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This book has 14 recommendations
Robert Hajnal (Founder/Trail Running Academy)
I chose this book because it taught me how important it is that your business represents you and that you passionately believe in it. I also learned from it the importance of organizational culture, and that the endpoint of a sale should always be customer's happiness, not the money-product/service exchange.Gunhee Park (Co-Founder/Populum)
Ever since I wanted to create my own company, I wanted to create one that offers an amazing customer experience. This book was a big inspiration.Raluca Radu (Owner/MTH Digital)
Delivering Happiness by Tony Hsieh inspired what I think of customer service ever since I read it.Ola Olusoga (Co-founder/Populum)
Like Charlie Munger once said: “I’ve long believed that a certain system - which almost any intelligent person can learn - works way better than the systems most people use [to understand the world]. What you need is a latticework of mental models in your head. And, with that system, things gradually fit together in a way that enhances cognition. Just as multiple factors shape every system, multiple mental models from a variety of disciplines are necessary to understand that system". You can read this book to start building a "latticework of mental models in your head".Joel Gascoigne (Co-founder/Buffer)
Zappos has always been a huge inspiration for us at Buffer. I clearly remember watching a video interview Tony Hsieh had where he was asked what one thing he would do sooner if he could start Zappos again. He replied "put values in place on day 1". We had already started Buffer, but we established our values shortly after that when we were 7 people. On top of their focus on culture and values, Zappos has also provided us with inspiration for making half of our vision "to set the bar for great customer support". We have always had a large happiness team compared to the ratios other companies have, and we find great joy in aiming to surprise and wow customers with how quickly and caringly we respond to Tweets and emailsMichael Herrmann (Founder/Terminerinnerung)
The biography of Zappos' founder. Interesting journey. You learn the importance of customer happiness.Jilliene Helman (CEO/Realty Mogul)
I really, really like company biographies. They're just kind of the style of book that I've gotten really into. [...] I've read the Happiness book by the Zappos CEO.Nathan Hirsch (Founder/FreeeU)
I'm a big customer service guy. That's my background. When I was in college I worked at Firestone. They really preached it to me from day one, which gave me a huge advantage when I worked as a seller on Amazon and when I started my Amazon business. I always recommend Zappos, the Pursuit of Happiness, where they just talk about how customer service needs to be the backbone of your company. We talked a little bit about this a little already, how your first 100, 500 clients are so key and making them happy. If you don't understand customer service, if you don't understand what goes through a customer's head, you're never going to be able to do that effectively.Henry Medine (Co-Founder/Space Jam Data)
The Zappos story opened my mind to Entrepreneurship and business building. I read this book in high school and it probably had something to do with my choice to major in Entrepreneurship at Babson College. I met my co-founder while at college and am subsequently building a technology start-up as we speak. We try to deliver happiness everyday and customer centricity is a pillar of our business.Erik Cheong (Co-Founder/Park N Parcel)
In this book, it shows how serial entrepreneur Tony shares the different lessons he has learned in business and life, from starting a worm farm to running a pizza business, through LinkExchange [acquired by Microsoft for $265 million], and becoming a venture capitalist before Zappos. Key takeaway: Focus on company culture & help employees grow both personally and professionally.Chelsea Frank (Founder/Life and Limb Gel)
I read everything with an open mind, often challenging myself by choosing books with an odd perspective or religious/spiritual views. These books do not reflect my personal feelings but are books that helped shape my perspective on life, love, and happiness.Ee Ling Lim (CEO/SmarterMe)
One of my favourite business book is Delivering Happiness by Tony Hsieh. What I loved about it was that not only was it was insightful and filled with some thought-provoking advice, it was extremely readable. You see, I love reading since young, but I used to only read fiction books, and it took me awhile to make the conversion into reading business books. Delivering Happiness is one of the rare ones which reads like a storybook.Florian Hubner (CEO/Decondia, Startup Creator)
A great journey behind the Zappos founder with strong focus on how to lead employees.Adam Johnston (CEO & Co-Founder/Last Call Trivia)
Inspiring case study into building brand and customer service.Amazon description
The visionary CEO of Zappos explains how an emphasis on corporate culture can lead to unprecedented success. Pay new employees $2000 to quit. Make customer service the entire company, not just a department. Focus on company culture as the #1 priority.
Apply research from the science of happiness to running a business. Help employees grow both personally and professionally. Seek to change the world. Oh, and make money too. Sound crazy? It's all standard operating procedure at Zappos.com, the online retailer that's doing over $1 billion in gross merchandise sales every year. In 1999, Tony Hsieh (pronounced Shay) sold LinkExchange, the company he co-founded, to Microsoft for $265 million.
He then joined Zappos as an adviser and investor, and eventually became CEO. In 2009, Zappos was listed as one of Fortune magazine's top 25 companies to work for, and was acquired by Amazon later that year in a deal valued at over $1.2 billion on the day of closing. In his first book, Tony shares the different business lessons he learned in life, from a lemonade stand and pizza business through LinkExchange, Zappos, and more. Ultimately, he shows how using happiness as a framework can produce profits, passion, and purpose both in business and in life.
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See more books recommended by
Robert Hajnal, Gunhee Park, Raluca Radu, Ola Olusoga, Joel Gascoigne, Michael Herrmann, Jilliene Helman, Nathan Hirsch, Henry Medine, Erik Cheong, Chelsea Frank, Ee Ling Lim, Florian Hubner, Adam Johnston
See more books written by
Sources
- Interview With an Ultrarunner: Robert Hajnal Sharing his Favourite Books
- Gunhee Park (Populum co-founder) interview
- Interview with Raluca Radu, owner of MTH Digital
- Interview with Ola Olusoga: How Books Have Guided His Path To Self-Discovery
- 50 books that transformed my business and my life
- Interview with Michael Herrmann
- How Jilliene Helman Raised $45M of Venture Capital and Built a Real Estate Crowdfunding Business (Growth Everywhere podcast)
- How FreeeUp Founder Nathan Hirsch Built a $5M/Year in Revenue Business and Manages 500 Freelancers Remotely (Growth Everywhere podcast)
- Henry Medine, Co-Founder of Space Jam Data, Talks About His Favorite Books
- Erik Cheong, Co-Founder of Park N Parcel, on How Reading Is the Best Form of Learning & Relaxation
- Chelsea Frank, Founder of Life and Limb Gel, on How Books Revealed the Path to Self-Improvement
- Ee Ling Lim, CEO of SmarterMe, Provides Key Learnings From a Bunch of Amazing Books
- Florian Hubner, CEO of Decondia & Startup Creator, on Reading that Changes How You Do Business
- Finding Flow & Focus in the Midst of Chaos: Book-Talk with Adam Johnston, CEO of Last Call Trivia
