my first million let's go my first baby mama my first camine experience my first [Laughter] [Music] addiction here's what I want to start with I love some of the things that you say and one of the things you said is don't follow your passion people who are already rich tell you to follow your passion you should follow your talent can you unpack that can you explain what you mean I wanted to be an athlete that was my passion and then I'm going to UCLA was a blessing because I figured out pretty quickly that I wasn't in the 0.1% you need to be in to make your living as an athlete and there's a fair there's some pretty basic axioms that should guide your career choices around where you invest your most to Precious capital and that is your time your human capital the first is the sexier the business the lower return on investment you want to be in fashion the arts movies modeling Sports inless you get really you know incandescent green lights from a very early age that you're going to be in the 0.1% try and make a living somewhere else and then do that on the weekends and that is if you uh the SAG after the most talented actors in the world it's hard to get a sag after a union card you have to actually B something these are the most talented doctors in the world 182,000 of them 87% of them don't qualify for health insurance because they don't make more than $23,000 in a given year so the key is finding not finding your your passion but finding your talent and then committing to developing Mastery and if you can develop Mastery in anything that has a 90 plus% employment rate which 98% of sectors enjoy the economic accurs the camaraderie The Prestige the relevance just the sheer Joy of Mastery will make you pass passate about whatever it is and I'm passionate about taking care of my kids I'm passionate about being able to step in and help my aging father I'm passionate about I'd rather be rapael nidal or Federer but kind of I'd rather be me than the number three or number four tennis player in the world because I have Financial Security I get to go to Wimbledon on my own terms and not be as nervous and not throw up or before a match so yeah I'd rather be n doll but pretty much any one else playing tennis I'd rather be and I got there with boring companies so the the the the less sexy of business the higher the return on investment so I would suggest that we stop you know think about well what could I be good at I think that's what your 20s are for workshopping stuff and and also getting it wrong I started in Investment Banking and I was terrible at it I didn't like them they didn't like me and I had to go back to business school and just start workshopping where could I be great what what industry could I be great in so don't you know find what you're good at and then get great at it and then be a DJ on the weekends by the way congratulations today the today's the release date of the book right algebra of wealth y today is the day so that's that's going to be huge I mean I I I read the algebra of Happiness a while ago and I've been watching the videos forever and so I kind of I I didn't get an early copy of the book but I will buy it and read it and so you'll get my $23 I need you to we're by the way we're number one on Amazon on today I just thought I would drop that cuz I'm desperate I'm desperate for your affirmation Sam that's all right I'll give it to you I'll give it to you I won't starve you from that you you've got it I look up to you I think you're the man thank you well let me let me ask you about the number one on Amazon real quick you uh you're a pretty stoic guy in fact when you come on the Pod it's uh it's always surprising to me that you are so even Keel but it's the launch day of your book you worked on this thing really hard you're number one on Amazon what how does Scott Galloway uh celebrate oh you know I'm not I'm pretty flat I don't I'm I congratulate the team it feels great it's very gratifying I love benchmarks I'm addicted to everyone's addicted to something I'm addicted to strangers affirmation which is kind of pathetic at my age and that's a form of affirmation but it's very rewarding because so many people work so goddamn hard on this thing just not me but you know my researchers my analysts my PR people my social people my publisher my book agent you know greatness is in the agency of others so it's just very gratifying and plus my podcast co-host got to number three on the best sellers list so God damn it if I'm not going to get to number two I must beat Caris swisser so Sam if you could go buy several thousand books I'd appreciate it um and if you like it write a review and if you hate it please buy more and send them to an eneme but yeah I'm I'm addicted to external affirmation it's really pathetic well so I mean the the book from my understanding is that it's basically talks about the people who have money and the people who don't and what are the commonalities between the winners and the losers and you have I've read this for years there was this awesome Fast Company article about you and I've seen you say this in videos where you were shockingly calculating when starting your last company L2 I think you said something like uh deoe did a study they did a study that showed what's the difference between the people who sell their companies for five to 10 times Revenue versus those who just sell it for one or two times and you had these like four or five things and it was uh they own a niche they have recurring Revenue Tech is at their core and that they're International and then finally they have defensive IP and then you went on and said how like in your 40s when you were starting L2 40s and 50s you were like only focused on money you said I worked my ass off I was there at the office at 2 am you said uh but I don't regret it you said it was totally worth it and when you were starting L2 I don't really know too much about that industry or that business other than a handful of Articles were you that calculating with work working backwards from an exit and by the way the story ends with you selling it for $120 million 160 boss Jesus get your facts straight and by the way I'm number one on Amazon today I don't know if I told you that yeah I I I didn't have a lot of money and for me work was about getting Economic Security I was very focused on money and I'm not saying that's the right way it was just my way and I had done a lot of analysis and the study referring to said okay are companies that sell in any industry they you know the lowest 10 percentile the upper desile of the valuations they get taken out at and the study looked at the common features of the companies that got sold in the top desile and it was all the things you talked about and that's literally how I shaped the business model I opened a London office right away I instead of charging Consulting fees I said pay me a quarter of a million bucks a year and I'll answer your toughest questions using data um we focused on luxury and then consumer Brands we broaden our niched a little bit we spent I raised $17 million to create a series of technology and scraping tools swi that I could collect more data points than anyone in the world such that when the inevitable guy from the analytics Department came in with his arms crossed to play gotcha um they just couldn't argue with our data we just collected more data than anyone in the world on these issues and tried to distill it down to something actionable so I was very focused on exit and we sold for eight times Revenue new so yeah man my basic pitch to people was you're going to work your ass off and I'm going to try and get you to you know e I'm going to try and get you to where your parents were 20 years earlier and if you're looking for balance this isn't that place um if you're really into management or other things tell me and I'll I'll