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Kindle Notes & Highlights
There’s a difference between knowing the path and walking the path. —MORPHEUS, THE MATRIX
profits, passion, and purpose.
It was about building a lifestyle that was about delivering happiness to everyone,
the more perspectives I could gain, the better.
it sometimes pays to take risks and think outside the box.
sometimes the truth alone isn’t enough, and that presentation of the truth was just as important as the truth.
it was great to see how having a little fun in the office could lighten everyone’s mood.
I learned a valuable lesson in humility.
“an exaggerated sense of pride or self-confidence,”
the power of crowdsourcing.
had read somewhere that you’re in your best negotiating position if you don’t care what the outcome is and you’re not afraid to walk away.
What is success? What is happiness? What am I working toward?
I realized that building stuff and being creative and inventive made me happy.
ultimately happiness is really just about enjoying life.
stop chasing the money, and start chasing the passion.
it’s a bad idea to invest in industries you don’t understand, in companies you don’t have any control or influence over, or in people you don’t know or trust.
made a note to myself to make sure I never lost sight of the value of a tribe where people truly felt connected and cared about the well-being of one another.
research from the field of the science of happiness would confirm that the combination of physical synchrony with other humans and being part of something bigger than oneself (and thus losing momentarily a sense of self) leads to a greater sense of happiness,
If you are able to figure out how to be truly interested in someone you meet, with the goal of building up a friendship instead of trying to get something out of that person, the funny thing is that almost always, something happens later down the line that ends up benefiting either your business or yourself personally.
stop trying to “network” in the traditional business sense, and instead just try to build up the number and depth of your friendships, where the friendship itself is its own reward.
“Envision, create, and believe in your own universe, and the universe will form around you,”
We learned that we should never outsource our core competency.
Looking back, a big reason we hit our goal early was that we decided to invest our time, money, and resources into three key areas: customer service (which would build our brand and drive word of mouth), culture (which would lead to the formation of our core values), and employee training and development (which would eventually lead to the creation of our Pipeline Team).
our Brand, our Culture, and our Pipeline (which we internally refer to as “BCP”) are the only competitive advantages that we will have in the long run.
1. The Culture Book is not about the book… it’s about the culture.
2. It’s a short-term expense, long-term investment.
Once you have a culture—invest in it.
Make it a true voice of what your culture represents and it’ll sing like it’s in the shower.
company’s culture and a company’s brand are really just two sides of the same coin.
Your culture is your brand.
We’ve formally defined the Zappos culture in terms of 10 core values: 1. Deliver WOW Through Service 2. Embrace and Drive Change 3. Create Fun and a Little Weirdness 4. Be Adventurous, Creative, and Open-Minded
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
integrity would come from us actually committing to and living up to our core values in everything we did,
Let your employees take risks and try new things.
the devil is in the details.
The Zappos Core Values
In any relationship, it’s important to be a good listener as well as a good communicator.
how you make people feel that matters the most.
the best leaders are servant-leaders.
The best team members take initiative when they notice issues so that the team and the company can succeed.
Passion and determination are contagious.
they just needed to make a plan of their own choosing, and work it through to completion.
we should always be respectful of everyone.
It’s more fun to talk with someone who doesn’t use long difficult words but rather short easy words like What about lunch?” —Winnie-the-Pooh
create a list that was unique to Zappos
What matters is that each of the core values becomes a natural part of employees’ everyday language and way of thinking. Committable core values that are truly integrated into a company’s operations can align an entire organization and serve as a guide for employees to make their own decisions.
Good to Great and Tribal Leadership,
What matters is that you have them and that you commit to them. What’s important is the alignment that you get from them when they become the default way of thinking for the entire organization.
Your personal core values define who you are, and a company’s core values ultimately define the company’s character and brand.
For individuals, character is destiny. For organizations, culture is destiny.
