Billionaire's WARNING: If You Grow Faster Than You Can Handle, You WILL Crash! | Adam Neumann
In a Nutshell
Adam Neumann's WeWork empire collapsed because rapid growth outpaced his personal development—ego, money, and valuation became the focus instead of the mission of creating community. The critical lesson is that founders must build self-awareness and choose partners (life, business, investors) based on how they'll handle the worst days, not the best ones, because failure is inevitable but recovery depends on how you respond. Growth must be matched by internal capacity, or the business will crash.
These notes were generated by AI and may contain inaccuracies.
I went from 13,000 employees to three employees in one week. WeWork was one of the fastest physical global growth the world's ever seen. But everything went wrong. We lost everything. In 2019, WeWork publicly filed its S-1. The company was valued at around $47 billion. The S-1 showed some losses—3 billion in the past 3 years. Also, the S-1 revealed when I was CEO that I'd also trademarked the word "We" and sold it back to the company. That's not true. People sometimes think I was fired because the Wall Street Journal said so. Not true.
In WeWork, the business grew faster than I could grow and every step I take suddenly the ego starts coming up. Oh, 20 billion valuation, billion valuation in Japan on top of that 5 billion valuation in China. It suddenly became about the money. I forgot what we were all about and when I lost it everybody lost it. And the next thing is we found ourselves being forced to go public when we weren't ready. Then I resigned as CEO of WeWork after the IPO didn't pan out. So I stepped down out of choice and a second after I did it, we got stabbed in the back and the only lesson there, you're going to stab the king, kill. If you're not going to kill, I'm going to come back again.
Why did I make that choice to go back into business again? Because I had money from the reports almost a billion dollars. You know how hard it is. 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. All these founders you spoke to, all this I don't think they shared this paper.
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're 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 story that shaped this man that sat in front of me?
For me first when I get to know someone in the beginning and they say, "Where is it coming from? Who are you?" 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. And 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.
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 like the sort of context that Adam was raised? Happily. So we'll start like every story it has two sides to it and my mom and my father are both doctors and growing up I always saw both of them taking care of the patients and it would feel sometimes like the patients came ahead of us. So for example my sister and I we were never sick no matter how sick we were look at my she was an oncologist and she would say my patients are sicker go to school and that was sort of the beginning of it. When I was in the second grade, my parents got a divorce. It was very difficult for my mom and she needed a change of scenery. So, we actually moved to the United States.
What I could tell you is I think for me I think the challenge started in the house. So we talked about my mother being bipolar. I only observed my mother's moods when we moved to the United States. There was no one around. It was only my mom and my sister and I. And all day she would work with the patients and at night at 8 p.m. she would come home and all hell would break loose. And I remember there's many stories but I remember this. She would tell my sister and I we had to wash the dishes. That was our one chore. And we wouldn't no matter what because kids sometimes rebel by action when they can't rebel by words. And she would come home, you didn't wash the dishes. And she would take the dishes and throw them on the floor. And then she would cry and start cleaning the dishes and mopping them. And it was every night ended with some version of action like that. And for 2 years, I remember how crazy my sister and I thought the whole experience was. And we didn't have any friends who were sharing that experience until one day she bought this nice set of dishes. And she comes home again to throw the dishes. And we notice she's only throwing the cheap dishes. She's not throwing the ones that she liked, which gave us a little hint that maybe there's a little more control over what's happening than this out of control situation.
If I had to guess what was happening with the kids because now in hindsight I know my mom and my dad very well. Probably there was a lot of arguing in the house. Probably as a kid cuz I now see my kids that are very young. I'm sure a child finds it very confusing when the parents are not aligned as a team because as a child all you have to lean on are your parents. But I think the most important thing to say if my mom wasn't the way she was and if I didn't go through all those challenges that I went through growing up and I went through a lot. We're talking about bipolar. There's a lot that comes with it and we could go deeper or less. But almost every single thing if you took a piece of paper and you had to do a check mark for every bad thing we think can happen to a little boy. You get to check mark with me all almost all of them including the really bad ones that we don't like to talk about.
As bad as that was when I was 22 23 I remember being very angry about my childhood. Only when I met Rebecca, my then girlfriend to then wife, she very quickly introduced me to a spiritual practice. The way she introduced me, by the way, was after a week of dating, she came to me and she goes, "Look, you're really nice. You have a lot of potential, but you're not the guy for me." I was very surprised at the time. I was living in New York. My sister was the supermodel. We were hanging out. I thought a lot of myself. And I said, "What do you mean I'm not the guy for you?" She said, "Well, you don't have a spiritual band. You're very focused on material things. You want to be successful, but you're not actually understanding the game of life. The guy I'm interested in is going to want true happiness and true fulfillment. And true happiness and true fulfillment does not come from material things." It was so different for anything anyone has ever told me that instead of running away or doing this or doing that, I thought for a second and I said, "Well, how would one come to explore this spiritual life that you're talking about?" And she said, "Well, you need a practice." And for me that practice started being Kabbalah. But for all of us there can be different practices.
The thing I learned very quickly in the practice is the difference between meant to be and free choice. And I think a lot of people don't understand it. But how can there be? We talk a lot about in spirituality about it's meant to be and there's free choice. How could there be free choice and things be meant to be at the same time? The way I explain it is you get to a fork in your life and you choose left over right and everything works out meant to be. You get to that same fork and you choose right and you crash on your face horribly. Everybody's watching and you stop and you actually learn lessons from it and you take accountability and you say, you know what, whatever happened to me happened for a reason and I'm going to learn from it. I'm going to be stronger. Almost like a sword that's getting forged. And the more times you hit it and the more hit you put on it, the stronger it gets. And then you learn those lessons and you go back into the game of life and you apply that in again, suddenly you take the catastrophe or the tragedy or the curse and you make it into a blessing. You turn it into a made to be.
When the world did crash on me as an adult, it was nothing compared to what I had to deal with as a child. I was like, it's okay. I have a wife. I have kids. I have close friends. We'll take a deep breath and we'll start from scratch again. And that kind of fortitude, I think regretfully, comes through going through very difficult things. So, if you're listening to this right now and you're going through something really difficult and it feels dark, I encourage you to remember that the darkest moment of the night is a second before dawn.
I feel like there's things in your early context that you haven't shared before because you said there's things that we don't usually share. Not publicly, but meaning I have in front of. So I used to share everything in front of our employees that WeWork. So there's things I shared in front of 10,000 people. I'm not sure it ever made it to the press. What is missing? You really want to go there? I'm happy to. If you're happy to, I'm happy to. I'll share two things that I'm not sure that maybe could be helpful for other people that are going through similar things. So the hiding and stuff like so when someone's bipolar, by the way, they get very angry or very happy very fast. When they're happy, they're the happiest. You have fun and everything's amazing. And my mom would play games with us and it was phenomenal. But also when that I think happens a lot with bipolar, there's the suicide threats. And then there's one thing when you threaten to. So again, if you're two children and your only parent threatens to commit suicide, who is going to take care of you? What is going to happen if suddenly that happens?
