Via an article where Tony Hsieh sheds light on why Zappos sold out to Amazon:

By early 2009, we were at a stalemate. Because of a complicated legal structure, I effectively controlled the majority of the common shares, so that the board couldn't force a sale of the company. But on the five-person board, only two of us -- Alfred Lin, our CFO and COO, and myself -- were completely committed to Zappos's culture. This made it likely that if the economy didn't improve, the board would fire me and hire a new CEO who was concerned only with maximizing profits. The threat was never made overtly, but I could tell that was the direction things were going.

I spent most of my youth trying to put myself in situations where I was in complete control. I craved to create something that was wholly mine - nothing could make the site impure with outside pressure.

But part of growing up is realizing you don't have control. You have very little control in this world - the best thing to do is to go with the flow and accept that fact. Things happen, most of the times without reason, and trying to anticipate them or to minimize your exposure to them is a losing battle.

I have to deal with the fact that will never strike uncertainty from my life. If I accept the premise that most of my life is uncertain, then I must acknowledge that the biggest battle in my life is dealing with the fear of the unknown - the fear against rejection, fear of acceptance, fear of complexity, fear of failure, and the fear of success.

A track that has quickly become of my favorites is T.I's "Live your Life" (f. Rihanna). Its simple message is great:

so live your life,
you steady chasing that paper
just live your life
ain't got no time for no haters
just live your life
no telling where it'll take you
just live your life
'cause I'm a paper chaser

Ain't nothing wrong with materialism as long as you remember that it's not the end.