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CNBC: You stumbled upon the idea of Zappos, almost ignored it. How does someone find the big idea? How do they know when they’ve found it and how do they find it?
TONY HSIEH: I don’t think necessarily that ideas are as important as just making sure that you execute and follow through and constantly work on improving and listening to your customers. For Zappos, the original idea was actually to do a hundred percent drop ship, and not at all about customer service, but we listened to our customers and were constantly tweaking how we were running the business, so the Zappos today is very different from what Zappos was from day one. I think as long as you’re always looking to improve your business and you’re always listening to your customers, the idea might not be so important as, as more just making sure that you’re always doing those things.
CNBC: Do you think almost any business would have the potential for your kind of growth if they were really listening?
TONY HSIEH: I think that almost any business can start out very small, and as long as you’re listening to your customers and willing to change your business to adapt to what makes the most sense for the business, then any business can grow into a bigger business. It’s not like one day you have to figure out how to go from where you are to ten times your size overnight, but as long as you’re constantly looking for ways to grow and listening to your customers, then one day it will be ten times the size if you keep growing.
CNBC: What advice would you give to other companies who admire your customer service?TONY HSIEH: I think the advice I would give to other companies looking to improve their customer service is really to believe in it because, and not just have your call center believe in it, but it really needs to permeate throughout the entire company. If the entire company believes in customer service, then the only, the only thing that is gonna happen is you’re going to improve your customer service and eventually provide great service.
CNBC: Do you think America is particularly receptive to entrepreneurs?
TONY HSIEH: Definitely, I think that’s part of what’s caused America to thrive as much as it has is. It's looked on as a badge of honor to have been an entrepreneur or to be an entrepreneur, and, at least in Silicon Valley, failing is not a bad thing. It’s kind of a right of passage. In some some countries, if you start a business that might not be looked favorably upon, and if you fail, then you’re kind of blackballed for life as a failure. Whereas in America, if you start a business and fail, that is okay. And if you start a second business and are successful, then a lot of that is because of what you learned from the first failure. And I think that America recognizes that.
CNBC: What do you think it is about America that makes it possible for people to start a huge business from nothing?
TONY HSIEH: I think in America there’s a sense of optimism and that anything is possible, and in a lot of other countries, that may not be the case, maybe it's because culturally that’s just how they think about things. Maybe in other countries, you’re supposed to work for a big corporation and that’s viewed as success, slowly working your way up the corporate ladder. In America, you can start a company, and if it’s successful then that’s, in a lot of ways, what’s known as the American dream.
CNBC: Do you think you’re an example of the American dream?
TONY HSIEH: I guess so. I hadn’t really thought about it, but for me it’s more just been about my dream. I’ve always enjoyed starting businesses or pursuing new ideas and watching those ideas grow.
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