And I have a lot of memories, but one that just came back to me not too long ago. We're in the kibbutz, which is where we're living after we came back from the US. My mom wanted us to have a special experience. So we went to this community where everybody shares a lot of things together. It's also the beginning of why I love communities. And we get into this big fight and my mom basically says she's going to kill herself and she takes the knife and I remember she's holding this huge knife. I'm like, "No, no, don't do it." And I remember I just remember feeling that I have to stop it that it is up to me and if I don't stop it, then she's going to kill herself right there in front of my sister and I. So I grabbed the knife and we're fighting left and right. And my sister is sitting right there and she's crying and she's crying and I'm no and she's saying yes. And the whole thing is so crazy. How old were you? 12 at that moment.
There's more if you want to go deeper, but that was one. I invite you to go deeper. When I was in between second grade to fourth grade, I was sexually I think you called molested by an older than a teenager. So she was at least six or seven years older than me. This one I didn't even know that what was happening was wrong. And many years later, Rebecca and I are in the Hamptons and it's somehow the story comes up and she goes, "Adam, understand that this is not normal for a child at that age." And I didn't even fully understand. And that taught me that explained to me a lot about children. And again we go back to the responsibility of parents and the responsibility of society to take care of the children and schools to understand what's happening.
And whenever we see anyone we are so good at walking into a room seeing someone else and judging. Oh, they're not acting the way I would act. They're not acting right. They're not speaking right. Everybody's so busy judging everybody. I want to encourage every single person next time you're about to judge. You don't know who that person is. You do not know where they come from. You do not know what happened to them as a kid. God forbid they were molested. God forbid they dealt with all these things. You don't know where they started. You only know where you see them now. And it could be that if you really got to know them and you would have known the distance they went from here to here, you would have been extremely impressed with them and you would have not measured them that way. And this is why I think it's so important for all of us when we walk into rooms to really go after unity. You and I can say the same sentence in a way that tears people apart or brings people together. It takes more effort to speak in a way that brings us together. But if we don't start acting like this, if we keep dividing and keep splitting, I'm worried.
Sounds like as an adult, you've been able to understand that early experience and sort of create a new sort of perspective or lens on what happened to you and what it means. And as you said, you've orientated it around the fact that it's happened for a reason or at least there's something to have learned from it. Was that always the case? I sometimes reflect on my own experience and think that for the first season of my life I was dragged and then at some point I like got hold of the steering wheel and I was able to like drive and one of them was like sort of unconscious and the other was more in sort of intentional and thoughtful and I'm wondering through your early teens and 20s whether you had the wisdom and the perspective that you have now on your early experiences and how that's evolved over time. I probably went to sleep crying every single night for probably until I was 14 or 15. And I remember and if you ask my sister did what would I say? She I completely forgot. She said I told her that one day I'll become very successful and we'll take care of I'll take care of us. That was what I used to say. I literally didn't remember this is something she told me. I think that's how I interpreted that control and how I'm going to fix all these challenges that I had.
But we launched the school, Rebecca and I, more Rebecca I helped. It's a fifth school. In the school, we teach kids how to be connected to themselves, how to be part of something greater than themselves. If someone just taught me this as a kid and I would have understood then that there's this bigger picture, I think I would have been able to handle it a lot better and skip the challenging years faster, move faster into the point where I realize that I don't control what happens, but I can control how I react to it.
Back to your point of driving, are you driving? Don't know. Now, you question it. I'm questioning. I would question it. You know, my follow-up question to you would be, how do you define success? My definition of success these days, it's funny. I was thinking about it this morning when I got on the lift on my way here. I thought do you know what it was? Cuz my fiance turned to me this weekend and she went, "Stephen, I think you have enough now." And then she paused and then she retracted the statement. But I but it got me thinking about what enough is. And actually, I thought, well, it's the motion forward in the pursuit of goals that matter to me that are challenging surrounded by people that is the that is the success. And that's like a daily a daily thing. There's no there's no podium in this game that I'm playing. But when she said she thinks you have enough, was she referring to material things? Yes. I think society has taught us that once we gain that success, once we gain those material things, we get to this number, suddenly that hole that we all fill inside of us will be full. Now, I know it's very hard to hear, especially for people who haven't gotten there. Like, oh yeah, you got there already. So now you're saying it. I'm only going to share with you what I have learned and from all the most successful people that I know and I'm lucky to know quite a lot of them. I have not seen one that got happy or fulfilled from attaining a number or a material thing. I don't believe that's how the game of life works.
So when your fiance said which not like her cuz I think she's more on the spiritual side. Tell her that I said I'm surprised she said that. I think she had something deeper to say and she was holding back. When she said, "I think you have enough." I would really go back to redefining success. So, back to that. I'll tell you how I define it in a second. But I think if we can agree on the definition of success, then we can start having a discussion of a are we there and are we headed there? And B, how do we do better to get there? And if we agree on our definition of success, then now we can start working together towards the same goal. If one of us defines success by making the most money and the other person defines success by being the most fulfilled, the most happy, the most light that they can be, then playing two different games. What's your definition? When you're at your deathbed and you're one minute before it's all going to go and you know you're out of time, all you have left is the love that surrounds you at that moment. Your children, your grandchildren, your friends, your friends, children, all the love that surrounds you at that moment and all the love that you have cultivated for your entire life. And I think it's that love which then moves on to whatever it is that happens after. So my definition of success is in that last moment right before you go, how do you feel? Do you feel full and surrounded by love and like life has been this amazing journey or is there regret or is there this and I'll tell you the one thing that happens right before we pass away the ego goes away completely. No more secrets. And and again in the spiritual study you say what's the definition of hell back to how we started this. You get to see you get to glimpse for a second the ultimate potential that your soul had perfect it was and how high you could have gone and where you really got to and the distance between those two. That's hell.
When you were 31 years old in 2010 and you sat down with your partner Miguel McKelvie and you made this sketch on a whiteboard for WeWork. If I'd asked you then what your definition of success was would you have turned to me and said love or would you have said something else? I believe I would have said something else. So my big shift is when I met my wife. So by this point of this picture that you're showing me I was four years into Rebecca teaching me about the game of life. So I'm starting to get advanced. So I can tell you what I was thinking. It wouldn't have been love, but it would have been We and the point above because was called if you look at that picture, it's going to say WeWork, We Live, We Give, We Share. I don't remember. I haven't seen it for like 10 years. It was never about desks and chairs. It was always about creating a world where people make a life and not just a living. It was about something greater than ourselves.
