I think the most important thing is just if you hire people whose personal values match the corporate core values - and not just the stated ones.

We asked ourselves what we wanted this company to stand for. We didn't want to just sell shoes. I wasn't even into shoes - but I was passionate about customer service.

I thought about how easily we are all brainwashed by our society and culture to stop thinking and just assume by default that more money equals more success and more happiness, when ultimately happiness is really just about enjoying life.

The best businesses are really ones that can combine passion, profits, and purpose.

Stop chasing the money and start chasing the passion.

Good businesses generate missions to drive their profits. Great businesses generate profits to drive their missions.

Service Over the years, the number one driver of our growth at Zappos has been repeat customers and word of mouth. Our philosophy has been to take most of the money we would have spent on paid advertising and invest it into customer service and the customer experience instead, letting our customers do the marketing for us through word of mouth.