Tony Hsieh’s American Tragedy: The Self-Destructive Last Months Of The Zappos Visionary
Notes from Tony Hsieh’s American Tragedy: The Self-Destructive Last Months Of The Zappos Visionary by
Tony Hsieh’s death hit me hard, which is odd because I never met him. I was early in my startup journey when Zappos was making a broader name for itself. His team even sent me an advance copy of Delivering Happiness.
I’ve always felt such a kinship with the guy, but it’s obvious that he was dealing with so much more than most people knew.
“…the outpouring of grief has rivaled any for a business leader since the passing of Steve Jobs a decade ago.”
When I read this, I agreed as quickly as I questioned the statement. It’s true. Tony and Zappos completely changed the view of customer experience and what customer service — the customer experience itself, and the department — could look like. Through its success, Zappos “gave permission” to other companies to adopt and pursue its zany and painfully obvious approach to service.
As a leader, you could point to Zappos and say, “They did it. They’re massively successful. Their customers, and just as importantly their employees, are incredibly happy.”
“Hsieh arguably had a bigger effect on online retail than anyone short of Bezos himself. “
“Hsieh picked up a combination of problem-solving (his father was a chemical engineer) and empathy (his mother was a social worker) that would become his hallmark.”
“You never saw challenges, you only saw opportunities.”
“‘Chase the vision,”’ Hsieh told Forbes in 2008. ‘The money and profits will come.’”
“He was never interested in shoes,” Mossler says. “Tony’s journey was to improve the human condition.”
“…while Hsieh remained an extremely rich Peter Pan. ‘He told me that his friends kept getting younger and younger,’ Swinmurn wrote in a Medium memorial post. ‘He seemed excited about this.’
“And in recent days, his family discovered that despite nearly more than half a billion in estimated assets, he hadn’t left behind a will.”