If we just jump sort of backwards in time from that day by about 10 years, if I had asked you what you want to be when you're older, what would you have said? At 21. It's embarrassing. I'll tell you. It's embarrassing though. I'm embarrassed for my 21-year-old self. What did you want to be? A billionaire. You wanted to be a billionaire at 21. I did regretfully. Why? I thought that making the money is going to compensate. I thought it was going to fill that hole for my childhood. What about at 16 if I'd asked you? I think I said millionaire there. I don't think I knew the word millionaire at 16. I think the numbers were cuz the world changed. But I thought that making money was going to fill that hole from the childhood that back then seemed very difficult and very aggressive and very with all these negative words that we can use about difficult and abusive childhoods. And I thought that making money would solve it.
But then I did three businesses afterwards who did not succeed until I met Rebecca. And Rebecca was like, "You're chasing money. You will never have it. And even if you get it, it will never make you happy. You will never have it." And she said, "Chasing money is like chasing cool. You're cool. You're just like that. You didn't I don't think you're working too hard on doing." So she said, "You're chasing money. It doesn't work like that. Also like chasing a girl. You really want someone. You have to take a deep breath." But she said to me, "Even if you were to get money the way you're chasing it, it not only will not fulfill you, it will be negative for you." So I said, "Well, what should I do?" She said, "Well, you're a very talented individual. You should figure out what your superpower is." It's the first time I've heard anyone use the word superpower. She goes, "You need to take your superpower. You need to connect it to something that's really meaningful for the world. Something you're passionate about, but something that can make a difference. You need to bring those two things together. You need to only focus on making that a reality. Employees will want to work with a company that's doing that. Investors want to invest in a company that's doing that. And consumers want to buy from a company that's doing that. The rest will for then she said success the way you define it then that money success you think is a will fall on you from the sky more than you can ever imagine. I was like I want to marry this woman. I proposed 3 months after we met.
And the idea of We was central to this drawing that I have in front of me, which is a drawing you did on a whiteboard when you were 31 years old, 2010 with your partner Miguel after selling your company. I think it was called Green Desk. Green Desk. You sold it for how much? It wasn't like 1.5 million. There were three partners. So we each got half a million. Half a million. Half a million. But our partner didn't want to pay us the whole amount up front. So he only gave us $300,000. The rest was installment over four years for Miguel and I. And I remember telling Miguel, Miguel, you keep the money cuz I'll waste it. First time I ever made money. You keep the money cuz I will waste it and we'll keep it for our next business. And the way the universe works, by the way, the universe speaks to us. The signs start happening and you sort of one thing leads to another. It's almost serendipity. Our first WeWork building to get the building, the landlord wouldn't give it to us unless we gave a check of exactly $300,000. The same $300,000 that was sitting in Miguel's account. It went from there to there. And WeWork was created.
So tell me what that is. Okay, we're in Green Desk. Just to remind everybody what Green Desk is, Green Desk was created in May of 2008. The world was the world was crashing. That was the downturn and before it started, Miguel and I got to know each other. He was an architect and I had a baby clothing company and we're in the same building. My roommate introduced us and we would just talk about doing great things and there was a landlord there and every day he would
Adam Neumann was running a baby clothing company when his landlord, Mr. Gutman, repeatedly told him his business sucked because his wife never bought clothes there. Neumann countered that Gutman's real estate sucked because all the buildings were empty. This exchange continued for four months. One day, Gutman asked what Neumann would do with one of his buildings if given the opportunity.
Gutman took Neumann to see a beautiful empty floor plate. When told the rent was $5,000 monthly, Neumann proposed dividing the space into 15 smaller units at $1,000 each. After accounting for a receptionist at $2,500, the math showed $15,000 revenue with $7,500 profit split between landlord and business. Gutman initially considered one floor but then offered the entire five-floor building, suggesting shared reception downstairs to reduce expenses.
Five Craigslist ads launched Green Desk, which became 92% full within a week. This was Neumann's fourth business, and it was the first to become cash flow positive within a month. After six to twelve months of success, Neumann and Miguel proposed taking the concept national and asked their landlord for $20 million in a 50/50 split, which he declined. The landlord then offered to buy them out instead.
Miguel drew the WeWork concept on glass walls at Green Desk, showing a circle encompassing social life, commercial relationships, friends, travel, health, co-working, and life essentials. Neumann explains this was the original vision before even one desk existed. The mission was to create a world where people make a life and not just a living—a full lifestyle circle that was highly aspirational.
Neumann advises entrepreneurs to start with a vision and dream as high as possible. If you don't shoot for the stars, you'll never reach the moon. Then take a deep breath and return to basics: what needs to be done first, second, and third. The secret of entrepreneurship is being able to operate in both places simultaneously—dreaming big while also doing the practical work of knocking on doors and getting started.
Neumann believes belief is the secret of manifestation. First you have to believe in your big idea, which takes time to develop. True belief is measured when things get tough, not when everything is going well. After WeWork's crisis, his spiritual teacher Etan reminded him of two lessons learned over eight years: love thy neighbor as yourself, and the darkest moment of the night is a second before dawn.
Neumann explains that loving thy neighbor as yourself means having empathy and compassion for all complexities—good, bad, indifferent, and what you don't understand. To love others this way, you must first love yourself, which requires acknowledging not only your strengths but also your weaknesses, failures, and mistakes. The secret is forgiving yourself and recognizing these as lessons for growth. Once you can love yourself this way, you can love everybody else.
Belief is measured when everything is crashing—when friends question you, when the phone isn't ringing. Neumann believed in God, himself, his wife, his kids, and that the experience would ultimately make him stronger even though he didn't understand why it was happening. The morning after this conversation, he walked into a meeting with his three remaining partners at 6 a.m., smiling while they were stressed about bankruptcy.
After going from 13,000 employees to three partners in one week, Neumann found these three people stood by him despite barely knowing him. Many friends who enjoyed success with him disappeared when things got difficult. Neumann acknowledges his weakness for loyalty—if someone was there during tough times, he'll stand by them even to a fault.
Neumann argues that if you go really big, you will crash. Life isn't about whether we fall down—we're supposed to fall down. It's about how we get up. The more times you practice getting up, the better you become at it, which allows you to take bigger risks.
When asked about imposter syndrome, Neumann describes his level of certainty during WeWork as extremely high—he was sure the product was needed. However, Flow came after everything and after having a family, which made it different from WeWork when he had no kids and could work 18-20 hour days.
