Sam walton

Appendix 3 (life script): Sam Walton’s Birth Order and his Leadership Character
David M. Boje
New Mexico State University
September 4, 2005; Revised Aug 11, 2007

Sam Walton was born Mar 29 1918 in Kingfisher, OK, and died Apr 5 1992. He is first born, and was born on a small family.

Both of Sam’s parents (Thomas Gibson & Nancy Lee Walton) shaped Sam’s leaderly character. Sam and hisparents lived on a farm until 1923, until Sam’s dad decided to go work with his brother again, as a Farm Loan Appraiser (repossessing farms during the Great Depression).

Sam is the first born of two children. James Lawrence (“Bud”) Walton, the younger brother was born in 1921; Bud died March 21, 1995. When Sam was 5 and Bud 2, the family moved to Springfield Missouri.

“Bud had a very differentpersonality” than Sam (Ortega, 2000: 27); “the brothers had been close as children, and Sam Walton had long tried to steer Bud’s progress.” Bud was “bright and capable…. He wasn’t as outgoing as Sam; but at the same time he adopted a far more carefree attitude…. He didn’t seem driven to achieve the way his older brother did. Where Sam was abstemious, never smoking and rarely drinking, Budthoroughly enjoyed both vices” (Ortega, 2000: 27-28).

Birth order theory suggests that life plots (scripts) of first born children differ from those of second, or third, or last born. Sam Walton’s talent for leading is a direct result of his childhood experiences (Boje, 2005, Chapter 3).

Sam’s mother pushed Sam to be a winner, to excel in every activity. While attending 8th grade in Shelbina, Sambecame the youngest Eagle Scout in the state's history. Sam’s Mother (Helen) started a dairy cow business during the Great Depression. Sam like his younger brother Bud, had numerous chores: milked the family cow, bottled the surplus and drove it to customers. Afterwards, they would deliver newspapers on a paper route.

Sam’s leadership career exhibits the predicted characteristics for first born:strong achievement orientation, takes responsibility, highly dependability, authoritarianism, dominant, conservative, shrewdness, high dependency, need for affection and praise, but also insecurity, sensitiveness, jealousy, spoiled,  and stinginess (traits from Forum on Birth Order).[i] In addition, Sam’s autobiography attests that his “Mother and Dad were two of the most quarrelsome people whoever lived together … They were always at odds, and they really only stayed together because of Bud and me… As the oldest child, I felt like I took a lot of the brunt of this comestic discord… I’m not sure exactly how this affected my personality – unless it was partly a motivation to stay so busy all the time…” (cited in Ortega, 2000: 20). Indeed Sam became a workaholic.

Sam played basketball,was quarterback for Columbia, Missouri’s Hickman High School; they won state championship in 1935; he graduated from high school and was voted the "Most Versatile Boy" in his class.

Sam strived to become President of the Student Body his senior year at University of Missouri; Sam majored in economics and was an ROTC officer. He was rush captain for his fraternity, Beta Theta Pi. Upongraduating, Jun 3 1940, Sam was voted "Permanent President" of the class. In his autobiography (Walton, 1992: 14-15) tells about his Rush Captain days and his campus leadership:

I bought a real old Ford, and I traveled the whole state that summer, interviewing potential Beta candidates…

I learned early on that one of the secrets to campus leadership was the simplest thing of all: speak topeople coming down the sidewalk beroe they speak to you.

Hired by JC Penney at $75 a month, but turned down offer from Sears; started in Des Moines Iowa 3 days after graduation from college; Worked at JC Penney till WWII. Bud followed Dam in becoming a Penney’s trainee (Ortega, 2000: 28). Sam and then Bud resigned from their positions at Penney’s in 1942 in anticipation of being inducted...