Dear Tony,
Happy Book Launching Day to you and the Zappos crew! Thank you for "Delivering Happiness" to me. I'm discovering quite a bit about your astonishing success and what makes you "tick", and I'm enjoying it greatly! You were wise enough to know, at a tender young age, that you could always learn something from just about every experience, good and not-so-good. Kudos to you for that!
It took ambition and drive and smarts for you and your friend, Sanjay, to leave lucrative positions at Oracle so both of you could pursue start-up dreams of building your own company. I think it took a lot of guts, too! Conventional thinking dictates that two kids out of college should put in the time, focus on their careers, and make good money. And then, of course, move on to another company in order to bolster your resumes. Of course, in the Silicon Valley world of the '90's, this might very well have meant making a fortune and retiring early.
Tony, you had a vision of something more, something better, and that was to build and grow a business, or businesses, of your own. Your first company, LinkExchange, was started in 1995. The idea was that Web publishers would insert a special code into the Web pages with banner ads automatically appearing on their sites as a result. Eventually, Sanjay and you realized that LinkExchange could make money if ads were sold as well.
With an infusion of $3 million from venture-capital firm Sequoia Capital (also a funder of Yahoo!), more Web sites started to sign on. Large advertisers signed and brought in revenue. And many motivated and smart employees were hired; together, they created an exciting synthesis - a happy company culture, one of genuine camaraderie.
But that changed. In 1998, LinkExchange was sold to Microsoft for an amazing $265 million. And you were (amazingly) only 24 years old! And yet, as incredible as this was, changes in the company culture (building up over the years) left you feeling dejected and dissatisfied. LinkExchange had long ceased to be fun for you. Too many employees were more concerned with their careers and not committed to the company's long-term growth. You had observed some rather ugly stuff at the time of the Microsoft acquisition; you witnessed the greed of various people jockeying for contracts for themselves, only caring about their own financial outcomes. No matter that it was a risk to every other company employee. "Large amounts of money have a strange way of getting people's true colors to come out....There was a lot of drama as people started fighting...." you wrote.
You yourself certainly didn't need any more money! After some consideration, you realized that the happiest times in your life did not involve money but in building things, in making things, in being creative and inventive. I definitely agree with you that our culture and society brainwashes us to stop thinking seriously about the "more money = more success + more happiness" equation.
So, in the lingo of the late American mythologist and Professor Joseph Campbell, you wholeheartedly "followed your bliss". And it worked! For you, and for thousands upon thousands of us. And for this, we thank you. And we appreciate you telling your story in "Delivering Happiness", a story about the evolution and implementation of your ideas and values: lessons learned in childhood and as a young adult about running a successful company; marketing innovations; customer service; and corporate culture. You're one of the most inventive people in the Internet business world today as well as one of the most admired.
I salute you and wish you and the Zappos team much continued success. And I know you'll have it! And a special "thank you" for sending the two (2) free advance copies of the "Delivering Happiness" book, without which this post would not have been possible!
Cheers to You, Tony!
"HotJava"
(Lisa Hawkins)
For more information, please link to:
http://deliveringhappinessbook.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=7469caef6122a4c94f2c5e38e&id=ace950be67&e=274c932411
and
http://deliveringhappinessbook.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=7469caef6122a4c94f2c5e38e&id=beee7b4397&e=274c932411
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