Today it seems like everyone and your grandmother have a theory (and a blog) on how to become a successful entrepreneur. So how can you filter all this information? Why not trade theories for a dose of reality by examining the example of an entrepreneur who defied conventional wisdom?
Take, for example, one of the most successful entrepreneurs America has ever known: Sam Walton, founder of Walmart. He went from running his first small variety store at age 26 to watching his corporation grow into the largest in the United States. Always changing the retail industry, the extraordinary merchant saw and did things differently. In the wake of his success, he left a handful of important lessons for entrepreneurs around the world.
Sam Walton’s mistake
Walton’s rise to success was not without its obstacles. In fact, the merchant had its share of outright failures. Perhaps its lowest point came in 1950. Let’s see what happened then.
Walton had purchased a Ben Franklin franchise store in Newport, Arkansas in 1946. By applying his own unique management techniques, Walton nearly tripled the store’s sales in just a few years. Walton’s magic attracted attention. Among those who did notice was his landlord. When the store’s lease ended, the owner refused to renew it!
Sam Walton wrote about the experience in his autobiography, Made in America:
… We hadn’t made any mistakes that we couldn’t quickly correct, none so big that it threatened business. Except, it turned out, for a little legal mistake we made at the beginning. In all my excitement about becoming Sam Walton, merchant, I had forgotten to include a clause in my lease that gave me the option to renew after the first five years.
He offered to buy the franchise, accessories, and inventory at a fair price; he wanted to give the store to his son.
Walton was forced to do the unthinkable: sell his precious store.
Sweet failure
There’s no getting around it: Walton’s failure at Newport was abysmal. While conventional wisdom says failure is a bad thing, Sam Walton saw things differently. Walton recognized that failure was inevitable. In the startup game, obstacles, even outright failures, are a necessary evil, and Walton knew they couldn’t deter him. In his autobiography, he explained how the Newport debacle provided him with an opportunity to gain valuable insight: “It was all probably a blessing. I had a chance to start over, and this time I knew what I was doing.”
Learning from Walton
Walton’s story gives struggling entrepreneurs several mouthfuls of thought to chew on:
- For entrepreneurs, failure is a given.
- Entrepreneurs should never allow setbacks to discourage them.
- Obstacles are opportunities.
As you grapple with the flood of information available to entrepreneurs, keep Walton’s far-from-conventional vision of failure in mind. And try to remember, conventional wisdom is anything but the entrepreneur’s friend.