RIP Tony Hsieh, Visionary

Talk about your new shoes, new car, or UFO's!
billryan
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RIP Tony Hsieh, Visionary

Post by billryan »

Tony Hsieh, who turned Zappos into a billion-dollar company and who single-handily transformed much of Downtown Las Vegas has passed away at 46, from injuries he received in a house fire.
Mr. Hsieh loved Las vegas, and in 2013 he moved Zappos HQ there and pledged to put $350 million dollars into improving the downtown area. Fremont St. East was his personal vision.
Mr. Hsieh philosophy could be summed up in four words. Assume nothing, question everything.
Rest in Peace. Las Vegas, America and the world has lost a true man of vision.

Jstark
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Post by Jstark »

Never heard of him until this news. Without looking, still have no idea what Zappos is or does.

billryan
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Post by billryan »

While attending Harvard, Mr. Hsieh also worked at a local pizza parlor, causing many fellow students to shake their heads in amazement when the pizza guy would be in their classes.
Six months after graduating from Harvard, he started a company with less than $10,000 that he sold 23 months later for $265 million.
He then started a venture capital business that invested in struggling companies. When the owners of a struggling online shoe company approached him he initially turned them down, but when research showed the shoe business was north of forty billion a year, he bought the company. His first-year sales were just over a million dollars but in a short time exceeded 100 million. Even after selling the company to Amazon for two billion, he stayed on as CEO and re-invented Fremont St. East.
Mr. Hsieh loved live poker and moved his company to Henderson, before re-locating it to Downtown Las Vegas. He took over the defunct Western Casino as a temporary HQ while building a new complex.
Zappos does not have a customer service department, everyone's job is customer service. He was a big believer in happiness, even proclaiming that Zappos was in the business of delivering happiness, not shoes. Zappos is routinely mentioned as one of the best workplaces in the country. In a move many people don't understand, he offers employees two thousand dollars to quit.
His autobiography, Delivering Happiness was a best seller and is a must-read for business students.
Buying up abandoned properties downtown, he made them into artist colonies where artists and writers could live rent-free and receive stipends so they can concentrate on their work. Unhappy with a dive bar being the closest watering hole to his campus he offered to buy the place. When he was turned down, he offered to buy into the place,taking a small piece in return for investing $200,000 in improvements.
I can only hope the work he started in the Downtown area continues.
Last edited by billryan on Sat Nov 28, 2020 2:32 pm, edited 1 time in total.

FAA
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Post by FAA »

Come on, JS! BR, so many puns and jokes one could make. But it’s too soon. Body not even cold. He had a fantastic life. I’ll just leave it there.

Jstark
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Post by Jstark »

FAA wrote:
Sat Nov 28, 2020 2:30 pm
Come on, JS! BR, so many puns and jokes one could make. But it’s too soon. Body not even cold. He had a fantastic life. I’ll just leave it there.
After reading Bill's post above yours, I forgot they were a shoe business. I shop at the Nike Store for shoes.

FAA
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Post by FAA »

I’ve never used them, either. What’s the point?
BR, Tony had major psychological problems, as are now being revealed. I’m sure the gf appreciates the nice crib he bought her! He delivered himself the ultimate unhappiness!

olds442jetaway
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Post by olds442jetaway »

I never heard of the man until the BR post. For that matter, never heard of his shoe company either. He passed away less than an hour’s ride from my house and just 15 minutes from Mohegan Sun. Both my wife and daughter have bought shoes from his company I learned today. Sounds like a great life that ended too soon. Wonder what made him delve into such weird things. My BA in Psych certainly will not give me that answer. The oxygen deprival is interesting. Strange coincidence. My Oximeter arrived from Amazon a couple of weeks ago, but its purpose is to check mine regularly and make sure I stay on the high side. So far so good. 96/97 most of the time. Time will tell. More years than I can count of second hand smoke one could cut with a knife. If Mogegan Sun ever goes back to allowing smoking indoors, I’m gone for good.

billryan
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Post by billryan »

When I studied Eastern Philosophy some years ago, we read of what some called The Great Wheel. You practiced holding your breath and cutting off oxygen to your brain. It was said that if you could do that for ninety seconds, your mind would expand and you could enter another plane. Not the Astral Plane itself, but an intermediate one on the way to the Astral Plane, although some would say you were simply at the lower levels of the Astral Plane.
Most Westerners scoff at the idea of the A.P. but many Asians take it very seriously.
Bono and the rest of U2 studied it briefly, which resulted in their song," I still haven't found what I'm looking for." The unique backbeat of the drums in this song supposedly came to Larry Mullins during an oxygen depriviation session.

notes1
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Post by notes1 »

rumor has it that joe biden was also a believer in A.P.

but,he took it to a higher level, not breathing for 30 minutes.

that answers a lot of questions.

billryan
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Post by billryan »

notes1 wrote:
Fri Dec 11, 2020 8:34 am
rumor has it that joe biden was also a believer in A.P.

but,he took it to a higher level, not breathing for 30 minutes.

that answers a lot of questions.
What a waste it is to lose ones mind.

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