Sam Walton loved to sell. Although he was only in second grade in 1925, he went door-to-door selling magazines to his neighbors in his Missouri town. He knocked on doors up and down his block, carrying a sample of the magazines he sold. Neighbors were amazed to see this little boy standing up straight and speaking clearly and proudly. He sold one magazine for a nickel. He sold another for a dime. Pretty soon, he figured out he should try to sell more of the ten-cent magazines than the five-cent ones!

It was not just magazines. Sam raised bunnies in his backyard and sold them as pets. He and his mother milked a cow in their backyard. They bottled the milk and cream . . . and Sam sold it.

As Sam grew up, he kept selling. He had a newspaper route and was always adding new customers. He worked in a small store that sold a little bit of everything. He worked in restaurants, providing food and drinks to hungry visitors. Sam also took odd jobs, helping people around their yards or making deliveries.

Sam’s family was not poor, but they were not rich, either. They certainly could use all the extra money that Sam could bring in. For Sam, selling was a way to help his family. It just turned out that it was something he was really good at.

It also turned out that what Sam probably sold best was himself. From the time he was a little kid, he was confident and friendly. He loved meeting new people, and he was never afraid to shake someone’s hand and say hello. He became a very popular person at school because he made sure to greet everyone he met with a big smile. Sam’s boyhood friend Everett Orr later said that Sam had something magical about him. “He made friends easily. People sort of flickered toward him, even when he was young.”

By the time Sam finished school, he knew he wanted to keep selling . . . and to keep meeting people. He opened the first store of his own in Arkansas in 1945. By the time he was in his late thirties, Sam Walton owned stores in many small towns in the Midwest. He made sure to visit them all, and he was always ready to shake a customer’s hand. There were no strangers at Sam Walton’s stores.

When Sam was forty-four, he started an even bigger version of his store, a new way to sell even more things to more people.

He called his new store Wal-Mart. kj/oHhbzd9kgvlEJhIvvWgTh7WBjbuaAiai5tsriZjR1udKXA4J6ILKdnEvNhvSt