M1* - The best in the world borrow from others.

"Most everything I've done I've copied from someone else." Sam Walton

Sam Walton is one of my heroes. His book Made in America is possibly one of the best business autobiographies ever written. It gives a high-level, sweeping account of how Walmart came into being.

One of the keys to Walmart's success was the concept above.

Sam Walton lived to serve people, primarily his customers and employees. He wanted to make their lives better and was constantly trying to find new ideas that would help him and Walmart be a better servant. Walton was not afraid to see someone else's good idea and then implement it at Walmart. There are countless stories of Walton "borrowing" better business practices that he observed while walking through the aisles of his competitors' stores.  The great thing is that Walton was completely open with everyone about his desire to improve and his willingness to borrow.  There is no doubt, Walton's practice of constantly searching for better ways of doing things was one of the main reasons that led to Walmart's ultimate success.

I recently read a book titled Steal like an Artist. It is in the same vein as Walton's quote. The main idea of the book is that, "nothing is original, so embrace influence, collect ideas, and remix and re-imagine to discover your own path." That's exactly what Sam Walton did.

The whole point of this blog series is that there are hundreds of thousands of great ideas out there. We need to constantly surround ourselves with and remind ourselves of them. Having quotes like Walton's in front of us encourages us to grab those ideas and make them our own.

I am doing this all day, every day.

What ideas are you borrowing from others and using for yourself?

*Be sure to read the Intro post to this blog series to get the most out of it.