One of the core philosophies we live by at Quicken Loans is “simplicity is genius”—the simplest things are often times the cleverest ideas.

An ordinary guest check tray serves a simple purpose: To hold your restaurant bill, money and change. While dining at BD’s Mongolian Barbecue last weekend, I discovered that their guest check tray is a clever little gadget that not only holds your change, it also has a built in customer satisfaction survey and a calculator for determining the tip. It’s a simple idea, and it probably doesn’t cost much to make, but it begs the question: Why didn’t someone else think of this before now?

It’s doesn’t exactly take a degree in quantum mechanics to mentally figure out a 15 or 20 percent tip on a bill, but for those of us who are more mathematically challenged than others, it’s a nice tool to have on the table. Nice thinking, BD’s!

At Quicken Loans, we believe finding simpler, and better ways to do things can make a big difference in our lives and the world around us. One person who discovered that simplicity can make is big difference was Malcolm McLean.

In 1956, McLean had a great idea that ended up revolutionizing the global economy: Instead of loading and unloading a ship crate by crate, he thought it would be a lot more efficient if dock cranes were to pick up the entire trailer of a truck and place it on the ship. The idea to eliminate the previously expensive and time-consuming loading task, led to McLean’s invention of the standardized shipping container.

Larry Hagman’s career has spanned decades. He’s starred in countless television shows and movies, but he’s probably best known for two roles: The ruthless oil baron, J.R. Ewing from Dallas; and Major Nelson from I Dream of Jeanie.

You probably wouldn’t expect a former television oil baron to be an advocate for the environment, and user of clean, environmentally friendly energy, but Larry Hagman is nearly completely off the electricity grid. His electricity bill was a mere $13 for all of last year—that’s about $1.08 a month to power a 10,000 square foot home.

Hagman is generating so much alternative energy that he decided to run lines from his solar power sources to five low income homes near his ranch, all of which are now completely powered by his solar energy. In addition to his solar efforts, Hagman has recently installed wind turbines, drives a Toyota Prius Hybrid and an electric Dodge Gem.

This year the 75-year-old actor started a campaign, refundsforgood.org, directing people how to claim telephone tax refunds and turn that money over to environmental funds like the Solar Electric Light Fund, which helps developing nations build solar energy infrastructures.

Nearly six months ago we told you about Bob Lee, the amazing 65-year-old cancer survivor about to ride his bicycle more than 6,500 miles across the country to raise money and awareness for cancer, ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease), and hospice. Yesterday, Bob passed the 6,500-mile mark and today he will complete A Ride for Three Reasons in Bar Harbor, Maine.

By the end of today, Bob will have crossed the entire United States, from the south to the north, and from the east coast to the west—a total of 6,546 miles, all at 65. It’s probably difficult for you to wrap your head around exactly how far Bob has ridden his bicycle, but this should put it into perspective:

Since March, Bob had peddled enough to travel from New York City to Tokyo; or from Moscow to Mexico City; or completely around the surface of the moon!

At our recent all-company meeting Dan Gilbert, the chairman of Quicken Loans, officially announced his plans to help revive the economy in Detroit by building Bizdom U, an educational program for young entrepreneurs.

It’s the passion and determination of people like Dan that have the potential to make a real difference in a community that has been down on its luck for so many years.  He realizes that the only way to revitalize the economy in Detroit is for people to believe in and invest in the city.  Dan is going to help make this happen by committing about $10 million of his own money to Bizdom U.  The program is basically a boot camp for young  entrepreneurs who want to base their business in Detroit.