Tony Hsieh famous quotes

There's a big difference between motivation and inspiration: Inspire through values and motivation takes care of itself.
-- Tony Hsieh

#Motivation #Inspiration #Positivity

Never accept or be too comfortable with the status quo, because the companies that get into trouble are historically the ones that aren't able to adapt to change and respond quickly enough.
-- Tony Hsieh

#Change #Able #Trouble

I think when people say they dread going into work on Monday morning, it's because they know they are leaving a piece of themselves at home. Why not see what happens when you challenge your employees to bring all of their talents to their job and reward them not for doing it just like everyone else, but for pushing the envelope, being adventurous, creative, and open-minded, and trying new things?
-- Tony Hsieh

#Motivational #Monday #Morning

Your culture is your brand.
-- Tony Hsieh

#Marketing #Culture #Brands

Stop chasing the money and start chasing the passion.
-- Tony Hsieh

#Passion #Successful #Chasing

I made a list of the happiest periods in my life, and I realized that none of them involved money. I realized that building stuff and being creative and inventive made me happy. connecting with a friend and talking through the entire night until the sun rose made me happy. Trick-or-treating in middle school with a group of my closest friends made me happy. Pickles made me happy.
-- Tony Hsieh

#Motivational #School #Night

Most companies are very quick to hire and slow to fire, when really it should be the other way around.
-- Tony Hsieh

#Fire #Way #Should

For me, my role is about unleashing what people already have inside them that is maybe suppressed in most work environments.
-- Tony Hsieh

#People #Roles #Environment

Open, honest communication is the best foundation for any relationship, but remember that at the end of the day it's not what you say or what you do, but how you make people feel that matters the most.
-- Tony Hsieh

#Communication #People #The End Of The Day

A great brand is a story that never stops unfolding.
-- Tony Hsieh

#Stories #Unfolding #Brands

Studies find top 3 most stressful moments in people's lives: death, divorce, and properly pronouncing "Worcestershire sauce."
-- Tony Hsieh

#Food #Divorce #People

To never forget that the most important thing in life is the quality of life we lead.
-- Tony Hsieh

#Entrepreneur #Quality #Important

Without conscious and deliberate effort, inertia always wins
-- Tony Hsieh

#Winning #Effort #Conscious

The ultimate definition of success is: you could lose everything that you have and truly be okay with it. Your happiness isn't based on external factors.
-- Tony Hsieh

#Definitions #Definition Of Success #Okay

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.
-- Tony Hsieh

#Character #Destiny #Organization

Envision, create, and believe in your own universe, and the universe will form around you.
-- Tony Hsieh

#Motivational #Believe #Form

To WOW, you must differentiate yourself, which means do something a little unconventional and innovative. You must do something that’s above and beyond what’s expected. And whatever you do must have an emotional impact on the receiver.
-- Tony Hsieh

#Mean #Emotional #Impact

I view my role more as trying to set up an environment where the personalities, creativity and individuality of all the different employees come out and can shine.
-- Tony Hsieh

#Inspirational #Creativity #Views

Learn by doing. Theory is nice, but nothing replaces actual experience.
-- Tony Hsieh

#Nice #Theory

Businesses often forget about the culture, and ultimately, they suffer for it because you can't deliver good service from unhappy employees.
-- Tony Hsieh

#Inspirational #Suffering #Unhappy

Customer service shouldn't just be A department, it should be the entire company.
-- Tony Hsieh

#Should #Company

For individuals, character is destiny. For organizations, culture is destiny.
-- Tony Hsieh

#Character #Destiny #Organization

Whatever you're thinking, think bigger.
-- Tony Hsieh

#Business #Thinking #Entrepreneurship

I'd rather spend money on things that improve the customer experience than on marketing.
-- Tony Hsieh

#Marketing #Customer Experience

Launching a business is kind of like a motorboat: You can go very quickly and turn fast.
-- Tony Hsieh

#Business #Kind #Launching

Chase the vision, not the money, the money will end up following you.
-- Tony Hsieh

#Business #Vision #Ends

Whatever you are thinking, think bigger.
-- Tony Hsieh

#Crazy #Thinking #Think Big

Don't play games that you don't understand, even if you see lots of other people making money from them.
-- Tony Hsieh

#Inspirational #Business #Games

...the best leaders are servant leaders - they serve those they lead.
-- Tony Hsieh

#Leader #Servant Leadership #Servant

Be true to yourself. If you follow that principle, a lot of decisions are actually pretty easy.
-- Tony Hsieh

#Decision #Principles #Be True To Yourself

A bigger business is like a cruise ship: There are lots of amenities and you can go a lot further, but it's harder to turn quickly.
-- Tony Hsieh

#Ships #Cruise #Bigger

The biggest (and hardest) lesson I've learned in life is that the external world is just a reflection of the world within.
-- Tony Hsieh

#Reflection #World #Lessons

If you're focused on the friendship as its own reward, serendipitous stuff just happens. I know that sounds weird, but I can tell you for our 12 years of existence, it's actually how a lot of stuff happens.
-- Tony Hsieh

#Years #Rewards #Stuff

Most innovation comes from outside your industry applied to your own
-- Tony Hsieh

