My first job with Walmart was unloading trucks in a warehouse. Then I worked as an assistant manager in a store, and I was lucky enough to get into our buyer-training program. I loved merchandising and had a career path that led me through Sam's Club and Walmart International.

I went to graduate school and paid good money to get an education that's worth something, but I learned more in the first six months at Walmart than I learned in 5 1/2 years of post-secondary education.

Don't take your current job for granted; the next job doesn't come if you don't do the one you've got, well.

Today, Walmart employs about 2.1 million associates. The vast majority of our management team started as an hourly, just like I did. If you walked around here, not just here in Arkansas, but around our company, you would find a lot of people with more than 20 years of service, and you'd find a lot of people who've joined the company to climb up the ladder and create opportunities for themselves.

When I was 17 - 16, my father and I cut wood all day long and I was swinging that crosscut saw and hauling wood.

I know that many will call this useless work. Though I may not, like them, be able to quote other authors, I shall rely on that which is much greater and more worthy-on experience, the mistress of their Masters.