I will try and like shape a a role around what's important to you but we are a small business going Allin to try and create economic for us and our families with prop te media we're about 14 people now I purposely didn't take outside Capital I'm not on that hamster wheel again I'm not trying to Jones for an exit I'm trying to build something interesting that has relevance that has a little bit more impact on the social issues we think about and also pay our people really well I used to pay people below market and give them equity and I was throwing nickels around like there manle covers because I wanted to have a profitable company I could sell now my priorities have changed and the people who join the company I tell them this isn't the kind of company that gets sold but what I'll do is I'll share I'll give you Equity or participation in my book deals you know you are a junior analyst you get one or two% of any book deal I get you get you know try and create some economic upside for them my natural starting point is that people come to work to develop Economic Security for them and their families to increase the currency their currency in the marketplace experience and also to develop relationships the workplace is a great place to meet friends mentors additional you know co-founders and we spend a lot of money on we saved with Co we gave up our office we save about 8 or $900,000 a year on an office because of course as a narcissist I had to have this amazing office in SoHo which is stupid and I have this rule at work or not this rule to but this benefit if any four of them are together they get my credit card they can go to Broadway or they can go to Tulum and they've done those things without asking my permission as long as there's four of them they got my credit card and the number one source of retention I think the key to building a small business is retention because if you find good people you just don't want them to be with you a year or two years and go to Google because the switching costs are enormous and if you find someone good your job as an entrepreneur or the CEO is just to create an environment where they want to stick retention of employees in my opinion is just huge and I find or I read a study another study on this and it said the number one source of retention or the number one lever for retention people think it's compensation people think it's culture it's whether or not that person has a friend at work if they have a friend at work they look forward to going to work and they are less likely to leave and so what I try and do everybody interviews everybody when we hire people but these kids it's really inspiring they'll go they like six of them will go on vacation together they'll say oh Scott you're speaking in hurg Germany all six of us are going to come and and they have a great time together they like each other and it's really it's a powerful kind of business weapon if you will now I don't think you can do that with it's a company scales Beyond 50 100 people um but I found for a small business it's really powerful hey real quick as you know we're big on ideas here we love bringing new ideas business ideas brainstorming ideas for the podcast well a lot of people ask what do you do with all those ideas can we go find them is there a list somewhere the great people at HubSpot have put together a business ideas database it's totally free if you just click the link in the description below you can go download a collection of over 50 plus business ideas that are from the archive listed out for you curated and so uh what are you waiting for go download it it's free check it out it's in the description below all right back to the show and is the trick there that you don't try to be their friend because I've had that problem before where I'm I wanted to be the friend and that made the management a little bit messy uh and I realized it's it is much better for me to not be the friend and not be included in in the the hangs uh the whole company functions better even though even personally I was like oh man they're all going out without me but actually it was far better that it went that way I always had a healthy sense of what the the Border was me me and my kind of my president of my committee and the partner at L2 we're both about the same age and we have the same view we have parties all the time we show up early as soon as [ __ ] starts getting a little like crazy we leave yeah we a we don't need to see them see them drunk they don't they definitely don't need to see me drunk and my attitude is what you're interesting or what you're saying Sean is really interesting and that is I'm just coming to the realization as a dad um I'm not their friend I'm their dad because it was really upsetting to me that my kids did kind of I don't want to say they don't want to be my friend but I just naturally assumed that my kids would adore me and be really into World War II history and Crossfit because that's what Dad is into and guess what they're not and what I realize is I'm not I'm not their friend I'm there to be their dad and it's kind of the same way I think I work with such young people I think the you know the average age is probably 30 or 34 because I'm there but the mean or the median is like 25 it's basically a bunch of kids overeducated super ambitious kids and it's easy they're doing dinner and drink somewhere I show up for dinner I leave before dessert and then they can you know they can enjoy each other without thinking they're being judged by by Scott uh so yeah I don't I don't I don't um I draw sharp relief between um you know work and fun with those guys I I love it I go out with them but I go out for the first couple hours and I then I disappear so they can they can have their own fun I love the uh if four of you together you get my card that's amazing little tidbit uh I'm I'm here to collect little lessons learned from you today and that's uh that's one immediate one for me thanks manam so like obviously you're kind of you're I don't I don't know if you're at the peak but you're you're at you're kind of killing it right now in terms of your pod and kind of being a public figure the books and everything and then before that you had the company so you had a huge financial outcome one of the things that I think gets kind of brushed over in your history is what you were doing with kind of being an activist investor I know you were on the board of New York Times and you made a few other like pretty like substantial Investments I know you working with the hedge fund uh to do that what were some of the deals that you were doing what were some of the kind of the best deals what were some of the worst deals what were some of the signals that you had where you uh were like this is an interesting deal I should pounce on this sure so there's a bit of a backstory there I started coming to go Red Envelope I went public I was on the board I got into a fight with arguably the most successful venture capitalist in the world spoiler alert he won the fight I was kicked off the boards I was kicked out of the band that I started which was like emotionally and mentally very taxing for me and then I got angry I was a really weird time in my life my mom was dying and I moved in with her and during the day I would take manage her health care at night she was living in Vegas I'd go to downtown and get shitty drunk with strippers and quote unquote friends and then go back and manage my mom's Healthcare and watch everyone loves Raymond and jeopardy with my mom it was a strange time in my life I was also very angry because I'd just been kicked off the board of Red Envelope so I took a half a million dollars of my money and I filed a proxy to replace the entire board and I learned everything about activist investing and shareholder governance and I tried to kick everyone