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If you've ever heard of Zappos, you know they're one of the larger online stores, and all they sell is shoes. All kinds of shoes. But the reason they became so successful isn't because of their wide selection, or fast shipping. Though those things were necessary to build their business, what it really comes down to is the way they treat their customers. They focus on the customers before the product, and it shows, and they build loyalty.

Business wouldn't exist without the customers, and all it takes to win them over is thoughtfulness. Get that through your head and your customers will be your best advocates. They'll tell everyone about their good experience, and your business will grow. Here's a story about a woman who's now a Zappo's customer for life because they put customer satisfaction before policy. Give it a read, and think about the last time you were touched by a good buying experience.

Today is Blog Action Day. It's kind of a blogger's Earth Day. Thousands of blogs are united today in creating awareness about the environment, and helping to create a greener tomorrow. Over 12 million people will be reached with the cumulative readership of all these blogs. Here's how I'm doing my part and I hope you'll join me.

First a little background. I have to get up at 7AM every day to go to work. That may not seem that early to a lot of folks, but I'm a night owl. The only thing that gets me through the day is my morning coffee. But today I'm taking one for the team, as it were. My daily coffee fund is going to a more important cause today. I'm taking my $3, and giving it to the National Wildlife Federation (NWF). A little about NWF:

What do wolves, salmon, panthers, bison, whooping cranes, waterfowl, polar bears and other creatures big and small have in common? They have the National Wildlife Federation as their champion.
"We helped return wolves to Yellowstone National Park. We are guiding efforts to protect the places endangered whooping cranes, grizzly bears and Florida panthers call home. We defend America's safeguards and safe-havens for wildlife. We build consensus-based solutions for wildlife where we can. We take the case for wildlife to courts when we must. We represent wildlife everywhere, from Congress and the White House to the fields and streams of America's wilderness and beyond. We confront the threats of global warming and seek solutions to reduce the impact on people and wildlife."
Among large environmental organizations, NWF does the best job of responsibly spending its supporters' money, according to SmartMoney magazine. NWF was honored for spending nearly 90 cents of every dollar it receives directly on educating, inspiring and assisting people to conserve and restore wildlife and wild places.

I know $3 isn't much, but if even 1% of people who read one of the blogs participating in Blog Action Day decide to give $3, that's $5 million.

Have you had your coffee yet today? Consider being slightly drowsier today for a good cause.

Here are a few more charities that might speak to you:

• Greenpeace
• The Nature Conservancy
• The Sierra Club
• The Conservation Fund

Zenhabits just posted a great list of 30 frugal gift ideas to show you appreciate someone. It's easy to take the people you care about for granted. You see them every day. You know their habits, their quirks, their idiosyncrasies. It's amazing how much a small gift or complement can do to brighten someone's day. Here's a sampling:

• Frame a picture of you with them.
• An "I appreciate you because" jar. Fill a nice jar with slips of different colored paper, each with a reason you appreciate (or love) someone.
• Create your own art (and put it on nice stationery or in a frame). By "art", I mean a sketch, painting, poem, short story, whatever.
• A nice journal can be beautiful. It's one of my favorite gifts.

To inspire you even further. I wanted to give you blog readers a special preview of our new movie, The Simple Truths of Appreciation. We're not officially announcing until Tuesday, but you can see it here.

More than 50 years ago, Earl Nightingale gave away the secret. It all boils down to "you become what you think about." It seems simple, but applied correctly it can have a profound effect on your life.

The origins of this brief but powerful message can be traced back to a night in 1956. Then the owner of an insurance agency, Earl Nightingale was in the habit of giving his sales staff a weekly "pep talk" over the office's intercom system. The staff came to count on these talks, so when they learned that Nightingale would be leaving on a week's vacation, and would therefore be unable to deliver his talk, they became upset. Earl's solution was to record his message on audio tape, so that it could be played in his absence.

The inspiration for the message itself pulled Nightingale out of a deep sleep in the early hours of the morning. He immediately woke up, went to his desk, and typed it out, then recorded it that very day. When it was played for his staff, they were astounded by what they heard. Word of the remarkable message quickly spread, and soon the office was flooded with requests for a copy. It seemed that everyone who heard it was amazed by its simplicity and power, and wanted to pass it along to someone else.

The secret in question is the fact that "You become what you think about." This phrase means that an individual's daily thoughts have a strong impact on their actions, which has a strong impact on their lives. This belief that a person's persistent thoughts have a strong impact has since been taken up by any number of personal development experts including Brian Tracy, Anthony Robbins and others.

Originally The Strangest Secret was intended to be a recording of inspirational messages delivered to the sales staff of a Chicago insurance company owned by Mr. Nightingale. Over the years it has become a motivational classic, and is the only recorded message ever to get a gold record. It has been distributed in many different forms over that time.

For the first time ever, Simple Truths has released an excerpt of The Strangest Secret as a short film. You can take a look at The Strangest Secret Movie and hopefully get inspired to "think" yourself into a better life.

Today is Columbus Day. We all know the story. Columbus was trying to find an alternate route to India. Instead he got credit for one of the biggest discoveries ever (even if he wasn't the first one to find it).

Going off into the unknown and getting lost takes you out of the box. The best way to come up with new ideas, and get out of a rut is to take yourself out of your normal context. Get up and walk around. Experience something new. You won't put things in perspective until you can view what's happening from a third-party's point of view.

Forget what's easy, what's routine, what's comfortable. The road to change, the road to success even, doesn't always go in one direction. It's twisty, and steep, and you may fall down along the way, but it's better to have a hard time on the road to success, than to have an easy journey down to road to mediocrity.

Take a risk today, and get lost. You never know if you might find what you were looking for all along.