I am sitting in my office….the phone rings. This was back in the day not so long ago (pre robo calling), when I actually answered the phone. The call was from an unknown area code which served to provoke my curiosity.
I answered and a “collision emanating sparks” began.
“Are you Bruce Peters the host of wceohq-radio.org “First Fridays” program”
“Yes, I am. Who are you? Why do you ask? Why are you calling?
“I’m Trish the VP of Marketing for “Zappos Insights” I want to talk to you about your “First Friday’s” show.
“Why is that?”
We at Zappos have our own “First Fridays” program.”
Pause for a moment: I was familiar with Zappos in my role as an owner of a Renaissance Executive Forum franchise. In that role I had become acquainted with, studied and facilitated workshops based upon Tony Hsieh’s book “Delivering Happiness”. That said her answer raised from my background as an attorney an alarm. I responded.
“Oh, is there a problem with that?”
“No, not only is there not a problem we at Zappos would love to have you come to Las Vegas to our headquarters to do one of your “First Friday” shows”
My self talk went something like…. huh? Over the years my default whenever confounded is to ask a question. The response came out?
“When”?
Now granted this was a giant leap of faith fashioned within seconds of first voice. “She had me at “hello”. Pause for a moment with the story to recognize in retrospect almost all of my really good life choices appear to have been driven by some combination of serendipity, synchronicity, spontaneity, and random. I say appear, that is to others. To me, though, with the benefit of hindsight there is an underlying unifying theme. But, that’s another story.
Back to Trish.
“We’d like you to come to do your show here on the Friday when we are going to announce the move of Zappos HQ from Henderson to “Old Town” Las Vegas. The former City Hall is now ready for occupancy. We are going to launch the move with a First Friday’s Band Festival of all the bands and music created by Zappos employees”
The game is on.
That conversation led to the beginning of my learning about Zappos, Tony Hsieh and “Collisions and Sparks” and so much more.
Tony Hsieh, passed away this week there will be much written about him in the coming days. I’ll add my “to the count” (Rilke) but for now attached are some links to the First Friday Show visit and a couple of posts.
WCEOHQ-Radio.org Archives — Zappos
Assist and Collisions Part I: Golden State Warriors Go Teal
Assist and Collisions Part II: Tony Hsieh’s Teal Colored Glasses
Stay tuned.