WeWork started in February 2010. From day one, the mission was bigger than themselves. When you're part of something greater than yourself, urgency comes from the importance of the mission, not just because someone said so. The team was so dedicated that when everyone runs in the same direction, you almost can't stop anything.
For their second building, they had only $90,000 but all construction quotes were $200,000. Neumann insisted they do the floor for their budget. When told wood floors cost $30,000-$45,000, he asked for breakdowns of pieces, nails, glue, labor, and hourly rates. No one could provide this. He then proposed paying contractors 15% above cost and quoting the materials himself, reducing the floor cost to $12,000.
Neumann advocates asking why everything works the way it does. People don't ask because they don't want to be rude or inconvenience others, or they're too concerned with being liked. But an entrepreneur comfortable asking themselves why will have no problem asking others. When vendors don't want to answer, it suggests they're hiding something.
Neumann describes a culture of pushing on paper walls—things that look solid but are actually paper. He shares a story of an animator who took nine days for a 30-minute video over four years. When asked why and what it would take to do it in two days, the animator said he needed a new laptop. Neumann had been losing time for four years simply because he never asked the question.
In year one, WeWork opened one building. By year nine, they were opening two buildings daily across 130 cities, 50 countries, 70 languages, with 100,000 square feet per building. The same people who could only do one or two projects became capable of managing the fastest physical global growth ever seen once they learned that anything is possible.
Neumann states that WeWork grew faster than he could grow, which caused problems. When a company grows faster than its founder, either it crashes or the founder isn't fulfilled and happy. He emphasizes that hard work as a founder isn't just hours in the office—it's time invested in the business, in yourself, in your relationships, and with your kids. There's no such thing as being 80% or 90% in—you're either 100% in or it won't work.
When you're 100% in, there's no time for doubt, questions, or fear because you're so immersed in it. If you're trying to find work-life balance while building something great, you won't achieve it. The magic happens when complete commitment eliminates the space for hesitation.
Warren Buffett exemplifies being 100% in without maintaining a full schedule. He keeps his calendar open to accommodate important meetings, reading, and connecting with others. Being 100% in life means different approaches for different people, but presence and commitment remain essential.
Few people can successfully run two different businesses simultaneously. Elon Musk and Jack Dorsey represent rare examples of those who can manage multiple ventures effectively. Most founders attempting this face challenges because they've already built tremendous resources from their first business and use excess time for additional ventures rather than personal growth. When someone pursues multiple businesses despite having one meaningful and fulfilling venture, it often serves as an excuse to avoid experiencing life fully.
Founders like Elon Musk advocate going fast and pushing through paper walls, but certain areas require going slow to ultimately go fast. Understanding personal weaknesses becomes crucial - for instance, not succeeding in building great technology at WeWork requires acknowledging that limitation when partnering again.
When building businesses larger than WeWork, putting the right partners in place becomes essential. This includes knowing what you don't know and letting those partners lead. During the hiring process for a CTO, multiple candidates were interviewed with Ben conducting the final interview to ensure proper assessment.
When founders lack expertise in specific areas like finance, they face challenges assessing candidate competence. The solution involves choosing partners who speak truthfully. Board meetings with investors like Mark and Ben provide honest feedback through structured quarterly reviews where decks are prepared and shared days in advance, allowing thorough discussion from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
After board meetings, dinners begin with the explicit request: "Please tell me what I can do better." Initially uncomfortable, this practice evolved into prepared feedback sessions where investors bring notes ready for discussion. This represents genuine partnership conducted consistently.
When selecting investors, examine their history with entrepreneurs. Benchmark represents investors who have taken out founders like Travis from Uber and Jack Dorsey from Square, Twitter, and Block. Entrepreneurs should evaluate whether potential investors will support them to the next level or have histories that clash with entrepreneurial approaches.
Right investors, right employees, and right partners represent the most important elements for success. If problems arise with employees, the leader bears sole responsibility for those issues.
Traditional top-down leadership assumes employees must follow directives because they report to leadership. However, talented individuals possess free will and can work elsewhere. Great talent seeks inspiration rather than management, wanting to see their full potential realized and requiring room for mistakes and growth while receiving feedback.
When talented employees make mistakes, immediate feedback demonstrates respect for their development. Delaying communication for 90 days while accumulating frustration prevents effective growth. Great talent needs honest assessment delivered promptly, and leaders should also invite reciprocal feedback.
Power in leadership comes from influence rather than control. Assuming employees must follow directives simply because of hierarchical position leads to eventual failure. Employees who accept direction solely due to authority won't deliver their best work, indicating misalignment between employee and leader.
In 2017, WeWork was approaching $950 million in annual revenue, doubling revenue yearly. The business model and four walls were performing well. The distinction between four walls and overall business matters significantly - individual locations might be profitable while new locations require ramp-up time, making cities or countries appear unprofitable during high-growth phases.
During rapid expansion, new buildings require 6-9 months minimum before becoming profitable. A city with 30 existing buildings adding 30 new locations will have the new locations losing money initially by definition. WeWork's technology couldn't track profitability at this granular level, unlike Flow's connected system which can identify profitability by square foot, building, floor, and corner.
The board decided to raise $300-400 million, stop growth by ceasing new lease signings, potentially moving to management deals, and take the company public. Stopping growth in a high-growth business allows existing buildings to catch up, creating cash flow positivity since demand exceeds supply when no new locations are added.
Masa Son, leader of SoftBank, requested a meeting while raising the Vision Fund, the largest venture fund ever at $100 billion. The scheduled 90-minute meeting was reduced to 12 minutes due to his Trump meeting. During this brief interaction, Masa asked about the business and offered $4.2 billion for WeWork's topco, China, Japan, and Southeast Asia operations.
Despite his team's instruction not to discuss investment, Masa initiated the conversation about valuation and funding amount. WeWork's last valuation was $16 billion, with China representing a $2 billion company. The discussion expanded to global expansion including Japan and Southeast Asia, resulting in agreement on $4.2 billion investment.
WeWork operated as a cash machine where invested capital generated returns. The company hit 2016 numbers of $980 million and was forecasted to reach $1.8 billion the following year. The model required cash to build spaces, with the fundamental issue being signing long-term leases against short-term commitments rather than the growth strategy itself.
We had all the right fundamentals and we worked because we had the right culture. And when you have the right culture, you can deal with any challenge. We were mission-driven. We could break through any wall. We were teamwork. We worked late at night. We were together. We were friends. We were one team.
As I started to walk down from 54th Street to 18th Street, every step I took, suddenly the ego started coming up. The 20 billion valuation. The billion valuation in Japan on top of that. The billion and a half valuation in Southeast Asia on top of that. The five billion dollar valuation in China on top of that. So a billion of that 4.2 was going to everybody including to myself, and I owned about proportionately about 25% of the company at the time. So big numbers. Numbers I've never seen. Numbers Miguel was getting a lot. All our employees. The investors many times more than they ever invested from that billion.
