How “Delivering Happiness” turned into a $1.2 Billion dollar success.

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Ok, I feel that twinge of jealousy again and this time with very good reason. Here is that reason.

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Why Read?

Let me introduce you to Tony Hsieh

In 1999, at the age of twenty-four, Tony Hsieh (pronounced Shay) sold LinkExchange, the company he cofounded, to Microsoft for $265 million. He then joined Zappos as an adviser and investor, and eventually became CEO. He helped Zappos grow from almost nothing to over $1 billion in gross merchandise sales annually, while simultaneously making Fortune magazine’s annual “Best Places to Work For” list. Hsieh currently lives in Las Vegas and sort of has a cat.

He is now 36 and still rocking the entrepreneurial world.

Good reads have done a great article on him as part of his new book marketing campaign ( no affiliation link). I have taken out some of the more excellent bits from the interview.

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How To Deliver Happiness

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1. Create Something Meaningful

You really get a sense from watching Videos of Tony and the people that work for him that he is simply bursting with genuine passion and kid-like enthusiasm. An infectious combination.

Whatever your passion or interest, is it meaningful? It need only be meaningful to you, but it needs to be meaningful to someone. Nothing was ever built successfully and has lasted that was founded on a strong reason d’entre or reason for being.

Check out his talk on Delivering Happiness

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2. The Value Of Values

In my post A Simple Structure That Will Change Your Life the Seven Life system has your core 7 “Principles” or “Values” right at the top of the tree.

Tony also places a huge emphasis on the necessity off having these core values, even to the point of firing individuals who may be profitable short term, but risk the long term health of the company because they do not buy into the same value system as the rest of the team.

Having a set of core values is essential to your success. It focuses you, gives your success a framework of integrity and ultimately is reflected in anything you do.

Check out the Zappos 10 core values video.

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3. Don’t Just Write Down Your Values, Live Them

Zappos has a great culture of seriously “Going the extra mile”, especially when it comes to the hiring process. They go so far as to interviewing the drivers of the interviewee at the end of the day to find out what they are like “off camera”. It is no doubt this commitment to hiring the very best match of employee that has seen their company take off.

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4. Do The Opposite Of Everything

“Basically I try to do the opposite of what everyone is doing in the industry” Tony.

Simply philosophy. Risky philosophy. Successful philosophy. Something to reflect on.

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Wrapping Up

Tony is a great inspiration to Entrepreneurs everywhere – let us focus on “Delivering Happiness” to our customers, readers, friends, family and all those we know.

There is also an awesome free audio book on Tribal Leadership which you can download here.