The Loss of a Legendary Leader: Tony Hsieh

Over the week­end, I read an arti­cle that made me feel sad: the sto­ry of a wild­ly suc­cess­ful CEO whose men­tal health slipped down a sim­i­lar path to many suc­cess­ful per­form­ers and musi­cians — like Elvis Pres­ley, who I talk about in Your Oxy­gen Mask First.

We can nev­er know the full details – nor should we – of these sit­u­a­tions, but what I read in the Forbes arti­cle about the last months of leg­endary Zap­pos CEO Tony Hsieh, under­lines the impor­tance of help­ing to pre­vent what hap­pened to him — for our­selves and for those we care about.

Even though he was known for his ​‘excep­tion­al gen­eros­i­ty, human­i­ty and vision’, he strug­gled with men­tal health and addic­tion, and sur­round­ed him­self with peo­ple who alleged­ly didn’t have his best inter­ests at heart. Inter­ven­tions by con­cerned fam­i­ly and friends, includ­ing the singer Jew­el, were unsuccessful.

“I made a list of the hap­pi­est peri­ods in my life, and I real­ized that none of them involved mon­ey. I real­ized that build­ing stuff and being cre­ative and inven­tive made me hap­py. Con­nect­ing with a friend and talk­ing through the entire night until the sun rose made me hap­py. Trick-or-treat­ing in mid­dle school with a group of my clos­est friends made me hap­py. Eat­ing a baked pota­to after a swim meet made me hap­py. Pick­les made me hap­py.” — Tony Hsieh

When peo­ple strug­gle men­tal­ly, they often reach for addic­tions and dis­trac­tions to help dis­as­so­ci­ate from the pain. When they do it long enough, that behav­iour starts to feel nor­mal, and the ante and the dos­es are upped to find relief — and that cre­ates a new source of pain.

Help and Support

The best help is avail­able from a pro­fes­sion­al — a psy­chol­o­gist or coun­sel­lor — whose dai­ly work is help­ing peo­ple with men­tal pain. You can find one with a sim­ple google search, ask your doc­tor or con­tact a local men­tal health hot­line – just google ​“men­tal health hot­line” and your city.

Addi­tion­al resources

The ALGEE mod­el – a five-step men­tal first aid action plan to guide what to do when some­one you care about is strug­gling (source: Men­tal Health First Aid)

The Men­tal Health Con­tin­u­um — helps some­one assess where they are, and to under­stand the behav­iours that sig­nal trouble.

Image Source: BC Emer­gency Health Services

The Chal­lenge

• If you are strug­gling (in the orange or red zone above) – or know some­one who is – seek help from a coun­sel­lor or psy­chol­o­gist. Ask your doc­tor if you don’t have one or call the Men­tal Health hot­line in your area. Every­body needs help, at one time of another.

The Ask: Stories

At Lawrence & Co., we have a real pas­sion to help peo­ple get past the stig­ma of men­tal health chal­lenges – espe­cial­ly high-per­form­ing lead­ers who seem to be more sus­cep­ti­ble to burnout – and to make sure they get the help and resources they need.

And, to help oth­ers, we some­times sen­si­tive­ly (and anony­mous­ly) share sto­ries about those who have had extreme men­tal health or burnout issues and found a way to come back to a stronger, more resilient life.

Like this sto­ry about a CEO we worked with, who found his way back from a deep burnout and is now lov­ing life and set­ting records in his business.

Know A Sto­ry That Should Be Shared?

If you know of any­one with a sto­ry to share that can help oth­ers, please get in touch.

Tony Hsieh Image Source: Las Vegas Review-Journal