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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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Editor 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
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.
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What listeners say about Delivering Happiness
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
- Craig Beck
- 26-01-12
Dull and over simple
I had high hope for this book after reading the other reviews but I have to say having just read the Steve Jobs autobiography this is woeful in comparison. The book is padded out with detail that neither has relevence or any entertainment value.
eg. I made a cup of tea for Dave, I took a cup and put boiling water in it and then I added a tea bag. Dave waited a while for the liquid to cool and raised it to his lips. He then started drinking the liquid.
Yes Tony we understand how a cup of tea is made.
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13 people found this helpful
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- david
- 17-07-14
Dull, dull, dull!
Would you try another book written by Tony Hsieh or narrated by Tony Hsieh?
Nope!
What was most disappointing about Tony Hsieh’s story?
Repetitive
How did the narrator detract from the book?
It sounded like he was reading straight from the book.
What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?
Unhappiness!
Any additional comments?
The book was very repetitive. Didn't contain any insights. It was generally annoying to listen to.
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3 people found this helpful
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- Christopher
- 16-12-16
I don't know how this book has rated so well....
I was expecting inspiration, a great story and something totally different to what's in this book, the reviews I read before purchasing this book lead me to believe it was awesome, but I think Zappos staff wrote them all....
I got a refund.
All filler, no thriller...
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
- Paul
- 13-02-12
Last year I read 30 books this was the BEST
If you are passionate about business or just inspiring journeys of self discovery this book is a must read. I loved it and I am sure you will too.
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2 people 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
- Ashleigh McKeown
- 01-04-19
Love this Book
A Bible in perfect execution of customer service.
I love this book.
written like a story but full of practical experience and knowledge that you can apply immediately in your own business.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Spencer Lea
- 11-02-19
Rare page turner
I wanted to keep listening chapter after chapter. There aren't many business books that are page turners - this is one of them.
Interesting book brought to life by stories and anecdotes. Found some the culture parts in the middle of the book a bit creepy ( started to sound like a cult - that feeling quickly passed as I listened on) but you can't fail to admire the authors total faith in his approach and the success of Zappos. The Zappos focus on customers and culture will become the norm in 20 years time I'm sure.
3 things that stuck with me after reading it:
1. You can find a way to solve any problem if there is enough at stake.
2. Offering new employees $2,000 to leave after they complete their initial training is genius.
3. I wish I'd started my own company when I left University.
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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
- Clive
- 27-01-19
What you really should know about business.
This is a great book, full of insight and examples of how being a better person can often lead to being a better business person. I wholeheartedly agree with the ideals behind this book and hope to emulate in my own business the principles of the Zappos brand.
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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
- Farrukh
- 11-01-19
Inspirational and unconventional
I heard about this book from another author (Kristen Hadeed). This is one of the most inspirational reads ever. Spread happiness in your own company and your employees will deliver that to your customers, who will in turn make you happy by causing your business to expand. The second part of this loop is commonly talked about - "offer great customer service", but the first part is often missed out - that's what Hsieh has brought to light. Zappos allows its employees to talk to the customers in their own words - no written scripts. Company's values were created through crowd sourcing within the company..... and it goes no.
A must read.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
- PeeJay
- 27-12-11
About what every human being should be
I had no idea that this book was mostly about Zappos and I'd never heard of Tony Hsieh (Pronounced 'Shey'), when I started listiening I thought: what the heck has any of this got to do with happiness. However, it is a great story and it sometimes to me seems success is born randomly - many of us have put in the 16 hour days for months, with business plans that the banks demand and still failed. This is the story of how Link Exchange was built and then sold, making the author some $40M. However, he always reflects on what he has enjoyed and the creation of Zappos plays a big part in his life - it almost IS his life. It's only in the final moments of the book that the author really considers happiness and its science.
A really interesting read about someone who sounded not so different from the rest of us. Success is a pretty random thing because it's unpredictable. And happiness should be everyone's aim. It's what life surely boils down to.
