The 3 Biggest Business Opportunities For People In Their 20s | Scott Galloway

Scott Galloway

I look at this category and how much money is in this category. It's gonna happen. There's never been a business, there's never been a carcass so tempting, so bloated, swimming so slowly.

Shaan Puri

Alright, we just asked Scott Galloway if he were 25 years old again, what businesses he would start. This guy has started, I think, nine businesses and sold one for over $100 million. We asked him, "If you were 25, what would you do? What are the ideas, the opportunities, the trends that you would take advantage of?" He gave us two answers. He said if he had no college degree, no fancy education, he would do this. And he said if he had a fancy degree instead, he would do this other thing. It was very cool to hear where his head's at regarding the small opportunities and the big ones—what he called the multi-billion-dollar carcass that he can't believe nobody has disrupted yet. On top of that, we asked him about his finances. We talked about when he sold his companies and made his first few million dollars, then tens of millions of dollars, all the way up to how he got over $100 million, how he lost it along the way, and what were the key moments that allowed him to reach those heights with his own finances. You know, I've seen probably 100 interviews with Scott Galloway, and I never heard him reveal these numbers or talk about this so openly. In fact, at one...

Shaan Puri

He goes, "I'm naked here! I'm naked here, guys. You gotta tell me something." And so, very, very good interview with Scott Galloway. Enjoy!

Sam Parr

Welcome to the pod! I've been listening to you for a very long time. I was a fan of yours starting, I think, with L2 and the "No Mercy, No Malice" videos. The reason I've liked you is that I find myself looking up to you. You might be 15 or 20 years older than me, but I think we have a lot of very similar characteristics, which are erectile dysfunction... not yet, anger, and depression. I have hair, but you're pretty buff. You might be buffer than me, and I admire you for that.

Scott Galloway

thanks for that

Sam Parr

like you like to post shirtless pics and I like you for that

Scott Galloway

I do

Sam Parr

But you're very hard to peg down politically. You're kind of all over the map when it comes to that. You also have beautiful language. I'm a big fan of beautiful language, and you've got beautiful language. You're better than I am, so I look up to you for that. You started a bunch of really amazing businesses, but you're kind of known—like I told you—we did this episode where we talked about your personal finances. You mentioned spending $200,000 to $400,000 a month, and people were like, "I didn't know Scott was so rich." I was like, "No, he created a bunch of really big companies." But you're more famous for being like Scott Galloway, the brand, and I think that’s pretty cool. So, you've done a bunch of really interesting stuff.

Shaan Puri

This is the whole episode, by the way. It's just Sam complimenting you. It's like a reverse roast, actually. So you just sit there and you just get compliments. At the end of the hour, you know, you feel good. That's what happens here.

Scott Galloway

yeah so far I just let me say I'm really enjoying this

Shaan Puri

it's like a verbal massage

Scott Galloway

this is this works for me anyways go on

Shaan Puri

keep going sal

Sam Parr

Well, like, I could read these sentences and I'm like, "That's a beautiful line. I love that." I just love how he's coming up with that stuff. But yeah, I mean, I think it's really good. What's crazy is you've had a better career as a business person.

Scott Galloway

And I would say the key to my success is **rejection**. I've had a lot of rejection from the marketplace, businesses, and capital providers, especially from women. My skill is my ability to endure that and move on without losing my sense of enthusiasm. I've learned that the ability to mourn and move on is key. The wonderful thing about America is that we don't embrace failure; that's **bullshit**. But we tolerate it. I know so many really successful people who, after achieving success, try something on their own, and when it doesn't work, they get stuck. They lose their mojo and can't get past it. They can't handle the "bullet to the chest" or the "bullet to the arm," which becomes an opportunistic infection that starts damaging everything about them. That's my only skill. I'm really into my dogs. I started an e-commerce company; I want to be the Williams Sonoma of pet supplies. I put $1,000,000 of my own money in and sold it for about $1,500,000. So, I made some money—not a lot. I started another e-commerce company and a travel site, selling that for a little bit of money. I've had a lot of ups and downs. For instance, I drove into a wall at 200 miles per hour. I started a company called Red Envelope, which went public on the NASDAQ in 2002. Because I was young and dumb, I kept investing. I got into a war with the board, did a proxy fight, and took over the board, putting more of my money in. Then 2008 came, and there was a longshoreman strike and a software malfunction at the warehouse, where we sent 10,000 gifts to the wrong addresses over the holidays. A Wells Fargo analyst, who was like 14, decided the credit crisis was coming and pulled our line. My stock went from $7 to $0 in about 11 days. When the company declared Chapter 11, I lost pretty much everything.