off the board and I own 10% of the company and I think I got 12% of the vote and my proxy solicitor said the 2% was probably a mistake so basically no one voted for my slate and that was kind of a low moment for me like okay now the world has told me they don't want me involved in this Corporation or in public companies and then 6 months later I got a call from a hedge fund that said you're crazy but you're are kind of crazy we have some stakes in companies and we need someone to kind of go in and rattle the cage and it just struck me that at your lowest moment you really don't know where that might lead and um I got backed I went into a company called I bought 10% of a company called United retail which was a plus-sized clothing brand I basically showed up and said let me build your website you don't have a website this was a while ago where I'm going to try and replace the board they said fine stock went from 2 to eight and I'm like wow this is easy then I did it at Sharper Image bought a big stake there went in there the company seemed like a mess stock had gone up a little bit I got out I did a Gateway computer went on the board there that was more difficult we made a small amount of money but I never lost money doing it so then I went and raised $700 million and became the largest shareholder in the New York Times and went on the board there and timing is everything and in this case I went on the board in March of 2008 and the stock went from 16 to three in about 5 months at one point I think I was losing 10 or 12 million of other people's money every day and we almost lost the business the company almost went bankrupt I don't know if you guys remember that but in the world of media people just stopped advertising they just stopped it was like our tap of Revenue just got turned off and it was sort of the great financial recession it kind of ended my career as an activism because one I don't think I was very good at it and two I was getting to a stage in my life where I just didn't want to be combative anymore I didn't want to go to war with CEOs I didn't want to I was just exhausted by being an antagonist I thought I'm never going to go on a board again unless the co wants me there so but I did that for a while I learned a lot I made a little bit of money but you know I was I was in my early 40s and quite frankly just trying to figure out a way to make a living so I could stay in New York which isn't easy and you know I think I was flailing a little bit um but it was it was a great experience I learned a lot about human nature about shareholders about governance I get called a lot by Boards when they're being challenged by an activist because I was one and I I think I have some insight into how these people think yeah it was just a strange time in my life um U but it was you know it was it was interesting it was it was fun I just wasn't very good at it yeah that's cool you've had a bunch of different careers and uh I like that I like variety I like people who have different chapters and sagas of their life and and you mentioned like like your 20s are for figuring out what you actually like to do or what you're actually good at um or the intersection between those two it sounds like yours went past your 20s and you just kept experimenting uh you know along the way is that is that a fair fair assessment for you yeah Investment Banking no good at it business school started a a brand strategy firm called profit grew it to a couple 100 people sold it for 33 million what do I want to do I know I want to teach um the implosion it took me to you know from what I thought was being wealthy to not being wealthy teaching wasn't going to help me or help me maintain the lifestyle I needed or wanted to maintain with two young kids in New York so I needed to find other ways to make money and I did the hunting for a while did boards and then saw an opportunity and analytics and benchmarking and started that company I think 09 or 010 and that was my kind of my big win and the time timing is everything I got swept up into what is the greatest bull market economy in history 08 to present is probably going to go down as the greatest extended bull market run in history people don't understand just what an anomaly the last 16 years have been relative to the history of the market and just as I was coming into my Prime income earning years you know the winds just just just filled up my sales and I caught you know I finally got all the moons sort of lined up if you will but I've always said you know you got to be humble when things work because a lot of your success isn't your fault at the same time I wish I had been more forgiving of myself when things didn't work because I have trouble forgiving myself I struggle with anger and I the person I get most angry at is myself and I have trouble getting past [ __ ] um you know I was on a I was at a book thing last night and I said something and it just came out wrong and I like sitting in bed and I can't get past that one thing it went really well but I can't think that way I focus on what's what's wrong um and that would be my advice to people is be humble when you have WIS because a lot of it isn't you but also forgive yourself because you know again a lot of it isn't you my roommate in college had the poem If on the by by I think Richard Kipling on his wall and one of the great lines of that poem is uh you know if you can meet Triumph and disaster and treat those two imposters just the same uh and that's always stuck with me that's kind of what you're talking about like your greatest triumphs M maintaining the humility and then in your your greatest failures not beating yourself up too much um you're a big proponent of stoicism and that seems like a pretty stoic way to be give us the like you know there's a lot of people listening to this right now that may be familiar with stoicism don't practice don't don't kind of know how it applies to their life like make your pitch what's why is why stoicism matters to somebody well just for your own mental and emotional health and Ryan holiday is kind kind of my yoda on stoicism and he just Stills it this way life is not about what happens to you you can't control that but you can't control how you respond to what happens to you and I've tried to always remember that and I have trouble practicing it but you know the the ultimate stoicism piece of art in modern history or modern media is Brokeback Mountain if you you can't fix it you got to stand it and that is try and focus on the things you can control and you can control your emotions it's very difficult to control what happens to you and you know just also recognize and this is more atheism than stoicism everyone on this podcast everyone we know everyone we care about what they think of us they're going to be dead in a 100 years in the blink of the history nothing you say or do or what anyone else thinks of you is going to matter for very long and something that really is help me when I was embarrassed or I thought I didn't equip myself very well is what you realize is just imagine yourself when someone says or does something stupid you said you think to yourself oh that was stupid and then you go back to thinking about yourself and you know people aren't thinking about you your wealth your failures your successes as much as you are and so the key is just trying to be comfortable with yourself and comfortable in your own skin and not only that really kind of focus on what your spouse thinks of you is your spouse happy do you have a good relationship with your kids because what Twitter thinks of you really isn't that important and because I had so much trouble actually footing my emotions to that logical notion I know it doesn't matter with people on Twitter or the Twitter mom think of me but I couldn't emotionally separate myself from it I don't have