The Walmart Absorption Effect

Let's face it. No matter where you spend your money, there is going to be a rather significant portion that is going to ultimately wind up in the cash register at Walmart. Why is that? Because for all the haters, the fact is that most people actually shop at their stores.

This is why it just makes sense to own Walmart stock.

If you eat out at a restaurant, the waitress will likely spend a portion of her income at Walmart. Same goes for the dishwasher, the bus boy, and even the guy who trucks in the supplies and food for the restaurant.

They will all spend a portion of their money at Walmart.

Go to a gas station for a fill up and a Coke? The cashier will likely be spending a portion of their paycheck at Walmart. Spend at The Dollar Tree or Dollar General? I bet the workers there will spend a portion of their paycheck at Walmart.

The fast-food worker? They are going to spend a portion of their paycheck at Walmart too. From food stamps to social security checks? A large portion of that money will also be spent at Walmart.

Everyone shops at Walmart even if they tell you they don't because let's face it as well, Walmart simply offers everything under the sun at a value that even the die-hard haters can't pass up.

Beyond that, one has to admit that despite Walmart being a retailer in the retail sector, it is as diversified as stocks can be when you really get down to it. Because it carries pretty much anything under the sun. Call it an ETF of sorts that holds some sort of value in Unilever, Proctor & Gamble, Georgia-Pacific, Colgate-Palmolive, Kraft Foods, and any number of other companies both public and private.

Owning Walmart stock means you own a piece of every bit of spending happening in their stores. And likely you will shop there as well, meaning every dollar you spend will have a tiny discount attached to it when you get your quarterly dividend check.

Granted, it's not a fantastic yield at 1.47%, or $2.28 per share on an annual basis. But sharing in the profits of the largest retailer in the world that will capture the lion's share of every single paycheck that exists seems to me like a great thing to own, and I think everyone should own at least a few shares.

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What Job Loyalty Means To Me

The short answer? Only a fool will allow himself to be beholden to anyone for his livelihood. I think of a job like I think of a business. It will make decisions that are imperative to keep the business afloat, and growing, regardless of how that affects the people in the business. That's just smart business and really nothing personal.

Don't get me wrong. I will continue to stay with any company that is doing all of the things that are right for maintaining my own business. That is, having the ability to pay my bills, having the ability to enjoy upward mobility, and having enough free reign to pursue my personal interests as it applies to money and ultimately my livelihood, present and future.

My boss is a jerk is not necessarily a reason to leave a company any more than my boss is a really nice guy is a reason to stay with a company.

For me it boils down to one question. Does the company have the meat to allow me the ability to get where I want? If the answer is no, then just like a business will decide that having 500 employees is not beneficial to the bottom line and reduces their workforce to 400 at the expense of 100 people now out of a job, deciding to leave a company behind is simply the right business decision regardless of any other factors, if it is determined that the company that you work for is stifling your ability to meet your own  personal business' needs.

When YOUR business affects the health and stability of MY business, it's not about loyalty. It's about doing what's right for the health of MY business.

No business I have ever heard of longs to have its doors shuttered just because it wants to be loyal to someone or something.

I am not loyal to a company. I am only loyal to my business. And as it should be, just as much as the company I work for is not loyal to me, but to its business, I should be loyal to my business.

You cannot and should not ever consider yourself a simple employee. And moreover, you should never allow yourself to become a simple employee. In  other words, you must make it your primary goal to afford yourself the ability to become an individual business within the framework of any company you work for, and thereby afford yourself the ability to make decisions about how you proceed based on what you can do as opposed to what you must do.

Why do people stay in jobs that don't have the meat? The simplest answer is because they have put themselves into a position to need their employer to support at least the continuity of their own personal business and equate that to the idea that they are being loyal to an employer that is taking care of their needs. At that point it really isn't about loyalty. It's about simple survival. But some people will mistake that as being taken care of by their employer to maintain the status quo, and thereby will take whatever comes to them.

Most of the time, people are just getting by. Your own personal business is being sustained, but it's on a treadmill, your business is running in place, and at any moment the belt can break and you will be sent reeling onto your hindquarters with egg on your face.

In this sense, one is more like a slave to their job and to their company than an individual person able to decide for himself or herself what the best next step is in expanding their own personal business. That is a hugely dangerous and foolish position to be in.

I work for no one except for myself. Plain and simple. In reality? I have no boss other than myself so long as I understand the needs of my own personal business and the ability of the company I work for to have the meat to allow me to do what I need to in order to make my business a winner.

The moment that I decide that is not the case, I walk. Regardless of the inconvenience to the company I work for. Regardless of the consequence of the people I worked with. Regardless of the impact of my decision on the livelihood of others. It is a business decision that is made with regard to the needs of my business, and nothing else.

Nobody else, and no other business matters except my own. And that is exactly the way it SHOULD be.

Loyalty to a job means to me that a person is in need of their job. Not in control of their own future, their own destiny, and not in control of the future expansion and growth of their own personal business.

The old saying that a fool and his money will soon be parted sort of applies here. If you rely on being loyal, you are likely leaving opportunity, and potentially money as well, on the table. No successful or smart business ever worries about who gets hurt in the process, and certainly they don't worry about competitors who get taken out either. They do what is right for their business, and so should you consider your own personal business above all else.

However harsh it may seem, loyalty to anyone but yourself is simply a good way to ensure that others around you will thrive while all you get to do is survive. In essence, you will forever be beholden to someone else for your livelihood.

It may seem selfish. But at the end of the day any smart business is in business to become a powerhouse and grow and make money. If you think of yourself as a business, then it just makes sense to pursue your needs above the needs of all others, including the company you work for.

A boss it a title. A business is an entity. And where I come from? A business trumps a boss. The only time a boss trumps a business is when he is allowed to do so. I choose to be a personal business and trump my boss. And a boss only has power when his business trumps the business of the other personal businesses around him. If the businesses around him are strong and powerful, concession is the right order of business. And then the reality becomes that what is actually taking place is partnerships.

To my mind, loyalty is a fool's game, pure and simple.