I don't think that you can invent on behalf of customers unless you're willing to think long-term, because a lot of invention doesn't work. If you're going to invent, it means you're going to experiment, and if you're going to experiment, you're going to fail, and if you're going to fail, you have to think long term.

The death knell for any enterprise is to glorify the past -- no matter how good it was.

Obsess about customers, not competitors.

Percentage margins don't matter. What matters always is dollar margins: the actual dollar amount. Companies are valued not on their percentage margins, but on how many dollars they actually make, and a multiple of that.

In Seattle you haven't had enough coffee until you can thread a sewing machine while it's running.

One of the things that gets me up in the morning is knowing that customer expectations are always rising, and I find that very exciting.

There are multiple ways to be externally focused that are very successful. You can be customer-focused or competitor-focused. Some people are internally focused, and if they reach critical mass, they can tip the whole company.