美国 现代美国  (1973年12月12日～2020年11月27日)

阅读谢家华 Tony Hsieh在小说之家的作品!!!

出生于伊利诺伊州，其父母早年从中国台湾到美国定居。谢家华是家里的长子，从小就表现出了过人之处，天资聪颖，思维敏捷，这为他缔造网络营销帝国提供了先天条件：
24岁，微软以2.65亿美元的价格收购他创办“链接交换”公司；
25岁，作为顾问及投资人，成立了卖鞋的美捷步网站Zappos；
26岁，成为美捷步公司的首席执行官；
35岁，以10亿美元身价登上《财富》杂志“40岁以下亿万富豪榜”，排名第27位。

谢家华（英语：Tony Hsieh，1973年12月12日－2020年11月27日），男，生于美国伊利诺伊州，在旧金山长大，美籍台湾人网络企业家与创业投资家，曾创办LinkExchange，为线上成衣与鞋子商店Zappos的首席执行官。

生平

谢家华父母是均来自台湾的美国移民。1973年12月12日，谢家华出生于美国伊利诺伊州，自小于旧金山长大，从哈佛大学资讯工程系毕业后，自行创业。

1996年，谢家华成立广告网站Link Exchange，到1998年该网站已有逾40万名会员、每天有500则广告轮播，在1998年11月，Link Exchange以2.65亿美元（约75.6亿元台币），出售给微软。1999年，他接受创业者史文莫恩（Nick Swinmurn）提议，共同投资成立卖鞋网站，随后更加入Zappos担任首席执行官。Zappos在2000年营收160万美元（约4565万台币），到了2009年收益已达到10亿美元（约285亿元台币）。2009年，他把Zappos以12亿美元（约342.2亿元台币）售予美国电子商务巨头亚马逊，之后仍续留公司担任首席执行官，直到2020年8月退休。

谢家华撰写畅销书《DeliveringHappiness》，台版书名为“想好了就豁出去：人生不能只做有把握的事，鞋王谢家华这样找出胜算”。

一名友人曾以儿童文学作家希尔弗斯坦谢尔·希尔弗斯坦的图画书《The Giving Tree》来形容谢家华，比喻他把身上每一部分给了自己所爱的小男孩，未取任何回报。退休后，谢家华致力于振兴Zappos总公司所在的拉斯维加斯地区。因COVID-19疫情面临隔绝状态后，他原先饮酒问题变得更严重，开始尝试使用迷幻蘑菇和迷幻药等药物，尝试不排尿、降低身体氧气量，并使用可引发组织缺氧的笑气，会使用加热器来降低氧气量，也计划入住夏威夷一家戒毒中心。同年8月，歌手友人珠儿至犹他州进行演出时曾与谢家华碰面，后寄信给谢佳华，奉劝别陷入毒瘾。

2020年11月18日，谢家华在康乃狄克州新伦敦一处民宅遭遇火灾，27日九天后因吸入浓烟的并发症而去世。谢家华是受困在女友屋外的储藏室，然而消防员在外呼喊却没人应门，推估当时可能因酒精及药物作用下无法即时回应，友人及同事认为可能是谢家华为营造气氛所点燃的蜡烛才导致火灾。内华达州州长史蒂夫·西苏拉克（Steve Sisolak）在推特上发文哀悼在：“谢家华在协助改造拉斯维加斯市中心扮演关键角色……在这艰难时刻，我和太太向谢家华的至亲好友致上慰问之意”。

参考文献

 

Tony Hsieh (/ˈʃeɪ/ shay; December 12, 1973 – November 27, 2020) was an American Internet entrepreneur and venture capitalist. He retired as the CEO of the online shoe and clothing company Zappos in August 2020 after 21 years. Prior to joining Zappos, Hsieh co-founded the Internet advertising network LinkExchange, which he sold to Microsoft in 1998 for $265 million.

On November 27, 2020, Hsieh died from complications from burns and smoke inhalation sustained in a house fire that had occurred nine days earlier.

Early life and education

Hsieh was born in Urbana, Illinois, to Richard and Judy Hsieh, immigrants from Taiwan who met in graduate school at the University of Illinois. Hsieh's family moved to Lucas Valley area of Marin County, California when he was five. His mother was a social worker, and his father a chemical engineer at Chevron Corp. He had two younger brothers, Andy and Dave. Hsieh attended the Branson School.

In 1995, Hsieh graduated from Harvard University with a degree in computer science. While at Harvard, he managed the Quincy House Grille selling pizza to the students in his dorm; his best customer, Alfred Lin, later was Zappos's chief financial officer and chief operating officer. After college, Hsieh worked for Oracle Corporation. After five months, he left to co-found the LinkExchange advertising network.

Career

LinkExchange

In 1996, Hsieh started developing the idea for an advertising network called LinkExchange. Members were allowed to advertise their site over LinkExchange's network by displaying banner ads on its website. They launched in March 1996, with Hsieh as CEO, and found their first 30 clients by direct emailing webmasters. The site grew, and within 90 days LinkExchange had over 20,000 participating web pages and had its banner ads displayed over 10 million times. By 1998, the site had over 400,000 members and 5 million ads rotated daily. In November 1998, LinkExchange was sold to Microsoft for $265 million.

