Delivering Happiness

decide whether to get trained and certified on each of the skill sets. If someone chooses not to get any, then he or she simply stays at the same pay level. If someone is ambitious and wants to gain all twenty skill sets, then we let the rep decide on the right pace to achieve that. We’ve since found that our call center reps are much happier being in control of their pay and which skill sets to attain. Perceived Progress In our merchandising department at Zappos, we used to promote employees from the entry-level position of merchandising assistant to the next level of assistant buyer after eighteen months of employment (assuming that they met all the requirements to qualify for the promotion). We later decided to give smaller incremental promotions every six months instead that together were the equivalent of the previous single promotion. After eighteen months (three six-month periods of smaller promotions), the end result was still the same—in terms of training, certification, and pay—as the previous promotion schedule. We’ve found that employees are much happier because there is an ongoing sense of perceived progress. Connectedness Studies have shown that engaged employees are more productive, and that the number of good friends an employee has at work is correlated with how engaged that employee is. In The Happiness Hypothesis, author Jonathan Haidt concludes that happiness doesn’t come primarily from within but, rather, from between. This is one of the reasons why we place so much emphasis on company culture at Zappos. Vision/Meaning Both Good to Great and Tribal Leadership discuss how a company with a vision that has a higher purpose beyond just money, profits, or being number one in a market is an important element of what separates a great company (in terms of long-term financial performance) from a good one.

Happiness Framework 2 Chip Conley’s book Peak does an excellent job of describing how Maslow’s Hierarchy can be condensed to three levels for business purposes and applied to customers, employees, and investors. The fundamental premise behind Maslow’s Hierarchy of human needs is that once a person’s survival needs are met (food, safety, shelter, water, etc.), then humans are more motivated by other non-materialistic needs such as social status, achievement, and creativity. Customers: Meets expectations Meets desires Meets unrecognized needs Employees: Money Recognition Meaning Investors: Transaction Alignment Relationship Alignment Legacy Many companies and managers believe that giving employees more money will make them happier, whereas most HR surveys show that once people’s basic needs are met, money is farther down the list of importance than intangibles such as the quality of the relationship with one’s manager and professional growth opportunities. At Zappos, an example of the customer hierarchy at work would be: Receives correct item (meets expectations). Free shipping (meets desires). Surprise upgrade to overnight shipping (meets unrecognized needs).



Happiness Framework 3: Three Types of Happiness: Pleasure, Passion, and Higher Purpose* Pleasure The pleasure type of happiness is about always chasing the next high. I like to refer to it as the “Rock Star” type of happiness because it’s great if you can have a constant inflow of stimuli, but it’s very hard to maintain unless you’re living the lifestyle of a rock star. Research has shown that of the three types of happiness, this is the shortest lasting. As soon as the source of stimuli goes away, people’s happiness levels drop immediately. Passion The passion type of happiness is also known as flow, where peak performance meets peak engagement, and time flies by. Research has shown that of the three types of happiness, this is the second longest lasting. Professional athletes sometimes refer to this state as “being in the zone.” Higher Purpose The higher-purpose type of happiness is about being part of something bigger than yourself that has meaning to you. Research has shown that of the three types of happiness, this is the longest lasting. What I find interesting is that many people go through life chasing after the pleasure type of happiness, thinking that once they are able to sustain that, then

they will worry about the passion and, if they get around to it, look for their higher purpose. Based on the findings of the research, however, the proper strategy would be to figure out and pursue the higher purpose first (since it is the longest-lasting type of happiness), then layer on top of that the passion, and then add on top of that the pleasure type of happiness.

Happiness as a Fractal According to Merriam-Webster, a fractal is “any irregular curves or shapes for which any chosen part is similar in shape to a given larger or smaller part when magnified or reduced to the same size.” Here is one example of a fractal (Winter Wonderland, by Dr. Ken Schwartz): One of the properties of fractals is that if you zoom in or zoom out, the picture looks the same or very similar. According to Wikipedia, many natural objects have fractal-like properties, including clouds, mountain ranges, lightning bolts, coastlines, snowflakes, various vegetables (cauliflower and broccoli), and animal coloration patterns. I think the parallels between what the research has found makes people happy (pleasure, passion, purpose) and what the research has found makes for great long-term companies (profits, passion, purpose) makes for one of the most interesting fractals I’ve ever come across.

