June 13, 2011

By the time he turned 25, Tony Hsieh had already sold a company he co-founded to Microsoft for $245 million. He then became an adviser to an online shoe retailer in its infancy, and later would become CEO. Today, that company is Zappos.com, the giant online retailer perhaps best-known for its amazing customer service and 365-day return policy with free shipping. In 2009, Amazon.com bought Zappos for $1.2 billion.

Q: What advice would you give to your 18-year-old self?

A: Always be true to yourself, and be unapologetic for it. Follow your passion. Make sure you are maximizing for happiness as opposed to money or society's expectations.

Q: If you could do one thing over, what would it be?

A: Roll out the core values of Zappos from Day 1. We didn't always have core values at Zappos…It was one of those things that we put off for five or six years, because it felt like one of those big corporate things to do. In my book Delivering Happiness, I go into a lot more detail about how we came up with our core values and how they serve as a formalized definition of our culture. Our 10 core values at Zappos are:

1. Deliver WOW through service
2. Embrace and drive change
3. Create fun and a little weirdness
4. Be adventurous, creative, and open-minded
5. Pursue growth and learning
6. Build open and honest relationships with communication
7. Build a positive team and family spirit
8. Do more with less
9. Be passionate and determined
10. Be humble

You can learn more about our values at http://about.zappos.com/our-unique-culture/zappos-core-values.

Q: What personal trait has been most critical to your success?

A: Curiosity and being willing to adapt and consider new perspectives.

Q: What’s your biggest weakness and how have you tried to overcome it?

A: Shyness. I just try to force myself to be in a lot of different situations where I have to meet and talk to new people.

Q: I know that one of your favorite interview questions is, "On a scale of 1 to 10, how lucky are you?" How much has luck played a part in your success as an entrepreneur?

A: Luck is very important, but the great thing is that you can increase your luck by building real relationships with a lot of people, gaining new perspectives and always being open to opportunity beyond just how a particular situation might present itself.

Q: What accomplishment are you most proud of?

A: The culture we've built over the years at Zappos. A really large number of the relationships that exist at Zappos are true friendships, not just co-worker relationships. Most employees when they leave the office, leave to go hang out with other Zappos employees. That's really hard to find at companies our size (we have several thousand employees).

Q: Where do you do your best thinking?

A: Pacing around the kitchen, in the shower, while commuting, and at the bar.

Q: If you were going to start another type of company, what would it be and why?

A: For me, it wouldn't really matter as long as it were consumer-facing and great customer service/experience can be a differentiator. We've talked about maybe one day there could be a Zappos Airlines or Delivering Happiness Airlines. I think that would be a fun project.

Q: Zappos is known for, among other things, its strong commitment to company culture. What advice would you give to other business owners interested in creating a strong culture?

A: Come up with committable core values, meaning values that you're willing to hire and fire employees over independent of their actual job performance. Come up with corporate values that match your personal values. We actually host a boot camp at Zappos Insights to help other companies figure out the values that are right for them: http://www.zapposinsights.com.

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Join the conversation ( 4 )

• Drewry News Network 11 months ago

  

  Couldn't agree more with what Milton said below. Amen =)http://www.DrewryMedia.comhttp://www.DrewryNewsNetwork.com

• Milton H. Camilo 11 months ago

  

  What an inspiration this young fellow is.....its entrepreneurs like this that are my mentors and are real role models for us college kids!

• Drewry News Network 11 months ago

  

  Seeing admirable CEO's like Tony Hsieh do things like this, it's positive inspiration given to anyone silently in moving forward in making progress in being a better person, as well as a better business person. That is so admirable to sell as company worth over quarter a billion of $ gUaP $ @ only age 25. Most folk around that age would have NOT a clue on that to do with that kind of $ gUaPeY $. But, it's not the $ that helps us to grow mentally; yet, the beautiful obstacles we faced in our expansion of inner growth that hold more weight than the tangible gains.Mr. Hsieh is a positive and admirable example that anyone , when focused on being an inspiring business CEO spontaneously, can accomplish such a thing, and still be your regular ol' self. True growth comes from hanging in there, keep moving forward, and keeping the mind steadfast on providing jobs, and opportunities for others, in your progress of being a success, so others can contribute to your success, as well as build themselves up.Thank you OPEN forum, in giving everyone the ability to comment and connect with others in your wonderful online articles. Keep up the good work =)http://www.DrewryMedia.comhttp://www.DrewryNewsNetwork.com

• Boris Fowler 11 months ago

  

  Tony is an example of a guy who seems to understand what it means to be CEO of something. The founder of a startup needs to be the right person and he needs to surround himself with even better people. Based on the results here, I would say that he did that. http://www.caycon.com/blog/2011/06/how-to-recognize-dysfunctional-startup-leadership/