A few months later, I started hearing a lot of complaints from musicians, saying that their music hadn’t been sent to these companies. I logged in to the system to see what was wrong. It turns out that we hadn’t sent any music to Napster, Amazon, and some other companies in months. Months!

I called the guy in charge of it and asked what was going on. He said, “Yeah, I’ve been really backed up. It’s been really busy.”
I said, “What’s rule number one? The sole mission of your job?“
He said, “I know. Every album to every company every week no matter what. But I’ve been swamped. I just couldn’t.”
I flew up to Portland and let him go. I’ve never fired anyone so fast, but this was extreme. Our company’s reputation was permanently damaged.

I learned a hard lesson in hindsight: Trust, but verify.
Remember it when delegating. You have to do both.

His first few weeks, I watched closely to make sure everything was going well. It was. So I turned my attention back to other things

manual, and then show it to someone else, too. (Learn by teaching.)

Now I was totally unnecessary. I started working at home, not going into the office at all.

As part of learning it, he had to document it in the

his friends we’re a great company. Everyone always remember that helping musicians is our first goal, and profit is second. You have my full permission to use that guideline to make these decisions yourself in the future. Do what makes the musicians happiest. Make sure everyone who deals with us leaves with a smile.”

It’s important to always do whatever would make the customer happiest, as long as it’s not outrageous. A little gesture like this goes a long way toward him telling

But I never again promised a customer that I could do something that was beyond my full control.

There’s a benefit to being naive about the norms of the world—deciding from scratch what seems like the right thing to do, instead of just doing what others do.

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

It’s too overwhelming to remember that at the end of every computer is a real person, a lot like you

Don’t punish everyone for one person’s mistake

another Tao of business: Set up your business like you don’t need the money, and it’ll likely come your way

the Tao of business: Care about your customers more than about yourself, and you’ll do well.
A business is started to solve a problem

ideas are worth nothing unless they are executed

It’s counterintuitive, but the way to grow your business is to focus entirely on your existing customers. Just thrill them, and they’ll tell everyone.

Never forget that absolutely everything you do is for your customers

None of your customers will ask you to turn your attention to expanding. They want you to keep your attention focused on them

We all have lots of ideas, creations, and projects. When you present one to the world and it’s not a hit, don’t keep pushing it as is. Instead, get back to improving and inventing.

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

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