Venture Frogs

After LinkExchange sold to Microsoft, Hsieh co-founded Venture Frogs, an incubator and investment firm, with his business partner, Alfred Lin. The name originated from a dare. One of Hsieh's friends said she would invest everything if they chose "Venture Frogs" as the name, and the pair took her up on the bet, although they had not seen any money as of 2011. They invested in a variety of tech and Internet startups, including Ask Jeeves, OpenTable and Zappos.

Zappos

In 1999, Nick Swinmurn approached Hsieh and Lin with the idea of selling shoes online. Hsieh was initially skeptical and almost deleted Swinmurn's initial voice mail. After Swinmurn mentioned that "footwear in the US is a $40 billion market, and 5% of that was already being sold by paper mail order catalogs," Hsieh and Lin decided to invest through Venture Frogs. Two months later, Hsieh joined Zappos as the CEO, starting with $1.6 million of total sales in 2000. By 2009, revenues reached $1 billion.

Without a precedent to guide him, Hsieh learned how to make customers feel comfortable and secure with shopping online. Zappos offered free shipping and free returns, sometimes of several pairs. Hsieh rethought Zappos structure and in 2013 it became for a time a holacracy without job titles, reflecting his belief in employees and their ability to self-organize. The company hired only about 1% of all applicants. Named for the Spanish word for shoes, “zapatos,” Zappos was often listed in Fortune as one of the best companies to work for, and beyond lucrative salaries and being an inviting place to work it delivered extraordinary customer service.

Hsieh loved the game of poker and moved Zappos headquarters to Henderson, Nevada, and eventually to downtown Las Vegas.

On July 22, 2009, Amazon announced the acquisition of Zappos.com in a deal valued at approximately $1.2 billion. Hsieh is said to have made at least $214 million from the sale, not including money made through his former investment firm Venture Frogs. 

On August 24, 2020, Hsieh retired as the CEO of Zappos after 21 years at the helm.

JetSuite

Hsieh joined JetSuite's board in 2011. He led a $7 million round of investment in the growing private "very light jet" field with that company. The investment allowed JetSuite to add two new Embraer Phenom 100 jets which have two pilots, two engines and safety features equivalent to large commercial passenger jets but weigh less than 10,000 pounds (4,500 kg) and are consequently highly fuel-efficient.

Real estate rejuvenation projects

Downtown Project – Las Vegas

From 2009 until his death, Hsieh, who was still running the downtown Las Vegas-based Zappos.com business, organized a major re-development and revitalization project for downtown Las Vegas, which had been for the most part left behind compared to the Las Vegas Strip's growth. Hsieh originally planned the Downtown Project as a place where Zappos.com employees could live and work, but the project grew beyond that to a vision where thousands of local tech and other entrepreneurs could live and work. Projects funded include The Writer's Block, the first independent bookseller in Las Vegas.

Park City, Utah

After stepping down as CEO of Zappos in August 2020, Hsieh bought multiple properties in Park City, Utah, with a total market value around $56 million.

Awards

Hsieh was a member of the Harvard University team that won the 1993 ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest in Indianapolis, ranking first of 31 entrants.

Hsieh received an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award for the Northern California region in 2007.

Book

Hsieh's book Delivering Happiness focused on his entrepreneurial endeavors. It was profiled in many world publications, including The Washington Post, CNBC, TechCrunch, The Huffington Post and The Wall Street Journal. It debuted at No. 1 on the New York Times Best Seller List and stayed on the list for 27 consecutive weeks.

Personal life

Hsieh resided primarily in Downtown Las Vegas, and also owned a house in Southern Highlands, Nevada. Hsieh was known for taking extreme challenges regarding his body, including starving himself of oxygen to induce hypoxia and using nitrous oxide as well as a fasting to the point where he was under 100 pounds.

Death

On the morning of November 18, 2020, Hsieh was injured in a house fire in New London, Connecticut, although his identity was not revealed at the time. It has been reported that he was visiting family for Thanksgiving, and he either became trapped in the basement during the fire, or barricaded himself inside and would not answer the door. The exact cause of the fire is currently under investigation. He was rescued by firefighters and transported to the Connecticut Burn Center at Bridgeport Hospital to undergo treatment for burns and smoke inhalation, where he died on November 27, two weeks before his 47th birthday. The Connecticut medical examiner ruled the death an accident.

According to property records, the Wall Street Journal reported that Hsieh was staying at a house that was possibly owned by a former Zappos employee, Rachael Brown.

References

Further reading

• Hsieh, Tony. Delivering happiness : a path to profits, passion, and purpose, New York : Business Plus, 2010. ISBN 9780446563048
• Grind, Kirsten; Hagerty, James R.; Sayre, Katherine (December 6, 2020). "The Death of Zappos's Tony Hsieh: A Spiral of Alcohol, Drugs and Extreme Behavior". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved December 6, 2020.