The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
00:08:54 · David Senra, Scott Galloway
And he wrote that book as a cautionary tale because he ignored his health. There... He was such poor health as he's writing the book. They're literally having to chop off parts of his body. He's having... Because his circulation is so bad. [00:09:05] S1: Diabetes. Yeah. [00:09:06] S2: Die... It's so much... It's so bad. And then he talks about, hey. I I don't know who my kids are. I don't have a relationship with my wife. And it's a devastating, devastating story. He's writing. He's like, I'm I'm in a 30,000 square foot house on top of a mountain overlooking the town... The city that he lives in. He's like, it's just... None of this made... Mattered. And I... And he goes, and the worst of I didn't even have fun. And the last chapter is actually written by his coauthor and his wife because he dies in the middle of that book. And his wife, I said, thinks... I think his wife says the most devastating thing you could ever hear. And she's like, yeah. I miss him, but it's not like he was here when he was alive anyways. Yeah.
00:09:47 · Scott Galloway
[00:09:47] S1: So through the lens of an entrepreneur. Look. I often joke that, and this is true, from the age of 22 to 42 for twenty years, maybe twenty five years, other than a two year respite in business school, I did nothing but work. I pretended to have hobbies, but I didn't. Occasionally I would work out or I've always tried to stay pretty disciplined about that. But I wasn't a very cultured interesting person. I just worked all the time. And I say it cost me my hair and it cost me my first marriage and it was worth it. And you know, it's just... Look, there's no... I don't think there is any balance. There's just trade offs. And the reason why I have so much balance now is because I had very little as a young person. And I don't think there's any getting around it. The market is very efficient in trading off stress and commitment for upside. And if you want tremendous upside or a shot at tremendous upside that entrepreneurship does offer, success is in the last 10%. And there's an equivalent entrepreneur and an equivalent small business down the street or down the state or down the country that is working harder than you. And it's not aspirational. It's like Brian Chesky says, you can have it all, just can't have it all at once. And occasionally, and this does create tension with my partners in my life, kind of the feedback I get is, where are you? You're just not present. And I'm like, okay, see this big fat fucking house we're in? The reason we're in this big fat fucking house is because I'm not present, because I'm thinking about business, because I am and going to be better than anyone on Monday morning. And that's come at a cost. I just don't wanna... This is not a... I'm not here with a message of hope. If you expect to have a successful small business or you expect to be very successful even in a corporation, in a capitalist economy, get ready to work your ass off, and it comes at a cost. Now having said that, that's my way. I'm not saying that's the right way. There's a lot of people who do well, don't need to be the CEO, don't need to start a hedge fund or a tech or a SaaS company, and they move to a lower cost area. They do well. Find someone who's also competent. They manage their finances well. They go to church. They coach little league. They take nice vacations. They have really nice lives.
00:12:13 · Scott Galloway
And by the way, I'm not sure they aren't the smart ones. I get it. Most successful entrepreneurs are wired such that they are constantly at the office. Now the challenge is that once you get to a certain level of economic security, and it sounds like the individual from that book never did this, I have purposely said, okay, I did this for economic security. I wanted to take care of my mom. I wanted to take care of my family. I wanted to be more interesting to strange men and more attractive to strange women. That's why I wanted to make a lot of money, and I saw the blue flame path there was being an entrepreneur. Once I got to the point where I had economic security, I purposely tried to, and it wasn't easy, and I still have a difficult time with it, get off the hamster wheel and enjoy some of the fruits of my labor, specifically balance, specifically time with kids, specifically getting involved in some things bigger than myself that I could have an impact on, trying to spend a little bit more time giving yourself to other people. And you know, being kind isn't it's not a big effort, but it takes time. Being philanthropic takes some time. Being a good dad takes real time. But there's no getting around it. It's not like you can flip off a switch. When you're taught, when everything good that has come to you has come from working harder and busting your ass on Saturdays and Sundays since you were an adult, it's not like you can go, oh, I'm here, I'm going to stop. But again, just have an honest conversation. Where on the continuum do you want to be? If you want to be in the top 1% in terms of influence and economics, then come to grips with the fact that you're probably going to be in the top 1% in terms of stress and sacrifice. And maybe that's not where you want to be, and maybe that's not the right place. But entrepreneurship is, for me, it's... I used to go in on Sundays to make people for for morale because we were all there on Saturday, the people who showed up on Sunday, I wanted to show them that I was in it to win it as well. But it is not for the faint hearted. It requires... And... But it's true. I don't care if you're Beyonce or Barack Obama or, you know, Dario Amodei. These people are working around the fucking clock because they're not... They don't wanna be a backup singer, a VP at a tech company. They wanna have extraordinary success.
00:14:42 · Scott Galloway, David Senra
So anyways, an honest conversation with yourself around really what your... If your desires match to the requisite commitment. Any thoughts, David? [00:14:51] S2: Yeah. I actually have a question for you, Scott, before we move on. Why do you think why did you say that it cost cost your hair and your first marriage, and it's worth it? [00:15:01] S1: I have an extraordinary life now. I'm relevant. I get to do whatever I want. I get to spend a ton of time with my kids. I have an absence of stress, which makes my partnership stronger, my friendship stronger. I can walk the walk and give money away. I just have a wonderful rich life right now. And as someone who was not smart enough to be born to rich parents, I would not have this richness of life now unless I had made that type of sacrifice as a younger man.
00:15:01 · Scott Galloway, David Senra
[00:15:01] S1: I have an extraordinary life now. I'm relevant. I get to do whatever I want. I get to spend a ton of time with my kids. I have an absence of stress, which makes my partnership stronger, my friendship stronger. I can walk the walk and give money away. I just have a wonderful rich life right now. And as someone who was not smart enough to be born to rich parents, I would not have this richness of life now unless I had made that type of sacrifice as a younger man. [00:15:34] S2: Yeah. I think something you've hinted at too, which is probably true. I I think in many cases, like, the archetype and the personality type that chooses the path of entrepreneurship for their life's work, it's like they don't have any... It's not a choice. I I don't know much about Jordan Peterson, but I haven't seen any of his lectures. I saw a clip one time that definitely backs up... You know, I've spent ten years reading 439 now biographies and autobiographies of 56% entrepreneurs. And he said that successful men are insane. That even if you put them in a forest somewhere with nothing to do, they'd walk around with an axe trying to cut down trees. They just have to have some kind of activity. And I thought that was like a great, like, summary of, you know, the... These these extreme personality types that build these companies.
00:15:34 · David Senra, Scott Galloway
[00:15:34] S2: Yeah. I think something you've hinted at too, which is probably true. I I think in many cases, like, the archetype and the personality type that chooses the path of entrepreneurship for their life's work, it's like they don't have any... It's not a choice. I I don't know much about Jordan Peterson, but I haven't seen any of his lectures. I saw a clip one time that definitely backs up... You know, I've spent ten years reading 439 now biographies and autobiographies of 56% entrepreneurs. And he said that successful men are insane. That even if you put them in a forest somewhere with nothing to do, they'd walk around with an axe trying to cut down trees. They just have to have some kind of activity. And I thought that was like a great, like, summary of, you know, the... These these extreme personality types that build these companies. [00:16:12] S1: Yeah. I think that's right. And I think a lot of it's in the batter. I have one son that is studying biology, and I'm pretty sure he's gonna be a professional either in research or some sort of graduate school. My other son is waiting in line at eight in the morning on a Saturday to buy for a Pokemon card redrop and then drop and then going on AI and trying to sell them at a 30% markup. Like, that kid's an entrepreneur. We just didn't treat him that differently. There's something in the batter about entrepreneurs and non entrepreneurs.