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- Sam Walton (Walmart Founder)
Quote: "There is only one boss: the customer. And hecan fire everybody in the company from the Chairman on down, simply by spending his money somewhere else."
Samuel Moore Walton was born in 1918 inKingfisher, Oklahoma, during the Great Depression. Before creating the world's largest retail chain, he worked multiple jobs, including waiting tables and delivering newspapers. In 1945, he borrowed $20,000 from his father-in-law to buy his first retail store, a Ben Franklin franchise in Newport, Arkansas. Walton revolutionized retail by focusing on small rural towns that other retailers ignored. He would fly his own plane to visit stores and scout locations, accumulating over 230,000 flight hours. His first Walmart opened in 1962 in Rogers, Arkansas, and he introduced innovative practices like computerized inventory systems and profit-sharing with employees. Despite becoming one of the richest people in America, Walton maintained his modest lifestyle, driving the same 1979 Ford F-150 pickup truck and living in the same small house. He even continued visiting stores until shortly before his death in 1992, showing his dedication to hands-on management. Walton received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1992 for his contributions to American retail and job creation.
山姆·沃爾頓（沃爾瑪創辦人）
名言：「公司裡只有一個老闆：顧客。他可以用腳投票，只要把錢花在別處，就能讓從董事長以下的所有人都丟掉飯碗。」
山姆·摩爾·沃爾頓1918年生於奧克拉荷馬州金費舍，正值經濟大蕭條時期。在創立全球最大零售連鎖企業之前，他打過多份工，包括當服務生和送報員。1945年，他向岳父借了2萬美元，在阿肯色州紐波特買下第一間零售店，是一家班·富蘭克林加盟店。沃爾頓專注經營其他零售商忽視的小型鄉鎮，徹底改變了零售業。他開自己的飛機視察店面和勘查地點，累積超過23萬飛行小時。1962年，他在阿肯色州羅傑斯開設第一家沃爾瑪，並推出創新做法，如電腦化庫存系統和員工分紅制度。儘管成為美國首富之一，沃爾頓保持簡樸作風，開著同一輛1979年的福特F-150皮卡車，住在同一間小房子裡。直到1992年去世前不久，他仍堅持親自到店巡視，展現他對親力親為管理的堅持。沃爾頓因對美國零售業和就業市場的貢獻，於1992年獲頒總統自由勳章。
2. Jeff Bezos (Amazon Founder)
Quote: "I knew that if I failed I wouldn't regret that,but I knew the one thing I might regret is not trying."
Born in 1964 in Albuquerque, NewMexico, Jeff Bezos showed entrepreneurial spirit from an early age. He graduated as valedictorian of his high school and studied computer science at Princeton University. Before founding Amazon, he worked on Wall Street and became the youngest senior vice president at investment firm D.E. Shaw. In 1994, Bezos read that internet usage was growing by 2,300% annually, which inspired him to start an online bookstore. He wrote Amazon's business plan while driving cross-country from New York to Seattle with his wife MacKenzie. Initially operating from his garage, Amazon sold its first book in July 1995. Bezos chose Seattle because of its large tech talent pool and proximity to a major book distributor. He based early decisions on what he called the "regret minimization framework," asking himself what he would regret least when he was 80 years old. Despite early skepticism from investors and media (who called Amazon "Amazon.bomb" during the dot-com bust), Bezos maintained his long-term vision, famously saying Amazon would be "willing to be misunderstood for long periods of time."
傑夫·貝佐斯（亞馬遜創辦人）
名言：「我知道失敗不會讓我後悔，但不去嘗試可能會讓我後悔。」 出處：2001年接受成就學院訪談
傑夫·貝佐斯1964年生於新墨西哥州阿爾伯克基，從小就展現企業家精神。他以高中第一名的成績畢業，進入普林斯頓大學主修電腦科學。創立亞馬遜之前，他在華爾街工作，成為投資公司D.E.Shaw最年輕的資深副總裁。1994年，貝佐斯讀到網路使用率年增2300%的報導，因此萌生創辦線上書店的想法。他在和妻子麥肯齊開車從紐約橫越美國到西雅圖的途中，擬定了亞馬遜的營運計畫。亞馬遜最初在他的車庫營運，1995年7月賣出第一本書。他選擇西雅圖是因為當地有豐富的科技人才和主要書商。他的早期決策都基於「後悔最小化原則」，問自己80歲時最不會後悔的選擇是什麼。儘管早期投資人和媒體持懷疑態度（網路泡沫時期稱亞馬遜為「炸彈」），貝佐斯堅持長遠眼光，他有句名言：「我們願意被誤解很長一段時間。」
3. IngvarKamprad (IKEA Founder)
Quote: "Making mistakes is the privilege of the active.It is always the mediocre people who are negative, who spend their time proving that they were not wrong."
Ingvar Kamprad was born in 1926 inSmåland, Sweden. He began his entrepreneurial journey at age five, buying matches in bulk and reselling them to neighbors. The name IKEA combines his initials (IK) with the first letters of Elmtaryd and Agunnaryd, the farm and village where he grew up. He founded IKEA in 1943 at age 17, initially selling small household items like picture frames and pencils. The company's breakthrough came in 1956 when an employee removed the legs of a table to fit it into a car, inspiring IKEA's flat-pack furniture concept. Despite his wealth, Kamprad was known for his frugal lifestyle – he flew economy class, drove an old Volvo, and encouraged a corporate culture of cost-consciousness. He had dyslexia, which influenced IKEA's product naming system – using names instead of numbers made it easier for him to remember products. This personal challenge led to a unique IKEA naming convention: bathroom items are named
after Swedish lakes and rivers, while bedding products are named after plants and flowers.
英格瓦·坎普拉德（IKEA創辦人）
名言：「犯錯是行動者的特權。總是那些平庸的人才會持否定態度，花時間證明自己沒有錯。」
英格瓦·坎普拉德1926年生於瑞典斯莫蘭。他5歲就開始創業，大量購入火柴再轉賣給鄰居。IKEA這個名字結合了他的英文縮寫（IK）和他成長的農場Elmtaryd與村莊Agunnaryd的首字母。他17歲時於1943年創立IKEA，最初販售相框和鉛筆等小家居用品。1956年，一位員工為了把桌子裝進車子而拆下桌腳，啟發了IKEA的平面包裝家具概念。儘管身為富豪，坎普拉德以節儉著稱－搭經濟艙、開舊款富豪車，並提倡節約的企業文化。他有閱讀障礙，這影響了IKEA的產品命名系統－用名字代替數字讓他更容易記住產品。這個個人特質促成了IKEA獨特的命名慣例：浴室用品用瑞典湖泊和河流命名，床上用品則用植物和花卉命名。