Tony Hsieh, the former CEO of Zappos.com Inc., helped build the online shoe retailer with an ideal customer service model that aimed to build repeat customers and word-of-mouth marketing — akin to branding. After his death, entrepreneurs, marketers and others said his insights influenced them to adopt similar practices or change the way they approached customers.
Quote of the day from Tony Hseih?
“Stop chasing money and start chasing passion.”
What does Tony Hseih’s quote mean?
This advice from the late American billionaire, born in Taiwan, would be very familiar life advice to anyone who watched Aamir Khan starrer 3 Idiots, and it faithfully reflects the Ranch’s main message: “Chase excellence and success will naturally follow”.
However, surrounded by the buzz of Silicon Valley, having sold his online advertising business LinkExchange to Microsoft and then founded the online footwear and apparel platform Zappos, Tony Hsieh’s advice seems more attuned to the shiny, fast-paced life of startup headquarters.
The quote comes from Hsieh’s book “Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose” published in 2010. It primarily describes his life as an entrepreneur, particularly his experiences with LinkExchange and Zappos. Throughout the book, Hseih shares his mantra for growing a successful startup, creating a happy workplace that also generates sustainable revenue, and how to follow your passions and create your own path to success.
Hsieh noted in the book that he left Microsoft to pursue his passions, calling it a “turning point”. His model for Zappos was to make every customer as happy as possible, even at the expense of sales – in the short term.
Who is Tony Hseih?
Zappos founder and CEO, the late Tony Hseih, was known for his success with various businesses, including LinkExchange, which he sold to Microsoft for $265 million in November 1998, barely two years after it was founded.
The advertising company grew out of the idea of an ad network that allowed members to advertise on their sites in exchange for placing LinkExchange banner ads on their own sites. It was founded in March 1996 with 30 clients and grew to more than 4,00,000 by 1998. Hsieh personally earned $40 million selling Microsoft.
Hsieh then co-founded the incubator firm Venture Frogs with Alfred Lin and invested in a number of internet and technology startups such as Ask Jeeves, OpenTable and Zappos.
In 1999, Hsieh and Lin invested in Nick Swinmurno’s (the Spanish word for shoes) Zappos, and two months later he joined as CEO. The company has often been listed in Fortune among the best companies to work for. In July 2009, it was bought by Amazon for about $1.2 billion, with Hsieh saying he made at least $214 million.
After 21 years, Hsieh retired as CEO of Zappos on August 24, 2020. He was injured in a house fire in Connecticut in November 2020 and died at the age of 46. At the time, his net worth was estimated to be around $850 million, according to Celebritynetworth.com.
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