In one month, coworking space company, WeWork, cut its valuation down from $47 billion to $10 billion. It also removed its eccentric Chief Executive Officer and co-founder, Adam Neumann. As if that was not enough, 2 months after, it is starring a possible takeover and painful downsizing. When one considers where the company was just 4 months ago, its fall from grace will sound shocking.
However, more than anything, that fall can be traced to Neumann’s lifestyle. Of course, when the firm filed its IPO in August, apart from the fact that the business was already burning through cash without making a profit, investors were worried about the larger-than-life lifestyle of WeWork’s CEO.
Beside openly smoking weed in the presence of employees in his G650 private jet – a corruption of the hallowed corporate culture of America – Neumann also has an unbriddled tongue.
According to FastCompany, here are some careless streaks attributed to the CEO:
- He has expressed interest in becoming prime minister of his native Israel.
- He “recently talked with a political pro about the feasibility of changing the laws so people not born in the U.S. could run for president.”
- He has considered running for “president of the world.”
- He has talked about his desire to become the world’s first trillionaire.
- He is trying to live forever.
- He told employees that one day the company could end world hunger.
- Speaking of food, he banned meat at his company, later clarifying that employees couldn’t expense meals with meat but could eat meat in the office. Despite those decrees, he himself was later spotted eating . . . you guessed it, meat.
