I ended up getting the opportunity to read a pre-release copy of Tony Hsieh’s book Delivering Happiness thanks to a tweet from Brad, who I work with at Gazaro. They ended up sending me four copies of the book, but lucky they went to good use as my roommate Neil quickly snatched them up and finished the book in a day or two. Part of the pre-release program was that I would blog about the book on the day of its release – today. Here goes!
Delivering Happiness details the story of Tony Hsieh, starting with his childhood entrepreneurial aspirations, through to his first big acquisition – LinkExchange – and finally finishing with the struggle of Zappos and eventual acquisition by Amazon. The book was great as it detailed his launching and operating these interesting businesses. The story of Zappos, and the gambles he took on it in the company’s early days, are a great read.
The only place that book fell short for me was the large section focusing on company culture, and Zappos’ ideals around delivering happiness. I found myself bored by the section featured Zappos employees detailing their experiences and opinions on delivering happiness.
This book, with the exception of my small grievance noted above, is a great read. I ended up finishing the book in just two weeks, no small feat for me! (My grade 12 English teacher could testify to that) I really enjoyed his views on entrepreneurship and running companies. As a business book if provides some interesting ideas about management and leadership.
I’d definitely recommend this book, and am glad they did this neat promo so I had the chance to read it when I did.
See DeliveringHappinessBook.com for more information about the book and think about picking it up from Kobo Books – so that you can read it on your BlackBerry, iPhone, iPad, and on the web.