Scott Galloway on what matters now: Work, wealth, AI, and the good life

Last Halloween, I dressed up as a chicken. I met someone dressed as an egg, and things developed between us. And we answered the eternal question: the chicken. You invited me here.

So your microphone works tonight, and my microphone doesn't work. Okay.

Okay.

I'm enjoying this a lot so far.

Okay.

Great.

Okay.

Okay.

Okay.

Deal.

First of all, it's great to be here. I studied at Berkeley. I started my first company, Profit, here. I started a company called Red Envelope. I left in 2000, but this is kind of... I lived in Potrero Hill and Noe Valley. Actually, I bought a house next to where Mark Zuckerberg lives now.

I bought it for $720,000. And two years later, I sold it for $900,000. I thought I was a real estate genius. And more than the $10 or $20 million I left on the table, I'm so angry at myself because I can't sit in front of my house in a Tommy Bahama outfit and wait for that idiot to come back and yell at him: "How many teams? How many teams laid off their members today, Mark? Come have a nice cup of tea. Come, Mark." "Oh, oh, wait. Okay." And...

What are we talking about? Did I exceed your confidence? Okay. The bottom line is...

The thing is, have I ever felt... I never felt like I deserved to be anywhere. I didn't deserve to get into UCLA. And I certainly didn't deserve to get a job at Morgan Stanley. I don't know how I passed the drug test. My GPA was 2.2. I lied about my grades, and I'm not proud of it. I can't run for president now. I didn't deserve to get into business school. I didn't deserve to start, I wasn't really qualified for anything I did. And the people who are very successful traditionally aren't qualified for what they do. So, one of the things in America is that we literally have people who came from all over the world, and they're very aggressive toward risk. And aggression toward risk means you're willing to take huge risks compared to your qualifications or the return you should get on your invested capital. So, if you're not in a position, if you're not, companies are one of two things. Either they're boring, right? And not very stressful, but they don't provide high compensation, or they're very stressful and have good compensation. So, if you want to get good compensation, a good measure for that is how much pressure am I under? And that probably means you're learning. Now, you don't want to be traumatized. You don't want to go home and think, "I just can't finish my day." But you should be a little uncomfortable, just to the point of feeling uncomfortable. I think a lot about what young men are going through right now. Basically, the internet or apps are trying to sell young people a life free of any difficulties, right? Why suffer the trouble of trying to make friends when you can use Discord and Reddit? Why wear a tie and deal with the corporate nonsense in every institution and understand its policies when you can make money from stock or crypto trading on Robinhood or Coinbase? And why on earth would you go through the experience of rejection, costs, humiliation, showering, and the effort of going out and trying to find a romantic or sexual partner when you have pornography available 24/7? And so, there's literally a generation of young people, mostly men, who have chosen a life free of trouble. And if you think about the most rewarding things in life, whether it's a promotion, or money, and most importantly, relationships, the only thing they have in common is that they're extremely difficult. It's really hard to maintain long-term friendships. Waking up next to someone and trying to find a way to enjoy or not hate spending 700 Tuesdays with that person is really hard. For example, compatibility and being friends with your mom is hard. But that feeling of victory, you know, that's the real victory when you build these long-term relationships and overcome obstacles, and find a way to deal with the policies, and find a way to save money. That's the reward, and I'm worried that we're raising a generation, mostly young men, who never reach the real victory because they've chosen a life free of trouble, where they don't test themselves, don't face discomfort, and don't develop the skills needed to succeed in life, professionally or personally. So, a certain amount of stress, disruption, and discomfort is a good thing. More specifically, my first job was at