BRAD D. SMITH

Many small businesses are running entire businesses from a mobile phone.

I was in martial arts starting at the age of 14, and I got my black belt by the time I was 18. Soon after, I was teaching an entire school, with about 150 students. It was unbelievably intense because of the self-awareness part of becoming a black belt.

I am a dichotomy of tastes. I'm big on water, and I do a protein drink in the morning, but then I eat off the kids' menu after that. So, there's only like six foods I like. I like quesadillas. I like hamburgers. I like sushi. I like pizza, PB&J, or breakfast any time of the day.

We are out-of-the-gates strong in fiscal 2015. We grew revenue 8% in the first quarter and exceeded our QuickBooks Online subscriber and our company financial targets.

I've always valued and encouraged teamwork, and that collaborative spirit of we versus I is core to Intuit's success. Innovation has been part of Intuit's DNA for nearly 30 years.

I grew up in a small town in West Virginia called Kenova. It's the city where the plane crashed from Marshall University. I watched the mountain burn, and my cousins were the volunteer firemen. I was 6 years old at the time.

At Intuit, we've introduced concepts like unstructured time to enable individuals and small teams to be entrepreneurial and identify new processes or product ideas.

We've been delivering cloud-based services for over a decade, with more than 30 million Intuit customers using offerings across a variety of desktop and mobile devices. The benefits are clear: online experiences are simply better for customer.

I'd say the best way to train someone is to remember that you have two ears and one mouth, and use them in that ratio. That's hard to do, and ultimately what we've learned is how many false positives you get from listening to what someone says they're going to do instead of observing what they actually do.

I have this famous joke that I use: Why was God able to create Heaven and Earth in seven days and seven nights? Because he didn't have installed customers and legacy technology to worry about.

The world has shifted to the palm of our hand, or a tablet. We hadn't been investing in 'Quicken' that way.

My dad worked for Nestle for 26 years and ended up being the mayor of our hometown. One of the lessons I learned from him was to never mistake kindness for weakness.

I used to walk around with a stick. My dad used to call me Moses. It's on a home video. He said, 'That kid would rather lead no one than follow anyone.' I had dogs following me in the neighborhood. I had neighborhood kids coming over.

Customer-driven innovation was at the core of Intuit's first product, 'Quicken,' and it continues to guide us as we look to solve new problems in areas like mobile payments. Products like Intuit 'GoPayment' and the IntuitPayment Network are helping small businesses get paid faster, keeping cash flow strong and their business healthy.

I've done a number of things in the spirit of employee motivation. I tend to be a storyteller and a student of history. I often tell stories of great battles, like the battle of Thermopylae, to inspire teams who face what appear to be insurmountable odds.

The PC is becoming a truck. Everybody is using a tablet and a phone.

Millennials, and the generations that follow, are shaping technology. This generation has grown up with computing in the palm of their hands. They are more socially and globally connected through mobile Internet devices than any prior generation. And they don't question; they just learn.

I tell people: 'Do what you love, but it can also be hard to know what you love early on. But when you think about it and you describe the options, which one gets you a little more excited?'

Good intentions often get muddled with very complex execution. The last time the government tried to make taxes easier, it created a 1040 EZ form with a 52-page help booklet.

The average small-business owner uses 18 apps to run their business every day, and if those applications don't allow data to flow seamlessly and they don't integrate, it's going to become a point of friction. It's going to prevent the small business from being successful.

I get into the office about 7 A.M., then I usually get out of the office a little after 7 P.M. I get home, I have dinner, then I spend a couple hours with my girls. I'm in bed about 9 P.M. That's the program!

The ultimate proof of confidence for a small-business owner is, are they hiring employees?

Intuit's mission, values, and culture of innovation set us apart as a great place to work. Our 8,000 employees are innovators and entrepreneurs that are inspired by the important work they do that is delighting customers and improving the financial lives of millions of people.

About 10 million people start a business each year, and about one out of two will make it. The average entrepreneur is often on his or her third startup.

The number one thing small business needs is to get more customers. Spend more time serving existing customers and getting new ones. The challenge for small business is knowing where customers are and reaching them effectively.