I have always recognised that employees are a company's most important asset and this book confirms my beliefs and that it's not all about profitability - success can be measured in many ways and making people happy in something where they spend the majority of their life pays off in every way, it's win win win every way you look at it.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
- Brendan
- 21-08-11
A happy listener delivered
This was a fantastic audiobook. I had already seen tony on bloomberg and heard of the company but the story of his fledgling business ventures from his ealry years through to Zappos was enjoyable, thought provoking and build on my first throughts. The narration of the book was great as not only was it narrated by the author himself but we also hear the story of his colleagues and business partners which made it very "story telling" like. For anyone in business, particularly young people, it will enspire you and will challenge you with throughs on what is happiness. I havent stopped talking about this book or thinking about it since I have listening to it so I guess that is as good a compliement that I can pay it.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
- Marc L. Mintz
- 06-08-10
Delivering Spin
Delivering Happiness is part brief autobiography, part “here are my brilliant ideas for how to conceive, start, and run a business”. He is more strongly oriented towards creating a corporate culture than any other business guru, and presents interesting ideas for how to create that culture. However, I’ve got a problem with Tony and the book - proof (or at least viable evidence) and replication. Tony was at the right place at the right time once and pretty much by accident made millions in the process. Out of boredom he joined what was to become Zappos. 10 years later he has made Zappos the largest online store specializing in footwear, with sales over $1B per year. But Zappos has always been on the verge of failure and is completely dependent on an ongoing 100 million dollar line of credit with their banks. This tells me that they have less than $1M (less than 10%) in profit. This would not be considered a successful situation for any business. For all of the hype about how brilliant Tony is, he hasn’t proved that culture is the key to business success. I wish he had–I’m a huge believer in developing corporate culture, one based on integrity, contribution, and “doing what is right”. He as not demonstrated that if you build the right culture the profits will follow. He has not demonstrated anything except that he was successful at making money by accident one time in his life, and his Zappos isn’t it. More disappointing is he discusses the dozens, possibly over a hundred other companies he helped start, most of which failed, none of which had more than marginal success. So like most of the other business gurus, he provides no proof or evidence of his ideas, and has not been able to replicate his one (apparently accidental) success. Not someone I would consider a viable role model, leader, or even teacher.
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83 people found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
- bryan
- 21-01-11
Good read, not good Business!!
Here is the thing, the book is a good listen. It was a crazy trip the man took from start to finish and made for an exciting listen. But as for a business book, not good. There is nothing business about it. The book should be in Entertainment section.
I am in business, and i can tell you, if you are doing $46 millioin a year in rev. and not making a profit. you have issues and a horrible business plan. Yes in the end it worked out for him, but 999 out of a 1,000 times the person will be writting a book on how they lost everything. And he almost did, dont get me wrong i know how the story ended and they deserve everything they got in the end.
But not because of great business, if anything, it shows when the owner of Amazon (a real business man) wasnt interested in the company until years later when really business people made it profitable....
With that being said, like mentioned earlier, great listen, exciting, but dont plan on learning anything to help you in your business.. this should be in entertainment..
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40 people found this helpful
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
- David
- 03-07-10
Narrator is boring!
This could be a great book. But it literally put me to sleep. The narrator is terrible. Who cares if he's the author. He sounds like he hates what he does. Happiness? More like Nap-piness
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36 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
- Ben
- 07-09-10
Do one thing exceptionally
The first quarter of the book about Tony Hsieh's childhood and the lessons he learned feels a bit forced (my button business taught me the lesson of ______). But, my doubts were quickly dispelled with the story of Zappos. I loved how Tony focused on one thing, the best customer service, and did it really well. To have the best customer service, they focused on company culture through a system of hiring (it's easier to hire people who fit the culture than try to change people) and through employee advancement opportunities through their "pipeline," giving employees perceived control of their careers. I can't think of any other large company that has been able to sustain a culture (Starbucks had a unique culture, but in recent years they've become too big to sustain it). Tony says that the Zappos company culture is their one sustainable competitive advantage. Will company culture work for your company? It's hard to say, but there probably is one thing that your company could do better than any other company...and it is probably worthwhile to develop that.
