Hassett Goes to Las Vegas

A few people from our team went to Las Vegas last week for a retreat put on by our culture coach, Linda Small.

Not all of us are Vegas fans (for reals - it's something about the smoke in the casinos, and well, the casinos, actually, if you get right down to it) but it's always an experience, and I for one love the heat.

I realize that I am also the only one. My idea of a good time in Vegas is to get up way early, practice yoga in my totally-non-air-conditioned room (again, for reals, I turn the thing off); get down to the pool as soon as it opens at 7am; swim some laps while dodging industrious waders trying to enjoy the pool while it's only 90 degrees out; go do whatever it is I'm supposed to be doing in Las Vegas for work: touring Zappos, giving a talk on my new role as Director of Culture and Dream Advocate; meeting with our aforementioned culture coach, on, well, our culture; finishing all of that and then delightedly running up to my room to change into either A) running clothes (yes, for reals, running in the desert heat is on the top of my list of favorite pastimes) or B) my swimsuit to go lounge by the pool while it's still 107 out.

I know, my proclivities run towards the weird and verge on the downright unbearable for most people. I've never been one who keeps warm easily and I think I thinned my blood permanently on my 10-year stint in the tropics. And so, I enjoy the things the Vegas has to offer that most people spend their entire visit trying to avoid.

Perhaps the only thing I and my travelmates all equally enjoyed on this trip was the tour of Zappos. Zappos (the just-purchased-by-Amazon-and-started-by-culture-maven-Tony-Hseih-pronounced-shay-shoe-and-other-stuff-selling online company) has a great tagline: Delivering Happiness. If you haven't read Tony's book by the same name, and you're interested at all in business, culture, employees, customer service or national best sellers, I highly recommend it. The concept of delivering happiness has become its own company.

Tony believes by, "...concentrating on the happiness of those around you, you can dramatically increase your own." That idea and ideal is the foundation of how he created one of the most vibrant and emulated company cultures in business today.

Our company trip to Vegas was a part of our own mission to bring more personal and professional happiness into our teams. If our employees are truly happy to be at work, our customers can feel that and perhaps take some of that happiness back into their own lives, and bam! we've made the world a (just a little bit) better place.

-Jocelyn Lovelle