The CEO of WeWork reportedly said he wants to be 'president of the world'
WeWork CEO Adam Neumann is a simple man. All he wants out of life is to become a trillionaire president of the world who also lives forever. Nothing major.
That's according to a new report from The Wall Street Journal stuffed with bizarre details about the WeWork founder, including that after having previously expressed interest in becoming Israel's prime minister, he reportedly said in a recent conversation that "if he ran for anything, it would be president of the world."
Neumann, who founded the workspace company in 2010, also evidently "hopes to live forever," having invested in a life-extension startup company to make that dream a reality, and he has told numerous people he's aiming to be the world's first trillionaire. He's got quite a long way to go, as Forbes estimates his net worth is currently $2.2 billion. WeWork in 2018 lost $1.6 billion.
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Other odd anecdotes in the piece include that Neumann reportedly once left employees "stunned and confused" when he brought out trays of tequila shots and had Run-DMC's Darryl McDaniels perform "It's Tricky" immediately after firing 7 percent of the staff, that he once had a private jet recalled by its owner after leaving a cereal box filled with marijuana on it, and that his wife has "ordered multiple employees fired after meeting them for just minutes, telling staff she didn't like their energy."
Neumann didn't comment for the article, but expect to hear plenty more from him as his campaign for world president is presumably launched any day now — or, if his life-extension efforts are successful, anytime within the next several hundred years. Read the full, strange look into Neumann's world at The Wall Street Journal.
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Brendan worked as a culture writer at The Week from 2018 to 2023, covering the entertainment industry, including film reviews, television recaps, awards season, the box office, major movie franchises and Hollywood gossip. He has written about film and television for outlets including Bloody Disgusting, Showbiz Cheat Sheet, Heavy and The Celebrity Cafe.
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