FROM BILLIONS TO NOTHING OVERNIGHT

13,000 employees became 3 in the space of one week.

It’s quite difficult to comprehend what that would do to a person.

Adam Neumann is the co-founder of WeWork. He grew the company to a $47 billion valuation before its failed IPO, his departure as CEO and one of the most public corporate collapses in recent history.

I’ve met hundreds of extraordinary people doing this podcast, but within a few minutes of meeting Adam I realised he was quite unlike almost any founder or CEO I’ve met before.

There’s a depth, philosophy and perspective to him that is incredibly rare.

So I wanted to understand where that came from and what the last few years had actually done to him.

We talked about:

- His relationship with money and where it went wrong. - The friends who disappeared when everything changed. - The mistakes he made as a leader. - Why he now surrounds himself with people willing to tell him no. - Why he disconnects from technology for 24 hours every week.

One thing that stayed with me is how easy it is to believe in yourself when everything is going up and everybody wants to be around you.

The more interesting question is what you believe when everything is crashing.

You can have your own view on Adam and WeWork. That tension is partly why I found this conversation so interesting.

I wanted to know what all of it taught him.

Out now on all platforms ❤️👊🏾