Welcome to the Monthly Newsletter by Amer Kaissi 

Edition #13, November 2020

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The book for this edition is Billion Dollar Loser: The Epic Rise and Spectacular Fall of Adam Neumann and WeWork, 2020 by Reeves Wiedeman.

Adam Neumann, the co-founder and previous CEO of “WeWork,” never accepted that his was a co-working company that leased office spaces, renovated them, and released them to artists, entrepreneurs, and small start-ups. Instead, he constantly boasted that his company was out to “change the world.” Due in large part to his personal charisma and powers of persuasion, he convinced wave after wave of investors to put billions of dollars into WeWork based on outrageous valuations that never materialized.

Neumann combined brash self-promotion with eccentric behaviors. He bribed employees with company shares to take tequila shots with him at work, he had a special vent installed in his office so he can smoke marijuana, and he often walked around the office barefoot. WeWork’s business plan was faulty at its core: as it gobbled up building after building all over the US and the world, it was consistently unprofitable due to mismanagement, over-spending and outrageous prices that it paid for some the buildings. Neumann didn’t see any need for the company to make money. Instead, he pushed for a “growth at all costs” strategy with the aim of making WeWork too big to fail.  In 2019, with the company running out of private money, Neumann hesitantly accepted that he needed to take it public. As the SEC examined the company’s financial numbers, it became clear that it had lost millions of dollars in its growth frenzy and that its valuation was grossly exaggerated. Neumann was unceremoniously ousted and the company remained private.

The story of Adam Neumann contains valuable lessons for narcissistic leaders who believe that the rules don’t apply to them. While extreme ambition is necessary for success, especially for start-up companies, Neumann’s hubris and self-centeredness eventually set him up for epic failure.

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Dr. Amer Kaissi is a Leadership Keynote Speaker and a workplace culture and high-performance teams’ expert.