Sam Walton Quotes

No one can have an idea once he starts really listening.

The idea of intimately entwining with customers [to get ideas] is an idea whose time has come.

What's wonderful about Google is that as long as you bring ideas to the table, it doesn't matter what else is going on.

A man is not necessarily intelligent because he has plenty of ideas, any more than he is a good general because he has plenty of soldiers.

To get a big company moving fast, especially on a many-headed opportunity like the Internet, you have to have hundreds of people participating and coming up with ideas.

When we are listened to, it creates us, makes us unfold and expand. Ideas actually begin to grow within us and come to life.

In teaching, you do not want to COVER things, you want to UNCOVER them. The best way to get good ideas is to have lots of ideas.

All good leaders listen to their people and empower them to go away and turn any innovative ideas they have into a reality.

I often try to think about, What sounds like a bad idea, but if you find the right plan of attack, it's actually a really good idea? I spend a lot of time really trying to systematically tackle problems from different angles.

In great teams, conflict becomes productive. The free flow of conflicting ideas is critical for creative thinking, for discovering new solutions no one individual would have come to on his own.

Generally I know that we've hit on a good idea if there's a moment where I'm going "HA HA HA!" because that's usually my starting point, me laughing.

Ideas come from everywhere - they come from what you see and hear and imagine.

Do as many ideas as possible. The right idea will pick you.

Whereas the health of an individual depends on the ego's regular descent and return to and from the unconscious, a society's longevity depends on actual people journeying into the unknown and returning with ideas.

"Where do you get your ideas?" That's the one question I'm genuinely sick of being asked, and also genuinely fascinated by. What fascinates me is not that people ask the question, but what kind of answer are they really looking for? Because if I tell them the truth, which is "I make them up," they seem very disappointed. They want to know about the trek I do once a year to the mountain.

Keep on the lookout for novel ideas that others have used successfully. Your idea has to be original only in its adaptation to the problem you're working on.

Because the process of innovation often relies heavily on the combining and recombining of previous innovations, the broader and deeper the pool of accessible ideas and individuals, the more opportunities there are for innovation.

Publicly, they claim to be thrilled to have the opportunity to engage directly with their customers; privately, they suspect, maybe even fervently hope, that Facebook and its spawn are fads.

Almost any idea is good if a man has ability and is willing to work hard. The best idea is worthless if the creator is a loafer and ineffective.

The idea for a building or an object can come up just as quick, but there is a big difference in process.

The story of practically every great fortune starts with the day when a creator of ideas and a seller of ideas got together and worked in harmony.

The only two people who can give you real feedback about your product are people who just purchased it and people who have just canceled.

I feel I'm able to serve my customer by knowing what she or he wants. One of the ways I'm able to do this is through my website, and email: people give me great ideas, tell me what they want, what they don't want. It's really instrumental, and helps me stay in touch with people.

Why now, why is this the perfect time for this particular idea, and to start this particular company?

Listen to Everyone. Ideas come from everywhere