Book Review - Delivering Happiness by Tony Hsieh

There are several books that will transform your life and several books that will transform your business -- very few do both! Tony Hsieh of Zappos.com, CEO fame has accomplished what few have in their books over the years. He has managed to match his personal life story and his business experience in a way that transforms the way you will look at how you make decisions in life and in business. Actually, Tony has so effortlessly demonstrated a perfect marrying of his passion for life into his business ventures. This is a great book!

I don't know what struck me the most about his book but there were three keys that I took from reading his insights. The first insight came to me as he showed how he really didn't pay much attention in school and he was academically lazy while he was very business-minded and really creative in his approaches to how to make money through business. His first endeavors in as a child (with his worm farm) and through college (where he ran a pizzeria) were educational in getting into his mindset. He was always a self employed business person at heart. This is the first key to understanding his actions throughout the rest of the book.

Then his second building-block was his early success in the dot.com realm with LinkExchange was nothing short of incredible. His decision to follow his passion over selling to the first buyer for a million dollars was key in creating what he calls a "tribe" mentality, and his first taste of understanding what it was to create a business that was tough to get moving, but really paid off in the end.

Having that accomplishment under his belt, he was looking to create "easy money" with his investment fund which sponsored entrepreneurs in small businesses which introduced him to the people at the company which became Zappos.com - an online shoe business - that became his new PASSION and his new tribe.

Tony emphasizes the need to do things in life (and in business) that are INTERESTING to you, and that you are PASSIONATE about rather than try to just "make money". It is this attitude that carried him to the decision to invest all of his money and assets into the Zappos.com project -- and it was NOT easy.

It appears that nothing was ever certain, but Tony and his TRIBE were determined to make Zappos.com successful.

And that brings me to the third and ultimate point of the book (in my mind): YOU MUST CREATE A TRIBE (TEAM) MENTALITY AT WORK TO BECOME A WILDLY SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS.

People throughout the company must be ready and willing to do whatever it takes to get and keep the business profitable. That isn't to say that the CEO should be the only one dedicated to the company's success while demanding that others make sacrifices. The willingness to make sacrifices for the business has to come from every employee voluntarily. And Tony created ways to include everyone in building the company culture - he and his tribe made work a fun place to go! It wasn't always easy - THAT'S FOR SURE! His people all hung out after work and made decisions and created ideas that would help make the company succeed through the ups and downs. It was never just about Tony's contributions - that comes accross really well in the book. Tony is clearly grateful and proud of his tribe's accomplishments!

Go to stores now because the hard copy comes out today! I am honored to have been selected to get the advanced copy of the book, and I will surely read the book a few more times. It will take a prized place next to my copies of other business books that I value for their life changing content which I review and re-read often. Thank you Tony for sharing your experiences with the world.