Tony Hsieh, Zappos CEO, wrote a book called, “Delivering Happiness, A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose.” The book, released in 2010, launched to the top of the bestseller list. It’s a book about business advice, multi-million dollar deals, and, interesting stories about worm farms. It is a book that focuses on life and business, and the ability to use a single model to crease happiness in both areas. So, what can “Delivering Happiness,” the book or the website, teach you about your business?

Making Happiness the Priority

In all areas, the goal is to create happiness. Hsieh says, though, that what most people believe will make them happy is not what really does deliver happiness. The goal of the website and book, as well as the bus tour and motivational speeches he’s done, all centers on one thing. It is the act of teaching people who to achieve true happiness. The belief is that people exist to help other people, organizations, and businesses to create more happiness.

This is done in many ways, including to inspire and to be inspired, to connect with other like-minded people, and to educate and empower others. It is meant to create meaningful experiences in our lives. It is about a movement that works to encourage other people.

A Closer Look

The book focuses on three areas, Profits, Profits and Passion, and Profits, Passion and Purpose. He establishes core values that every person, and company, needs to have in order to be successful. These include, among others:

  • To be true to yourself, no matter how weird you may be. You must live a life of passion and purpose.
  • Be humble, be grateful. These are key concepts that anyone can apply to daily life as well as business life.
  • Think, say and do in harmony and in consideration of others.
  • Create change in the world more than you ever thought possible.
  • Keep your heart and mind open and aligned. Keep growing and learning.

There are additional concepts that are important to the Delivering Happiness. What is important to take from this is that you can completely change the success of your business by simply focusing on these concepts. In other words, instead of focusing on profits and working long hours, focus instead being passionate about the quality of your work and the services you provide to the community. By focusing and including happiness in your work you’ll change the success of your business, and improve the quality of your life with it.

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Mark van Berkel is Founder and President of Hunch Manifest Inc. While managing business operations he also leads the team in designing semantic technology to provide personalized online presence and reputation management services. Prior to forming the company, he was consultant in enterprise software projects to companies including Panasonic, Shell, and General Electric and was an Architect for a world leading human capital management software-as-a-service. Mark holds a Bachelor of Information Systems from StFX University and did his graduate studies at University of Toronto, getting a MEng Industrial Information Engineering and an MBA, Strategy and Innovation from the Rotman School of Management. In 2006 he published a 170 page report as a researcher at the Semantic Technologies Lab at the University of Toronto and built a semantic technology prototype for SAP Research Labs. Connect with Mark on LinkedIn or Twitter. Mark is also certified in Google Analytics.