How I can relate to Tony Hsieh

I read the soon-to-be-launched Zappos book, Delivering Happiness, a couple weeks ago (I got the advanced copy for requesting it through their contest to get bloggers to talk about their book – it’s a great marketing idea). I smiled at myself a lot through this book, because I found myself relating to the author, CEO Tony Hsieh, on a few levels.

We started out very similar as young kids, albeit my parents were much less structured. We both played multiple musical instruments, we were both told to practice. I think I recall my parents saying an hour a day; Tony had an hour per day per instrument. Of course, I love how he just decided to record himself practicing and played that each day. Nice one.

We were both also in search for the next big project. I was very often finding my mom and telling her… I’m bored. Her typical advice was that I could do whatever chore was needed at the time, usually dusting/cleaning the house. Anyone who knows me well today will laugh at how that has lacked in my adult life. Any day of the week you will be sure to find ample amounts of dog hair, superhero toys, books, hot wheels and milk spills all throughout my lovely house. Tony never really said he was bored because he just did. He found all sorts of ways to entertain his money-making, thrill-seeking self. I love how he grabbed Boys’ Life each month like it held all the answers (of course today my oldest, four-year-old Kiehl, grabs My Big Backyard each issue and tears through it cover-to-cover) because at the back of this magazine were the classified ads where he would run an ad for his latest business venture.

I can also relate to Tony in his first job experience, but you can add about four first job experiences for me. My first job experience was much like his at Oracle; I went through the training for about three or four weeks, got to the real job and thought, this cannot be it. Once I realized that WAS it, I left. I didn’t know what I was going to do, where to work or how to make money just yet; I just knew that wasn’t the job for me. I worked at a local PR agency for one day. Yes, one day. For good or bad, I’ve always gone with my gut on where I’m a fit and where I’m not. Again, Tony took more initiative than me and started his own path. I continued with multiple, consistently bad jobs before I landed at a few places I liked, then ultimately started Silver Square.

Lastly, I can relate to Tony and his desire to build something greater than himself, something where people come to work and genuinely love what they do (I have a thing about being happy on Mondays) and creating an envionment that has a very fuzzy line between hobby, work, fun, play and growth. His writing about creating a culture book inspired me to have our first culture book at Silver Square. You’ll have to stay tuned for that.

What was your first job? What did you learn from it?