#Innovation

At Zappos, one of our core values is to Pursue Growth and Learning. In the lobby of our headquarters, we have a giving library where we give away books to employees and visitors that we think will help with their growth, both personally and professionally. I can't wait to add The Compound Effect to our library.
-- Tony Hsieh

#Book #Thinking #Giving

Good businesses generate missions to drive their profits. Great businesses generate profits to drive their missions.
-- Tony Hsieh

#Great Business #Good Business #Profit

Hopefully 10 years from now people won't even realize we started out selling shoes. They will just think about Zappos as a place to get the best customer service.
-- Tony Hsieh

#Thinking #Years #Shoes

Don't be cocky. Don't be flashy. There's always someone better than you.
-- Tony Hsieh

#Business #Cocky #Flashy

Zappos is a customer service company that just happens to sell shoes.
-- Tony Hsieh

#Shoes #Company

Our customers call and e-mail us to say that's how it feels when a Zappos box arrives. And that's how we view this company.
-- Tony Hsieh

#Inspirational #Views #Mail

Happiness is really just about four things: perceived control, perceived progress, connectedness (number and depth of your relationships), and vision/meaning (being part of something bigger than yourself).
-- Tony Hsieh

#Numbers #Vision #Progress

Branding Through Customer Service Over the years, the number one driver of our growth at Zappos has been repeat customers and word of mouth. Our philosophy has been to take most of the money we would have spent on paid advertising and invest it into customer service and the customer experience instead, letting our customers do the marketing for us through word of mouth.
-- Tony Hsieh

#Philosophy #Years #Numbers

Things are never as bad or as good as they seem.
-- Tony Hsieh

We asked ourselves what we wanted this company to stand for. We didn't want to just sell shoes. I wasn't even into shoes - but I was passionate about customer service.
-- Tony Hsieh

#Inspirational #Shoes #Want

I thought about how easily we are all brainwashed by our society and culture to stop thinking and just assume by default that more money equals more success and more happiness, when ultimately happiness is really just about enjoying life.
-- Tony Hsieh

#Thinking #Enjoy Life #Culture

I believe that there's something interesting about anyone and everyone - you just have to figure out what that something is.
-- Tony Hsieh

#Believe #Interesting #Figures

The problem when someone feels burned out, bored, unchallenged, or stifled by their work is not the job itself but rather the environment and playground rules given to them to do the job at hand.
-- Tony Hsieh

#Jobs #Hands #Bored

What’s the best way to build a brand for the long term? In a word: culture.
-- Tony Hsieh

#Long #Way #Culture

Twitter is like hugging. Just because it's hard to measure the return on investment doesn't mean there isn't value there.
-- Tony Hsieh

#Mean #Hug #Marketing

Problems are just mile markers. Each one we pass means we've gotten better.
-- Tony Hsieh

#Motivational #Mean #Problem

You've gotta love the game. To become really good, you need to live it and sleep it. 
-- Tony Hsieh

#Sleep #Games #Needs

After what seemed like an eternity, we finally reached the summit just as the sun was rising. I couldn't believe that we had actually done it. We were standing at the highest point in all of Africa, looking down at the clouds below us, with the sun directly in front of us, its rays welcoming us to the beginning of a new day. It didn't seem like this was something that humans were meant to experience, yet here we were
-- Tony Hsieh

#Motivational #Believe #Clouds

Money alone isn't enough to bring happiness... happiness is when you're actually truly ok with losing everything you have.
-- Tony Hsieh

#Culture #Losing #Enough

SEO expertise is a core need for today's online businesses.
-- Tony Hsieh

#Today #Needs #Internet

The brand is just a lagging indicator of a company's culture.
-- Tony Hsieh

#Culture #Company #Indicators

Ask yourself: would you be comfortable printing everything your employees, customers & partners have to say about your culture?
-- Tony Hsieh

#Culture #Printing #Partners

Have fun. The game is a lot more enjoyable when you're trying to do more than just make money.
-- Tony Hsieh

#Fun #Inspiration #Games

Help shape the stories that people are telling about you.
-- Tony Hsieh

#People #Stories #Shapes

Instead of getting an iPad, I now use my iPhone with a giant magnifying glass attached to my face.
-- Tony Hsieh

#Glasses #Ipads #Iphone

We decided that if we get the culture right, most of the stuff, like building a brand around delivering the very best customer service, will just take care of itself.
-- Tony Hsieh

#Marketing #Culture #Care

If there are too many competitors, even if you're the best it's a lot harder to win.
-- Tony Hsieh

#Winning #You Re The Best #Competitors

The best businesses are really ones that can combine passion, profits, and purpose.
-- Tony Hsieh

#Passion #Purpose #Best Business

Zappos uses call center technology to track average call time per agent. But the goal isn't to reduce this average - it's more important that we make an emotional connection with the customer, rather than just quickly getting them off the phone.
-- Tony Hsieh

#Educational #Technology #Emotional

Get the culture right, and everything else just falls into place.
-- Tony Hsieh

#Fall #Culture #Fall Into Place

I made a list of the happiest periods of my life & I realized that none of them involve money.
-- Tony Hsieh

#Lists #Moral #Periods