Your personal core values define who you are, and a company's core values ultimately define the company's character and brand. For individuals, character is destiny. For organizations, culture is destiny.

Happiness is really just about four things: perceived control, perceived progress, connectedness (number and depth of your relationships), and vision/meaning (being part of something bigger than yourself).

If you're worried about putting food on the table or putting a roof over your head, that stress is definitely will contribute to unhappiness, but once you have your basic needs met then incremental money.

Zappos is a customer service company that just happens to sell shoes.

Your brand is your culture.

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.

Success is getting to a point where you'd be truly OK with losing everything you have and starting over.