A Sticky (Note) Situation / Try Jesus

This guest post is courtesy of Wes Jones, a 2020 Regent Law graduate who lives in Raleigh, NC. He clerks for the North Carolina Court of Appeals for the Honorable Chris Dillon. Wes hopes to be an astronaut one day, though none of his life choices align with that aim.

Tony Hsieh, founder/CEO of Zappos, an online shoe-retailer that sold to Amazon for more than a billion dollars, died unexpectedly at 46 in a fire, which was catalyzed by a heater in a shed that he used to lower the oxygen levels. Before his death, Hsieh began acting increasingly reclusive, experimenting heavily with drugs, and exhibiting extreme behavior.

Out of all the strange circumstances surrounding his death, the strangest factor, by far, is the current state of his estate. In law school, we read cases about people carving their will into John Deer tractors, whispering their dispositions on their death beds, and story after story of the rich, beautiful, and famous leaving no will to their survivors (Prince, Michael Jackson, Amy Winehouse, Bob Marley, Jimi Hendrix, Sonny Bono, Kurt Cobain, Pablo Picasso, Howard Hughes, Abe Lincoln—the list goes on).

But never, in my extensive four months of legal practice, have I heard of Hsieh’s approach, that is, leaving thousands of color-coded sticky notes of financial commitments covering the walls of your million-dollar house. I will admit, I am known to adorn the walls of my (not-so-million-dollar) apartment with sticky notes of famous quotes and bible verses; I like a cork board as much as the next guy, but this is Post-it pandemonium. The WSJ aptly described the situation as a “sprawling and unwieldy estate in the hundreds of millions of dollars.”

As a fun aside, sticky notes were actually invented by accident, when a chemist failed at creating a super-strong adhesive. [Insert your favorite bible verse about God using weak things to shame the wise and then sign longingly. Okay now back to your regularly scheduled programming!]

Because Hsieh died without an estate plan, his father and brother now have the arduous endeavor of sorting out millions of dollars...and sticky notes. There are even discussions by some legal minds that each note will have to be scrutinized as to whether it creates a binding contract. (I think I just found a new calling for Regent’s Associate Dean and Contracts Professor L.O. Natt Gantt, II).

I could go down the banal route of discussing why estate plans are necessary, how the lack of a will inevitably leads to internal family feuding (no, not the game show), and the like, but I will spend the rest of this post musing over the “why.” Without any research whatsoever, I have come to the conclusion that the #1 reason people die without a will is because we fear confronting our mortality. To make a will is to acknowledge our death. The esteemed Roman poet/philosopher Lucretius would argue that we spend the majority of our energy trying to distract ourselves from the thought of our inevitable demise. Unlike that dead Roman guy though, I believe there is one out: die before you die.

“Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires,” proclaims Paul, in Galatians 5:24. The only way to stop avoiding your impending cessation is to attack it head-on by giving your life to God, surrendering to Jesus Christ, and receiving the Holy Spirit. Then, and only then, can you fearlessly breach the doors of a law office. Proverbs 13 tells us “a wise man leaves an inheritance for his children’s children.” I would like to add that a wise man would not leave those children directionless, open to greed and fratricide (you listening Cain?).

As Christians, we should be the least intimidated by the grave, because we know where we are heading and that heavenly treasures await us. So stop avoiding the distribution of your earthly treasures, get your affairs together, and for Pete’s sake, don’t put your end of life wishes on sticky notes.