 in profit sharing.’ I thought, ‘Big deal. Bob Clark never will see that kind of money in his life.’ I was worrying about what I was making right then. Well, last time I checked, I had $707,000 in profit sharing, and I see no reason why it won’t go up again.

everybody today knows, Wal-Mart’s stock performance, and the wealth it has created, is a story in itself. Just fifteen years ago, the market value of the company was around $135 million; today it’s over $50 billion. But here’s a better way to look at it: let’s say you bought 100 shares back in that original public offering, for $1,650. Since then, we’ve had nine two-for-one stock splits, so you would have 51,200 shares today. Within the last year, it’s traded at right under $60 a share. So your investment would have been worth right around $3 million at that price. Obviously, our stock has made a lot of folks happy over the years, and—pure and simple—that’s where the Walton family net worth has been created. It’s paid off beyond any of our dreams.