Succesful People Who Work From Home

9 Successful People Who Work From Home

Marissa Mayer recently demanded all Yahoo employees work in a corporate office. They're no longer allowed to work from home, unless it's with good reason.

Yahoo has faced world-wide backlash for this decision.

That's because many people have proved to be successful, despite not working in an office environment.

"Yours truly has never worked out of an office, and never will," Virgin founder Richard Branson wrote shortly after the Yahoo memo was leaked.

Richard Branson says he's never worked out of an office, and he never will.

Richard Branson is the billionaire chairman of Virgin Group.

He disagrees strongly with Marissa Mayer's recent decision to ban Yahoos from working from home, calling it "perplexing" and "a backwards step."

"We like to give people the freedom to work where they want, safe in the knowledge that they have the drive and expertise to perform excellently, whether they at their desk or in their kitchen," Branson recently wrote on his blog. "Yours truly has never worked out of an office, and never will."

Amazon's star engineer James Hamilton works from a boat and occasionally telecommutes from Hawaii.

James Hamilton is in charge of Amazon's $4.5 billion tech infrastructure business.  He makes sure Amazon Web Services stay up and running so thousands of sites, from Pinterest to Reddit, can function.

Hamilton works mostly from a 52-foot yacht, Dirona. Occasionally he bikes to Amazon's headquarters, but he isn't required to be in the office.

Wired writes about his lifestyle:

"About four years ago, James and Jennifer Hamilton sold their house and their car and most of their worldly possessions, and they moved onto the Dirona. Now, when he’s berthed in Seattle, Hamilton bikes to Amazon headquarters, does his shopping via Amazon Prime, and picks up his mail at the local UPS store. But he’s untethered. Sometimes, he takes the boat to Hawaii — and works from there."

Jeff Hyman, CEO of Retrofit, works primarily from home. So does his CMO.

Jeff Hyman is the CEO and founder of Retrofit, a personal training and weight-loss company that has raised $11 million from venture capitalists and employees nearly 50 people full-time.

He works primarily from home now, although he did have an office job when he was the head of marketing at Dyson. Most of Retrofit's employees do too. Kim Evenson, Retrofit's CMO, almost entirely works from home  -- she has three children.

"Retrofit CEO Jeff Hyman and Retrofit CMO Kim Evenson both work approximately 80% from home and 20% in the office," a company spokesperson tells Business Insider. "Jeff chose not to have offices, as he realizes the value of hiring A-players from all over the country. Jeff believes you can work from home and still maintain quality control and consistency."

Matt Drudge, the man behind Drudge Report, has a home office.

Matt Drudge generates more than $1 million annually from his news site, Drudge Report.

He runs the business from his home office, originally in Hollywood and then in Miami.

Rafat Ali uses his dinner table to get work done, overlooking Manhattan from 40 floors up.

Skift and PaidContent founder Rafat Ali works from the dinner table from in his 40th floor home that overlooks New York City.

"My office most of the time is my home dinner table in Long Island City, right across the East River from Manhattan," he tells LinkedIn. "Living on the 40th floor has its advantages, and the view is the biggest one."

Ali sold Paidcontent for about $12.5 million. Now he's on to another venture, a travel content company called Skift.

Although Craigslist does have an office, Craig Newmark primarily works from home and takes lots of pictures of birds.

Craig Newmark, the mastermind behind Craigslist, primarily works from home.

"I overlook a small forested area and bird feeders and bird baths, which attract bird and squirrel visitors," he tells LinkedIn.

The Oatmeal's Matt Inman works from home.

Matt Inman had a job at a marketing firm but realized he wanted to create his own, self-sustaining business.

He started a dating site that he promoted with quizzes and comics. When one of his early comics went viral, it made him reconsider the dating site and shift gears. He created comic site The Oatmeal, which now has more than 5 million unique visitors, tens of millions of pageviews and half-a-million-dollars in annual revenue.

Larry Ellison is the CEO of Oracle, but he hasn't had to work in an office in a long time
Billionaire Larry Ellison lives a lavish lifestyle, and he hasn't had to have a desk job in a long time.

He works from all over the world, from the Hawaiian island he owns, Lanai, to his collection of mansions.

Jeff Weiner doesn't work from home, but he steps out of the office frequently to do work over long walks.

While LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner doesn't work from home, he takes a lot of time out of his day to go on 30-minute walks around LinkedIn's headquarters where he holds business meetings. Steve Jobs used to do this too.

"It's energizing," he writes on LinkedIn. "In addition to the obvious fitness benefits, this meeting format essentially eliminates distractions, so I find it to be a much more productive way to spend time."

Related Posts by Category