In this, his first audiobook, Tony Hsieh – the widely admired CEO of Zappos, the online shoe retailer – explains how he created a unique culture and commitment to service that aims to improve the lives of employees, customers, vendors, and backers. Using anecdotes and stories from his own life experiences, and from other companies, Hsieh provides concrete ways that companies can achieve unprecedented success. Even better, he shows how creating happiness and record results go hand-in-hand.

He starts with the “Why” in a section where he narrates his quest to understand the science of happiness. Then he runs through the ten Zappos “Core Values” – such as “Deliver WOW through Service”, “Create Fun and A Little Weirdness”, and “Build a Positive Team and Family Spirit” – and explains how you and your colleagues should come up with your own.

Hsieh then details many of the unique practices at Zappos that have made it the success it is today, such as their philosphy of allocating marketing money into the customer experience, thereby allowing repeat customers and word-of-mouth be their true form of marketing. He also explains why Zappos’s number-one priority is company culture and his belief that once you get the culture right, everything else – great customer service, long-term branding – will happen on its own.

Finally, Delivering Happiness explains how Zappos employees actually apply the Core Values to improving their lives outside of work – and to making a difference in their communities and the world.

Tony Hsieh (pronounced “shay”) became a multimillionaire in 1998, at age 24, by selling his first internet start-up firm to Microsoft for $265 million. Then he sold his online shoe retailer Zappos to Amazon in 2009 for $1.2 billion. This personable entrepreneur may sound like an enthusiastic cheerleader, but clearly he knows a lot about making a business grow and he’s worked hard to learn a lot about happiness. His vision encompasses a distinctive brand, a pipeline for developing talent and a creative corporate culture, all built on collegial fun and customer service. Hsieh details some of the secrets of his success, including how he and his team (a hard working crew whose surnames he never mentions) made Zappos so strong. Hsieh sees “delivering happiness” as a philosophy anyone can apply to business and all other areas of life (while wearing good shoes, of course).

• Tony Hsieh excelled at school. Even as a child, he had a drive to make money.
• After Harvard, Hsieh went to work for Oracle, but he quickly grew bored.
• In 1996, he and his college roommate began a web business called LinkExchange. Tony was 24 when they sold it to Microsoft in 1998 for $265 million.
• In 1999, Tony’s investment fund helped finance Zappos; he became its CEO in 2000.
• Zappos struggled, but remained committed to its “Brand, Culture and Pipeline” ethos.
• The brand is built on customer service; the culture emphasizes collegiality, fun and cohesion; and the pipeline trains employees for rapid advancement.
• In 2008, Zappos topped $1 billion in gross sales. The following year, Amazon acquired Zappos for $1.2 billion.
• As CEO, Hsieh now devotes himself to the concept of “delivering happiness.”
• He follows three happiness frameworks. The first gives staffers control of their careers. The second builds relationships with customers via service and connection.
• The third offers the joy of professional pursuit, “flow” and a “higher purpose.”

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Tony Hsieh is CEO of Zappos.com, Inc. He is a frequent public speaker.