Zappos Podcast

Today we’ll hear a story about how an idea from Tyler Williams, head of Brand Aura at Zappos, brought about a number of surprising, unintended consequences. Tyler, in an attempt to live up to two of Zappos’ core values; “Do something more with less” and “Create a little fun and weirdness”, decided to install a piece of art in the campus plaza. The butterfly, which was 18 feet tall and had a wingspan of 68 feet, was hung in the plaza but didn’t last a full two weeks before it met its demise. Together we explore the positive and negative thoughts and emotions tied to this decision as well as how the company used this as a great learning tool.

In this episode we sit down with Tony Hsieh, Zappos CEO, to continue the exploration of the nature of ideas. We look at ideas as “things” and ask the questions; where do ideas come from, how can you sort out the good ideas from the not-so-good ideas, and what’ the best way to bring an idea to life if you feel that you have a good idea?

How do you bring good ideas to life? In this episode, we explore 3 stories of people struck by inspiration who each had to figure out how to create something that did not yet exist. There’s no recipe or formula and no right or wrong answer but it’s a question that many people have asked and that we wanted to explore.