- Provide value to it's customers and employees - Do not be extractive of customers - Be reasonable with what you expect from employees - Compensate fairly and in proportion to profit - Profit sharing itself isn't enough, if the business is able to make more profit with less people, the people who work hard to make that happen should be rewarded proportionally - New positions, hiring, should be made collectively, as everyone's take-home compensation stands to be reduced with every bit of overhead - Transparency in every possible way - Where does the money go? - Who makes the decisions? - How do decisions get made? - Not every business is forever - Pivoting can be ok, but sometimes it's time to be done - There is great value in excellent leadership, but negative value in average leadership - Your CEO could be the best paid employee, but their incentives *must* perfectly align with business and employee incentives - The founder is often the best candidate for this position, but only if they don't let their ego lead to bad decision making - Clear vision and identity is important - Every employee should incorporate their role as part of their identity, to do so is a prerequisite for high performance and investment in quality and leads to better outcomes for everyone - Vision keeps you on track; diversions from that path leads to missteps