Here is an excerpt from an article  written by Allison Fass and published by Inc. magazine in which Tony Hsieh, serial entrepreneur and CEO of Zappos.com, offers leadership advice for fast-growing companies.

To read the complete article, please click here.

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When Tony Hsieh first got involved at Zappos.com in 1999, it was as an investor and advisor.

He had already sold a company–Internet advertiser LinkExchange–to Microsoft for $265 million because it was not a fun place to work anymore.

Since he didn’t want to repeat that mistake and always wanted Zappos.com to remain a fun place to work, he made his No. 1 priority at Zappos.com getting the culture right from the start.

His rationale isn’t just touchy-feely.

In a panel about growth strategies at the Ernst & Young Strategic Growth Forum, Hsieh referenced a key finding of Jim Collins’s leadership bookGood to Great: What separates great companies from mediocre ones in terms of long-term financial performance, Hsieh recalled from the book, is the great ones have strong cultures–as well as a higher purpose beyond profits that ultimately also enables them to generate significantly more profits.

How do you do the same? Here are [the first two of] seven recommendations from Hsieh:

1.  Build a company–not necessarily a product–you’re passionate about. 

“I’ve never been interested in shoes,” said Hsieh. “My passion has always been customer service, company culture, and community.”

Don’t sway from that passion, even if an opportunity arises that seems like it presents an immediate financial return.

2. Want to motivate? Inspire first.

“While there are lots of ways to motivate employees–fear, recognition, incentives (“If you do ‘x,’ I’ll give you ‘y’), what we stumbled into and figured out over the years is there’s a huge difference between motivation and inspiration,” said Hsieh.

In essence, Hsieh said there’s a much bigger financial payoff if you inspire employees with your mission–in Zappos.com’s case: customer service, company culture, and community–than using other techniques.

“If you can inspire employees through a higher purpose beyond profits, that you’re doing something that can help change the world,” said Hsieh, “you can accomplish so much more.”

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To read the complete article, please click here.

Allison Fass is deputy editor of Inc.com. A longtime business journalist at Forbes and The New York Times, Fass has also held roles in venture capital and innovation at Hearst Interactive Media and digital strategy at a start-up consultancy. Folow her twittering @alliefass.