Top 83 Tony Hsieh Quotes
#1. 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
Tony Hsieh
#2. For me, my role is about unleashing what people already have inside them that is maybe suppressed in most work environments.
Tony Hsieh
#3. Success is getting to a point where you'd be truly OK with losing everything you have and starting over.
Tony Hsieh
#4. SEO expertise is a core need for today's online businesses.
Tony Hsieh
#5. A great brand is a story that never stops unfolding.
Tony Hsieh
#6. For me, the most fun is change or growth. There are definitely elements of both that I like. Launching a business is kind of like a motorboat: You can go very quickly and turn fast.
Tony Hsieh
#7. Every employee can affect your company's brand, not just the front-line employees that are paid to talk to your customers.
Tony Hsieh
#8. 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
#9. I'd rather spend money on things that improve the customer experience than on marketing.
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#10. Inspire other communities and cities to reinvent themselves.
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#12. First, they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win. - GANDHI
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#13. I think everyone should get a little exposure to computer science because it really forces you to think in a slightly different way, and it's a skill that you can apply in life in general, whether you end up in computer science or not.
Tony Hsieh
#14. Having a higher purpose is more than just about profits. You actually end up making more profits in the long run because employees really are a lot more engaged and customers see the higher purpose in the company.
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#15. A lot of people realize "I don't have to work in this job that I'm miserable at every year, or every day, and I don't have to live in, for example, New York City where it's super expensive and if I live somewhere else that is less expensive and could pursue my passion like, I can afford to do that."
Tony Hsieh
#16. Whatever you're thinking, think bigger.
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#17. 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).
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#18. 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.
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#19. Instead of getting an iPad, I now use my iPhone with a giant magnifying glass attached to my face.
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#20. The brand is just a lagging indicator of a company's culture.
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#21. Zappos is a customer service company that just happens to sell shoes.
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#22. 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
#23. Money alone isn't enough to bring happiness ... happiness [is] when you're actually truly ok with losing everything you have.
Tony Hsieh
#24. Be true to yourself. If you follow that principle, a lot of decisions are actually pretty easy.
Tony Hsieh
#25. Customer service shouldn't just be A department, it should be the entire company.
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#26. Problems are just mile markers. Each one we pass means we've gotten better.
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#27. To never forget that the most important thing in life is the quality of life we lead.
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#28. I believe that there's something interesting about anyone and everyone - you just have to figure out what that something is.
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#29. Don't be cocky. Don't be flashy. There's always someone better than you.
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#30. The biggest (and hardest) lesson I've learned in life is that the external world is just a reflection of the world within.
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#31. Learn by doing. Theory is nice, but nothing replaces actual experience.
Tony Hsieh
#32. 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
#33. Most companies are very quick to hire and slow to fire, when really it should be the other way around.
Tony Hsieh
#34. Our society in general has is more money equals more happiness and all the research has shown that that's true up to a point, up until you can get your basic needs met, but then really there is other stuff that has a much bigger impact on your happiness besides just money.
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#35. Businesses often forget about the culture, and ultimately, they suffer for it because you can't deliver good service from unhappy employees.
Tony Hsieh
#36. Chase the vision, not the money, the money will end up following you.
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#38. 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
#39. 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
#40. Twitter is like hugging. Just because it's hard to measure the return on investment doesn't mean there isn't value there.
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#41. Help shape the stories that people are telling about you.
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#42. Most innovation comes from outside your industry applied to your own
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#43. You've gotta love the game. To become really good, you need to live it and sleep it.
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#44. If someone is self-aware, then they can always continue to grow. If they're not self-aware, I think it's harder for them to evolve or adapt beyond who they already are.
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#45. The best leaders are servant leaders - they serve those they lead.
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#46. Business is all about learning to balance the short-term, medium-term and long-term and I think it's when things are going well it covers up a lot of mistakes and bad decisions because you're growing so quickly ...
Tony Hsieh
#47. Rather than focus on trying to get a lot of customers to market yourself, really focus more on the actual product or service itself and existing users to, like, what would make them happier, what would make them come back more and more times or in our case buy more often.
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#48. Have fun. The game is a lot more enjoyable when you're trying to do more than just make money.
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#49. I think the most important thing is just if you hire people whose personal values match the corporate core values - and not just the stated ones.
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#50. Sorry, investing was pretty boring and I really missed being part of building something. I felt like I was always standing on the sidelines, so Zappos ... really liked the people there and got involved full-time and I've been full-time ever since.
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#51. Never outsource your core competency.
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#52. 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
#53. Good businesses generate missions to drive their profits. Great businesses generate profits to drive their missions.
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#54. 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
#55. 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.
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#56. Things are never as bad or as good as they seem.
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#57. Ask yourself: would you be comfortable printing everything your employees, customers & partners have to say about your culture?
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#58. Envision, create, and believe in your own universe, and the universe will form around you.
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#59. Help inspire people to realize they are capable of changing the world.
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#60. I had decided to stop chasing the money, and start chasing the passion.
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#61. Someone broke into my car last night. Nothing worth taking, car is actually less of a mess now. I should schedule this monthly.
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#62. 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.
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#63. 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.
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#64. Just figure out what your personal values are then just make those the corporate values.
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#65. Our belief is that if you get the culture right, most of the other stuff, like great customer service, or building a great long-term brand or empowering passionate employees and customers, will happen on its own.
Tony Hsieh
#66. It doesn't cost anything to say hi when you pass someone else in the hallway, whereas, most corporations if you pass you avoid eye contact.
Tony Hsieh
#67. Whatever you are thinking, think bigger.
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#68. 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.
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#69. Don't play games that you don't understand, even if you see lots of other people making money from them.
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#70. If you're worried about putting food on the table or putting a roof over your head, that stress is definitely will contribute to unhappiness, but once you have your basic needs met then incremental money.
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#71. 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
#72. 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.
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#73. our belief is that 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. Everything else can and will eventually be copied.
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#74. Studies find top 3 most stressful moments in people's lives: death, divorce, and properly pronouncing "Worcestershire sauce."
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#75. If I was going to go into an office I wanted it to be with people I would choose to be around even if we didn't have to work together and so that was one of the major reasons why I decided out of all the different companies we invested in to work with Zappos.
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#76. If there are too many competitors, even if you're the best it's a lot harder to win.
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#77. Get the culture right, and everything else just falls into place.
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#78. The best businesses are really ones that can combine passion, profits, and purpose.
Tony Hsieh
#79. 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
#80. There's a big difference between motivation and inspiration: Inspire through values and motivation takes care of itself.
Tony Hsieh
#81. Usually my 'a-ha' moments are when I'm not trying to think of how to solve a particular problem.
Tony Hsieh
#82. Without conscious and deliberate effort, inertia always wins
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#83. What's the best way to build a brand for the long term? In a word: culture.
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