those skills so a role model of mine is a guy Nam Sam Harris he's like oh I got off Twitter I can't handle that he's like why don't you get off of Twitter I'm like yeah I can so I sto I'm off of Twitter for the last nine months and it's been one of the most accretive things to my mental health and I didn't like to admit this but I would say five or six weekends where I just got really bummed out by something probably two or three of them started on Twitter and I thought why am I on something that's making me on a regular basis upset and uh there's an addictive nature to it I think it must be just and that's what freaks me out I can modulate it you know can my 13-year-old son and not like that do I even know that he's upset when he goes we have a rule in my house our boys aren't allowed to go into their rooms with their phones alone because I think this thing will can literally take a teenager especially a teenager girl down a rabbit hole and kind of zero to 60 really fast and then start serving her content oh you're worried about dieting well here's extreme dieting tips despite the fact we know you're 510 95 pounds oh you're depressed well here are some videos of people considering suicide we're going to normalize it for you and I don't think parents are really in touch with just how ugly and how fast it gets really ugly so you know I'm trying to be very thoughtful about what it is as a you know stoicism controlling what I can't control and then trying to be in better touch with my emotions and recognize that when you're down it's more about the chemistry in your head than any legitimate reason to be down it's you're going to look at the end of life the biggest regrets my colleague at NYU Adam alter did great research on people who are very near death and paliative care and their biggest regrets are one they'd wish they'd stayed in better touch with friends they wish they'd live the life they wanted to lead not the life Society or their parents wanted them to lead but their biggest regret is they wish they'd been less hard on themselves they wish they'd forgiven themselves they wish they'd allowed themselves to be happy and that's kind of been that's something I've been very focused on it's like okay stop beating yourself up you're going to be dead soon why wouldn't you squeeze as much juice out of this lemon as as as conceivable and like afford yourself the opportunity to be happy and be sad if you need to be but I think of stoicism as again life isn't about what happens to you it's how you respond to what happens to you and decide what is in your control and you know try and try and be good to yourself try and forgive yourself and also just try and be humble you are never more prone to a really big mistake than right after a big win because here's the thing you start thinking you're good at picking stocks you start thinking you're so skilled at work it wasn't that someone senior to you took an interest in you and championed you you start thinking I'm great at real estate I just didn't get get lucky and buy a home at the right time so be try and just try and ignore the market when the market tells you you're a failure and this is personal too you know there's been moments in my life where I thought I don't think I'm ever going to be able to work again I think I have room ruined everything I don't think I'm ever going to make a very very good living I remember thinking saying to my partner at the time let's move to a lowcost neighborhood of Charlottesville or a Raleigh Durham I'm going to teach try and write you know make decent livings and just have a really nice life and my partner's like that's giving up and I'm like well that's not giving up but I thought this is it I just need to substantially downgrade my expectations and I'm I don't mean to say that that's not a great life I remember thinking after my divorce like I don't think I'm ever G to have someone who I can share my life with again I'm like this just is never going to happen to me I'm an unattractive broken man who's never going to find like a partner again I I believe that for a short time and I think that it's important that everybody recognize that you know you are the answer to a firm's problem you can find someone who you can love and is going to love you a great deal the key is getting up putting yourself in a place to success ESS getting out of the house being friendly being risk aggressive surrounding yourself with people and exercise nutrition that makes you feel good about yourself such that when the winds kick up again your sales are up and I've always tried to do that um I've had a lot of failure but I was always had my sales up such that when the winds kicked up again I was in a position to to rumble so to speak because I have a lot I know a lot of people who are very successful and then they hit some failure a personal failure a death of a parent they can't quite get over a divorce a company that fails and they get stuck they can't forgive themselves they can't forgive others they can't for forgive the market or they don't they lose their Mojo whatever it is and two three five years seven years goes on and they just haven't progressed and they start their skills start atrophying their confidence starts atrophying so what say is put a statue of limit whenever anything happen bad happens to you you got to put a statue of limitations on it a parent dies you know within 12 weeks you should still be sad and thinking about your parents but you should be able to you should be able to function you know you go through a real emotional trauma or breakup well how serious was it how much time What's the statute of limitations if business goes out of business okay mourn for a little while what is that two months 3 months but if you aren't better if you aren't back sending out emails trying to raise money going out trying to meet new people whatever it might be within that timeline you need to reach out for help and get unstuck because time goes really fast and your skills atrophy and it's sort of a downward spiral and something I've always been able to do is mourn and move on Churchill said the key to success is the ability to move through failure without losing your sense of enthusiasm and I've tried I've been pretty good at not losing my sense of enthusiasm you're a you're you know you've got brilliant ideas I think you're a good business person but you talk about not just following your passion but your talent and I think that what you're most talented at is communication I've seen you speak live I've seen you I listen to the Pod I've seen your videos you do such a good job at picking really sharp words and sharp phrases and just small examples like a coocher I've noticed that you love that word and I've never heard anyone use it as much as you and I'm like oh I love that word when he uses that word it's it's a beautiful word or you sign your emails with uh uh life is Rich like you you've got beautiful phrases I think that uh I even by the way I even had a chat gbt where I uploaded like 150 of your blogs and I would ask it questions to like help give me like ideas for phrases because you're really good at that who do you steal from when it comes or who you inspired from when it comes to language I mean you seem like someone if I had a guess like you're a George Carlin guy something like that who do you steal like some of your delivery from or inspired by for writing because you're really good and do you have like a a bank of like when you see a phrase you're like oh I'm going to take that phrase and use that somewhere if you don't have a kitchen cabinet of people that you learn enough about that you can mimic them you're trying to play A Team Sport solo you're on the field alone and I didn't figure that out till I was older so I absolutely when I see something inspiring I read maybe one book a year