Sam Walton — The Learning Genius From a Country Town

The world's largest retailer, Walmart, began as a single variety store in small-town Arkansas; founder Sam Walton opened store number one at forty- four — another late-blooming giant. His weapon was no brilliant invention but an abnormal capacity to learn.

He devoted his life to touring competitors' stores, measuring aisle widths with a tape measure, copying price tags, adopting every good idea instantly. "Most everything I've done, I copied from somebody else," he reportedly declared.

Even as the world's richest man he drove an old pickup truck — asked why, he said a luxury car would be unfair to his dogs. Thrift was not aesthetics but the core of a business that repaid customers with low prices. Pride obstructs learning; imitation is no shame — the king of retail measured other people's stores his whole life.

We, too, learn from anyone; speed of learning is the latecomer's weapon. Whose what have you "measured" lately?

What do you work for?