"Entrepreneurs often lose sight of what matters. Are you helping people? Are they happy? Are you happy? Are you profitable? Isn't that enough?"

"Business is not about money. It’s about making dreams come true for others and for yourself."

"Your business plan is moot. You don’t know what people really want until you launch."

"By focusing entirely on thrilling your customers - even at an occasional loss - you ultimately profit more, because of the loyalty and word-of-mouth marketing that comes only when you place your customer’s needs over your own."

"Starting with no money is an advantage. You don’t need money to start helping people."

"A quick glance and common sense should tell you if the numbers will work. The rest are details."

"When you’re onto something great, it won’t feel like revolution. It’ll feel like uncommon sense."

"Success comes from persistently improving and inventing, not from persistently doing what’s not working."

"When deciding whether to do something, if you feel anything less than “Wow! That would be amazing! Absolutely! Hell yeah!” then say no."

"serial entrepreneur Steve Blank: “No business plan survives first contact with customers.”"

"By not having any money to waste, you never waste money."

"Necessity is a great teacher."

"Never forget that absolutely everything you do is for your customers. Make every decision—even decisions about whether to expand the business, raise money, or promote someone—according to what’s best for your customers."

"“How can I best help you now?”"

"the way to grow your business is to focus entirely on your existing customers."

"Starting small puts 100 percent of your energy into actually solving real problems for real people."

"To me, ideas are worth nothing unless they are executed. They are just a multiplier. Execution is worth millions."

"You can’t pretend there’s only one way to do it. Your first idea is just one of many options. No business goes as planned, so make ten radically different plans."

"please don’t think you need a huge vision. Just stay focused on helping people today."

"Never forget why you’re really doing what you’re doing. Are you helping people? Are they happy? Are you happy? Are you profitable? Isn’t that enough?"

"How do you grade yourself? It’s important to know in advance, to make sure you’re staying focused on what’s honestly important to you, instead of doing what others think you should."

"That’s the Tao of business: Care about your customers more than about yourself, and you’ll do well."

"We want to give to those who give. It’s another Tao of business: Set up your business like you don’t need the money, and it’ll likely come your way."

"When one customer wrongs you, remember the hundred thousand who did not. You’re lucky to own your own business. Life is good. You can’t prevent bad things from happening. Learn to shrug."

"In your little world, you can make it like it should be."

"That one silly e-mail, sent out with every order, has been so loved that if you search Google for “private CD Baby jet,” you’ll get almost twenty thousand results. Each one is somebody who got the e-mail and loved it enough to post it on his website and tell all his friends. That one goofy e-mail created thousands of new customers."

"If you find even the smallest way to make people smile, they’ll remember you more for that smile than for all your other fancy business-model stuff."

"I made it so that every outgoing e-mail customized the “From:” field to be “CD Baby loves [first name].” So if the customer’s name was Susan, every e-mail she got from us would say it was from “CD Baby loves Susan.” Customers loved this!"

"Even if you want to be big someday, remember that you never need to act like a big boring company. Over ten years, it seemed like every time someone raved about how much he loved CD Baby, it was because of one of these little fun human touches."

"In the end, it’s about what you want to be, not what you want to have. To have something (a finished recording, a business, or millions of dollars) is the means, not the end. To be something (a good singer, a skilled entrepreneur, or just plain happy) is the real point."

"To be a true business owner, make it so that you could leave for a year, and when you came back, your business would be doing better than when you left."

"Never forget that you can make your role anything you want it to be. Anything you hate to do, someone else loves. So find that person and let her do it."

"You can’t live someone else’s expectation of a traditional business. You have to just do whatever you love the most, or you’ll lose interest in the whole thing."

"Make sure you know what makes you happy, and don’t forget it."

"Trust, but verify. Remember it when delegating. You have to do both."

"Lesson learned too late: Delegate, but don’t abdicate."

"I asked Seth Godin’s advice. All he said was, “If you care, sell.”"

"A business is a reflection of the creator."

"Just pay close attention to what excites you and what drains you. Pay close attention to when you’re being the real you and when you’re trying to impress an invisible jury."