Delivering Happiness

Happiness never decreases by being shared. —BUDDHA

As of today I will start sharing my takeaways from books, articles, and real life experiences from this blog. Since I am a business nerd (as my fiancée calls me), first couple of my blogs will be business oriented. But hang in there, I will start writing about other interesting things too. Here is my first blog, hope you like it.

Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos, is one of the wisest and most thoughtful business leaders of the modern age. He has has done a huge amount of thinking about how to bring happiness to himself, to employees, and to customers. His book "Delivering Happiness" is insightful and an enjoyable read.

Below are my takeaways from Tony's book:

• First, they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win. —GANDHI
• You should pay more attention to company culture. Create a company culture that everyone enjoys being a part of.
• I made a list of the happiest periods in my life, and I realized that none of them involved money. I realized that building stuff and being creative and inventive made me happy. I decided to stop chasing the money, and start chasing the passion.
• Play/Risk only with what you can afford to lose. Don’t play games that you don’t understand.
• In business, one of the most important decisions for an entrepreneur or a CEO to make is what business to be in.
• It’s a bad idea to invest in industries you don’t understand, in companies you don’t have any control or influence over, or in people you don’t know or trust.
• The combination of physical synchrony with other humans and being part of something bigger than oneself (and thus losing momentarily a sense of self) leads to a greater sense of happiness. Great companies have a greater purpose and bigger vision beyond just making money or being number one in a market.
• Stop trying to “network” in the traditional business sense, and instead just try to build up the number and depth of your friendships, where the friendship itself is its own reward. The more diverse your set of friendships are, the more likely you’ll derive both personal and business benefits from your friendships later down the road.
• “Envision, create, and believe in your own universe, and the universe will form around you.”
• Marketing departments assume that the lifetime value of a customer is fixed when doing their ROI calculations. We view the lifetime value of a customer to be a moving target that can increase if we can create more and more positive emotional associations with our brand through every interaction that a person has with us.
• A company’s culture and a company’s brand are really just two sides of the same coin. If you get the culture right, most of the other stuff—including building a great brand—will fall into place on its own.
• The role of a manager is to remove obstacles and enable his/her direct reports to succeed.
• Contrary to popular belief, it is the nice guys who always come out on top.
• No matter what your past has been, you have a spotless future. —AUTHOR UNKNOWN
• Happiness doesn’t come primarily from within but, rather, from between.
• Thousands of candles can be lit from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared. —BUDDHA

Let me know what you think. I hope you find it useful. 

Anil Yasyerli