Have you visited the Walmart museum? It s a tribute to one of the greatest miracles of modern business—a scrappy 5 and 10 store in Northwest Arkansas that somehow managed to become number one on the Fortune 500 and the Fortune Global 500. Regular readers of this blog know I focus frequently on how leadership has changed in the last few decades. But I was struck by founder Sam Walton’s 10 rules of business, posted on the museum wall, which still seem to strike all the right chords. They are, in short form:

1. • Commit to your business.
   • Share your profits with your associates.
   • Motivate your partners.
   • Communicate everything you possibly can to your partners.
   • Appreciate everything your associates do for the business.
   • Celebrate your successes.
   • Listen to everyone in your company.
   • Exceed your customers’ expectations.
   • Control your expenses better than your competition.
   • Swim upstream.

I particularly like the last one, which was Mr. Sam’s way of saying: “disrupt yourself.” It is in my books, the hardest to achieve. It is why large companies slowly deflate and end.