"One thing you'll notice if you spend very much time talking with Sam about Wal-Mart's success. He'salways saying things like 'This was the key to the whole thing,' or That was our real secret.' He knows aswell as anyone that there wasn't any magic formula. A lot of different things made it work, and in oneday's time he may cite all of them as the 'key' or the 'secret.' What's amazing is that for almost fifty yearshe's managed to focus on all of them at onceall the time. That's his real secret."DAVID GLASSI think we've covered the story of how all my partners and associates and I over the years builtWal-Mart into what it is today. And in the telling, Ithink we've covered all the principles which resulted inthe company's amazing success. A whole lot has changed about the retailing business in the forty-sevenyears we've been in itincluding some of my theories. We've changed our minds about some significantthings along the way and adopted some new principlesparticularly about the concept of partnership in acorporation. But most of the values and the rules and the techniques we've relied on have stayed thesame the whole way. Some of them are such simple common-sense old favorites that they hardly seemworth mentioning.

This isn't the first time that I've been asked to come up with a list of rules for success, but itis the firsttime I've actually sat down and done it. I'm glad I did because it's been a revealing exercise for me. Thetruth is, David Glass is right. I do seem to have a couple of dozen things that I've singled out at one timeor another as the "key" to the whole thing. One I don't even have on my list is "work hard." If you don'tknow that already, or you're not willing to do it, you probably won't be going far enough to need my listanyway. And another I didn't include on the list is the idea of building a team. If you want to build anenterprise of any size at all, it almost goes without saying that you absolutely must create a team of peoplewho work together and give real meaning to that overused word "teamwork." To me, that's more thegoal of the whole thing, rather than some way to get there.

I believe in always having goals, and always setting them high. I can certainly tell you that the folks atWal-Mart have always had goals in front of them. In fact, we have sometimes built real scoreboards onthe stage at Saturday morning meetings.

One more thing. If you're really looking for my advice here, trying to get something serious out of thisexercise I put myself through, remember: these rules are not in any way intended to be the TenCommandments of Business. They are some rules that worked for me. But I always prided myself onbreaking everybody else's rules, and I always favored the mavericks who challenged my rules. I mayhave fought them all the way, but I respected them, and, in the end, I listened to them a lot more closelythan I did the pack who always agreed with everything I said. So pay special attention to Rule 10, and ifyou interpret it in the right spiritas it applies to youit could mean simply: Break All the Rules.

For what they're worth, here they are. Sam's Rules for Building a Business:

RULE 1: COMMIT to your business. Believe in it more than anybody else. I think I overcame everysingle one of my personal shortcomings by the sheer passion I brought to my work. I don't know if you'reborn with this kind of passion, or if you can learn it. But I do know you need it. If you love your work,you'll be out there every day trying to do it the best you possibly can, and pretty soon everybody aroundwill catch the passion from you like a fever.

RULE 2: SHARE your profits with all your associates, and treat them as partners. In turn, they will treatyou as a partner, and together you will all perform beyond your wildest expectations. Remain acorporation and retain control if you like, but behave as a servant leader in a partnership.

Encourage your associates to hold a stake in the company. Offer discounted stock, and grant themstock for their retirement. It's the sin............