Book Review: Delivering Happiness
Posted on Thu, Sep 16, 2010
B
y
Cathy
It’s easy for me to list the things that make me happy. My family. My co-workers. Your momma jokes. “Ender’s Game.” An awesome teaching moment. A white pizza from Fremont Pizzeria. It’s harder for me to understand why these things make me happy, when they’re generally either cliché or unexpected, and there feels like no rhyme or reason to them.
Lately, I’ve been curious about happiness and positive psychology. My summer reading list consisted of books predominately focused on happiness, psychology and culture: “Quirkology,” “The Happiness Hypothesis” and “Delivering Happiness.”
That last one in particular has stuck with me. “Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion and Purpose” was written by Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh, and it’s a wonderful read about how you can achieve greater success and happiness on a daily basis at work and personally. The story of Zappos.com is an inspiring one to say the least. It’s equal parts hard work, luck, more hard work and building the right team.
I read this book on a beautiful Saturday morning with a cup of coffee by the lake. I laughed, took notes and said “wow” a lot. The unexpected part, the pay-off beyond that one day of inspirational reading, is that the feeling lasted. The takeaways are as tangible and accessible as my list of random items that make me happy.
They include:
- Own your core values daily.
- Business books are more interesting with goats and tutus.
- Luck is when preparation meets opportunity.
- Be a family and a team.
I’m an official Zappos fan now, even though I’ve never shopped there. How do you love a company with which you’ve never had a personal interaction? The better question is how does the company orchestrate that feeling? The answer is easy; Zappos.com shares the love. It shares the highs and lows. “Delivering Happiness” emulates what is great about business. And you end up rooting for Zappos.com because it makes you feel like you are part of it.
But more importantly, you root for yourself and your team – at least I did. After all, we’re passionate about what we do and that translates into long hours and lots of time together. Happiness matters here at Metis because we matter to each other beyond the business, and that makes everyone stronger, more willing to take risks and yield better results. It also matters during the tough times, like when the people that you love and respect admit that they are Jersey Shore fans (the show:).