Daily Productive Sharing 079 - 硅谷最擅长传递快乐的人走了

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(The English version follows)

最近 Zappos 的前 CEO Tony Hsieh 因为火灾受伤而去世。Zappos 是一个专注于卖鞋的电商平台，于2009年被 Amazon 收购。让 Zappos 出名的并不是 Amazon 的收购，而是它的服务。Tony Hsieh 曾经开玩笑说， Zappos 是一家客服公司，只不过顺带着卖鞋而已。

“Zappos is a customer service company that just happens to sell shoes.”

Tony Hsieh 曾经写过一本叫做 Delivering Happiness 的书，名列当年多个畅销书榜单。我当时读了也非常受用。

Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh’s Legacy, From Tech Leaders Who Knew Him Well

In college, I was always impressed with his ability to do as little work as possible and still get the best grades. He did the least amount of preparation to get himself onto the computer Olympiad team.

And he asked me the question, “If you had to win, what would you bid?” I said, “highest bid plus 1 dollar?”

For example, one of our big cost centers was customer service. Conventional wisdom would be to try to reduce the cost. Instead, Tony wanted to spend more on it: he viewed customer service as a marketing investment that would grow the business.

Tony was hardly ever seen without a Zappos t-shirt. He could wear anything, but he wore Zappos shirts until they fell apart and had holes in them. Despite having one of the most popular shoe companies, Tony didn’t own many pairs of shoes. He kept his attire minimal and simple.

When anyone would ask him what he did or who he was, he would simply reply: “I work at Zappos.”

He showed me the concept of “engineered serendipity,” where putting together novel combinations of people would lead to unexpected results.

Tony Hsieh, RIP

VentureFrogs were investors in many startups. The three most famous ones: Ask Jeeves, OpenTable & Zappos.

Nick Swinmurn started Zappos in 1999, raised $500,000 in funding from Tony & Alfred. It was originally called Shoesite.com Tony later became CEO in 2000. Swinmurn left the company, in 2006. Amazon bought Zappos for $1.2 billion in 2009.

I later got to know Tony socially through non-tech friends. Quiet, kind, quirky, but always open to the impossible.

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

Tony and Zappos’ biggest achievement was that it showed long before everyone else: you can build an Internet company anywhere.

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Tony Hsieh, the former CEO of Zappos, an e-commerce platform focused on selling shoes that was acquired by Amazon in 2009, recently died from injuries sustained in a fire. Tony Hsieh once joked that Zappos was a customer service company, but only incidentally selling shoes.

"Zappos is a customer service company that just happens to sell shoes."

Tony Hsieh once wrote a book called Delivering Happiness, which made several best-seller lists that year. I read it and found it very useful.

Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh’s Legacy, From Tech Leaders Who Knew Him Well

In college, I was always impressed with his ability to do as little work as possible and still get the best grades. He did the least amount of preparation to get himself onto the computer Olympiad team.

And he asked me the question, “If you had to win, what would you bid?” I said, “highest bid plus 1 dollar?”

For example, one of our big cost centers was customer service. Conventional wisdom would be to try to reduce the cost. Instead, Tony wanted to spend more on it: he viewed customer service as a marketing investment that would grow the business.

Tony was hardly ever seen without a Zappos t-shirt. He could wear anything, but he wore Zappos shirts until they fell apart and had holes in them. Despite having one of the most popular shoe companies, Tony didn’t own many pairs of shoes. He kept his attire minimal and simple.

When anyone would ask him what he did or who he was, he would simply reply: “I work at Zappos.”

He showed me the concept of “engineered serendipity,” where putting together novel combinations of people would lead to unexpected results.

Tony Hsieh, RIP

VentureFrogs were investors in many startups. The three most famous ones: Ask Jeeves, OpenTable & Zappos.

Nick Swinmurn started Zappos in 1999, raised $500,000 in funding from Tony & Alfred. It was originally called Shoesite.com Tony later became CEO in 2000. Swinmurn left the company, in 2006. Amazon bought Zappos for $1.2 billion in 2009.

I later got to know Tony socially through non-tech friends. Quiet, kind, quirky, but always open to the impossible.

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

Tony and Zappos’ biggest achievement was that it showed long before everyone else: you can build an Internet company anywhere.

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