people think I'm well read I'm not but I'll find a book that's really meaningful and I'll try and read it two or three times so I can adopt it into my gray matter like Daniel Conan's thinking slow and fast I've read that book a few times and I know everything about loss aversion Theory I know a lot about the relationship between money and happiness I read observations of the bander by Peter Dreer I read sa Sapient several times I want to like really really you know embed stuff lately I write down things in my phone that I just think are [ __ ] hilarious like jokes you know when my do I wrote down something today as a prank when my doctor walks in I put on gloves I'm going to try that I love my doctor I love the idea of him walking in and me snapping on cloves just to see his reaction um we were talking about Trump today and I saw this great quote that said consequences rarely show up lubed I love that um I just whenever I see something that really I just think you know I I love going out in the public except for that the fact that the public is there you see these things every day and I will write them down and incorporate them into my rap and especially great phrases you know greatness is in the agency of others I remember my VC said that I'm like that just makes so much goddamn sense I'm gonna use that over and over and over so I have a lot of inspiration um I surround myself with really intelligent young people I know that's ages but I think young people have a different frame on things that help me so but to not to not sort of if you're just reading something and not you don't take away stuff you're going to remember you haven't really read it you haven't really absorbed it but it's all all manner of stuff I think um I'm you're you're right I'm totally inspired by George Carlin I think he's fantastic on society I'm inspired by Ricky D I'm inspired by this comedian named Michelle wolf I think she's fantastic but yeah I've read a lot about Muhammad Ali I think he's you know be courageous be poetic but yeah you absolutely every young person should find a couple people they find really inspiring and try and learn everything about them and what they said such that you can kind of turn on Muhammad Ali and you know mateline Albright Secretary of State you know 4 foot1 I find her inspiring around public policy or GE on geopolitics so I've read a lot about her our you know our memory is long and our reach is far I love that she used to say that about America to its enemies right basically a really eloquent way of saying don't [ __ ] with us boys and I just love that this 410 woman only in America can wield you know the most powerful nation in the world in terms of our foreign policy abroad and I found her and she was an immigrant I just found her inspiring so I wanted to learn more about her so I could be her on occasion anyways yeah build a kitchen cabinet of people SC I got a uh my notes app here of my it's called funny phrases and I just I collect these I'll give you I'll give you three of my funny phrases on here they're completely out of context so you won't you won't get it but you'll get it because you do sounds like you do this too when somebody's thick you could say that they're built like a baguette I like that somebody's got the body of a get uh okay next one um if you want to talk about something that other people are avoiding you say look I'm going to address this like an envelope right now that's a dad joke I love that another one would be for CEOs who have bad uh you know a terrible sense of a vision of the future if this CEO was the shooter at JFK he would have die to natural causes I love these little little isms little phrases little sentences I you're goingon to lose this game okay so uh he looks like a suicide bomber that's having second thoughts um this is more serious I absolutely I absolutely love this one this is more true life advice your goal isn't to get the apology but to forgive the perceived debt I love that I love that um I wrote this thing down this is really bad um teaching my son about sex ads so I walked into his room with a banana and a condom and he said what's the banana for and I said I can't get hard on an empty stomach I I literally think that's the funniest [ __ ] that just hit Sam that literally just hit Sam I just think that's so inappropriate and so anyways sorry guys all right I'm I'm not gonna this like getting into a rat battle with Tupac I'm not I'm not gonna I'm gonna put away my swipe file right here even though I just had a good one I'm I'm gonna give up you you win um what are you excited about right now like what are some things that are going on in the world or products or ideas trends like uh you know I think you talk a lot about like you know stuff that's wrong with America with the world with culture with Society but I want to know the opposite what do you what are you pumped about that's not easier for me I mean I'm to be blunt I'm a I'm a glass half empty kind of guy I think a lot about loneliness I think a lot about struggling young men I think about the threats of AI what am I excited about um I have a I work with a really talented group of people that are really inspiring I love the work we're doing I mean I'm I just really enjoy it I get to travel a lot with my kids I got kids that are at a great age and I get to do a ton of fun stuff with them that's really intoxicating you know I'm just I get to have a really nice life at this point and I'm just enjoying it with a partner just really leaning into my kids you know just the Hallmark [ __ ] I'm I'm just really having a nice time with the people closest to me and I'm healthy I got good healthy kids um you know the boring stuff man it's not anything kind of I mean I'm going I'm on my book tour this week I go to La for Bill Maher and then I'm meeting a bunch of college buddies and I'm going to Stage Coach and then I go to Miami for a bunch of speaking gigs and then I go home to London I mean I just have a I have a really nice life right now and everyone I care about is healthy I feel relevant so I just have such a wonderful life and I'm trying to slow time down so I can really appreciate it because you know there's no getting around it but um I I had lunch with Ted Sandos which I realized is a name drop but I'm I'm desperate for for your guys's affirmation but his wife wrote a book on Grief and there's this great line she has this great line and that is um grief is Love's receipts and I just love that I just if you really care about I didn't have a lot of grief until the age of 40 and I realized it was cuz there was no one in my life that I really loved or really love me other than my mom and so you know what I would bless or wish for anybody is they have a lot of grief in their life because what it means is they have loss and when you have loss it's because you had something wonderful in your life and you miss it so I'm just trying to appreciate how just nice things are and really you know I don't you know I'm not really excited about you know the Euro finals in Germany although I am excited about the European finals in Germany I'm just I'm just enjoying myself this is I'm rounding third I have a really nice life right now I'm just trying to enjoy it because I know everything everywhere ends you uh what do you say for people who are not rounding third like uh people who are you know just just batting lead off right now so you you talk a lot to young people one of the the phrases I really liked or one of the quotes I really liked was that opportunity is a function of density he said get to a place that is crowded with success what do you mean by that because that seems like really good advice for for people well in sort of the motivation for the book was you know that study that you are kind of the average of your five closest friends that there's this weird study