Hello ,

There are very few times in life when you come across something or someone who mirrors your kinda ideal. He or she is everything you want to be...and it feels like getting personalized advice for all your problems.

That's exactly what I felt while reading Delivering Happiness, a book written by Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos. 

Zappos, for those who haven't heard of it, is a US online shoe company famous for its unparalleled customer service.

Something that we at Dohful want to get better and better at, with every passing day.

But first, let me tell you something about Tony himself. As I wrote in my email a few days ago, I am absolutely in awe of this man. And no, it's not because he went to Harvard, not because he started his first business at the age of 9, and neither because he sold 2 million and billion $ companies.

Nope.

I am in awe of this man because of the way he thought. He went to Rave parties and borrowed lessons of culture from there. He played Poker, learning business strategies from it and he let go of millions of dollars if he didn't see any personal, intellectual growth in that transaction.

He has a knack for building things and looking at everything from the eyes of learning something and that's what I want to take from this book.

The book describes in detail his childhood, the start and success of his first venture, and the grand failure of his second, all while he was in high school. 

It reminisces about his Harvard days, how he aced one of the subjects while making a lot of money on the side, how he started a pizza joint there and ultimately walked away with one of the best jobs that year.

But the book really gets started for me from the point he gets involved in Zappos, to be exact when he takes its reins from the founder to make it the giant Zappos eventually became. 

He put his everything in this company, almost went bankrupt doing so, and emerged victorious, all because of the way he thought.

If you think, I'm having a fan-girl moment, well, maybe I am!

But I remember when Chaman & I wrote down our own value system for Dohful. We did it for everyone to read and get to know Dohful a bit better. 

But most importantly we also did it so that we can come back to it whenever we found ourselves at the crossroads of any decision. Whether it's as small as how this email should be replied to or as big as how we want to grow further.

In this respect especially, I found Delivering Happiness to be a perfect reference point. 

Tony describes in detail how they made a list of 37 values that should be a part of each and every person in Zappos and they consolidated them into a strong 10 key values.

This actually made me think of many more angles that I had maybe not considered before. Like one of the values is actually Do More with Less. Many times we think we have to do more to achieve more, but I am learning to achieve more results by doing the same amount if not, less work.

For instance, I have a bad habit of calling people for every small confusion. If the message is missing in any of your orders, or if the Pincode doesn't seem to be correct, I straight away dial to the person, to get it sorted. 

In my mind, I'm trying to get it resolved immediately, but I'm now learning to email/WhatsApp (though I think we should shift to Telegram now 🤣) people rather than calling for every small thing, thus saving their time and mine. And I have come to realize that 90% of the time, that phone call wasn't even necessary!

Another great lesson for me was to Be Weird and Create Fun. Though I think I'm fun, many have told me I have a bad work face. I get all tensed up when things don't happen the way I intended them to be, and it just goes from bad to worse after that. 

Reading this book, I have learned that creating a fun environment and building relationships is way more important than getting things done today.

Last but I think the most important one is Build a Family, not a Business. 

Tony believed that everyone attached to a company is actually a family. Whether its the customers, or the people behind the brand, or the people delivering you the cookies, we're all a big family.

And of course, like every family, there are going to be issues and creases here as well. But the key is to resolve them with all the care and love in the world. 

And I'm gonna remember this for the rest of my life. 

Though we have always talked about maintaining professionalism in our communication with you guys, I think this care and love angle takes our relationship to another level. So I think that's what I'm gonna do from now on. 

Every time we from Dohful communicate with you, we will remember to be compassionate, loving, and caring for all you guys and for everyone who enables these cookies to be delivered to you safe and sound. 

We'll make sure to put you and everyone in this family above everything else and do our best to ensure your satisfaction is guaranteed.

If there is anything more you guys think we should do in our own pursuit of Delivering Happiness to you guys, you have to let me know so that I make sure we do it. Because nothing is more important to me than your trust in us.

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Thank you so much for reading.

Last thing before I go, have you seen this coupon code?

And yes, Happy Lohri , I actually had a pretty great story about Lohri and my Grandfather, but I got too sentimental just writing it...so maybe some other time?