They Just Happen To Sell Shoes

If you had lived in the neighborhood where Tony Hsieh grew up, you might have met an earnest little door to door salesman just discovering his entrepreneurial spirit. Now at the ripe old age of 36, Hsieh shows us the path that took him from selling earthworms and photo buttons to running the success story known as Zappos.

As highly publicized as Hsieh and his company have been, his new book Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose  tells a far more complex story. In the first part of the book, we get to know Hsieh; in the second part we get to see the evolution of the unique culture that is Zappos.

Hsieh’s story is so captivating (and I assume that his youth contributes to his recall of details) that you may find yourself identifying with his ups and downs—and cheering for him even though you know how the story  turns out. 

To my delight, I discovered Tony Hsieh and I have a number of things in common.

1. We both became fascinated with mail order when we were kids.

2. We both adopted Las Vegas as our hometown.

3. We both believe that business is about much more than just making money.

4. We both look for lessons from diverse places (i.e. poker) that apply to running a successful business.

Much of his story is wonderfully unique, of course. From his student days at Harvard where he was more excited about building his pizza business than he was about studying to his partying days in San Francisco, Hsieh seemed to be perpetually looking for opportunities.

Although many people start a business because they fall in love with a product or an idea for a service, Hsieh is one of the ones who are fascinated and challenged by  the entrepreneurial journey. By his own admission, he isn’t all that crazy about shoes, but bringing them to the marketplace in an innovative way is the object of his passion. 

Happily, for the reader, you don’t have to dream of building an online empire in order to find the useful ideas in Delivering Happiness. There’s a stunning lack of corporate hubris and plenty of examples of how Zappos walks the talk every single day in each and every part of the business. 

Numerous Zappos folks share their stories giving us even clearer insight into how the much-quoted core values influence their daily lives. Even the story of how those values evolved shows us that this is not a business as usual operation. 

 Zappos Core Values

1. Deliver WOW Through Service

2. Embrace and Drive Change

3. Create Fun and A Little Weirdness

4. Be Adventurous, Creative, and Open-Minded

5. Pursue Growth and Learning

6. Build Open and Honest Relationships with Communication

7. Build a Positive Team and Family Spirit

8. Do More With Less

9. Be Passionate and Determined

10. Be Humble

While each of those values is described in great detail, it seems obvious to me that they provide a foundation for building a standout operation, even if you’re a one-person enterprise—or a school or nonprofit organization.

You’re going to be seeing Tony Hsieh and hearing a lot about Delivering Happiness in the coming weeks. There’s even a DH site to share in the festivities. I urge you to pay attention. This isn’t just a smart book—it’s a wise one as well.

After all, Zappos isn’t just a company that’s making it better; they’re also showing us how we can do the same.

Leave It Better Than You Found It

Last weekend I painted a picture of the bouquet of flowers on my coffee table. After I’d finished that, I wrote across the top, “Making It Better Starts Here.”

It was meant as a reminder to me that the opportunities to improve and shine surround us. That’s why Making It Better isn’t just the June theme of this blog; it’s also my summer project.

There is no shortage of projects right under my own roof, although my plans go beyond my personal environment. Impacting a larger world starts with small deeds inspired by a conscious decision to make things better wherever and whenever we can.

It was a lesson I learned years ago from a dear friend.

The most passionate environmentalist  I’ve ever known was Chris Utterback. To her, all offenses were equally serious whether it was defiling a public space with graffiti or chopping down a rain forest. She cared deeply for the earth and couldn’t understand why everyone didn’t feel the same sense of responsibility.

One day we were driving through the quiet Connecticut countryside where she lived and came across a pile of trash heaped on the roadside. She slammed on her brakes and we jumped out of the car, picked up the litter, bagged it and put it in the back of her station wagon. 

As we got back in, I sighed and said, “Planetkeeping is a full-time job.” Chris looked at me as if I’d said the most  brilliant thing and without saying so, we both volunteered to be Planetkeepers.

Planetkeeping isn’t just a full-time job; it’s a demanding one that requires vigilance and a willingness to do more than our share simply because it’s the moral choice.

Planetkeeping is motivated by a sense of responsibility to nature and other people whether we know them or not.

It assumes that we’ll take care of whatever is ours to care for no matter how difficult or challenging that may be.  Planetkeepers refuse to be influenced by the indifference and apathy of others.

Planetkeeping also demands that we stop withholding our own gifts and talents and put them to work in the service of making the world a better, happier, nurturing place.

Imagine, for a moment, how quickly things would change if everyone went through their days actively working to improve everything they touch. What would happen to road rage? To rudeness” To the environment? To self-esteem? To greed? To our communities? To litter? To hunger?

