Nathan Hangen

Do You Deliver Happiness?

(Editor’s Note: I was offered a free copy of this book in order to provide the following review, which is impartial, I assure you)

What is Happiness?

When I think about what happiness means, not as a person but as a customer and a publisher, I envision an experience in which each side is enriched by the experience of doing business together.

And perhaps no one is better known for this than Tony Hsieh and the Zappos team, which sells shoes but is known for their customer service.

How many other shoe CEO’s do you know writing books? Maybe Phil Knight of Nike, but the list is short.

It’s short because most people tend to separate happiness from business…to many they aren’t compatible, and that’s a damn shame.

It’s Something Small that Makes a Big Difference

It doesn’t take much to make someone’s day.

It could be a smile, wink, or a nod.

It could be an email of praise or encouragement.

It could be free coupon code.

It could be a free copy of a book.

Those are the little things that Zappos does so well, such as free return shipping if the shoes don’t fit, that keep them ahead of the happiness curve.

Surely if a shoe company can become a billion dollar business because of their sheer will to create happiness, then there’s something to be learned for the rest of us.

Delivering Happiness

So it was with great excitement that I opened the package containing an advance copy of the book “Delivering Happiness” by Zappo’s CEO, Tony Hsieh.

The book claims to show us how to build “a path to profits, passion, and purpose,” but that’s not really why I wanted to read it. I wanted to read it because Tony Hsieh was a millionaire, and I wanted to get my head inside his to see how a millionaire thinks.

The opening chapters of the book read like a case study in Outliers, which was Malcolm Gladwell’s book about what it takes to be remarkable. It seemed that the odds were stacked in Tony’s favor for a variety of reasons, and even though he was a smart kid, he had a lot of advantages.

So it was with a bit of frustration that I read his account of building and selling a business, called Link Exchange, to Microsoft for $265 million dollars, 40 of which was his personal share. Great story of success, but there was very little how-to, which bothered me a bit.

Building a Real Business

But when I read the story of how he built a venture capital firm, which later become an incubator, suffered through the dot-com bubble, and nearly lost all of his money when trying to keep Zappos afloat, I learned not only what it takes to build a business to profitability, but also how important it is to be working on something that you love.

Tony risked his entire fortune keeping the Zappos dream alive. Would you do that for your current business? If not…what business would you do it for?

The Company Motto

As the book wore on and Zappos was profitable, the content moved into talk on workplace culture and personal happiness. Although this section motivated me to change some of the ways I do business, both internally and externally, I found it geared towards business leaders with a bigger staff or workforce than what I had.

Still, there were a lot of lessons to be learned in how Zappos create a company culture guide, handled transparency with employees and the media, and grew into the behemoth that they are today.

Should You Buy It?

It’s only 13 bucks, which is a small price to pay for a reframing of the way you think about business and company culture. I’ll admit, it lost me through portions of the beginning and end, but I don’t expect a book to be 100% useful to me. I’m happy if I can glean a game changing thought or two, and in this book, I found many.

You can click here to read more about the book on Zappos website, or click here to grab it from Amazon.

This one is an easy read, and a great pick-me-up. Go grab it.

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