Every step that I'm taking, the ego comes up. Oh, I feel so strong. I feel so big. You start doing your own math. 20 billion, 25%. What's that? That's 5 billion. Then there's all the other ones. What's my net worth? And before you know it, the guy that sat in the car was a mission-driven entrepreneur who really believed in creating a world where people make a life and not just a living. Every step that I take, it goes higher and higher. And by the time I walk into HQ 18th Street, I forgot what we were all about.
Here is why ego is on the one hand very good and on the other hand very dangerous. Ego and desire are the same word. Big ego just means big desire. Having huge desire is important to build huge things. But you have to manage it and control it. When I walked in, I got confused. It suddenly became about the money. All the stuff that Rebecca told me, all the stuff when we met, all the years of spiritual practice, everything to the garbage.
What happens when the ego gets the best of you? You become blinded. What does that mean? You make mistakes and bad decisions. And in a high growth business, you need to make a 100 decisions a day. And as we said before, at least 98 of them need to be correct. Suddenly you're blinded and suddenly only 95 of them are correct or 90. Those mistakes, because you're growing so fast, the mistakes grow very fast also. The other thing, we were a company led from the top. All great companies are led from the top. The moment I lost it, everybody lost it. And it just spread. And the moment that's the beginning of the end. And look, it took 3 years after that for everything to unfold, but it was that moment. That was the moment that went.
Is there anything that could have been said or done to have made you, when Masa offered you that $4 billion in that cab, say no? I used to be closer. We don't speak as much anymore today. I used to be much closer to Mark Benioff, the founder of Salesforce. He heard about Masa's offer and he called me and said, "Adam, I only know you for a little bit and I know you're not going to listen to my advice, but I want you to fly to Japan and say no to Masa. I want you to take your company public."
"What was your last valuation?" I said 16. He goes, "Great. I want you to take your company public for 5 billion. I want you to sell 20% of the billion. And I want you to learn how to be public CEO. I promise you two things. One, cuz your last valuation was 16. At five, everybody's going to think this is a great deal. People are going to rush to invest including myself. Everyone's going to rush to invest. You'll learn because it's very different to be a public CEO and a private co. You're going to learn about profitability. You're going to learn all these things cuz I think you're very fast student and I guarantee you before you know it, your valuation will be much larger." And he said, "But I know you're not going to listen to me." And I didn't.
Was there a world that I could have said no? Not the kind of person that I was then and not with the tools I have. Why didn't you listen to him? We didn't know each other for long enough. I think it takes a lot of trust to listen to when someone gives you a counter advice and every, by the way, there was another person also said no. But we'll put that aside for a second.
Let's say I said no. And let's say WeWork could still be around. WeWork could be a hundred billion dollar company today. Corona would have happened. We would have renegotiated all of our leases instead of leases would become management deals and we would have led the return to office. We would have led that concept because obviously people work, I know we spoke about it, much better face to face than remote work and we would have been the leaders of the movement of return to office and WeWork was a great company and even it would have launched WeLive, our version of FL. But I, Adam, wouldn't have learned all those lessons. I wouldn't be. I am so much happier today. Even as we're speaking, I'm noticing like everything you're talking to about makes me feel full. Even the wor, even the challenging parts. I'm so happy that they happened because they made me exactly who I'm meant to be.
Falling is not bad. That's the thing that you and I are actually talking about. Falling is probably the most important part of life. And most of us learn a lot more from falling than we do from succeeding. The thing that's bad is not when you fall, it's how you get up. If you just fell and you're, "Oh no, everybody saw me fall. I'm not going to hide under the covers for four years until everybody forgets whatever it is that happened." That's what's horrible. That leads to the tragedy. That leads to the trauma.
If you fail, you look around, you're like, "Wow, everybody saw." You clean up, you get up, and you say, "Let's do it again." If you have that in you, nothing will stop you. And it might take 10 times and 20 times and 50 times, but if you fall enough times, then you might avoid falling.
There are two ways. One, they have to go back to the mission. So, if one had a mission and then someone off, someone offers them something and it's off mission and you're like, "Oh, I'm going to do it anyway because it's good money, but it's off mission." That already is a warning sign. But I think the other one, which is something that I have more today than I used to back then, one needs a practice. Part of the way to try on the noise is with a practice. I've been enjoying meditating lately in the past year and I've been getting better and better at it. And meditating is something that takes time. Meditating helps drown the noise. And then the thoughts that I do get while I meditate tend to be very healthy thoughts that are headed in a good direction. I, there's many. I do the hyperbaric chamber.
Steve Jobs talked about meditation and his sort of spiritual practices and it's something that I actually in the last year I started really looking into. When I say looking into, I mean I started looking into what he did and why he did it because he's someone that I look at and go, it was like he was able to see around the corner. And for a guy running a big company, how was he able to make these really unpopular calls today that proved out to be true tomorrow? And you know, one of the conclusions I arrived at is that he spent just as much time in the trenches as he did in the clouds. I.e. he stood away from the picture enough so he could see the full picture. And that's something that I thought, oh gosh, that's it kind of correlates to what you were saying earlier about your redefinition of hard work. Not just being in the office and being there, you know, 24/7, but actually when you're on the surfboard, you're doing hard work because you're giving yourself time to see the full picture. And when you're honest with yourself about your weaknesses, like I spoke about my speech, it can elevate things, but it could also break things. We've seen that happen before.
So hard work is also personal growth is very hard work. And most people don't have the courage to even look in honestly, let alone change. What is the exact mechanism that you think would result in me being more successful at 40 in business, let's say, if I did exactly what you said and focused on personal growth? You're going to have to start by redefining business, I'm going to have to push back on it. We are not going to measure your success just in business. We're going to measure your success in life, in relationship, in friendships, in effect on the world, and in business.
Do you know why I'm asking this question? Because there will be some people that are listening right now and they have heard, you know, founders come on and people say, "You need to just take a moment, meditate, do these things, focus on personal growth." And for whatever reason, because of their trauma, because of how they were raised, the lens that they will receive that message through or the thing that will be the carrot will be a promise that it will make them better at the thing they currently care about. Now, we might be tricking them a little bit because we're going to get them to do the work and they'll realize that other things matter. But just for those people that have that lens, no, I'm going to, we're going to help. We're going to say something and I hope people have said it here before, but I'm not sure they did. But tell me if people said it. We're going to, all these founders that are listening, falling is not just okay. It's the best thing that ever happened to you. If these founders can all redefine success, think about if in school instead of learning about all the successes, spoke about Steve Jobs and he's a real hero of mine, but would I have wanted his life? How old was he when he passed away? How was the relationship with everybody around? How did he affect people? Now, I don't know. Oh, I wasn't a friend. I don't know him. And I am not judging or measuring. I'm just telling you we cannot measure a person just through their business achievements. We must look at people holistically.
