The subject of billion dollar Loser, reeves wiedeman’s indefatigable, scrupulous account of the dubious co-working-space company wework, is adam neumann — the co-founder who eventually all but wrecked it. Culminating in a day-by-day account of the five weeks leading up to wework’s botched ipo and neumann’s dramatic ouster, wiedeman exposes the story of the company’s desperate attempt to secure the funding it needed in the final moments of a decade defined by excess. Neumann had two great ambitions when he was young: To grow wealthy and to save the world. Neumann believed his two goals could be folded into one and pursued by the same methods: brash self- promotion, florid salesmanship and an impulsive management style reflective of what he considered to be his own genius. Walter Kirn said in a review for the new York times: “Citing an interview from april 2019, not long before wework’s unraveling, wiedeman describes neumann as engaged in a belated campaign to polish his image and raise one of many rounds of outside cash to replace the vast sums he’d already dissipated.”