Andy Dunn

Maybe everyone lives forever. Or maybe, like in the animated movie 'Coco,' only those whose stories get told by the living definitely do. It takes a story worth telling.

Taking risks and being focused, sometimes, are at odds. Both are required to build a great company.

Your sympathy is worthless to people in need without action.

However much risk we are taking, we can and probably should take more.

The only reason courage exists is because sometimes it is required.

You don't think, when you start a company as the founding CEO, that if your venture actually works, you end up with three jobs: founder, CEO, and chair of the board. The first eight years at Bonobos, I have learned a lot about the tension between the first two. It didn't even occur to me that I had the third job until much later.

Culture is an output of a bunch of inputs that have to come together the right way. Specifically, it is the collision of people and their context, how they interact with each other in that context, and then how that context evolves based on those interactions as they multiply.

A company that can't fire people well is like a forest that never has a fire. It becomes overgrown, full of weeds, and it fails.

Business books are generally read and written by people who aren't good at business.

Most of the time, when you need something at a company, you make it. If you want to sell a product, you create it. If you need a head of marketing, you hire one. If you want to create a great company culture, what do you do? The lack of a clear answer on this is why I believe most companies don't have a great culture.

No one gave me a recipe for how to create company culture. I wish I had had one.

Every company can use someone advocating loudly for the customer.