A couple housekeeping items to start off this post. I am going to start screening the books recommended to me because the stack next to my bed is growing. I simply don’t have enough time in my life to read all of them right now. With that being said, I hope people still suggest books for me. I will eventually read them, I promise. Also, I am changing the “Upcoming Reviews” tab to list all of the books in my queue to be in no particular order. I'm going to read a few at a time and whichever is finished first will be reviewed on the blog. Lastly, I am going to start lending books to people. If you want to read something I review, shoot me an e-mail, text, tweet, or facebook message and I will mail the book to you (if you live close then I’ll drop it off). All I ask is that you return the book when you’re done. Now onto the review for Delivering Happiness…
Delivering Happiness is the story of Tony Hsieh, who is currently the CEO of Zappos. They sell shoes and are known for great customer service. (All employees start by answering phones in the call center; then they are offered $2,000 to quit.) Tony attended Harvard and was one of those computer geeks, but in a good way. After quitting the corporate world a few months after college, he started a company which eventually sold to Microsoft for $265 million. Tony started investing as a venture capitalist and nearly went broke. Then he invested in the company Zappos and took a more involved role with the company, eventually becomming CEO and selling to Amazon for $1.2 billion.
I liked the book because I thought it was very personal. In the first few pages, Tony says he didn’t use a ghostwriter and he wanted to write it as if he was talking normally. You definitely get that feel when reading. While you do hear some of the business stories, you also get the personal stories. [Side tangent: I got the idea of training for a half-marathon from the book – I’ll be running in October.] The reader also gets an inside glimpse of the company as Tony shares e-mails he sent out company wide. By the end of the book, I was left wanting to order from Zappos…which I did a few months ago.
Lastly I’d like to say that I heard Tony speak at an event I attended last September in Providence. He gave all attendees a free copy of the book, and I stuck around to get it signed by him:
“To Nick, Live in the WOW. Tony Hsieh”
Didn’t get to chat much because he was being rushed out of the building as part of his “Happiness Bus Tour” across the country. Still this is the first review I’ve done where I met the author. Good stuff.
My rating for Delievering Happiness: 3 stars out of 5. Get it here!
I have one children's book signed where I met the author. It is neat to hear them tell their personal stories. I have been to other children's author's presentation and have loved them all. No books signed though at those.
ReplyDelete