If you don’t own the company, it’s their job, not yours. They lease it to you for a while for the value you create beyond what you cost. At the end of the lease, if you paid off the tab and have more valuable knowledge and skills than you had when you signed on, it’s a good deal for everyone. If you take their money but don’t get better at what you do, you got burned.

It’s not enough to love your product. You have to love your customers, too, every single one—those who complain the most are the ones who control the keys to your survival.

Real talent harnesses what it has and unlocks what it doesn’t. There is natural ability, there is the discipline that develops natural ability, there is the unending study of one’s craft, and there is the exponential lifting of performance by the selfless combination of efforts.

People. Products. Profits. In that order.