that peer group the five people you hang out with you end up being the same body mass index you same end up with similar political values same job same neighborhood I mean it's is weird you become the same person what's different though whe there's greater variance is that of those five people even though they make kind of similar incomes one will end up poor three will be okay and one will end up quite wealthy and I tried to understand the behaviors that are in the strategies between the person that ends up financially secure and the the others that are less financially secure and there's some general best practices around youth you absolutely want to get to a city if you're ambitious I'm not suggesting this is the right way it's just my way if you're ambitious and you want to have influence or Economic Security before you collect dogs and kids you got to get to a city two-thirds of economic growth is going to happen in just 20 cities and so if you're really ambitious I mean get to the biggest city in your nation then get to London if you're in Europe or New York in the US or if you're in Tech San Francisco because those cities are really competitive and you're going to be playing you know how when you play tennis against players better than you you your game elevates when you're in a big city you're playing against the best players in the world it's hard to it's hard to live in Brooklyn it's expensive which means you got to be really good at what you do and you're surrounded by people who are going to inspire you and who are really will elevate your game and at some point you'll probably have to move out of the City because it's it's difficult with kids but while you're young get to a big city try and try and find really High character successful people to hang out with just find people you want to be like or that you admire professionally and personally and try and establish those friendships and try and hang out with them because you rise or fall to the level of your peer group and the thing about cities is you're just bumping off opportunities and I've moved to London and my reductive analysis of the US versus Europe is the US is still the best place to make money Europe's the best place to spend it so if you're in the making money part of your life it's hard to beat the US I didn't appreciate the American economy until I left it people start from yes here how can we work together how can we build something together how can we make money together London it's sort of like a very plight indefinite maybe there's very little actual organic value Creation in London it's people servicing other people's wealth that they made elsewhere there's nothing like there's nothing like America that says to a young person if you work your ass off and you're really good and you get a little bit lucky you know you things can happen for you here all my British friends they say that they grew up being afraid of tall poy syndrome meaning uh they didn't want to stick out because their teachers would tell them shut the hell up get in line whereas in America it's if you do something interesting even if you fail you're rewarded as being a hero of like well that's awesome man you got after it even if you even if it sucked the outcome wasn't good you we praise you for getting after it and I think that's a very uh unique American thing compared to Europe in Europe if you stick out you're chastised well not only that but people say in America we Embrace failure that's not true but we do tolerate it and so only one out of seven businesses succeed so my strategy has been to start nine businesses and I got to two wins and all you need is one and if you aren't trying really hard and taking risks failing and then knowing when to pull the plug and move on you're not taking advantage of the American Embrace of risk and failure I've never had trouble raising money because of past failures people didn't mind that as long as you treated your investors well as long you as long as you were a decent person you didn't do anything stupid or unethical people don't have a problem funding you again I'm you know I'm not you know I've had a lot of failure professionally but I've never had I don't you know let me this way when I couldn't raise money it wasn't because I had failed before and that's true in relationships so yeah the Embrace or the acceptance of failure in America is is um it's singular and it's a wonderful thing and if you aren't trying and taking a lot of risk here you aren't taking advantage of an economy that's one of the few in the world one of the few societies um I mean if I was born in China I'd probably be in jail because I'm outspoken and say stupid things if I was born in Europe you know I think I'd be a talented business person but I wouldn't be an entrepreneur that had recognized his success because they don't Embrace failure or that's wrong they don't tolerate it the way we do can I ask you a question about hard work and the reason being is I found I found some what read as contrary things in your work or at least in your story and what you write and so Sean and I have talked a lot about this about hard work and I think people who say they work 80 hours a week for a really long time I think they're either lying or they did a lot of [ __ ] work I think it's to work 80 hours a week for an extended period of time it's incredibly challenging and you talked about uh in in this book as well as some of the other uh blog posts you're saying in my 40s I grinded my ass off all I was focused all I was focused on was money and it worked out and but that's all I did and and I'm happy I did it but it was really hard work but then I read about how uh you delegate a ton I think you said something even as crazy as like you have someone pick out your clothes and you wear mostly the same thing you have your workout outfit and then your work outfit and how uh you at uh prop media you said something like you only meet with your executive producer twice a month you only have one hour meeting once a week with the editorial team you haven't planned vacations in 20 years and all you do is focus on uh uh a handful of things but it even though you're crazy productive now it I don't know does it do you are you still grinding and looking back knowing what you know now could you have gotten to where you've gotten without that 80 hour a week for multiple years work ethic well things have changed dramatically for me now I'm not working nearly as hard um and I hire a lot of people and I'll over not overhire but everyone works hard but I don't I mean when you have a small business and you don't have a lot of money you know you just you got to get everyone needs you need to work hard you need to set an example and you need to uh create an environment where everyone's working hard I'm not sure I was ever working 80 hours a week consistently I definitely had weeks like that but when I look back on it kind of I don't know 10 20 10 15 years I don't remember much else other than work I mean I I worked out when I had kids I tried to spend some time with my kids I still found time for fun and vacations but you know I would vacation two weeks a year now I vacation a lot more than that and but I don't see any way around it it's really my kids when I say my kids my students I'll ask them how much money they expect to be making by the time they're 35 and about 90% of them expect to be in the top 1% which is 700 50,000 a year in America and then they'll talk about that like that's what I expect but I'll say what's most important to you in your life and moving forward and a lot of the time they say balance and I'm like so you expect to be in the top 1% by the time you're 35 but you also believe you're going to have balance in your life I mean I don't I've never seen that I don't you can have it all you just can't have it all at once and