Why the Super Millionaire CEO of Zappos Lives in a $950-a-Month Trailer Home

Most CEOs live lavishly with expensive sports cars, private jets, beautiful models, and million-dollar homes, but the CEO for Zappos lives in a Las Vegas trailer park and enjoys spending his time with Marley, the community pet alpaca.

Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh has a net worth of $840 million but finds expensive living quarters too private for his liking. Instead, Hsieh lives in a comfortable 240-square-foot trailer home in downtown Las Vegas where he pays a whopping $950 a month for rent.

According to ABC News, Hsieh said he has lived in 10 places, but that he is most happy in the small community called Airstream Park. He told ABC correspondent Rebecca Jarvis:

“I love it at night here. There’s campfires going. All these lights … sometimes musicians playing music, just jamming together, people cooking. I really like the unpredictability and randomness of it,”

While it may seem odd for a man of such wealth to live in such a simple place, Hsieh said that Airstream Park is the perfect place for him.

Hsieh said that he originally purchased the land to build Airstream Hotel for $350 million, but decided to keep it as Airstream Park when he realized that the community was more important.

A rep for Hsieh told NextShark:

“It really is an exciting concept, which is exactly what he wanted. With the revitalization of Downtown Las Vegas, Tony wanted to create a simple unique experience in the middle of the city that really had the family feeling that downtown. It’s like its own little community within the trailer park where everyone does what they can to make it a great place. They have washing machines, some animals, a kitchen, and even a giant movie screen. Every night is like a giant family gathering that brings out the best in everyone.”

Hsieh’s trailer, while filled with basic amenities such as a refrigerator, stove and shower, has a sentimental value that would outweigh a mansion overlooking the Mediterranean Sea or a castle perched in the Appalachians. Hsieh said:

“I care a lot more about experiences than stuff.”

The community holds 20 Airstream trailers and 10 Tumbleweed houses, with nine empty lots that Hsieh is saving for experimentation purposes.

That the multi-millionaire head of one of the most successful shoe retailers in the world only owns four pairs of shoes reveals his practical state-of-mind. He told Jarvis that he owns “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.”

While it may seem like a waste of wealth to some, to others Hsieh may be the best example of the old saying, “money doesn’t buy happiness.” When he was asked if there was in fact a secret to happiness, he said simply:

“Never being bored.”

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