The death of Tony Hsieh was a bizarre finale to a bizarre life. Having amassed a personal net worth of over $840 million after selling his online shoe business Zappos to 

 for $1.2 billion, the American entrepreneur reportedly retired to Utah, experimenting with drink, drugs, increasingly severe diets, and pyromania. Ultimately, it would be injuries sustained in a fire on the morning of 18 November that would claim Hsieh’s life on the 27 November 2020.

According to reports, the fire occurred in New London, Connecticut when Hsieh was visiting family for Thanksgiving. Some reports say Hsieh became trapped in a basement, or had barricaded himself inside and would not answer the door. Others say he had retired to a shed on his girlfriend’s property in a state of distress, having asked friends to check on him every five minutes.

What caused the fire is still not clear, but Hsieh – who was said to keep up to 1,000 candles burning in his own home – was rescued by firefighters and taken to hospital. He died from his wounds two weeks later in what the Connecticut medical examiner determined an accident.

Prior to his death, Hsieh’s life had become increasingly erratic, with reports that he was experimenting with substances including ecstasy, mushrooms and nitrous oxide and was in the process of building up a cult-like group of associates around his Park City, Utah home. “Things were falling apart for him,” Philip Plastina, the founder of an electronic dance music group that regularly performed at Hsieh’s parties, told the 

Plastina claims to have received a call from one of Hsieh’s best friends explaining “Tony is in trouble”. According to Plastina, the caller asked him to travel to Park City as soon as possible to help Hsieh out of what the caller called “escapist tendencies”, including substance abuse.

Plastina reached out to Hsieh but received no response, however, there were friends around Hseih prior to the fire. According to sources quoted in the 

, Hsieh (who was 46 at the time of his death) had been suffering due to the isolation brought on by Covid-19 and had accepted he needed help. Apparently plans were even being made for Hsieh to enter a rehab facility in Hawaii shortly before the fire.

The circumstances surrounding his death are murky at best, characterised by hearsay, conjecture and rumour. But the death of Hsieh also marks the passing of one of the most successful businessmen of the past decade; a man renowned for being kind and generous, and someone who single-handedly changed start-up culture with his relentless outsider thinking. But, like the equally erratic Adam Neumann, was Hsieh ultimately the victim of a literal do-or-die mentality?

Hsieh was born in 1973 to Taiwanese immigrants in Urbana, Illinois. 22 years later, he graduated from Harvard with a degree in computer science and founded his first online business, networking site LinkExchange, the following year. Within three years Hsieh had sold the business to Microsoft for $265 million.

In 1999 Hsieh and his partner Alfred Lin were approached with an idea for selling shoes online. Hsieh joined Zappos as CEO the same year. Initial sales were $1.6 million in 2000 – by 2009 it had grown to a $1 billion company. The same year, it was announced Amazon would buy the company for $1.2 billion, netting Hsieh a minimum of $214 million. He eventually retired as CEO in August of this year.

More recently, Hsieh’s interest seemed to lie in real estate. Reportedly, since stepping down in August, he had spent around $56 million purchasing properties around Park City, Utah where he had his main home. According to property broker Paul Benson, the spending spree included a number of condos in proximity to his own home — a 17,350-square-foot mansion which Hsieh bought for around $16 million earlier this year. The aim, apparently, was to create “a community of like-minded hard-partying friends.”

 about the 1,000 candles spread around Hseih’s property. “Hsieh explained to me that the candles were a symbol of what life was like in a simpler time,” Benson told the paper.

Hsieh’s obsession with fire was apparently front and centre at frequent parties at his mansion, which often included flamethrowers. Hsieh’s unusual behaviour did not end there. Friends told the 

 that he would see how long he could go without eating, once shrinking to below 100lbs (45kg). According to one source, Hsieh would often follow an ‘alphabet diet’, only eating foods starting with a single letter each day. He also experimented with nitrous oxide as a tool to reduce his oxygen intake, and would sometimes see how long he could last without urinating.

Hsieh’s Howard Hughes-esque downfall has spawned innumerable headlines since his death but, as was clear to friends like Plastina, Hsieh was a man in need of help. In fact, Business Insider reports that Hsieh’s friends had to call 911 at least twice in the months before his death after he tried to hurt himself. On one occasion, Hsieh was reportedly taken into psychiatric care. Had he received more help, and earlier, things may well have gone very differently for the late start-up genius.

The day after he died, Hsieh’s social media manager, Michelle Dattilio took to Hsieh’s account to announce his death to his 30,000 followers. “Today we are saddened to share the news of Tony Hsieh’s passing,” she wrote. “We can only imagine what he would say if he were here to announce this to you all, but we envision his message would resonate that: Energy cannot be created or destroyed. Energy is the ability to bring about change. Tony has given energy to so many people… Let us all feel Tony’s energy and use it to deliver happiness.”

Thanks to his final few months, Hsieh may be remembered more for his eccentric behaviour than his business acumen. Yet this outlandish lifestyle was funded by his business success and maybe, to Hsieh at least, his experiments represented the ultimate freedom. And that energy cannot be destroyed.

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