In some circles, Walmart has this reputation of being really tough. I would say we're tough on behalf of the customer, but we always try to be fair, and if you look at the financial results of our suppliers, they've done really well, and P&G still makes more money than Walmart does after all this time, so this has worked out well for everybody, but we do keep on the pressure on behalf of the customer.

Our reputation is more important than the last hundred million dollars.

I experienced, along with the rest of the team, what it was like to go from being a Cinderella story with a great entrepreneur in Sam Walton to being large and disliked just because you're large, and all of the negatives that went with it. So I personally don't use the word "scale" very much because when I hear that word I think of pain.

We do benefit from the fact that once we say we're going to do it, people believe we can do it, because we have the resources. Google helps in that way: There aren't many funding mechanisms like that.

But lest some unlucky event should happen unfavorable to my reputation, I beg it may be remembered by every gentleman in the room that I this day declare with the utmost sincerity, I do not think myself equal to the command I am honored with.

Associate with men of good quality if you esteem your own reputation; for it is better to be alone than in bad company.