Adam Neumann: The Real Story Behind WeWork, A $4 Billion Cab Ride, And Surviving A $460 Million Debt

Adam Neumann (0:00)

I went from 13,000 employees to three employees in one week. WeWork was one of the fastest physical global growths the world's ever seen, but everything went wrong. We lost everything.

Steven Bartlett (0:09)

At 2019, we were publicly filed as S1. Company valued at around $47 billion. The S1 showed some losses, $3 billion in the past three years. Also, the S1 revealed when you were CEO that you'd also trademarked the word we and sold it back to the company.

Adam Neumann (0:21)

That's not true. People sometimes think I was fired because the Wall Street Journal said so. Not true.

Steven Bartlett (0:25)

I wanted to hear directly from you, what happened?

Adam Neumann (0:28)

You really want to go there?

SPEAKER_3 (0:29)

I'm happy to.

Steven Bartlett (0:30)

The floor is yours.

Adam Neumann (0:31)

So in WeWork, the business grew faster than I could grow. And every step I take, suddenly, the ego starts coming up.

SPEAKER_3 (0:39)

20 billion valuation, billion valuation in Japan on top of that, five billion valuation in China. It suddenly became about the money.

Adam Neumann (0:47)

I forgot what we were all about.

SPEAKER_3 (0:48)

When I lost it, everybody lost it.

Adam Neumann (0:51)

And the next thing is we found ourselves being forced to go public when we weren't ready.

Steven Bartlett (0:55)

Then you resigned as CEO of WeWork after the IPO didn't pan out.

Adam Neumann (1:00)

So I stepped down out of choice, and the second after I did it, we got stabbed in the back. And the only lesson there, if you're gonna stab the king, kill. If you're not gonna kill, I'm gonna come back again.

Steven Bartlett (1:10)

Why did you make that choice to go back into business again? Because you had money from the reports, almost a billion dollars. You know how hard it is.

Adam Neumann (1:16)

I now realize that in WeWork, I did a lot more things right than wrong. A lot more, not like 10% more, like 95%.

Some of what I'm saying is hard for you to fully hone in on. But all these founders you spoke to, I don't think they shared this payable. So let's talk about it. So first...

Steven Bartlett (1:32)

Guys, I've got a favor to ask before this episode begins. The algorithm, if you follow a show, will deliver you the best episodes from that show very prominently in your feed. So when we have our best episodes on this show, the most shared episodes, the most rated episodes, I would love you to know. And the simple way for you to know that is to hit that follow button. But also, it's the simple, easy, free thing that you can do to help us make this show better. I would be hugely grateful if you could take a minute on the app you're listening to this on right now and hit that follow button. Thank you so, so, so much.

Adam Neumann I've had the privilege of getting to know you briefly over the last couple of months. And it struck me almost immediately that you are unlike almost any other founder or CEO or really person I think I've ever met.

There's a depth to you and a philosophy and a perspective that is just incredibly rare. My question to you is, for you to be an anomaly, if we accept that, am I right in thinking that you had some sort of anomalous early origin story? What is that? That story that shaped this man that sat in front of me?

Adam Neumann (2:51)

You know, for me, first, when I get to know some of the beginning and they say, where is it coming from?

Steven Bartlett (2:56)

Who are you?

Adam Neumann (2:57)

I usually start the same. First of all, I'm a husband. It's my first job, what I'm most proud of. Then I'm a father. I'm a father of six.

Then I'm a friend. Friendships are very important for me. After that, I'm an entrepreneur.

I think each one of us has a phenomenal soul. I think it's perfect. And I think what really we see when we look at people is the distance between where we think they're holding to where their potential is. And I think it's that gap between those two things that actually defines a person. And for me, throughout my life, sometimes out of my control when I was young, and sometimes with my control when I got older, I've always been striving to close that gap.

Steven Bartlett (3:44)

So you talk about not having control. Your early context is quite unstable from what I read, because your mother suffered from bipolar. Can you bring me into that world so I can understand the context that Adam was raised?