So I'm telling all these young founders, forget take time to meditate. You asked how I do it and I how we quiet the noise and I answered meditation. But that is not my first advice to them. My first advice to all of us, by the way, you talk a lot about one year olds with AI coming and everybody's about to be a founder. Everybody can start a business. It's true for everyone. It's true for 12 year olds and it's true for 60 year olds. This is for everyone. Have the courage to actually look inside and say, "Where can I become a better version of myself? Don't work on three things. Work on one thing and choose that thing and work on it." And by the way, if you do, when you fix it, how you going to know that it's better? Cuz you're going to see the next thing you need to work on. It is like an onion. And every time you peel it, you will see another layer. And another layer and another layer. That is the advice I'm actually giving them. And I'm promising them that if they look deep enough, what they're going to find is their calling. And when they find their calling, when you match that calling with that energy of wanting to be a founder, that's when everything works. As we are able as human beings to do that, find our true journey, find our flow, the world is open for us.
So, let's zoom back into the story. You're walking down towards 18th Street. You've just raised all this money. You feel like a king. That's the way you, just on paper, right? It just, we're just saying. It didn't actually happen yet. What was, you said over the next year, you said that was the start of the end. Over the next three years, decisions changed specifically in terms of business. It became about money. It became about valuation. I forgot the mission. That was a slippery slope. It's not my truth. And that means that you, you grew even faster. You opened up even more leases. We blew up. We grew. We went even faster. We were going. We went really fast. We went, we went very fast.
One of the things that I read or something from when I was doing the research is that you had lots of sort of tangential ideas at that time. Maybe because of the money. Things like surfing and fake news. This was before WeWork ever started. I had all these ideas. Anybody who tells the story that we had a lot of ideas in 2016 cuz we raised money doesn't know that this was done before WeWork ever started in a green desk office and all the ideas we had were right here. This doesn't look like focus to me. I feel like if I showed my investors this now they would shout at me. Could be. Today I would choose what is the real focus of all these things. The person. And if we can actually, and I would do today, I would do it one foot ahead of the other. It's a little bit more like we're doing flow. But when you build a business, it's art, not science. If you're going to have some investor tells you, oh, you put this first and this second and this third, they're limiting you. You do need to have a very, a very strong foundation. And that's, as you said before, both as a human being and as a business person.
For anyone that can't see, you just circled the stick person in the middle of all of these ideas, and you said really, I would have focused on this person. I would really have focused on the person and only added things that made so the mission create a world where people make a life and not just a living. Yeah, we should have just only added things that are in support of that mission. It reminds me of Amazon and Jeff Bezos, their famous saying of working backwards from the customer and what's the customer's pain points. I've just, we just hired a wonderful person our CTIO from Amazon, she's called Ada, and she says to me that at Amazon there's always an, you know, often an empty seat to the meetings and that is the customer. So they leave an empty seat so that they can make the decisions through the lens of this person. So they're always in every meeting so you don't get distracted of who you're doing it for. And that's kind of what you describe. It's actually become, you know, since she's joined our business it's always front of mind for all of us which is like work backwards from the customer cuz sometimes you might work forward from your own ego like I like that but remember I'm going to give you my best advice. I've met, I've had the pleasure to meet Mr. Bezos and he's phenomenal and he's one of the best operators on the planet by far. Some would say the best. My best advice for you, build a culture that is authentic and true to you. So, I love that you're focused on the customer, but I can tell as we're speaking, you're very honed in on your user. Multiple times you've told me how your listener is going to interpret what we're saying. You are aligned with your listener. I have no doubt about it.
Isn't that a form of working backwards from the customer? Cuz I'm sat here about thinking 21-year-old Dave, Jenny. I'm thinking about and every time you answer questions. Again I'm sorry I don't, I don't want to being very. No, we're being very. I'm, I'm repeating myself and I don't mean to be boring and if this was, if we did this podcast 3 years ago maybe I would go all over the place. If you actually today went to the depth of your truth, what is your correction? What do you need to work on? Where are you going? And then you found that and then you brought that back into your team. I am telling you I don't even know how far it would be. So, are you saying I don't need to work backwards from the customer? What are you saying? I'm saying your truth has to be yours first. I'm not pushing against this theory. Of course, we need to work again. My truth. I know a lot of times people keep telling me what the customer wants. I, Rebecca, and I build what we think is correct. You don't listen to? No focus groups. No way. There's a famous saying, I think it's Henry Ford, if I asked the customer, they would have asked for faster horses. Never invented the car. No, you know what you want. I think it's about finding our own truth. I think when a person finds his own truth, they can express it. Of course, I'm not going to tell you we shouldn't listen to the customer. And Flow, we have a lot of, I could tell you 10 things that the customer has pointed out to us that of course are right and we do. But again, we have an opinion. If we listen to our customer at FL, we'll have prettier buildings so more influencers can take more pictures. So, you're saying hear your customers but don't always listen to them. Is that a distinction? I am saying do you know yourself? I'm saying everyone rushing building all these businesses when they don't even know who they are leads us to going into dinners and talking about nothing, going into parties and doing whatever it is that we're doing. And instead of living life to the potential, life is so beautiful and amazing and full that if you're going to now be busy listening to your customer cuz you want to build a business cuz you want to make money. Not only do I think it's not going to work for you, where's the fun in that?
I'm asking this in part, selfishly for myself which is, for you. I'm ready. So at a stage of my business, you know, where we're being offered lots of money from lots of people. Our last valuation was about 450, 450 million or something like that. And so I reflect on your story a lot because I, although the numbers were wildly different, you were at a moment where you know you could raise whatever you money you wanted and with that comes opportunity and distraction dressed in the same dress potentially. And in this particular season of your story I go oh Adam like bought this like apparently you bought like a surfing thing and a thing over here. Let's, let's say something just cuz you said it cuz I, I love it. The surfing thing we bought for $7 million was 48% of a company called Wave Garden. We bought it because we thought you could build amazing communities around Surf. Wave Garden today does north of, as far as I know, north of 500 million in sales for 2027. I think this year maybe around 250. They're extremely successful. The founders are so happy. I saw them not too long ago because when I stepped down, WeWork famously sold it back to them for 5 million even though it was worth so much more. They own 100% of their business. Their business is thriving and I stand behind and I'll tell you again today the best amenity for if we wanted to build a big global community real estate best amenity number one school cuz if you have a great school everybody wants to live around.
