Boredom breeds passion.  Really?  Apparently so, at least in Tony Hsieh's life.  

A bored, rich young man who recently sold his start-up to Microsoft for $243 million realized making more money was meaningless to him and he wanted a life of passion.  Oh, but what to be passionate about?  Sounds like a problem some of us would like to be faced with.

Hsieh, in his book, Delivering Happiness, hits on what seems to be the question people ask themselves at some point in their lives.  What is it to live a life of passion?  What is meaningful?

Hsieh seems to have figured out that while, in his case, boredom breeds passion, for most people it is trust, shared values, respect and creativity that create a terrific culture and very happy customers.  Hsieh insists that this is what brought Zappos, an online shoe store, from struggling start-up to super success story.  Zappos recently sold to Amazon for a reported US$1.2 billion.

Delivering Happiness is Tony Hsieh's telling of the story of Zappos and of his life.  It is about how, by being clear about your guiding values, continually living into these values and communicating these values, you can create a very positive culture which, in turn, will create excellence in customer service.  Happy employees equals happy customers.  At Zappos, it was the staff who identified the core values of the company, coming up with a short-list of ten.  Hsieh feels that what has made the difference at his company is that rather than posting these values in a document and forgetting about them, he and everyone else at Zappos continually communicate these values and how they are put into action.  In doing so, they have become the foundation that inform a lot of the decisions he, his partners, and their employees make.   

I found this section of the book interesting.  It raised some questions for me.  Do I just give lip service to what I think my guiding values are?  Can I claim that I fully honour each of my values…or at least strive to?  Being a business coach (and coaches are all about being clear on your values), I have certainly outlined my core values.  However, can I list these values right now?  Am I actively engaged in assessing how I live into these values?  Being honest with myself (honesty being one of my core values), I have to say that my answer is, "No".  So I sit here, hovering over my keyboard, pondering how I will get back in touch with my values in a more active and engaged manner.  

My years of work with my coaching clients and my own experiences have me increasingly convinced that putting our values into practice and bringing our awareness to how we live into them is what propels us towards our dreams, helping us bring vision to reality.  Our lives are richer, more fulfilling, when we practice our values.  Returning to the last question I just posed for myself, my first thoughts are that I will pick a value each week and start each day asking myself, "how I am already strong in this value?" and also, "how will I strengthen this value today?".  I think it would be apt to begin with my value of gratitude.

Hsieh and company certainly lived into their value of delivering WOW in service when they sent me not one, but two books (advanced copies sent free of charge) in return for my posting of a review.  The second book, they suggested, is for us to give away to our readers.  So, for a chance to win a copy of Delivering Happiness, please post a comment on this blog.  Perhaps you would like to share how you put your values into practice, or share how you will express your gratitude this week.  Or just comment on your thoughts about Hsieh's book.  It's up to you.  On July 5, 2010 we will randomly choose a post (draw names from a hat, perhaps) and contact the 'winner' via email to arrange delivery of the book.