RIP Tony. Woke up today to terrible news. If you’ve not heard, Tony Hsieh has passed. Tony was humble, extremely down to earth, and a brilliant person of incredible character. His love for the city of Las Vegas and bettering the lives of her citizens is in the finest traditions of great Americans like Vanderbilt, Mellon, and so many others who helped further build the opportunities of the nation that helped them birth their enterprise. If you’ve not yet read “Delivering Happiness”, I highly recommend. Tony hired great teams who genuinely love what they do and are there because theirs is their dream job. He encouraged them to self-organize to grow the business and themselves—going so far as implementing Holocracy, an experiment in going teal. Tony quietly helped others. Including myself, when my startup was getting off the ground—Tony was there to help and guide. So, please, share an extra smile today—make your team happy. Those were the lessons Tony brought to business. He will be greatly missed. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8995723/Tony-Hsieh-retired-Zappos-CEO-dies-46.html
I was shocked to see that as well. Seemed like a nice guy who was not in it for the money. Zappos seems to do a lot of good with their money. May he Rest in Peace.
Zappos was one of the early trailblazers for massive culture changes. I read the book. He was an interesting guy for sure.
Yeah. I dont know if some of that philosophy will work long term, or everywhere. But Tony did practice what he preached. Didnt he live in one of those tiny house...basically a trailer park....in Vegas? Not a typical big baller CEO for sure.
I read "Delivering Happiness" around 2010 when it came out. He was promoting the book in a magazine I read and his ideas seemed rather refreshing. I'm a complete moron who somehow has a moderately successful business, mostly from plagiarizing shit that smart people say, so I'm sure I stole some ideas from it.
