Back in 1996 Tony Hsieh created Link Exchange with a few friends. It grew to be a must-have service for (amateur) websites. By 1998 Microsoft came knocking and the company was sold for $265M USD.
But that isn’t where the Hsieh story starts. Before that he ran a successful badge-making business — whose succession plan drew a clear line through his family before being wrapped up when he ran out of sibblings. And before that ..
These days he’s known for selling Zappos to Amazon for over $1.2B USD.
This book is not about that. While it’s the central narrative, this book is about creating a company culture, not about creating a company. But then again, Hsieh’s premise is that that’s how you create a great company.
Hsieh wants to ‘keep it real’ an so doesn’t use a co-author or ghost writer. I think this was a bad decision as there’s a few times that you get lost as to the narrative. (He meets a girl, has a ‘moment’ with her, then gets married. Turns out later that it wasn’t to that girl). A ghost writer (or even a stronger editor?) would have pulled the threads into order and tied them together. However, it does lend a certain charm and honesty to the book like the holes in Grandma’s knitted jumpers.
Zappos, and this book, is all about creating a great culture — a company culture that’s more devoted to service than to shoes confounds investors but delights customers.
I enjoy company biographies. I’ve read McDonalds, IBM, eBay, Apple and probably a few others I haven’t thought of. They’re all interesting and there’s always something you can learn. This is no exception.
Want a copy for free?
They sent me a review copy and a spare to give away. Then they sent me two more*. So I now have four copies of the book. I’ve already handed a couple out, but I have one more and it can be yours! All you need to do is leave a mini-review for another company biography in the comments.
* A problem with delivering delivering happiness?