Morgan Stanley, and I would suggest to anyone to really try to test their limits physically. Because, especially when you're young and have a young body, whether male or female, the speed, agility, and strength you'll feel now are simply extraordinary. When you reach my age, you just wish you had been really strong and really fast at some point. And when I was rowing, I was on the UCLA rowing team. And at some point during the race, you feel like the oxygen or air passing through your throat is burning. You can't feel your legs. You do these mental tricks to try to stay conscious because you're about to pass out from exhaustion. That's at the 800-meter level, and every time you discover a way to reach 2000. Testing your limits, really testing your limits, is a blessing, because what you realize later in life is that when I feel like I can't take it anymore, I mean, I've visited five countries in the last nine days and I think I can't take it anymore. I'm exhausted. Or when your heart breaks and you say, "Oh my God, I tried hard. I can't take this anymore." Or when you're banging your head against the wall trying to convince clients, or anything else, and you think, "I can't take it anymore." That means you're at the 800-meter level, and you've only covered about 40% of the way to your actual maximum. And that gives you confidence. And one of the things I did, in my first job at Morgan Stanley, I was living at home with my mom, and I didn't have a girlfriend, not even a dog. I thought, "I know." I wasn't as well-educated as the rest of my colleagues. There were 87 young men. My GPA at UCLA was 2.27. The only thing I learned in college was how to make smoking devices from household items, and memorize every line from "Planet of the Apes." Those were my skills when I graduated from UCLA. And suddenly, I was pitted against smart, well-trained young men. And I thought, "What's my edge?" And you all should ask yourselves that when you join any company. What's my edge? What's the one thing I can bring? And I thought, "Okay, my emotional intelligence is low, and I'm more anxious, and I'm not smart enough, and I'm not well-educated." I went through a series of things in my mind. Then I thought, "I know how to punish myself better than anyone else." I have a higher tolerance. I can take more pain. And for two consecutive years, I would go into the Morgan Stanley office on Tuesday at 9 a.m. and stay until 6 p.m. on Wednesday. And I told myself, maybe you can't do that now, Morgan Stanley may have fired you, but I basically sent a signal that I'm here to compete seriously. And that gave me a reputation that was very valuable to me. But I believe that being in certain situations, if you're not in a position where you feel some discomfort and like a fraud, you know, there's a great line from "Mad Men." It's a saying in Japan, you're the reflection of the room you're in. So, yes, a sign of discomfort and pressure probably means you're making progress. But if it's unproductive pressure from an unproductive relationship, or you feel you're being treated badly, or you spend an hour and a half commuting each way, or you're in an abusive relationship, you need to bring in trusted third parties to tell you how to reduce that pressure. But I believe a little pressure at work is natural, because I can't count how much pressure I've been under in my career. And I was working all the time, huge pressure. I promise I'll get back to the discussion. Huge pressure. I barely remember San Francisco. I was really working all the time. I don't remember anything. I pretended to have hobbies. I told people I rowed. You know, I was working around the clock. It was the internet era, in the nineties. I didn't want to save the whales, I didn't want to be a good person, I wanted to make a lot of money. And the only thing, I'm an economic creature, that's all I wanted. I wanted to take care of my mom, and I wanted to be more interesting to strangers, and I wanted to be more attractive to strange women. And I believed the way you do that in America is by having a lot of money. I'll get there, and the only thing I can control is how hard I work. I don't even remember being here. I lived here for 10 years. I think I went to Zuni Cafe once, I think I remember that. I think I went to one Giants game. Other than that, work was everything all the time. It cost me my hair, it cost me my marriage, and it was worth it.

