Delivering Happiness

part of a meaningless plaque on the wall of the corporate lobby.

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We wanted to make sure that didn’t happen with our core values. We
wanted a list of committable core values that we were willing to hire and
fire on. If we weren’t willing to do that, then they weren’t really “values.”
We eventually came up with our final list of ten core values, which we
still use today:
1. Deliver WOW Through Service
2. Embrace and Drive Change
3. Create Fun and a Little Weirdness
4. Be Adventurous, Creative, and Open-Minded
5. Pursue Growth and Learning
6. Build Open and Honest Relationships with Communication
7. Build a Positive Team and Family Spirit
8. Do More with Less
9. Be Passionate and Determined
10. Be Humble
Integrity was a value that had been suggested by some employees, but I
made a conscious choice to leave it out. I felt that integrity would come
from us actually committing to and living up to our core values in
everything we did, not just referring to them when it was convenient.
Over time, our recruiting department developed interview questions for
each and every one of the core values, and we tested our commitment
during the hiring process.
Be Humble is probably the core value that ends up affecting our hiring
decisions the most. There are a lot of experienced, smart, and talented
people we interview that we know can make an immediate impact on our
top or bottom line. But a lot of them are also really egotistical, so we end up
not hiring them. At most companies, the hiring manager would probably
argue that we should hire such a candidate because he or she will add a lot
of value to the company, which is probably why most large corporations
don’t have great cultures.
Our philosophy at Zappos is that we’re willing to make short-term
sacrifices (including lost revenue or profits) if we believe that the long-term

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benefits are worth it. Protecting the company culture and sticking to core
values is a long-term benefit.
Once we had our final list of our ten core values, I sent an e-mail to the
entire company describing each of them in more detail. We still refer to the
original e-mail today. In fact, when new employees join the company, they
are required to sign a document stating that they have read the core values
document and understand that living up to the core values is part of their
job expectation.