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Delivering Happiness
- A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose
- Narrated by: Tony Hsieh
- Length: 8 hrs and 17 mins
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Delivering Happiness
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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.
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
What listeners say about Delivering Happiness
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- lara
- 02-03-2018
Inspiring and Uplifting
What did you like best about this story?
It was equally thought provoking and informative.
What does Tony Hsieh bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you had only read the book?
I really enjoyed the authenticity of this story.
Any additional comments?
Well worth reading and in my case a must read that I would highly recommend.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Matthew
- 11-08-2016
Fantastic story
I only just recently heard of zappos for the first time when a friend recommended this book. It was a fantastic story. The life lessons and business lessons are very powerful and inspiring.
Thank you Tony
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Marty Martin
- 11-07-2017
Enjoyable easy listen
Would you listen to Delivering Happiness again? Why?
Absolutely. Very good examples of what is important in building a company culture and how to develop an organisation from a unique perspective.
What does Tony Hsieh bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you had only read the book?
You get Tony;'s relaxed approach to life. It comes across as an interesting ride, where success was a by-product.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Jason
- 13-01-2019
REAL, well narrated, human
i really liked this book, it gives a down to earth example of how people can work together and shape an organisation.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Michelle
- 10-07-2018
This drives me to run my business in a similar way
This book and Tony inspired me to think about the culture of the business I want to build and how it can make a massive difference. Loved it and highly recommended for any business owner / entreprenuer who wants to achieve greatness and have a following to support them.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Rick
- 28-01-2017
You will love the book if you have a team
I listened to it when driving and I didn't want to get out of the car. It is great to learn that work colleagues can truly be family. I wish one day I can grow the same team culture and deliver happiness to all people around.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Ted
- 20-06-2016
The fondation for strong community's
Love it. little slow to build it up in the beginning but worth waiting for
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Andrew
- 12-04-2016
Great Listen! insightful!
Tony does a great job sharing how grass root ideas develop-for better or worse! :-)
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Kt Lewis
- 04-03-2017
Interesting and compelling.
True authenticity from Tony throughout made all the more real from his personal narration. Interesting story and engaging
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Iain
- 12-04-2016
5 stars is not enough!
Fantastic book with great insights that are appropriate to any size of business. Tony is inspirational and very easy to listen to. A great story as well as a great business book.
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