and by the way that's that may not be the way to go you may sacrifice you may say I want to live a nice kind of balanced life I'm going to move to a suburb of St Louis coach little league work 40 hours a week be a good citizen find a good partner uh you know coach little league have a nice life nothing wrong with that but the majority of the people I know the young people think they're going to be in the top 1% and also have balance in their life and I just think it's ridiculous I'm like okay the only way to get there to achieve that is if you have one thing and that's rich parents uh otherwise expect to go all in on your career or scale back your expectations around your economics and your influence because it's a competitive market and one of the things people can control is how hard they work I don't think you want to I don't think you want to work so much that you sacrifice your health or your relationships there is going to be some trade-off with your relationships I didn't see my kids a lot when they were little I I was divorced I think it was a contributor to that I was always working in services companies and never saying no to any opportunity the CMO of Samsung can you be in Soul tomorrow for a board meeting sure I can you know I mean I just said yes to everything to try and move the company forward but uh I I for a long period worked very very hard and sacrificed a lot and it it takes a toll and I did it such that I could have a lot more balance now but um yeah I don't I I I this notion the myth of balance get over it if you expect to be influential or economically secure you're not going to have a lot of balance for a long period of time some people are said Geniuses that they can work a modest amount of time make a lot of money work out have a great relationship with their parents be fit donate time at the asbca and have a food blog assume you are not that person so just have a sober conversation and also have a sober conversation with your partner how much money do we expect to have who's responsible for making it what's your approach to spending where are we going to live you know the number one source of divorce is not um infidelity or lack of shared values it's usually got something to do with money and also 70% of divorce filings are filed by women who still and we don't like to say this because we like to pretend women have no agency and that they're just doughy little foes uh is the man loses a business becomes broke or has a mental breakdown when a man loses his status as a provider um he's very inclined to be on the wrong end to divorce so I think a lot about young men I think a lot about financial sec security I think every man should start with the notion that he's going to be responsible for the economic well-being of his household and by the way sometimes that means getting out of the way and being more supportive of your partner who happens to be better at that money thing than you and that's a wonderful thing but start from a position of this is my responsibility um and make sure you're aligned with your partner around this stuff because the thing we don't talk about is that your kids are going to have higher blood pressure if you're economically strained kids and kids in low-income households have greater systolic resting blood pressure than kids in middle and upper income homes you're much more likely to get divorced you're much more likely to have a stroke you're much more likely to be the victim or the perpetrator of domestic violence when you don't have money I mean America becomes more like itself every day and that is it's a loving generous place for people with money it's a rep pacious violent place for people who don't have money so all this [ __ ] that money doesn't buy you happiness oh my God is that a myth I'm not saying you need to be incredibly wealthy but middle- inome people are happier than poor people and wealthy people are happier than middle income people that's the bad news the good news is that tops out you get diminishing returns and you have to be cognizant of when you do get to some level of Economic Security that's the means the ends is such that you can have an exhale release the anxiety that you feel and then then use the opportunity to really spend a lot of time with your your loved ones and cement those relationships and the problem is you get on the hedonic treadmill and you become so absorbed in your own success and your professional identity and money and making more money that you never get to the ends you wake up a wealthy person or someone who's financially scar always thought about their economic well-being and you don't really have a great relationship with your kids or you never really leaned into your partnership and thought okay let's take time to really enjoy each other's company let's do nice things your parents die before you have a chance to really spend time with them as adults I think that happens to a lot of people they just get so caught up and I need the next promotion I need the next amount of money and but once I get here I have someone very close to my life it's a family member and I'm taking them to Africa and they're like making excuses but our kids in the choir they were making excuses I'm like you realize this is your last chance to go to Africa before you're dead right you're 50 [ __ ] years old when are you go when you're 70 but you got to get back to work an extra day I mean what are you thinking we're going to be dead soon and I I just think so many people don't realize how fast it's going to go by and never really never really like super not only super lean into the relationships but just allow themselves just to have a great time I'm going to Stage Coach this week I'm going to go to Country Music Festival I Can't Stand country but I'm going I'm going to buy a pair of boots I'm going I'm going to have a great time and I'm going to do an edible and I'm going to drink a [ __ ] ton and I'm going to have a rested adolescence with my friends and I'm going to look ridiculous and it's like yeah why why not why the [ __ ] not what am I going to do watch C-SPAN all weekend I mean anyway I I can't stand it when people who are blessed with being in this country have some level of Economic Security have people in their life that love them and they love and they don't like crazy lean into it because you guys are younger than I can it just goes so goddamn fast it's just crazy it is just crazy how fast it goes anyways well I don't know how to respond to that Scott here's what I do know I feel like I learned something and I feel a little bit bad inside at the same time I feel a little bit good and you made me feel a little bit bad and I need to go and I need to like burp or something I need to get a little bit out of out of my system I just need to to unwind from that do they not have zolof in London you know I haven't hit the anti-depressant I just did ketamine therapy though that was a trip now I'm trying to I'm trying to just you know like the good news is I hate my life less and less every day so um I'm sort of getting there I'm sort of kid you're like if Mitch Hedberg had a podcast and opened an LLC by we G talk about are we gonna talk about my book do you think I got to number one talking about like doing therapy with you guys on these Joey Bag of Donuts podcast are you going to bring up my book yeah tell us tell us about the book okay we we we talked a little bit about the book but tell us uh the floor is yours make your case as to what I'm gonna get out of this book because I'm gonna buy it and I'm gonna read it thanks for that but I'll read it with a different level of enthusiasm if you give me a little teaser of what I'm going to get out of it okay so the algebra of wealth is the following you know find your talent Focus Workshop your 20s in an industry that will pay you once you have a