Tony Hsieh
Tony Hsieh, a businessman, investor, author and venture capitalist, is an advocate for bringing happiness to the workplace. Since 1998, he has been the founder, CEO and principal investor of Zappos.com, one of the world's leading online shoe and clothing retailers. Since then, Hsieh has gone on to become a sought-after expert in creating and sustaining a culture of happiness within organizations, a topic that he delves into in his two books: "Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion and Purpose," and "The Millionaire Fastlane: Crack the Code to Wealth and Live Rich for a Lifetime."
On the surface, looking at the success of Zappos—which was acquired by Amazon in 2009 in a deal valued at over $1.2 billion—one might think that Hsieh was driven only by profits. However, these endeavors have always been paired with a passion to promote happiness. Before the acquisition, Hsieh and the Zappos team had already created an award-winning corporate culture—which is based on values such as providing stellar customer service and delivering unrivaled levels of customer happiness—and had dedicated a significant portion of their profits to community service projects.
In "Delivering Happiness," Hsieh shares how he has built Zappos from the ground up to focus on creating a lasting business and culture of values, rather than a focus on sales and profits. Hsieh lays out how he and his team went about this passionate mission, and how leading intuition, happiness, and a company culture focused on customer service and loyalty, allowed them to achieve the unimaginable.
Hsieh believes that organizations should be built upon five core values--including fulfillment and passion, team work and communication, innovation, customer service, and having an open and accepting environment. By focusing on these values and having everyone within the organization embrace them, companies share in reaping the rewards of investments in community and service projects, and fostering an inspiring community of employees.
In his book, "The Millionaire Fastlane," Hsieh encourages readers to break away from conventional wisdom and live life on their own terms. He emphasizes the importance of understanding wealth-building principles and avoiding the get-rich-quick schemes that entice so many people. Hsieh provides readers with a philosophical bedrock to equip them on the path to financial independence, so they can move beyond the worker-bee mentality, and live a life of freedom, rather than indentured servitude.
The full-scope of the philosophy seen in Hsieh’s work—whether it’s creating a culture of values and happiness at a business or achieving financial freedom in life—encourages readers to be mindful of the choices they make in order to reap the meaningful rewards that life has to offer. In essence, Hsieh’s books provide readers with essential tools to live a happy and rewarding life, while relying on great values and principles.
Overall, Hsieh’s books are inspiring, timely and well-written. His words speak to the heart of values-driven success, and will hopefully serve to encourage others to build a culture of respect, trust and loyalty within the organizations for which they work.
