Only recently did I become aware of Scott Weiss and what has been his especialy interesting career thus far. You can click here to read an article about him. And here is an excerpt from a recent blog at his website. I urge you to check it out and previous posts by clicking here.

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In 1950, my Uncle Ed Kalin opened a small designer furniture store. After years of hard work, he saved up and opened a larger one. Growing up working there, I’d observed him doing things that, at first, were hard for me to understand.

First of all, when he walked around the store, he was constantly picking up trash. Little wrappers, paperclips, cigarette butts and the squashed paper cup that didn’t quite hit the trash can. When I first noticed it, I thought he was trying to drive home a point to me personally—after all, I was the assistant janitor—but it became clear he wasn’t just picking up trash in front of me, he did it all the time, naturally and quietly. You never heard him say, “Can’t they make it into the wastebasket?” He just picked it up and put it in. He was also always straightening: fluffing pillows, righting picture frames, sliding back barstools and getting down on his knees to level a rickety table. One day, the intercom rang out in the back of the warehouse, “Scott Weiss, to the front for a carry out.” Recalling my work ethic in junior high school, I certainly didn’t sprint to get there; I arrived just in time to see my uncle following a lady out with an end table in his hands. “Doh!” He never mentioned it—just did it.

Although this was a high-end furniture store, Uncle Ed was also unusually thrifty. He didn’t cut corners on quality but abhorred waste. “Scott, you don’t need to use that much bubble wrap for a lamp. Here, let me show you.” At home, he would set paper towels on the counter to dry after washing his hands: “They’re not dirty, just wet.” OK, thrifty was an understatement.

There were 80 employees at the furniture store and Ed knew every one of them by name. He knew their families. And whenever he passed anyone, anywhere, he’d have an authentic interaction with them—not a glad-handling schmooze. “When does your son graduate?” “How were you able to fix that scratch? Wow, looks perfect.”  Always with a smile and interested eyes that communicated, “You matter to me.”

In a competitive, low-margin, high-hustle retail business, Ed wanted to project Bloomingdales with a Wal-Mart budget. The showroom had to be beautiful, spotless—just perfect to look the part. Customer service was paramount. In order to be successful, every employee had to have this mentality.

Although we didn’t call it that then, I’ve come to believe that Ed was creating a company culture. We often get wrapped up in Silicon Valley with the “new-new” way that we can forget many times we’re simply rediscovering well worn lessons that date back to the beginnings of commerce.

Like it or not, everyone watches the leader. What does he do? What does he say? What does he not say? How does he react? His behavior is mimicked and amplified throughout the organization. The CEO and the leadership team ultimately set the company culture with their behaviors verses a set of policies rolled out by the HR department.

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Inspired by Ed Kalin, Weiss then offers a few takeaways that he believes apply to all startup CEOs: To read the complete article, please click here. Scott Weiss has indeed had an especially interesting career thus far, worth checking out by clicking here. Since April this year, he has been a general partner at Andreessen Horowitz, a venture capital firm.