We may never eliminate all the Pillagers who have no sense of stewardship, but that isn’t an excuse for abandoning our efforts to make every corner of our own world as wonderful as possible…and spread out from there.

Buckminster Fuller, a card carrying Planetkeeper,  challenged us to ask ourselves this question: “What can I do that isn’t going to get done unless I do it, just because of who I am?”

That’s a question worth answering every single day.

Bringing Back Balance, Part 2

A few years ago, I noticed that I often felt as if I was on the verge of tears. Since I associate crying with sadness, I took a look at what might be causing me to feel this way.

There was absolutely nothing that was making me feel sad, so I kept poking around. What I finally realized was that I had just discovered my own Stress Response.

It was not a familiar feeling.

Running a homebased business has eliminated many of the causes of stress that plague other people. Running a homebased business that’s having a growth spurt brought stresses of its own, however.

Fortunately, one of the gifts of self-employment is the ability to be in charge of your own time. I had the choice of continuing to push myself or shift gears for a bit. 

I decided to shift and let my business run itself for a month. I also reclaimed my serenity by using what I already knew.

My own personal balance regulator came about when I decided that the theme for my life was going to be Roots and Wings.The inspiration for this came from the old adage that says, “The best gifts you can give to your children are roots and wings.”

I decided it was the best gift I could give to myself, too.

To me, roots are all those things in life that give us what Maslow called “a sense of belonging.” It’s more than just those people, things and experiences that are familiar.

Roots also come from within, from discovering who you are and what you want to do and then doing it with gusto. 

Wings, on the other hand, are all those things that keep you moving and growing, going beyond where you’ve been and what you’ve done. 

When I had my stress crisis, I took inventory and saw that the previous months had been filled with lots of Wings, but Roots had been sorely neglected. It was obvious what shift needed to happen in order to get back in balance.

In setting goals, making plans and scheduling activities, it works best for me if I have plenty of both. This often means creating opposites such as solitary time to work on creative projects balanced with collaborative activities involving other people. 

It’s not possible to divide time exactly in half to accomplish this, but it is possible to keep some of both in the mix. 

As Thoreau reminds us, “Good for the body is the work of the body, and good for the soul is the work of the soul, and good for either is the work of the other.”

Any discoveries you’ve made about staying balanced that you’d like to share with us?

Bringing Back Balance

Over a quarter century ago, writer Dianne Hales fell in love with the Italian language and has invested much time in learning to speak it. I spent the holiday weekend sharing her adventures thanks to her delightful book, La Bella Lingua.

What Hales discovered along the way—which explains why this is about much more than simply becoming bilingual—is that the Italian language has had a deep impact on creating the culture.

Readers of the book are treated to discussions about music, art, history, literature, movies, cuisine and, even, profanity (which the Italians have elevated to an art form of its own).

One of my favorite stories appears in the chapter La Storia dell’Arte where Halle introduces us to an artist that was part of the early Renaissance scene. Tomasso Guido only lived to be 27 and just a few of his paintings exist, but they were so different to the style of other artists around him that they helped other painters to see things in a new way.

He was also, apparently, a workaholic. As Hales reports, “He was so on fire with le cose dell’arte (literally ‘the things of art’ or artistic matters) that he paid no attention to the clothes he wore, the food he ate, the money he received or owed—and went down in history as Masaccio, or Messy Tom.”

Masaccio is not alone. One of the most difficult things for all of us is to create a life of balance. We all know when life gets out of balance, although we may not notice it until it becomes extreme.

Nevertheless, in every nook and cranny of our lives, balance is necessary if we are to feel peaceful and powerful. Too much of anything can throw everything out of whack.

This notion runs counter to the popular advice to make “singleness of purpose” and “blinding commitment” our operating philosophy. That is not the path to a balanced life.

A woman in a seminar once told me she’d started a gardening business  that had become so successful that she’s busy all summer long. “Now I don’t enjoy my own garden anymore,” she complained.

She had decided the solution was to give up her gardening business and find something new. I thought a more reasonable option was to start a non-gardening profit center and keep only the clients she really enjoyed. I’m not sure I managed to convince her.

 In seeking balance, we often eliminate when it makes more sense to moderate. It’s not diversity that causes us to lose our balance: monotony and repetition are the culprits.

Creating diversity can be a great balancer since it allows us to tap into different passions. It’s also necessary to constantly reassess and discard what no longer works, what we’ve outgrown. 

Next time, I’ll show you how I managed to find balance amidst the passion. Stay tuned.