The 5 Best Tony Hsieh Quotes on Company Culture

Tony Hsieh sold his first company, LinkExchange, to Microsoft for $265 million in 1999. He’s said he sold it because of the declining office culture that accompanied its growth. So when he started over again, he made sure not to commit the same mistakes. Hsieh, now CEO of Zappos, believes that interactions–both between employees and with customers–are the key to a business’s identity. Here are his top five quotes about developing a healthy, consistent company culture. 

1. Surround yourself with the right people

“At Zappos, we really view culture as our No. 1 priority. We decided that if we get the culture right, most of the stuff, like building a brand around delivering the very best customer service, will just take care of itself.”–January 9th, 2010, The New York Times

2. Leadership is not dictatorship

“Personally I cringe at the word ‘leader.’ It’s more about getting people do what they’re passionate about and putting them in the right context or setting. They’re the ones doing the hard work.”–September 26, 2012, Business Insider

3. Your job should make you want to get out of bed

“I made a list of the happiest periods in my life, and I realized that none of them involved money. I realized that building stuff and being creative and inventive made me happy. Connecting with a friend and talking through the entire night until the sun rose made me happy. Trick-or-treating in middle school with a group of my closest friends made me happy. Pickles made me happy.”–from his book, Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion and Profits

4.  Weed out the bad fits right away

“We’re willing to give up short-term profits or revenue growth to make sure we have the best culture. In fact, after orientation we offer people $2,000 not to work at Zappos. The ones who stay are right for our culture.”–January 7th, 2010, Forbes 

5. Practice what you preach

“We believe that it’s really important to come up with core values that you can commit to. And by commit, we mean that you’re willing to hire and fire based on them. If you’re willing to do that, then you’re well on your way to building a company culture that is in line with the brand you want to build.”–November 15, 2010, The Huffington Post