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We asked ourselves what we wanted this company to stand for. We didn’t want to just sell shoes. I wasn’t even into shoes – but I was passionate about customer service.

Tony Hsieh

Businesses often forget about the culture, and ultimately, they suffer for it because you can’t deliver good service from unhappy employees.
TONY HSIEH

Business Culture Employee Forget Goodness Happiness Service Suffering
I think the most important thing is just if you hire people whose personal values match the corporate core values – and not just the stated ones.
TONY HSIEH

Important Oneself People Thinking Value
There’s a big difference between motivation and inspiration: Inspire through values and motivation takes care of itself.
TONY HSIEH

Big Care Difference Inspirational Motivational Value
Chase the vision, not the money, the money will end up following you.
TONY HSIEH

End Follow Money Vision
Your personal core values define who you are, and a company’s core values ultimately define the company’s character and brand. For individuals, character is destiny. For organizations, culture is destiny.
TONY HSIEH

Brand Character Culture Definition Destiny Organization Personal Value
Inspire other communities and cities to reinvent themselves.
TONY HSIEH

City Community Inspirational Invention
If you’re focused on the friendship as its own reward, serendipitous stuff just happens. I know that sounds weird, but I can tell you for our 12 years of existence, it’s actually how a lot of stuff happens.
TONY HSIEH

Existence Focus Friendship Myself Reward
Your culture is your brand.
TONY HSIEH

Brand Culture One Liner
Just figure out what your personal values are then just make those the corporate values.
TONY HSIEH

Corporate Personal Value
The ultimate definition of success is: you could lose everything that you have and truly be okay with it. Your happiness isn’t based on external factors.
TONY HSIEH

Definition Happiness Lose Success True Ultimate Yourself
Envision, create, and believe in your own universe, and the universe will form around you.
TONY HSIEH

Believe Form Spiritual Universe Vision Yourself
For me, my role is about unleashing what people already have inside them that is maybe suppressed in most work environments.
TONY HSIEH

Environment Myself People Role Work
I thought about how easily we are all brainwashed by our society and culture to stop thinking and just assume by default that more money equals more success and more happiness, when ultimately happiness is really just about enjoying life.
TONY HSIEH

Easy Enjoyment Equality Life Money Society Thinking
Open, honest communication is the best foundation for any relationship, but remember that at the end of the day it’s not what you say or what you do, but how you make people feel that matters the most.
TONY HSIEH

Communication Feeling Foundation Honesty Open People Remember Yourself
Be true to yourself. If you follow that principle, a lot of decisions are actually pretty easy.
TONY HSIEH

Decision Easy Principle True Yourself
If I was going to go into an office I wanted it to be with people I would choose to be around even if we didn’t have to work together and so that was one of the major reasons why I decided out of all the different companies we invested in to work with Zappos.
TONY HSIEH

Choice Company Decision Investment Myself Office People Reason Work
Don’t play games that you don’t understand, even if you see lots of other people making money from them.
TONY HSIEH

Game Money People Play Understand Yourself
Zappos is a customer service company that just happens to sell shoes.
TONY HSIEH

Company Customer Service
It doesn’t cost anything to say hi when you pass someone else in the hallway, whereas, most corporations if you pass you avoid eye contact.
TONY HSIEH

Avoid Contact Corporation Cost Eyes Hall
Stop chasing the money and start chasing the passion.
TONY HSIEH

Inspirational Money Passion Start
The biggest (and hardest) lesson I’ve learned in life is that the external world is just a reflection of the world within.
TONY HSIEH

Game Learning Lesson Love Myself Reflection World
If you’re worried about putting food on the table or putting a roof over your head, that stress is definitely will contribute to unhappiness, but once you have your basic needs met then incremental money.
TONY HSIEH

Basic Contribution Food Money Worry Yourself
I view my role more as trying to set up an environment where the personalities, creativity and individuality of all the different employees come out and can shine.
TONY HSIEH

Creativity Employee Environment Myself Personality Role Shine Try View
Good businesses generate missions to drive their profits. Great businesses generate profits to drive their missions.
TONY HSIEH

Business Drive Goodness Greatness Profit
Customer service shouldn’t just be A department, it should be the entire company.
TONY HSIEH

Company Customer Department Service
The best businesses are really ones that can combine passion, profits, and purpose.
TONY HSIEH

Best Business Combination Purpose
Help shape the stories that people are telling about you.
TONY HSIEH

Help People Story Yourself

We asked ourselves what we wanted this company to stand for. We didn’t want to just sell shoes. I wasn’t even into shoes – but I was passionate about customer service.

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We asked ourselves what we wanted this company to stand for. We didn’t want to just sell shoes. I wasn’t even into shoes – but I was passionate about customer service.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

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