Let me double click there then even though Wave Garden was a great, great idea like great spotted a great business that went on to be very, very successful in our situation there's lots of those and I would end up giving a different business. Yeah. Like in my world, there's lots of these like we could do that and that and that and that. And you know what? Objectively, maybe they're all good ideas, but when we talked about this point of focus, I would then be splitting myself 10%. Even though they, I have a great answer for you. Best recommendation to you would be the same one I gave you when we spoke about your fiance. I think you need a little bit time for yourself for a second. I think you need to soul search and see exactly where you want to go. Ask yourself what I just said. Assume that in 6 years you're huge. What for and why. And when you answer what for and why, then go back to the day and say, well, who's the right partner to get me there? That's the only way to make that because if you make your decision based on anything else, you might suffer what happened to me, God forbid, and we don't need this for you. First understand who you are. Then decide where you want to go because of it. Then go back to all of the investors and see who is the right investor. And again, I want to say it again because I think it's worth it. I think you should choose, all of us should choose our partners, our friends, and our business partners based on how they will treat us in our worst day when we show the worst, not the best. If I, if I don't pause for a second and I don't do the work and I don't get clear on what my mission is and why I'm doing it before I make these decisions now to grow.
To grow. Yeah. And that could be for anyone listening that's at the start of their journey. It's going well. They're being pulled by opportunity, not by mission. What, what are, what is the mistake around the corner there that I'll end up making that you referenced that you said you made that I can't currently see? So, I think the rule of thumb that we gave is well, you've said a few things. If your business started with a mission, then you're already doing better than most because a lot of people don't have a real mission. So, first step, you needed to have had a real mission. Now let's say you actually had a real mission and you found that truth and now you're there and now this growth is offered for you. If the growth of the business is going to grow faster than you're capable of handling, handling is ego, handling is money, handling is relationships, handling, there's a lot of handling we can translate it in many ways. Then in definition something is going to crack. There will be a short circuit. So before you jump on that growth without understanding that growth, you have to make sure that you're ready for it and that it's actually correct for you.
What is the, the most effective practice you've ever deployed to know yourself better? For me, Adam, it's just my truth. About 10 years ago, I started keeping Shabbat, which for those who don't know, it means that on Friday, we disconnect from technology for 25 hours and I just spend my time with my family, my friends, and taking part of something greater than myself. That disconnection actually makes a lot more connection than anybody understands. So, the best practice I can suggest is technology Shabbat. Forget religion. This is nothing to do with religion. If you take 24 hours off of your phone, completely off. Put it aside. We say put it in the cookie jar. Here's what I forecast. When's the last time you were off your phone for 24 hours, by the way? Oh, god. Okay. We're going to, we're going to have to lead by example. So, if we're going to ask people, this is connecting, by the way, to my idea. If we, we're going to have to lead by example. So, here's what I suggest to the founders, to everyone. Choose a day. Make it Saturday, make it Sunday, make it middle of the week, it's easier on the weekend. Make it the day that's true for you. And take their phone away for 24 hours and put it in a place that you genuinely are not going to touch it. Give it to a friend if you can't trust yourself. The first two hours, the amount of times your hands going to go to your pocket thinking your phone is there will show you how addicted you are cuz it's an actual addiction. But then what you'll notice, especially if you scheduled it in advance, you plan the dinner with your friends, some activities that include going out to nature, little things. From my experience, when those 24 hours are over and you take back that phone, two things will happen. One, you're going to feel amazing at hour 22, 23, and 24. Amazing. And you're going to take out that phone and it's going to take you exactly 10 minutes to drop back down to the wrong frequency. That's one. Two, some of the best ideas you've had in some time are going to come to you, including who you should be surrounded with, what business you should focus on,
Adam Neumann recommends dedicating 24 hours once a week to disconnect from technology and focus on personal relationships. This practice includes being surrounded by the right people and focusing on the right business moves. For someone with six kids and a marriage, this dedicated time has been phenomenal. The recommendation is to test the tool first before recommending it to others.
Neumann distinguishes between being spiritual versus religious, explaining that religious people are stuck in a box and unable to change. He uses fasting as an analogy: the body doesn't want to fast and doesn't see the upside, but after testing it, the brain becomes clearer and benefits become apparent. The same principle applies to taking a 24-hour technology break.
When facing crossroads or decisions, Neumann advises choosing the uncomfortable path over the comfortable one. The path of most resistance leads to the long journey rather than the short one, but paradoxically takes less time, ends up being easier, and provides more value. He states there are rules to the game of life that no one taught us.
A specific commitment is made for a technology Shabbat: 25 hours without phones, computers, or any electronic devices including watches. The agreement allows brainstorming on whiteboards, and the commitment is set for September. This is framed as the first step before potentially taking business elements out of the equation.
Neumann discusses the importance of focus, referencing a Johnny Ives video about Steve Jobs' remarkable ability to focus. Focus isn't saying no to things you don't want to do anyway - it's saying no to things that with every bone in your body you want to do. Jobs famously drew four things on a whiteboard and declared everything else was canceled.
Neumann identifies that focus is not his superpower - it's actually his challenge. He is very good at zero to one, meaning he can turn ideas into reality. While other entrepreneurs might have nine ideas and implement one, Neumann would create nine new businesses. He acknowledges this as a weakness that requires surrounding himself with people who can say no.
Neumann describes himself as a creator rather than a protector, referencing Rebecca's grandfather Andre Herz's saying: "It takes one lion to make a fortune and 10 lions to watch it." Since he's aware of being more creator than protector, he needs someone on the team whose job is to say no or delay initiatives. He's good at managing 3-5 things simultaneously but struggles when the number reaches 10-15.
After losing himself due to ego, Neumann attracted the wrong people who were there for the money rather than the mission. The energy projected became about going public and doing multiple things rather than maintaining focus. This shift in energy and personnel was detrimental to the company's direction.
Masayoshi Son invested $2 billion into WeWork and wanted the fastest, largest company on the planet - a trillion-dollar company. WeWork delivered on promises: $960 million in sales in 2017, then $1.8-1.92 billion the following year. Son noted that WeWork was one of the few companies that actually doubled revenue as promised.
In March 2018, Masayoshi Son offered to buy WeWork for $20 billion in cash: $10 billion to investors and $10 billion on the balance sheet. Neumann would not sell, employees could sell some shares, investors would exit, and Neumann's management team would retain 30% ownership with potential to increase to 51% upon hitting goals.
Neumann's board members had already pulled out $350-700 million from their original $21 million investment. When presented with the $20 billion offer, they refused because Neumann was staying with the company. A special committee was created to negotiate, but they pushed for $32 billion instead of accepting the offer.
