Last week I encouraged business owners to concentrate on your passion rather than on making money. In The Monk and the Riddle, Randy Komisar points out the challenges that await you if you don’t consciously build your life around doing work that you’re passionate about:
“Personal risks include the risk of working with people you don’t respect; the risk of working for a company whose values are inconsistent with your own; the risk of compromising what’s important; the risk of doing something you don’t care about; and the risk of doing something that fails to express—or even contradicts—who you are. And then there is the most dangerous risk of all—the risk of spending your life not doing what you want on the bet you can buy yourself the freedom to do it later.”
Komisar’s book is geared towards entrepreneurs. What if you’re not entrepreneurially inclined though—what control do you have over creating a career that makes you happy and fulfilled?
If You Go to Work for Someone Else, You Damned Well Better Pick the Right Workplace!
If you’re gonna spend your career working for someone else, do it where the corporate culture is awesome. I’ve been wanting to talk about Tony Hsieh and his company Zappos for this very reason.
A while back I read an article by Inc. Magazine writer Max Chafkin called “Get Happy: How Tony Hsieh uses relentless innovation, stellar service, and a staff of believers to make Zappos.com an e-commerce juggernaut—and one of the most blissed-out businesses in America.”
Hsieh helped found the online shoe retailer in 1999, and it has since grown to over a billion dollars in gross annual sales. They’re so successful in fact, Amazon has just negotiated to acquire them (thankfully Hsieh will continue to run things his way and infuse the company with his awesome management style).
Zappos has been notable in the past few years for their innovative service (absolutely free shipping and returns) and successful use of new media to connect with customers. After sharing a note about how impressed I was with the Inc. article on my Twitter account, I immediately received a personal note from someone on their Zappos_service account with a cheerful offer to set up a tour of the Zappos facilities next time I stop in Las Vegas! (They’ll pick you up at your hotel for a fun, free tour of the company headquarters.)
In my opinion, even more important than their stellar customer service, Tony Hsieh has decided that his business revolves around happiness, which he studies with the dedication of a laboratory researcher. “What would make you happier in your life?” Hsieh asks the writer. He is fond of asking employees, customers, and everyone he meets, “On a scale from 1 to 10, how happy are you right now?”
And it shows in the company’s whacky, uninhibited corporate culture. You can follow Tony’s musings on Twitter, job interviews and company meetings often take place over drinks in nearby Vegas bars and hotspots, and every employee is encouraged to be themselves! (What an idea!) It looks like most employees wear their dyed hair, tattoos, piercings, and other unique styles with pride. They have no call scripts and are given the freedom to troubleshoot customer complaints on a case-by-case basis. One of the 10 crowd-sourced core values of the company is to “Create fun and a little weirdness”!
Salaries are modest (starting pay between about $8 to $12), but the real attraction to working for Zappos is the work environment. To weed out the folks who aren’t committed to a fun, weird work culture, each and every new employee is offered $2,000 plus time worked to walk away after their first month of training. For those who stick around, Zappos invests serious bank in their personal development—with classes, business books, public speaking and personal finance courses for example.
All of this is to say: if you are less inclined to work for yourself and more inclined to go to a job like a majority of folks are, ask yourself what’s important to you at work. You’ll spend the majority of your hours at your desk, in your cubicle, or wherever that puts you, so I suggest you find an innovative company that values it’s employees’ happiness and encourages a fun, meaningful, unique workplace culture.
To learn more about Tony Hsieh and how he got his start, also check out this recent interview Jun Loayza did! Tony’s advice to anyone planning their career right now:
“I would say rather than focus on what will make you the most money or be best for your career, figure out what you would be passionate for 10 years and go pursue that. A lot of people work hard at building a career so that one day down the road they think it will bring them happiness. And most of the time, when they finally accomplish their goal, they realize that it doesn’t really end up bringing happiness or fulfillment for the long term.”
Rather than preparing for the template career like everyone else, and saving for years to one day do what you’re really passionate about, just get started doing what you’re really passionate about now!
Feature photo credit: Randy Stewart
Ah! Great advice! Zappos is an extraordinary company, and I think I might have to take a tour next time I’m in Vegas, too!
While I have heard of Zappos, I had no idea they promote such an awesome corporate culture. Great thoughts, and you have definitely got me interested in learning more about Tony’s commitment to happiness in the workplace!
I read this issue of Inc (or maybe a different article on Zappos in Entrepreneur, I don’t remember). I really respect Zappos for the passion they seem to infuse in their business.
For me, working for someone else wasn’t an option (at least working for someone else as an employee). I’m sure there are companies I would LOVE to work for (Pixar, Threadless, 37signals), but the chances of that are slim and being an employee doesn’t allow for the location independent lifestyle I ultimately want.
Living where I do, there aren’t any awesome places to work with a cool corporate culture. Just mind-numbing, soul-sucking work that contradicted who I am.
But this post nails it. If you’re going to work for someone, if that’s your thing, the same rules still apply. You have to do what you love and you have to do something you actually feel is important to get any satisfaction out of a job.
Thanks for:
a) introducing me to Zappos, to whose existence I was previously oblivious
b) giving me the hope that consciousness is continuing to expand in our world – even to the corporate world.
Live Life Happy!
Zappos are really a remarkable company for having such clear values and being so committed to building a tribe of employees who are fully aligned with their values… I love that idea to offer to pay people to leave after the first month’s training! It’s a really counter-intuitive way to find the truly committed tribe members.
Thanks for sharing this, Cody
Cath
I have had a similar experience tweeting about Zappos. I quickly received a thank you tweet. Awesomely responsive company! It is no wonder they were bought out by Amazon for $800 million.
Many people are interested in quitting their jobs, but I also think it is important to remember that there are a lot of cool companies to work for, big and small.
I have been a small business owner for most of my adult life and I love the freedom and control. However, it is also great to work closely with a team of talented and motivated people. I have only experienced that a few times in my life and always for a short time. Those were the best work experiences of my life. I would gladly take a job if I had the opportunity to work with some cool people on cool projects.
At the moment I can’t ever imagine working for someone else (after a particularly unpleasant experience) but good thoughts nonetheless.
Let us know if you go on the tour!
I seem to have found the perfect middle spot. My job is part time with a full time wage (don’t ask how I managed that). I get to be creative and they love input. And then after the day job is done I still get to go home and be creative with writing and creating sites. Eventually I will move into full-time location independent living but for now, while I still have kids at home, it works perfect for me.