Sunday, February 13, 2011
Full Circle with Tony Hsieh – The Happiness Leader!
My very first blog posts were about my sister, Sandy and Zappos CEO and Delivering Happiness Author, Tony Hsieh. They were both an inspiration behind this blog, but for two very different reasons. I mentioned in Tony’s post that I hoped to one day meet or interview him. So as you can imagine, I was excited to receive his responses.Below are a few thoughts that may go though one’s mind when they hear the word Zappos or Tony Hsieh...
•SHOES
•Free Hugs, Free Food, Cowbells, Naptime…
•Delivering Happiness Bus
•The New York Times Bestseller List
•Billion-dollar Enterprise
•Phenomenal, Unbeatable Customer Service
•Open and Honest “Family” Culture with Strong Core Values
•Imaginative, Lively, Fun, Inspiring and Zany Workplace
•And I'm sure things I could not even imagine...
I will always now think of Umpa Lumpas and chocolate tubes. It was one of the funniest responses I received from a “Get your golden ticket” team member at Zappos. Trust me; I will never get a response like that from any other company. So refreshing!
I know Tony’s book impacted many, many people because I read story after story regarding just that- but I really wanted to know how it affected him. I heard a few different interviews since the book release, but I wanted him to answer the questions going through my head…
1. Did your book "Delivering Happiness" exceed your expectations?
Yes - originally thought it would just affect businesses, but it's been great to see it affect non-profits, schools, etc. (such as the Tucson school letter below)
2. What is one significant lesson you learned from the moment you wrote the first word to present day?
You never know how something you do might impact someone.
3. Can you share a meaningful story that deeply impacted you and reinforced your purpose for writing this book?
One of our stops during our book/bus tour was to a high school in Tucson where the "Delivering Happiness" book is required reading. Most of the kids in the school were from poor families and had never traveled further than 20 miles from their home in their lives.
The email below is from the teacher of the class we spoke to, pretty cool to see the impact that we're all making...
•Phenomenal, Unbeatable Customer Service
•Open and Honest “Family” Culture with Strong Core Values
•Imaginative, Lively, Fun, Inspiring and Zany Workplace
•And I'm sure things I could not even imagine...
I will always now think of Umpa Lumpas and chocolate tubes. It was one of the funniest responses I received from a “Get your golden ticket” team member at Zappos. Trust me; I will never get a response like that from any other company. So refreshing!
I know Tony’s book impacted many, many people because I read story after story regarding just that- but I really wanted to know how it affected him. I heard a few different interviews since the book release, but I wanted him to answer the questions going through my head…
1. Did your book "Delivering Happiness" exceed your expectations?
Yes - originally thought it would just affect businesses, but it's been great to see it affect non-profits, schools, etc. (such as the Tucson school letter below)
2. What is one significant lesson you learned from the moment you wrote the first word to present day?
You never know how something you do might impact someone.
3. Can you share a meaningful story that deeply impacted you and reinforced your purpose for writing this book?
One of our stops during our book/bus tour was to a high school in Tucson where the "Delivering Happiness" book is required reading. Most of the kids in the school were from poor families and had never traveled further than 20 miles from their home in their lives.
The email below is from the teacher of the class we spoke to, pretty cool to see the impact that we're all making...
Subject: A Thank You NoteSocial etiquette would have dictated that this “Thank you” note be written a day or two after your wondrous visit to Pueblo High School early last November. That would have been the polite and politically correct thing to do. We decided to not be polite and instead wait until such time as we could report “next-step accomplishments" to reading “Delivering Happiness.”In the meantime, the world around us changed. The students you met when you visited Pueblo are no longer my students. They were traded at the end of the semester for three classes of rambunctious, recalcitrant and incorrigible freshmen who last semester made their math teacher cry every class period of every class day until she quit in mid November.My mission is now to get these new students settled and to teach them an entire year of algebra in just four months. And what does this mean to you? After various false starts, I finally found that way to get the students interested in learning math. I began telling them about "Delivering Happiness." I use the principles behind the core values espoused in the book and the story of a group of people who are working hard at making a difference to give them hope that hard work does pay off and that they too can make a difference. I must also confess that I have embellished actual accounts a little but then again I have been desperate to reach these new math students.The bottom line is that as of today, about 2/3 of the 105 algebra students are paying attention, taking notes and are trying to keep up with the super accelerated pace of instruction! Every day as a reward for their hard work, I tell them details about how Tony created the opportunity but more importantly how the Zappos team created the reality easily observable in the many YouTube videos I show them.My "old" students also come by frequently to share personal stories how "Delivering Happiness" is enriching their lives. This money cannot buy.But the greatest return on your investment I can think of is that this evening my ten-year-old granddaughter asked me to proof-read a paper she is writing for her social studies class. In view of the tragic events that have defined Tucson lately, she wanted to write about how great our country really is and how we enjoy special liberties which makes us unique. She wrote about how a little boy with an undying love for business refused to give up on his dreams and in doing so inspired a "whole bunch of people" to go around the country telling others how great life can be.She wrote about Tony and in doing so she wrote about all of you and she wrote about one of the best freedoms we enjoy- the freedom of free enterprise.
4. What makes you most happy - owning a business or speaking about passion and purpose?
Business- because it's always changing ---
6. What is the next mission for Tony Hsieh?
This one statement - You never know how something you do might impact someone – is so simple, yet so true. It seems if there was one sole purpose for the human experience, it would be to share your spirit -in any way you are comfortable...but share it!
Delivering Happiness was a reality check for my passion, my purpose and my business. It helped to clarify HipPurse's company direction (and my role) and inspired me to learn and share some very cool stories. That was a really great day!
I would love to know if Tony Hsieh personally inspired you. If not, who or what does inspire you?
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2 comments:
So much wonderfully inspiring information in this blog....
You inspire me, Kenya, with your commitment and devotion to your blogs and your mission to enlighten people!!
--g
Thank you, that was so nice!!
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