The board members negotiated from March to October, trying to push from $20 billion to $30-32 billion. Neumann warned them that Masa's offer was final. By the time negotiations concluded in December 2018, SoftBank's stock had declined significantly, making the cash deal impossible. The board's greed caused them to lose what they had in hand.
Travis Kalanick's analogy is referenced: being an entrepreneur is like playing dimensional chess, while being a venture capitalist is like watching the game. The advice is to choose investors who play dimensional chess rather than those who merely watch.
After the failed deal, WeWork was forced to go public when they weren't ready. The company's tech wasn't catching up with rapid growth, and systems couldn't properly measure profitability at different levels (building vs. neighborhood, city vs. state). Neumann wasn't ready as founder, and therefore the business wasn't ready.
The timeline shows: SoftBank's additional $2 billion investment in January 2019 (compensation for the failed deal), May 2019 with 500 locations, 400,000 members, and 12,000 employees globally. The August 2019 S-1 filing revealed $690 million losses in first six months of 2019, totaling nearly $3 billion over three years, with losses of $219,000 every hour.
Neumann stepped down as CEO in September 2019 after the IPO postponement, but emphasizes he had full control over the board and votes. He chose to step down believing it was best for the company. Unlike Travis Kalanick's situation with Bill Gurley, Neumann's decision was framed as voluntary.
A meeting with heads of two major banks led to the promise that stepping down as CEO (becoming executive chairman) would result in $2 billion funding to make WeWork profitable. Neumann had $460 million in personal debt to these banks. The bank representative assured that the personal debt situation would be resolved, and an advisor confirmed this to the board.
WeWork received a letter stating that because of the breach of contract and change of control, they had 15 days to pay back $460 million or the lenders would take the shares. Due to super voting rights where shares were 5-to-1, taking the shares would have meant losing control of the company. This was not an isolated incident but rather the old school venture capital playbook that had happened to multiple entrepreneurs historically.
Adam stepped down thinking it was best for everyone, but immediately afterward faced betrayal. The lesson learned was: "If you're going to stab the king, kill. If you're not going to kill, we're going to take a deep breath. We're going to learn our lessons. We're going to know what's really important in life. And we're going to come back again."
Rather than correcting the public narrative, the focus shifted to demonstrating growth through current actions, family, businesses, nonprofit work, friendships, and relationships. Entrepreneurs seek investment from them because they measure value by how they behave during tough times.
Masayoshi Son (Masa) paid the $460 million debt to the banks, and in return Adam gave up control of the company and whatever shares were requested. The company was then run under SoftBank's direction.
Within 9 minutes of stepping down, an email arrived demanding immediate repayment of approximately $450 million. The debt was compounding daily, meaning each day the interest was calculated on the growing total. At 15% interest on $400 million, this would have been $60 million annually, but compounding daily made the actual numbers significantly higher, with debt growing by massive daily increments.
Adam woke up in the middle of the night crying next to Rebecca, saying "We lost everything." When she asked what he meant, he explained it was everything including the cars and wheels. Rebecca reminded him about the $100 million he was supposed to put aside, but he admitted he never did it. She then asked about the personal guarantee they agreed he would never sign, and he confessed he had signed one.
This situation revealed why choosing a partner is critical - many partners who thought they were worth significant amounts would discover in one minute that everything was gone, promises weren't kept, money wasn't set aside, and personal guarantees were signed. Adam emphasized: "This is why you have to choose your partner really well. Choose your partner for the day something like that happens, not for any other day."
Rebecca calmly suggested they could live with her mom in upstate New York for a few months, or move to Costa Rica where she would homeschool and they would surf. At that moment, Adam felt he grew up for the first time, realizing he wasn't a child anymore because he had an amazing wife and kids to lean on even if he had messed up.
Two things happened before the morning meeting with three employees: a spiritual teacher taught that "the darkest moment of the night is a second before dawn," and Adam realized he could rely on Rebecca. When the employees asked why he was smiling, he told them both lessons plus that "my wife thinks I'm sexy."
The biggest decision anyone can make is choosing their partner. Two key questions emerged: Do they make us the best version of ourselves? How will they be on the worst day when everything is gone and only the dark side remains?
During post-WeWork negotiations about compensation, Rebecca advised Adam to stand his ground. Her superpowers include having no fear and being all truth - she sees people for who they are and doesn't care if people won't be friends because of her honesty.
After Masa saved the company, an agreement was reached on April 1st, 2020 to pay $3 billion in cash, of which Adam would receive 30% ($1 billion). However, COVID-19 triggered a force majeure clause, and SoftBank didn't have to pay the money.
Rather than despair, Adam approached the situation as another learning opportunity. The litigation ended with a $1.5 billion settlement instead of the original $3 billion. The money was scheduled to arrive in two months, but this was four days before Rebecca was due to give birth via scheduled C-section.
When Adam and his best friend Andrew Finkelstein presented the settlement to Rebecca, she rejected it. She pointed out that SoftBank was supposed to pay on April 1st, 2020, and now they were settling for half with another delay. She insisted they either pay before Friday 8:00 a.m. or go to court on Monday, stating "Tell them you agreed on it, but your wife didn't."
Eric Syler, the litigator, asked whether he worked for Adam or Rebecca, and Adam responded that he worked for Rebecca. When they delivered the ultimatum, SoftBank threatened to sue. However, Marcelo from SoftBank called and spoke directly with Rebecca, acknowledging they were ahead of their time and promising the money would be in the bank before she gave birth.
At 4:30 a.m. the money hit the account. At 8:00 a.m., Adam was at Mount Sinai Hospital as Rebecca gave birth to Moses.
Lesson 1: Choose your life partner, friends, and business partners for the worst day in your life, not for the best.
Lesson 2: Life is not about when we fall down. It's about how we get up.
Lesson 3: Choose the life partner that will make you the best version of yourself - the one that you need, not the one that you think you want.
Lesson 4: Control doesn't come from power. It comes from influence. And influence needs to be earned every single day from the beginning.
Lesson 5: We all have a destiny and a journey. Get to know yourself so you can start living yours.
"We all came to this planet with a purpose and a destiny. We started this life as this perfect light. Noise came, challenges came, people came, ego came, everything came. It is up to all of us to have the courage to look inside. See whatever the things that are stopping us from really becoming the best version of myself, of ourselves. Surround ourselves with the right people, with the right family, both real family, spiritual family, whatever you consider your best and closest and go and chase your dream, your journey, your truth. And I know as a fact that if you go through the process, if you remember that life is not about how we fall and how many people saw us fall, it's genuinely about how we get up."
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