Yes, it's going to be very hard to predict the future, right? When my kids were attending expensive schools or we were trying to get them into expensive schools, and I have, let's talk about me. When my child was four, we applied to seven prestigious private schools and were rejected from all seven because of his speech delay. But the story ended well. We just got him into the University of Virginia. But I felt such resentment and anger toward New York City that we moved to Florida. But regarding trying to predict the future, all the schools back then were saying in their promotional materials: "We have Mandarin and computer science courses." How did things go? Nobody knows. So, I don't advise you... if you're really good at something, I mean, okay, if you're a customer service manager, you might want to think about the future direction. There are certain things... but according to all the AI gods, 12 months ago it was said there would be no radiologists this year. That was the job everyone said would disappear. The number of job opportunities for radiologists has increased. Why? Because radiologists who use AI can greatly reduce the cost of exams, and when exams become cheaper, people start doing more of them, which requires more radiologists. As far as I understand, computer scientists and programmers were supposed to have disappeared by now, right? As far as I understand and according to LinkedIn, there are more ads or openings for computer scientists now, as long as you're skilled in AI. I believe your mission is not to try to predict the future and move toward it. You know, real estate was a hot field when I was graduating from business school. What I suggest is that your mission is to find something you're really good at. And to use AI and any available tools to become a warrior in it. AI won't take your job. A person skilled in using AI will take your job. But just... your job at your age, and I see a lot of young people, is to find something you can be in the top 10%. Then within 5 years, maybe become in the top 1% within 10 years. And apply perseverance, grit, emotional intelligence, and relationships to try to reach the top 10% or top 1% in a field with a 90%+ employment rate. Whether you want to be a jewelry designer, or an athlete, or work in sports, or fashion, not entertainment, or food industry, or hospitality, anything that looks great from afar. Just know that you'll get a lower return on your human capital. I don't want to, I don't want to crush your dreams. People come to me and say: "I'm dying to work for the Jets team." "I have to work," and I say: "Great." "You'll earn half of what someone working in a boring institution earns." So, how do you get to the top ten? How do you get to the 1% in a boring industry? The more boring the industry, the higher the return on investment, right? When I first heard about what you do, I didn't say: "I'm going to get excited about it." I said: "Wow, this looks great." "Wow, I want to spend time with these guys, right?" Which means you probably save time and money. Which means you make a lot of money. My investment process: a friend of mine last week in New York told me: "I'm opening an exclusive members' club for artists, and I know these celebrities, and there will be, you know, people from the fashion industry, and I want you to be the founding investor." I said: "No, I'll be a founding member, but I don't invest in anything that looks great." I was just offered an AI for programming MRI maintenance. It looks like a company where if you worked there, you'd want to put a gun in your mouth. Take my money. So, you want to invest where others don't invest. And more than anything else, you want to be... it's not about trying to know what the future will be. I believe that's really hard. Um, when I was graduating from business school, a lot of young people went to Russia. Russia was opening up to capitalism, and all these natural resources. I'm not exaggerating. I had a small class at Haas, maybe 220 students. 15 students left for Russia because it was going to be the next big thing. As you know, shattered dreams, right? They all came back. Nobody knows. What we know is that being really good at something pays off. I... so, I won't try to guess. And after that, you know, other things, when you're young, really try to be as social as possible. Because, you know, Google did a study where they posted jobs, and they received 200 resumes in 7 minutes, so they closed the application, and brought in the top 20 qualified people. In 70% of cases, the person gets the job because they have an advocate inside the company. So I joke with job seekers: you know, drink more. Go out with your friends and build as many relationships and connections as possible. Be direct with people. "I'm looking for a job, if you hear of any opportunities, let me know." And if you have a job, and you have an opportunity to do a favor for a friend, do it. Especially when you're young, because goodwill and relationships accumulate and grow. I have friends I met in college, I don't love them and they don't love me. Yet I'd do anything for them. Because we were kind to each other and we were friends when we were 22. You know, all those TikTok videos that say if you save five dollars a day when you're 18, you'll be a billionaire by your marriage or something like that. Relationships work the same way. This is your chance to start investing very early. The key to success is being mentioned in a room full of opportunities when you're not there, and that all depends on relationships. And in conclusion, the only remaining skill, if I could give my children any skill, it's storytelling. Your ability to stand on stage, create content, analyze data, build a narrative, and your ability to move people's emotions through words. Storytellers, and this is fundamental to human survival, because whoever knew how to draw on the cave wall to say: "Plant the crops when the sun is here." "Don't go there, they're evil and they'll kill you." The people who were singing, storytelling is rooted in our human being. And that's why Mick Jagger can date a 35-year-old girl. Because if you're a skilled storyteller, humanity wants your seeds to continue. This is very important from an anthropological point of view. It's the continuing skill, your ability to approach people, and attract them, whether by being friendly or smiling, or by your personal gravitas, and your ability to tell a story that captures others' attention. If I had to bet on one skill, it would be that skill.

Thank you.

Yes.

You know, I built... in fact, I never managed to scale a company. I founded semi-successful companies, and sold companies I started for millions of dollars. I sold one company for $160 million, but I never succeeded in taking a company to a billion. And I sit on the boards of many companies. Um, look, it may seem old-fashioned, but the team with the best players wins. The ability and culture to attract great people and keep them.