First off, I’d like to say that I’ve had great experiences with Zappos. They ship quickly and are diligent turning around returned orders.
Secondly, if I were the CEO of one of the world’s largest online shoe and clothing shop worth an estimated $840 million, I’d live in a goddamn castle and wipe my ass with $100 bills.
And on the other end of the spectrum, there’s 41-year-old Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh, who the New York Times has coined one of the most frugal millionaires.
Hsieh, who has been the Chief Executive at Zappos for 16 years, lives in a 240 square foot trailer home in Las Vegas, just miles away from the Zappos headquarters harboring most of its 1,500 employees.
#founder of @zappos @tonyhsieh now lives in a trailer park: http://t.co/PydkLr9STk pic.twitter.com/rgS5SIkPGG
— Charlie Muir (@JCharlesMuir) May 11, 2015
“”Hsieh owns the entire trailer park that he calls Llamapolis (named after his pet alpaca that roams the yard). The park is “crammed with shiny silver Airstreams that are rented out to visiting computer coders, according to David Gelles at The Times. The trailer park also includes features such as community camp fires and camp kitchen within a shipping container.
Tony Hsieh tinkers with ‘urban camping’ in Airstream trailers http://t.co/w7N9DjaKOY #DowntownProject #DTLV #Vegas pic.twitter.com/GSedQ2tiCq — Las Vegas Locally (@LasVegasLocally) January 4, 2015
Writes magazine author Kristy Totten,
“The Airstreams are sleek and high-tech, with wood paneling, stainless-steel appliances, a Bluetooth stereo and two TVs.”
We can also take some satisfaction in the fact that our shoe game is more poppin’ than the CEO of a company who sells over 50,000 varieties of kicks. Hsieh, who claims experiences are more valuable than possessions, says,
“A pair of flip-flops and slippers that I wear at home. And a pair of Donald Pliner’s that I’ll wear when I’m not allowed to wear sneakers.”
The trailer park is merely a cog in Hsieh’s $350 million investment to revitalize Las Vegas’ downtown, which is currently a wasteland of dead dreams, with the end goal of making it a thriving metropolitan city that attracts young people and startups. The Zappos CEO has allocated his massive investment in real estate, redevelopment, small businesses and venture capital funds.
Erik Moore, a Zappos investor, told Business Insider:
“Money is just a way for Tony to get to his endgame. Money just doesn’t matter to him. If he only had a million dollars left, he’d spend $999,999 to make Vegas work. He would be just as happy with a dollar in the bank and being around people he cares about and care about him.”
Check out the tour footage of the trailer park below:
You’re a better man than I am, Tony. That’s not saying much, though. That’s really not saying anything.
[h/t Yahoo Finance]