Hsieh could be living in an expansive home, but chooses to live in a small caravan park he owns in Las Vegas
If you were a CEO worth $820 million (£527 million) would you be living in your caravan? Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh is living in a trailer park in Las Vegas, even though he could certainly be living in a mansion.
Hsieh, described as a “frugal millionaire” by those in the know, made the move from a luxury condo to his caravan last year. Hsieh even owns the caravan park he is living in.
Hsieh certainly is not living without a bit of luxury. He calls a 2013 Airstream caravan home, which usually retails at $48,000 (£31,000). The caravans in Hsieh’s park have two TVs, Bluetooth stereo systems, and wood paneling.
There are 30 Airstream caravans in the park, and many house computer programmers from Silicon Valley, usually staying in the caravan park temporarily. The park is also home to Tumbleweed Tiny Houses.
Hsieh snagged the caravan park when it was just an empty lot, then slowly transformed it into a small caravan park with a community campfire and movies projected onto a blow up screen. The caravan park has become a breeding ground for shared ideas with the communal living.
Hsieh feels the caravans act as bedrooms while the campfire acts as a living room for the community. It’s suggested the park’s design was inspired by Burning Man, a popular musical festival in Nevada, USA.
Hsieh hopes to attract more business-minded people to the Las Vegas area; he wants to change the way that people see the city, and prove it is not all about gambling. Hsieh is so dedicated he has invested $350 million (£225 million) into downtown Las Vegas to add appeal for investors.
Hsieh sold Zappos to Amazon for $1.2 billion (£770 million) in 2009, but the sale has allowed Hsieh to run the company how he wishes and, similar to his caravan communal living, Hsieh lets all of his employees have a voice when it comes to running the company.
Erik Moore, an early Zappos investor, told Business Insider: “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.”
Hsieh is perfectly happy to live in a caravan community. We here at CaravanTimes think it would be impossible not to splurge a little bit with that kind of money.
