Thoughts on "Delivering Happiness" and "Rework"

4 Sep 10

Sat down in Border's today with some increasingly rare unallocated time and read two books. The first, Delivering Happiness is excellent - one of the better business books I have read, not in the least because Tony Hsieh references a lot of the typical great business books and expounds on how he applied them to his own ventures.

While much of the book is devoted to the trials of getting Zappos off the ground, the most valuable insights come from discovering the value in the unusual culture - its strength and the innovation to make it scale. It's great to see a CEO embrace the idea that the overriding end result that people desire is happiness, and that most people don't know how to achieve it (though they don't even know they don't know). Anyone who runs a business, wants to run a business, or needs a lifestyle change should read this book. Will definitely recommend it to others.

I also read Rework by the founders of 37Signals. On the whole I think most of their advice was good, though not as groundbreaking as they (the writers) seem to think it is. My favorite line in the book:

"Rockstar environments develop out of trust, autonomy, and responsibility. They're a result of giving people the privacy, workspace, and tools they deserve. Great environments show respect for the people who do the work and how they do it."

Absolutely dead-on summation of the key component of any great workplace. Of course the trick is making it scale in a large operation.

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Side note: I went into the store, bought a coffee and a sandwich for about $6 and then read two books for free. I thought, I liked Delivering Happiness, I should buy it for my collection, only to realize it's (literally) half as much on Amazon (checked on my iPhone). I could overnight it from Amazon for less money than buying it in Borders. Rapidly failing business model? I think so.

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