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.”