Scott Cook

If following your passion to a place where there's no pain probably isn't the business, I don't think an entrepreneur can sustain in a place where you don't have passion.

What I teach our people is that, as a leader, you have four key roles apart from people management. First is to champion the grand vision. Two, install systems and a culture to run experiments. The third thing is to savour surprises. The fourth thing is that even a leader's ideas need to be subjected to tests.

Dig for feedback on yourself. You need to have the courage to ask for feedback. You need to learn how you can learn how to grow. It is important that you are going to be a lifelong learner.

I spent some time studying Toyota, because how could a loom maker - they made looms. That was their business for 50 years, 35 years - and then they decided to go into the car business after everyone else was in the car business.

Behind every successful enterprise, there is a supporting wife and surprised in-laws.

You're kind of taught that the role of a business person is the decision making.

As you grow as a company, you get layers and hierarchy that, in theory, should make your decisions a lot better. They get reviewed, and thoughtful people look at decision.

QuickBooks - the very fact that we could even dream to make something in the business arena, and that it would then succeed - was a total revolution to me.

Subsequent to the original Quicken, the whole idea that we, as a consumer products company, could actually make business products, that was a whole revolution in our thinking.

People don't place their trust in government or company pension plans; they have to be self-reliant.

Today more people believe in UFOs than believe that Social Security will take care of their retirement.

The most important skill you need is the ability to learn how to change and grow.