Book Review: Delivering Happiness by Tony Hsieh

We are in the midst of a renaissance. Not only is entrepreneurship gaining momentum on a regional and national scale, but we are blessed with brilliant entrepreneurs who are more than happy to share their greatest knowledge and experiences.  While there is great value in the many blog posts circulating RSS readers, Twitter and other sources every day, the right book can capture much more than even the best posts by Paul Graham. In the last 6 months, all of the following books have come out and been game-changers in the content their share:

Inbound Marketing by Dharmesh Shah and Brian Halligan– Changing the way you market your business.

Mastering the VC Game by Jeff Bussgang – Changing the way you think about raising money.

ReWork by Jason Fried– Changing the way you think about building your business.

And today we add one more…

Delivering Happiness by Tony Hsieh– Changing the way you think about customer service, corporate culture and the meaning of happiness.

This book is many things…it’s the story of how Zappos became the powerhouse online seller it is today, the personal development of Tony Hsieh and why they succeeded against the odds, but most importantly, it’s about Happiness.

The most important part of the book is not any of the story…it’s the underlying themes of understanding human psychology.  What really makes you happy? What motivates an employee? What motivates a customer?  At the core of Zappos’s success is understanding how those 3 questions intersect.  This chart is of “Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs” and captures the essence of what is at the root of happiness for people:

The key to all of this is leading people on a progression of delivering on their various needs. It starts at the base with needing food and shelter and climbs up towards having a feeling of belonging (friends, family, coworkers) and rising all the way to a feeling of being a part of something important.  Zappos has really nailed this and Tony goes to great lengths to ensure we understand what they did and how they did it.  He even goes so far as to write an added chapter at the end of the book explicitly and specifically discussing  his personal theories on happiness.

HR departments and entrepreneurs the world over need to read this book.  As we evolve as a culture and society, we need to break the chains of nauseating, heartless corporate cultures and empty customer service.  Tony Hsieh provides a blueprint for us all to follow.  If you ever intend to help create a great business, I urge you go pick up this blueprint asap.

FTC Disclosure: Tony Hsieh is so awesome he hooked me up with not only a copy for me, but 3 other copies of the book so I could give some away.  Regardless, the opinions expressed in this article are my own.