Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh is stepping down after 21 years
I want to also counter-balance the negativity towards Hsieh with my own experience. From 2015-2017, I worked at Edmunds.com which was (to put it lightly) a bit <i>obsessed</i> with &quot;Delivering Happiness&quot; and Zappos&#x27; culture. So much so, that the leadership team visited Vegas to get a tour of the Zappos HQ (this was before I joined). But Edmunds based their entire cultural approach, including hiring, interviewing, and onboarding on Zappos.<p>The Edmunds onboarding experience has been <i>by far</i> the best out of any company I worked at. Sure, it was silly games and scavenger hunts that didn&#x27;t really have anything to do with &quot;work,&quot; but I look back at the entire experience with a lot of nostalgia. I loved the onboarding so much, I&#x27;ve been contemplating doing a startup that literally just focuses on improving cultural onborading at companies. It made my first few months at Edmunds not only incredibly productive, but also intellectually and socially stimulating.<p>And they were doing something right. Over there, I had the honor of working with one of the best managers I ever had (he&#x27;s now at Amazon), and with one of the best software architects I&#x27;ve ever worked with (he&#x27;s now at Facebook). My team was made up of motivated, smart, folks from all walks of life (recent grads to data science PhD&#x27;s in their 50s). I still keep in touch with my old team even though we&#x27;re spread all over these days: doing our own startups, at Facebook, Uber, Amazon, and beyond.<p>I have the utmost respect for the cultural revolution that entrepreneurs like Tony Hsieh brought to the fore. People that call it a &quot;cult&quot; are missing the point. It&#x27;s no more a cult than cheering for your school mascot or being in a club. We seem to forget that people are inherently social and need a sense of belonging.