Here's the way I see it: solving interesting problems is what motivates you to wake up and drive into the office every day. Being a part of a cause is what kee

Here's the way I see it: solving interesting problems is what motivates you to wake up and drive into the office every day. Being a part of a cause is what keeps you driving into that same office every day for five years. Solving interesting problems will only get you so far. In fact, it will get you as far as the next company that comes along and dangles a nice raise in your LinkedIn inbox with the promise of solving interesting problems. The cause is what creates long-term loyalty. For employers, maintaining this cause is the challenge. Causes are expensive. All too often, causes are set aside in the interest of profitability. To use Todd's example, this is when the food company realizes that people freaking love mac n' cheese and that they'll sell a lot more food if they stray from the cause and start serving the garbage that so many people love. Remember the early days of Google and "do no evil"? Yeah.