Deadline, a website dedicated to reporting on the world of Hollywood, recently announced that Apple TV + is working on a television version of
WeCrashed
: The Rise and Fall of WeWork
, the ten-chapter podcast directed by David Brown that chronicles the rise and fall of WeWork and the We.
The information, which was reproduced by, among other media IMdB and the Daily Mail pointed out that, although the cast is not yet closed, Apple TV + is negotiating with Jared Leto for the Oscar winner for
Dallas Buyers Club to
play Adam Neumann and his eventful life as an
entrepreneur
.
After taking the company to the top, the CEO and founder of WeWork was forced out of his position in 2019, just days before the company went public.
The reason for the disguised termination was that the company's actual value was well below its estimated value.
This unexpected situation led to thousands of layoffs, but did not prevent Neumann from nevertheless pocketing a billion dollars (about 800 million euros) from the sale of his shares, to which they added another 185 million dollars ( about 150 million euros) for continuing as an advisor to the company.
Things of the new economy.
The Adam Neumann story is not new.
Before him, the financial sector already surprised the world with catastrophes such as the dot-com bubble, the exploits of the Wolf of Wall Street Jordan Belfort, the follies of John McAfee or
subprime
mortgages
.
All of these
business
blufs
were built with the same materials Neumann used to build WeWork: charlatanism, an overpowering personality, overflowing narcissism, poor business ethics and, let it be said, victims with a predisposition to be duped.
This was the case with Masayoshi Son, owner of SoftBank, for whom a guided visit with Neumann through the WeWork offices was enough to invest in the company no less than four billion dollars.
This impulsive behavior was not uncommon for Masayoshi, who had already spent $ 20 million on a fledgling Alibaba just because he had noticed a special gleam in the eyes of Jack Ma, founder of the Chinese mail order giant.
If Masayoshi saw a similar brilliance in the Neumann case, the truth is that it must have been difficult to differentiate whether it was a supernatural signal, an excessive ambition or the effect of habitual marijuana use, a drug that the young man smoked on any occasion, even on your WeWork office.
In any case, Masayoshi did not give importance to the matter and, far from advising him to be cautious when managing SoftBank's four billion dollars, he asked him the opposite: to dream and give free rein to his imagination.
He didn't have to be told twice.
Daydreaming
Neumann, who spent his childhood between the United States and an
Israeli
kibbutz
, always wanted to launch what he defined as a
capitalist
kibbutz
.
In other words, a productive structure where the community works together, but not for a shared good but for its own individual benefit.
With that idea in mind, Neumann took his first steps in the business world with projects as peculiar as high heels with folding heels, which allowed them to become flat shoes, or the Krawlers, pants with knee pads for babies in age crawling, which were advertised with the slogan: "Just because they don't tell you doesn't mean it doesn't hurt."
Although both ventures were a failure, Neumann did not falter and, taking advantage of the fall in real estate prices caused by the 2008 crisis, he founded WeWork, a company that rented long-term properties and re-hired them to freelancers with contracts to short term.
A way like any other to capitalize on the job insecurity that arose after the economic crisis, which Neumann presented as a unique opportunity to create synergies, meet interesting people, start joint projects, share experiences and, why not, establish romantic relationships between employees. other WeWork members.
As Neumann himself said about himself, he was not a mere landlord but the creator of the first 'physical social network' in which, to grease relationships, parties and alcohol consumption were common on working days and business hours. job.
Despite the lack of originality in the proposal, the investment by Masayoshi Son and SoftBank allowed the businessman to launch an international expansion plan to open WeWork offices in other cities in the United States and, later, in more countries.
A strategy that would be followed by instilling the We philosophy in other sectors of life such as housing, for which he created WeLive, residential buildings with large common areas for parties, interacting, eating or cooking and with small rooms for sleeping.
Basically, what has been a college.
Although it was increasingly evident that Neumann had not invented anything new, the apparent success of his ideas made him even more ambitious and devise new derivatives for the We universe.
For example, the bank WeBank, the naval company WeSail, the hotel chain WeSleep, the WeFly airlines and even WeMars, to install shared offices on the red planet.
As Masayoshi Son had asked him, Neumann dreamed of and unleashed his eccentricities, which included walking barefoot through offices, installing a plunge pool and infrared sauna in his office, purchasing a Maybach car with his corresponding driver, wearing cotton t-shirts worth more than two hundred dollars (about 170 euros) and buying for sixty million dollars (49 million euros) a private jet in which he traveled with his friends and made a
hotbox
, a
term that refers to smoking marijuana in an enclosed space to increase the effects of the drug by accumulating smoke.
A series and some spin off
Speaking of smoke, Neumann's excessive and capricious behavior, added to certain operations that could be considered unfair towards the company - such as the acquisition of real estate that he later rented from WeWork to establish the shared office network there - made some think investors that the young entrepreneur did nothing but sell smoke.
So much so that, a few days before the company went public, experts began to question that WeWork, whose estimated value was almost fifty billion dollars (about forty billion euros), was really worth that. quantity.
Given the distrust of the markets and before risking that the operation was a failure, the company decided to postpone the IPO and find out what its real situation was.
One of the first consequences of that decision was the resignation as CEO of Neumann, which some investors came to denounce in court.
The demand did not prosper and the entrepreneur continues to enjoy today the money obtained from the sale of his shares.
Although it has already lost its billiard status, it continues to invest in
startups such
as the Israeli company of shared mobility GoTo Mobility, and nothing prevents that, in the future, it can make those dreams come true that it could not fulfill because it was dedicated to WeWork.
For example, being the first trillionaire in the world, becoming Israel's prime minister, being elected “president of the world” or living forever.
With aspirations like these, AppleTV + is guaranteed an exciting first season, several
follow ups
and the odd
spin off
, because we must not forget that Rebekah, Neumann's wife, in addition to being a student of the cabal, is a cousin of Gwyneth Paltrow, actress and businesswoman who, at the beginning of 2020, swept her vagina-scented candles.
His, specifically.
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