Learning Happiness from Tony Hsieh

Delivering Happiness

It was a pleasure and an honor to have the CEO of Zappos, Tony Hsieh, join us for our most recent webinar in the Rypple Leadership Series. Tony recently published his first book, Delivering Happiness, where he shares his life lessons, successes and core values.

Tony shared with us the inspiring story of what brought him to Zappos and what made the company the world known brand it is today. Tony is a very inspiring and insightful businessman and we enjoyed learning from him!

Here are the key takeaways:

1. Culture, Culture, Culture

Culture is the number 1 priority for Zappos. There is a full second interview for all possible candidates to make sure he or she is a good culture fit. Once you are an employee at Zappos, everyone must spend their first 2 weeks on the phone taking real calls from customers – no matter what position you are entering into.

A big part of creating and maintaining the company culture at Zappos are the 10 core values. You can be hired or fired based on your commitment and alignment with these values.

They may be the best online shoe retailer but Zappos is so much more than that! Tony states: “we are a service company, that just happens to sell shoes.”

2. “Don’t chase the paper, chase the dream”

Have a vision. Now, whatever you’re thinking, think bigger! You don’t want to be diving into something that you aren’t passionate about just for the money – it will lead to unhappiness!

Tony asks entrepreneurs to ask themselves: “What would you be passionate about doing for 10 years even if you never made a dime?”

Tony asks employees to ask themselves: “What’s the larger vision and greater purpose in their work beyond money or profits?”

If your team is inspired, the motivation will follow!

3. What’s your goal in life?

If you ask people what their goal is in life, everyone will have a different response. However, if you keep asking “why” over and over again, the ultimate underlying goal for everyone is the same: happiness.

4. HAPPINESS

Happiness is really just about 4 things: perceived control, perceived progress, connectedness and vision and meaning. All of these can be applied in both your personal life and your organization.

Finally, there are 3 different types of happiness:

• pleasure
• engagement
• meaning

Most people try and go for the 1st level of happiness: pleasure. However this is the shortest lasting of the three. Be part of something bigger than yourself and you will achieve the longest lasting type of happiness: meaning. Then layer on top the second type and every once and a while the first type will be a bonus!

To watch the full recording or learn some quick tips based on Zappos’ core values check out our Rypple Leadership Series page.