‘Wonder Boy’ Chronicles Life and Death of Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh

Tony Hsieh turned a near-billionaire after the net shoe gross sales firm he chaired, Zappos, bought to Amazon in 2009. His imaginative and prescient of a nonhierarchical, decentralized firm primarily based on “holocracy” and “market-based dynamics” inspired all workers to be entrepreneurs. His perception that corporations might “ship happiness” (as per the title of his bestselling e-book) made him an internet-age celeb, feted by Oprah Winfrey and Ivanka Trump.

He additionally plunged into costly schemes to show downtown Las Vegas, Nevada, and Park Metropolis, Utah, into Burning Man–impressed hubs for enterprise and creative creativity. He died in 2020 of smoke inhalation after a Connecticut storage shed the place he was holed up after a combat with pals caught fireplace.

Hsieh’s story is dealt with with care and respect by Wall Road Journal reporter Angel Au-Yeung and Forbes reporter David Denims of their new e-book Marvel Boy. Hsieh seemingly suffered from what a health care provider might need known as mania, exacerbated by abuse of ketamine and different medication.

Marvel Boy does a service to Hsieh and his compatriots by not assuming his kind of experiential edge in search of should finish in literal self-destruction, whilst they chronicle his unhappy decline.