“Habit #1: They see themselves and their companies as dominating their environment.
Habit #2: They identify so completely with the company that there is no clear boundary between their personal interests and their corporation’s interests.
Habit #3: They think they have all the answers.
Habit #4: They ruthlessly eliminate anyone who isn’t completely behind them.
Habit #5: They are consummate spokespersons, obsessed with the company image.
Habit #6: They underestimate obstacles.
Habit #7: They stubbornly rely on what worked for them in the past.”

- Sydney Finkelstein, Steven Roth Professor of Management at Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth

“Our society overfunds Internet companies and underfunds cancer research.”

- Glenn Kelman, CEO of Redfin

Check out the full article for a great example of why you should work on problems that matter and one of your major long term career goals should be to convince lots of really smart people to follow suit.

“Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that but the really great make you feel that you too can become great. When you are seeking to bring big plans to fruition it is important with whom you regularly associate. Hang out with friends who are like-minded and who are also designing purpose-filled lives. Similarly be that kind of a friend for your friends.”

- Mark Twain

“The fundamental thing that I wish I’d [have] known, is I underestimated the importance of simplicity and design. The first couple of years I really didn’t feel that, I didn’t have a good enough appreciation that the most important thing for consumer facing software was that it was beautiful, simple, people immediately and intuitively understood how to use it. It really wasn’t about making it more powerful, it was about making it more natural. I think I’ve only internalized that in the past couple of years and it’ll take another lifetime to really master it.”

- Phil Libin, CEO of Evernote

Courtesy GrowthHackers

Evernote has grown into a billion dollar company with over 75 million users while spending a whopping $0 on user acquisition. Instead, the company’s focus has always been on building a great product.

Check out Full Stack Marketing co-founder Morgan Brown’s insightful GrowthHackers article on Evernote’s “$0 growth engine.”