At first glance, the patterns generated by geometric fractals may appear infinitely complex, but it’s often just a simple mathematical formula that generates them. Similarly, setting out to create a great long-term company may seem to be an overwhelmingly daunting task at first, but using happiness as an organizing principle can help guide you along the way. Even though writing a book was one of the things that I wanted to check off of my list of things to do, this book wasn’t written just for that reason. And even though this book will serve as a handbook for future Zappos employees (and maybe get us a few additional customers as well), this book wasn’t written for the benefit of Zappos either. I wanted to write this book for a different reason: to contribute to a happiness movement to help make the world a better place. My hope is that through this book, established businesses will look to change the way they are doing things, and entrepreneurs will be inspired to start new companies with happiness at the core of their business models, taking with them some of the lessons I’ve learned personally as well as the lessons that we’ve collectively learned at Zappos. My hope is that more and more companies will start to apply some of the findings coming out of the research in the science of happiness field to make their business better and their customers and employees happier. My hope is this will not only bring you happiness, but also enable you to bring other people more happiness. If happiness is everyone’s ultimate goal, wouldn’t it be great if we could change the world and get everyone and every business thinking in

that context and that framework? I don’t have all the answers. But hopefully I’ve succeeded in getting you to start asking yourself the right questions. Are you working toward maximizing your happiness each day? What is the net effect of your existence on the total amount of happiness in the world each day? What are your values? What are you passionate about? What inspires you? What is your goal in life? What are your company’s values? What is your company’s higher purpose? What is your higher purpose? When you walk with purpose, you collide with destiny. —BERTICE BERRY I hope reading this book has inspired you to… … make your customers happier (through better customer service), or… … make your employees happier (by focusing more on company culture), or… … make yourself happier (by learning more about the science of happiness). If this book has inspired any of the above, then I’ll have done my part in helping both Zappos and myself achieve our higher purpose: delivering happiness to the world.

Epilogue

Join the Movement As a guiding principle in life for anything I do, I try to ask myself, What would happen if everyone in the world acted in the same way? What would the world look like? What would the net effect be on the overall happiness in the world? This thought experiment has been useful to me when thinking about whether to share how we do things at Zappos, or whether to get upset at the waitress who accidentally got my order wrong, or whether to hold the door open for a stranger who’s a slightly inconvenient distance away. The same questions are just as important for deciding what not to do, even if not doing anything is the default choice. The ideas from this book could end here. You can choose to close the book and do nothing and move on with the rest of your life. Or you can be a part of a movement to help make the world a happier and better place. The choice is yours. Visit us online at: www.deliveringhappinessbook.com/jointhemovement Learn what else you can do to be a part of the movement. Together, we can change the world. 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 Tweets to Live By • “Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.” —George Bernard Shaw

• “It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.” —H. S. Truman • “We either make ourselves miserable or we make ourselves strong. The amount of work is the same.” —Carlos Castaneda • “What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.” —Ralph Waldo Emerson

Appendix: Online Resources Web site for this book: http://www.deliveringhappinessbook.com Additional stories for which we didn’t have room in the book: http://www.deliveringhappinessbook.com/stories Book recommendations: http://www.deliveringhappinessbook.com/books Zappos core values: http://www.deliveringhappinessbook.com/zappos-core-values How to create committable core values for your organization: http://www.deliveringhappinessbook.com/core-values “How Twitter Can Make You a Better and Happier Person”: http://www.deliveringhappinessbook.com/twitter-better Follow me on Twitter (@zappos): http://twitter.com/zappos Public mentions of Zappos and our employees’ tweets: http://twitter.zappos.com

Photos and videos of Zappos culture: http://blogs.zappos.com More information about Zappos: http://about.zappos.com Zappos Insights video subscription service for entrepreneurs and businesses: http://www.zapposinsights.com Zappos job opportunities: http://jobs.zappos.com Culture book (please include physical mailing address): [email protected] Tours of Zappos headquarters in Las Vegas: http://tours.zappos.com

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* These three types of happiness are described in Authentic Happiness, but the labels have been changed based on how we talk about them at Zappos.