The argument was made about Tony "getting lucky." I have to agree, but I'd add that any business success is 80% luck and 20% planning, tenacity, insight, and work ethic. The 20% is critical to making success, but it's not sufficient. Even the most brilliant people will fail more often than they succeed, but you don't often see the entire journey of failures before success. You could use the "luck" argument for any success (Thomas Edison just got lucky, after all, he was wrong 999 times before he was right).
I thought that Tony did an excellent job of narrating his book. This isn't the case with many authors turned narrators (i.e. Beer School), but with several authors like Malcom Gladwell and Bill Bryson, hearing the book in the author's voice puts you into the story better than with a professional narrator. I'd put Tony's narration squarely in this category.
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30 people found this helpful
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
- Carol
- 29-11-10
Disappointing
This book should have been sub-titled "An autobiography of Tony Hsieh." I bought this book expecting to learn alot of valuable lessons from someone who is clearly a brilliant business man. Instead I got hour after hour of his life story (and sometimes in WAY too graphic of detail). The second half of the book is one long commercial about Zappos. There were a few pearls of wisdom to be had, but overall I'd say this book is only for the hard-core Zappos/Tony Hsieh enthusiast.
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28 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
- Mark P. Wonderlin
- 23-12-10
Amazing Growth and Corporate Culture Story
I really enjoyed hearing about Tony's growth as an individual and listening to the trials and tribulations when building Zappos. Opposed to the standard book rambling off stats or uncommon words to give the perception of intelligence; Tony along with some other Zappos employees informally talk to you just like you were at Starbucks telling a story. Opposed to be lectured to like the professor in the last chapter of the book, it feels like you're experiencing birth and rise of Zappos alongside Tony and his staff. If you a business owner looking for an excellent inspirational book that provides a blueprint on how you can start thinking about changing your company's culture then this is the book!
The only thing I couldn't handle was the listening to an interview with Warren Bennis and Tony at the end. This guy is the typical professor who is obsessed with himself, self promotes another one of his ignoramus books, and talks down to Tony, all while trying to appear that his vast intellect is fair superior than Tony's while having no clue who Tony even is. I seriously would have rather listened to an air horn next to my ear than listen to Warren Bennis for another second. What's even worse that that the guy that introduces Warren and Tony to the group is so infatuated with him (Warren) that I wasn't sure if the guy was going to start licking Warrens big toe or start talking about the fan club.
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12 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Jean
- 18-06-15
A business case study
This is a memoir by Tony Hsieh about how a company was molded through the founder’s philosophy and made into a successful company.
As Hsieh goes back through his childhood he provides funny and entertaining experiences that provide perspective on how he developed his unique business philosophy.
The book will provide entrepreneurs some useful information on developing a business and can act as a case study of a successful business. He shows how he built a tight-knit family like atmosphere that created happy employees. The employees then worked harder for the company. He also shows how he built team cohesion. At the end of the book there is a statement by Jeff Bezos and also a discussion group with a professor Marshall and Hsieh.
The book is well written and easy to read. The company Hsieh build was Zappos an online shoe emporium. Hsieh sold the company for $1.2 billion dollars to Amazon. Tony Hsieh narrated his own book.
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8 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
- Oscar
- 07-12-10
Inspiring and down to earth book
This is an amazing story, and one that inspires you to move forward with your passion. Success, as everybody knows it when it already hits the media, portrays the glory but not the story. Entrepreneurship is like surfing, you have to ride out the waves, you never know when you hit a great one.
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8 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
- Leslie King
- 22-01-11
Great Read!
This book is interesting and very informative for a business owner. I love Tony's style of writing - it's very natural and you feel like you know him. I would recommend this book to other business owners and my employees.
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7 people found this helpful
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
- Philip
- 08-10-10
Terrible-- seriously
Narration= terrible. Storyline= terrible. Has to be one of the worst books I've read-- as if written by a 16 year old.
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7 people found this helpful