certain amount of momentum professionally really trying to develop the savings muscle wealth isn't about how much you make it's about how much you spend trying and just get to the point at a fairly early stage where you spend less than you make that is very difficult the brightest companies and Minds in the world are all here to convince you that an upgrade from economy to economy Comfort to economy plus to business classes and investment in yourself no it's not it's a it's consumption don't try and impress other people with your [ __ ] no one's as concerned with your [ __ ] as you are you don't need to order a bottle of vodka at a club for 50 bucks get a Hyundai for God's sakes travel coach save money start saving money early lean in if you're young lean into your advantage and that is you have a lot of time develop that savings muscle diversify the moment you have any real Capital start diversifying that way no matter what happens you have Kevlar you can have a stock go to zero and a bullet hits you in the chest it doesn't kill you because you're Diversified and then take advantage of FL a flaw in the species and that's time and recognize that time time will go faster than you think and if you're just a little show a little bit of discipline a little bit of maturity a little bit of that savings muscle early that the S&P is up 11% a year since 2008 well that sounds boring now that means every 21 years your Investments are up 8X and that 21 years will go really fast so hope you sell a best-selling book hope your company goes public hope you you know your album goes double platinum or some rich Uncle dies and leaves you everything but just in case make sure you're financially secure and I can get you there if you follow these principles and show a little bit of discipline a little bit of maturity because the good news is I can get you rich the bad news is the answer is slowly but we can get you there so the algebra of wealth equals Focus plus stoicism times time times diversification that's the for that's the the formula that's the formula you're the formula guy like you you you've in lot of your talks you use formulas to explain stuff you've had the algebra of Happiness now the algebra of wealth all is this going to be whole algebra of blank uh series because anytime I see that I'm into it if it's an equation I'm into it yeah so humans need constructs to remember things you can read a book and if it doesn't have constructs or visualizations it's pretty easy to forget about it so I really like constructs equations I wrote the algebra of Happiness algebra of wealth out today and I just I'm about to sign a three book deal I'm writing the algebra of masculinity the algebra of work and the algebra of mating those are three topics I'm super interested in and I want to try and do enough research where I can distill it down to some best practices that people can hold on to well I want to talk about the first variable in this you said Focus uh because we talked about stoicism I know about time I know about diversification but teach me about Focus I'm I'm pretty bad at at Focus trying to get better um give me a couple words on Focus as part of this this equation if you have a side hustle you need to find a different main hustle um you're better off with the time spent on a side hustle investing that incremental effort in your main hustle and if you constantly find a side hustle is fine if you're investigating a new main Hustle but the way you get wealthy is not a variety of things it's being really great at one thing so that's the focus and the term we used is is Mastery or ninja likee capability but try and find something you could become great at and that is you know that's not that's not easy but also find again we talked about this before find it in an industry that's not very sexy is if you're in the top 10% of tax law or of installing HVAC or energy efficient HVAC or you're in the top 10% of people who know to how to install soap stone kitchen counters you're going to make a really good living and taking care of your kids is just so much fun being able to be there for your parents is economically is just is just really exciting and a really a lot of fun and I think young people mistake passion for their Hobbies not recognizing when they get older to be able to give money away to be able to do nice things to be able to relax with your partner you know it's just super enjoyable it's almost as fun as you know spinning tun I mean that [ __ ] is fun that is really enjoyable and so put yourself in a position when you're a little bit older because it'll go really fast to just do wonderful things with people you care about and the way you get there is by making more than you spend saving but the first thing you got to do is find a focus you know find something you know we are living we live in a um specialist economy find something like that's your try and just think could I be great at this could I be great at this that's not the question because if you become great at it trust me you'll become passionate about it and you can't become great at anything you hate that's not that's just going to be automatically be screened out I'm not suggesting drudgery is the way if you find something Dr drudger or whatever the term is you're just not going to be great at it but I found Consulting I never I didn't know what Consulting was when I was in college even business school I figured out wait people will pay you to rent your brain wow and I was always really good at establishing these proxy fatherson relationships with powerful men and then basically my core deal with them is I understand brand better than you you're the CMO I'm going to make you the CEO in three years in exchange for that you're going to pay my company a million dollars a year to answer very deep hard questions and I figured that out at kind of my late 20s which was a blessing and then when I sold the company I'm like I don't want to be in Services anymore it's a Young Person's business I'm sick of being on planes so I had to Workshop my life again and then I figured out okay I'm a good teacher what does it mean to be a good teacher means you have to be a good Storyteller but what if I story told in different mediums could I make money in books could I make money speaking could I make money in podcasts and I figured out yeah I'm good at this I could even be great someday and that Mastery has led to a really nice nice life but I've always tried to I've always tried to spend reasonably spend less than I was making sometimes more than others um I finally learned to diversify the hard way I lost everything twice in 2000 and again in 2008 because I thought I'm so awesome that whatever is my focus is just naturally going to be successful through my sheer force of character that's not true so I started diversifying and you know just kind of followed these BAS basic principles and let time take over and really started saving a lot of money in my 40s I deployed an army of capital to start fighting and killing for me and my family and my sleep and that Army just grew in a bull market and you know came home with just immense spoils for me you know because I deployed this Army early and often and I kept adding to it I like here's a tank all right okay I'm saving money I'm not GNA have the fat apartment right okay here's some more artillery go kill more people and come home with money that's a little bit much anyways we're still working off in that one yeah I'm still working through that one wrong choice wrong choice of words accoutrements the accoutrements of my Army Scott thanks for coming on man and uh everybody go buy the book The algebra of wealth he has to be number one on the charts because he needs our affirmation and let's give it to him thanks guys thanks for your success thanks Sam thanks Sean and thanks AR thank you [Music]