The Zappos Philosophy
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On my way to San Diego, after providing hospital consulting for a few days in the greater Chicago area, I re-read Tony Hsieh’s book, “Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose.” This book was a great preparation for The Passion Test conference I was headed to, and following the ASAP Engagement Consultant training, a process to transform businesses’ world, from solopreneur and small companies to large corporations.
While reading Hsieh’s book, I was thinking how powerful these concepts are, especially considering how much time we spend at work, they are impacting us on a personal level, our business and the experience we create for our customers.
Tony Hsieh is considered one of the most thoughtful business leaders of the modern age. His insightful book gives twenty-first century companies guidelines on how to create value and happiness at the same time. It illustrates many of Zappos’ core values such as open, honest, passionate, humble, fun, and original.
"The extreme leader is a generator, a powerful force for action, for progress, and an enthusiastic believe
in people and in their capacity to do the awesome." ~ Steve Faber, Author of the Radical Leap
Tony Hsieh hopes that “entrepreneurs will be inspired to start new companies with happiness at the core of their business models,” and encourages entrepreneurs to start applying some of the happiness research findings “to make their business better and their customers and employees happier.” Happier employees are more engaged and engaged employees are more productive, loyal and committed to the company’s success.
Hsieh explains that from the three types of happiness. The longest lasting happiness is pursuing a higher purpose. On a personal level, this means pursuing your higher purpose and in the business world, it’s identifying and following your company’s higher purpose, the unique contributions to the community, the industry or even to this world.
3 Types of Happiness
1. Pleasure: Rock Star - Chasing the next high
2. Passion: Flow and Engagement - Time flies
3. Higher Purpose Meaning: Being part of something bigger than yourself
Leading companies with happiness at the core and paying attention to the pursuit of passions and purpose brings long-term business success.
The importance of following your passions and purpose individually and for your company is significant. If you are a solopreneur, network marketing professional, realtor, business owner, or executive of a large corporation, it always comes down to the core questions:
- What are your company’s values? - What is your company’s higher purpose? - What are you and your employees passionate about? - And most importantly, what matters most to your customers?
Advanced Solutions for Activating Passionate (ASAP) Engagement
Thriving employees across industries have better performance, are more loyal and have a significant impact on the company’s success. These kind of employees are passionate about their work and excited. They are stimulated by learning and finding creative solutions.
As ASAP Engagement trainers and consultants, we have unique systems and processes to boost company profits, enhance employee productively and loyalty, align employee needs and goals with leadership goals and company vision, and identify a company’s unique contribution, its true purpose.
This movement is spreading globally. At our recent Consultant Training in San Diego with the best transformational leaders and master trainers, we had participants from eight countries as far as Japan and Taiwan. This process is the catalyst for success of small companies and large corporations, and I am excited to offer the process and training to entrepreneurs and companies because when we focus on what matters most, we achieve lasting results.
MOTIVATION MOMENT:
"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
Article author
About the Author
Ulrike Berzau, Executive Coach & Consultant, works with individuals, teams and organization to achieve exceptional results in life and business. With extensive experience as healthcare executive, she is known for providing highly respected insights and creative solutions to secure continuous advancement and excellence. Ulrike has an unwavering passion for igniting the talent and brilliance in others and her international and multicultural experiences allow her to relate to a diverse audience. Her ambitious, yet well balanced, positive and inspiring mindset is the catalyst of her own success and assures the success of clients, staff and organizations.
Ulrike is the co-author of the International Best-Seller Imagine a Healthy You and an inspirational speaker. She is certified as Thinking into Results Consultant, Passion Test Facilitator, ASAP Engagement Consultant and Achieve Today Coach, and holds a Master’s Degree in Management, a Master’s Degree in Health Science, Physical Therapy, and is a Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives.
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