• Delivering Happiness

  • A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose
  • By: Tony Hsieh
  • Narrated by: Tony Hsieh
  • Length: 8 hrs and 17 mins
  • 4.6 out of 5 stars (8,106 ratings)

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Delivering Happiness  By  cover art

Delivering Happiness

By: Tony Hsieh
Narrated by: Tony Hsieh
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Editorial reviews

Tony Hsieh is a really nice guy. This is what makes him a very unusual CEO, which is what makes his company so interesting. It also makes him a writer who doesn't use much corporate lingo, and a terrifically casual reader of his own book on the growth and development of Zappos, his unique company. One part memoir, one part philosophy, one part corporate handbook, and all silly optimism, Delivering Happiness will appeal to a surprisingly wide audience.

Hsieh begins with his business history, which adequately conveys his wackiness. First, there was the worm farm in elementary school. All the worms escaped, and he lost money. Then there was the mail order button business in middle school, so successful that he passed it along to his younger brothers in succession. In high school, he learned a bunch about programming, thereby combining his instincts with an appropriate knowledge base. He laughs out loud at his own computer club lunchtime antics, and so will you. Then there was the pizza business in his dorm at Harvard, where Hsieh found innovative ways not to attend any classes, and a high-paying corporate gig after graduation where he once again did as little as possible.

This is a man who likes to take business risks, and as he explains how he made decisions that caused him to grow from slacker into a Red Bull-pounding, 24-hour working machine, you'll be amazed that it sounds like he's smiling the entire time. From his first major start-up, which was subsequently sold to Microsoft, to his repeated close calls where Zappos almost went under before it was eventually bought out by Amazon, this true story of one man's corporate odyssey will leave you believing that anything really is possible. It will also at least make you want to shop at Zappos, if it doesn't make you want to move to as Vegas to work there.

Shot through with brief guest-narrations using the actual participants relevant to Hsieh's fast-paced world of entrepreneurship, there are a wealth of memos, emails, and testimonials that all serve as evidence to his weird intellect. And if you played a drinking game where you drank a shot every time Hsieh mentions having a drink, you'd be drunk before the book is half finished. From the tone of his voice to the story he tells, this is clearly a guy who needs his work to be fun and challenging. Just as Zappos has done, Hsieh's book casually fires the opening volley in a new era of corporate culture and management.

This eye-opening treatise on how to be happy at work has the added bonus of an hour-long conversation between Tony Hsieh and Warren Bennis, who has been universally considered one of the most significant leadership gurus for the past 40 years. Much of what Hsieh says is a more concise version of what he says in the book, though insights from the aging but still hilariously astute Bennis do offer something extra exciting. They discuss happiness in a way that is useful to all people, not just corporations. Megan Volpert

Publisher's summary

In this, his first audiobook, Tony Hsieh - the widely admired CEO of Zappos, the online shoe retailer - explains how he created a unique culture and commitment to service that aims to improve the lives of employees, customers, vendors, and backers. Using anecdotes and stories from his own life experiences, and from other companies, Hsieh provides concrete ways that companies can achieve unprecedented success. Even better, he shows how creating happiness and record results go hand-in-hand.

He starts with the "Why" in a section where he narrates his quest to understand the science of happiness. Then he runs through the ten Zappos "Core Values" - such as "Deliver WOW through Service", "Create Fun and A Little Weirdness", and "Build a Positive Team and Family Spirit" - and explains how you and your colleagues should come up with your own.

Hsieh then details many of the unique practices at Zappos that have made it the success it is today, such as their philosphy of allocating marketing money into the customer experience, thereby allowing repeat customers and word-of-mouth be their true form of marketing. He also explains why Zappos's number-one priority is company culture and his belief that once you get the culture right, everything else - great customer service, long-term branding - will happen on its own.

Finally, Delivering Happiness explains how Zappos employees actually apply the Core Values to improving their lives outside of work - and to making a difference in their communities and the world.

©2010 Tony Hsieh (P)2010 Hachette

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Fantastic

Jen Lim was at a kickoff event for my company. Her presentation was one of the most inspirational I've even seen. I immediately purchased the audio book and have just finished listening to it for the second time. Makes me want to move to Vegas so that I can work for zappos.

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Excellent read

Very detailed and personal journey of Tony Hsieh. I always wanted to know how successful people started and this is it.

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Inspiring and motivating

The overall message is so inspiring. Tony Hsieh reflects many of the same core values in his company that I projected in mine. These motivating values and attitudes allowed me to own 25 companies and retire at the age of 36. I probably would have been able to retire at 30 had Delivering Happiness been available 40 years ago. Tony was brilliant as a narrator and I look forward to his next book.

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Like having two books

It’s like having two books. I wish you a little more details with the autobiography

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I love the story and lessons!

I love this book! Intriguing and entertaining. Listening to his journey has been enjoyable and I'm learning some life lessons along the way.

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Best guideline to building a happy business

I read all of those business books like good to great and others, but this title resonated with me the most. I can't stop plugging this book into conversations already for several months, with my colleagues, with my wife, friends and strangers.

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Best book on corporate culture

Love this book and Tony’s message. My favorite is be humble, some thing that is very important in corporate culture.

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Great book

I love yeah idea of putting the customer first I’ve been doing that for a couple years now if a customer wants to return something I say you know it go ahead keep it and sometimes I’ll randomly put something extra in the box like an extra product that they didn’t order or sometimes even hand written notes definitely love the way Zappos was built

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the story of zappos

an interesting biography of Tony tshieh and the story of zappos. he seem to have a golden touch with start up companies and a good attitude about creating good company culture. some good lessons for entrepeneurs.

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Great story

I had not heard about Zappos before, but it was mentioned in another book I was reading so I decided to give this book a shot. What a great story and a great company, very inspiring.

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