The Power of WOW. The Employees of Zappos.com

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ where he was from, even while he was undergoing treatment. He would’ve loved to have seen McKendree’s face when those flowers came to the door. He must be grinning ear to ear up in heaven right now. I just can’t tell you what you’ve done for us today.”

      “Well, it’s my pleasure,” I said. “Look, I know you must be busy getting ready for tomorrow, so I don’t want to keep you—”

      “No, no, I’m a Southerner, and a mother. If there’s one thing I don’t mind doin’ it’s talkin’.”

      If there’s one thing I’ve learned in this job it’s that people, not just from the South, but people everywhere, like to talk. And they especially like to be listened to—even when the person doing the listening is a stranger on the phone who happens to work for an online retailer.

       If there’s one thing I’ve learned in this job it’s that people everywhere like to talk. And they especially like to be listened to—even when the person doing the listening is a stranger on the phone.

      “Well, okay, then. I do have a question for you, if you don’t mind. I’m just so curious: Why the red shoes?”

      Susan’s voice soared as she told me the love story of McKendree and Luis, two teenagers who met at St. Jude Children’s Hospital in Memphis in the fall of 2011 while undergoing treatment for cancer. It was like their own private version of The Fault in Our Stars, the way this joyful young man brought a smile to McKendree’s face during the most trying time in her life, and the way Luis lit up at the joy and music McKendree brought to him. Together, they played guitar and sang to other kids on the second floor of the cancer ward at that hospital. They became best friends, and a fixture of happiness for other kids who were fighting for their lives, along with their families. Not to mention an inspiration to the doctors and nurses who worked so hard to save children every day.

      Luis had already been fighting cancer for some time before McKendree came into his life. At one point, doctors were sure they were going to have to amputate his leg to stop the cancer. Luis was crushed. To lift his spirits, his parents scrimped and saved and managed to buy Luis a pair of red shoes that he coveted: a pair of red Lacoste sneakers that he’d spied in a shop window shortly after coming to America for his treatment. He wore them right up until the very last second before his scheduled surgery—and when he woke up in his hospital room after the surgery was completed, he looked down and saw both of his legs. The doctors didn’t have to amputate after all.

      From that day forward, Luis loved to wear those red shoes. In fact, his wish was to go hang-gliding in his favorite red Lacoste sneakers—a wish he accomplished while wearing the biggest smile anyone had ever seen.

      The thing about cancer is it doesn’t always show itself. Sometimes, what you see on the outside, the smile on someone’s face, doesn’t reveal what’s happening under the skin. In early February 2015, Luis’s health took a drastic turn for the worse. And with almost no warning at all, on Valentine’s Day, of all days, he died.

      McKendree was devastated. Everyone was devastated.

      Susan cried when she told me. I cried, too.

      That was when she told me it was McKendree’s personal wish that she and all of their mutual friends who went through treatment together at St. Jude should wear red shoes to Luis’s funeral. That was why Susan called Zappos and placed her multiple-redshoe order. And now, here we were, on the phone with each other, in tears.

      If that call had ended right there and I never spoke to Susan ever again, it would have gone down as one of the most memorable and touching interactions I’d ever had with a stranger in my whole life.

      But it didn’t end there. Not even close.

      When good things happen here at Zappos, we share our stories with our coworkers. And no sooner did I share the story of Susan, McKendree, and Luis with a few other members of my Zappos family that the ideas started flying.

      “Let’s do something really special for McKendree. She must be so heartbroken.”

      “Maybe we could bring her and her family out here to Vegas.”

      “Yeah! A vacation.”

      “Maybe she could bring a few friends. Like, those friends from St. Jude who knew Luis. The ones who all wore the red shoes.”

      “Yes! And what if we threw them a party? A celebration of life. A celebration of Luis!”

      Suddenly multiple departments within our company were collaborating on putting together a trip of a lifetime for McKendree and her friends and family. When all of the pieces were in place, we sent them a video saying, “Guess what? You’re coming to Vegas!”

      McKendree and her mom couldn’t understand why we were being so nice and doing so much for them.

      Our answer was—and always is—“Why not?” McKendree’s story touched us, and we wanted to honor that. To honor her. To honor Luis. To honor Susan for everything she’d done to support her daughter. They all deserved some fun, didn’t they? Plus, McKendree was graduating high school and still fighting her own battle with cancer. We thought she deserved a breather.

      Why not?

      “They made us feel like the most special people in the whole world,” McKendree recalls of her trip to Vegas. (McKendree is in college now. She managed to get herself a full scholarship while undergoing treatment for cancer, so she’s pretty inspiring all by herself!) “I’d never been to Vegas or anything close, and everything was thought out for us, every detail. We had so much fun. I don’t think I’d smiled and laughed that much for as long as I can remember.”

      I’ll never forget the moment McKendree and Susan came walking into the office and we met face-to-face for the very first time. I had watched a video of them that St. Jude had posted, so I already knew what they looked like. But what I wasn’t prepared for was the flood of emotion. As I put my arms around these two people whom I had come to know on the phone, I started crying. It was such a moment for all three of us. A moment of pure joy. They started crying, too! I still tear up thinking about it.

      My colleagues went all out for the party that night. We picked up McKendree and her friends in a limo, and we laid out a red carpet, and a large number of people from our staff stayed late just to set it all up and experience this celebration with them—including our CEO, Tony Hsieh. He found the whole thing so moving that he wound up sticking around all night. He was one of the last people to leave.

      “The whole night was magic,” McKendree says. “The people at Zappos put so much preparation into it, and they projected all of my favorite pictures of Luis and me together on one of the walls. They had a mariachi band, and some the staff did choreographed dances, and this amazing local singer played a bunch of music that was so special to Luis and me, including our favorite song, “Live Forever,” by Drew Holcomb. A man named Miguel, who’s one of the artists at Zappos, gave me two red shoes that he’d painted—one with Luis’s face on it and the other with my face. I keep them in a shadow box in my room.

      “It was just beyond anything I’d ever imagined happening to me in my whole life,” McKendree continues. “When I look back on it I’m like, ‘Did that really happen?’ I’ve never had anyone make me feel that special besides Luis. I hadn’t felt like that in a really long time. They somehow made me feel the way he would make me feel.”

      It was emotional for me, too—for all of us who were there. I don’t СКАЧАТЬ