My top 10 highlights from the book:

1.  His tactics prompted them to describe Sam as a modern-day combination of Vince Lombardi (insisting on solid execution of the basics) and General George S. Patton. (A good plan, violently executed now, is better than a perfect plan next week.)

2.  Nothing in the world is cheaper than a good idea without any action behind it.

3.  The best thing we ever did was to hide back there in the hills and build a company that makes folks want to find us.

4.  I had no vision of the scope of what I would start. But I always had confidence that as long as we did our work well and were good to our customers, there would be no limit to us.

5.  The public conception of Sam as a good ol’ country boy wearing a soft velvet glove misses the fact that there’s an iron fist within.

6.  They're hard as nails and every bit as sharp. (A description of Sam's executive team)

7.  Don't be ashamed of your poverty. Just get rid of it as quick as you can.

8. The day the market dropped and knocked $1 billion off the value of his stock holdings in Wal-Mart, reporters asked his reaction to the disaster on Wall Street. He hadn't heard about it.

9.  In the recesses of Sam Walton's mind there lurked volatile and not-to-be-denied impulses that drove him to challenge the status quo and to conjure up new business experiments.

10.  Sam stressed that he knew his business from bottom to top.

Listen to #354 Sam Walton: The Inside Story of America's Richest Man on Apple, Spotify, or the web.

Come hang out with me for two days and build relationships with other founders, investors, and executives by attending a Founders event:

July 29th-31st in Scotts Valley, California