Shaan Puri

Do you remember how much money you had when you felt that tipping point? When did you feel financially secure? Not like bulletproof, where nothing will ever happen, but do you remember the inflection point? Where you were like, "Okay, this feels different than I've felt on the climb."

Scott Galloway

I still don't... I still haven't hit that. I'm still very anxious about money. You know, I had... and I like to be very open about money because I think that not talking about it is basically a decorum that is promoted by the incumbents and the wealthy. This keeps poor and middle-class people under the illusion that, "Oh, you should be paying 45% taxes while I'm paying 17%." I think it's important to be very transparent. I talk about how much money I've lost on my investments, how much money I've gained, my tax rates, etc. But, you know, I'm still... I'm not obsessed with money. I think about it all the time. I'm trying to get a lot more. Five years ago, I decided I was going to give away every dollar I made in current income because I want to start catching up to the non-philanthropic Scott from the first 45 years of his life. But I'm still trying to make a ton of money. I still feel financially very insecure. I still worry about a recession becoming a depression. And I'm the guy who lost it again. I've lost it all a couple of times, and so I don't feel I'm at that point yet.

Scott Galloway

Where I don't have financial anxiety, I do sleep with one eye open. The big thing is, you know, I sold my first company for **$28,000,000**. By the time I split it with my ex, my partner, and taxes, I ended up with a few million dollars. I got a few million there, but I always seem to figure out a way to lose it. However, I was able to start again because I never had debt. I've always lived below my means. I would say the big win was probably selling L2. I thought, "Oh wow, I can buy a plane!" That was not in my reach before, so that was kind of the big one where all the moons aligned.

Sam Parr

what was the price what it sell for 200 or $300,000,000

Scott Galloway

No, it sold for $158,000,000, but we'd only done one round of venture capital. So, you know, the common shareholders... I was the largest equity owner. Between me and the top six employees, we probably owned 70% of it. So that was a lot of money for me. I'd never had that kind of money before. I'd always done well, but I'd never had that kind of capital. Then, getting to invest that in the midst of a bull market... We sold in 2017. You know, I've made more money investing, actually, than I've made from my businesses. I have a book coming out in March about financial security and the ability to create an army of capital. Even if it's only $50 a month or $100 a month, put it in a tax-deferred or tax-efficient vehicle, diversify it, and then let time take over. You don't know how fast time is going to go. That's where I built real wealth.

Hubspot

Our software is the worst. Have you heard of HubSpot? See, most CRMs are a cobbled together mess, but HubSpot is easy to adopt and actually looks gorgeous. I think I love our new CRM. Our software is the best. **HubSpot: Grow Better.**

Sam Parr

This doesn't make sense for Sean because Sean is not worried about money at all. He's got this thing that I like to call **good emotional health**. He's very emotionally healthy. His parents did well by him, and he's talked to me about this. I sold my company 2 or 3 years ago, and I made a fair bit. What did you make?

Scott Galloway

I'm like I'm naked here what did you make

Shaan Puri

yeah let's go let's go sam

Scott Galloway

you gotta say he's hesitant he's hesitant because he's worried people listen to me okay go ahead

Sam Parr

at the end of the the process I walked away with about $20,000,000

Scott Galloway

and and how old are you

Sam Parr

I was about 30 I was 31 or 32

Scott Galloway

So, you should be extraordinary. Unless you really screw up, you should be much wealthier than I am by my age because to get that...

Sam Parr

Certain capital raises feel **shitty**. I feel the same. I still felt awesome for a minute, and then I felt **shitty**. When I see these world events right now, when I saw whatever happens every six months, I'm like, "The world's gonna end." And I do like an... I'm boring. Sean makes fun of me.

Shaan Puri

of me

Sam Parr

I do 80 20 index and bonds that that's the I only own those

Scott Galloway

exactly what you should be doing right now

Sam Parr

I think so. I own HubSpot stock still, and then I own Airbnb stock. That's basically my portfolio. Sean makes fun of me. He's like, "How are you feeling insecure?" I'm like, "Dude, I'm broken. I'm broken." It doesn't matter how much therapy I go to; I'm just a... I'm broke when it comes to money. I have a scarcity mindset, and I'm broken.

Scott Galloway

yeah I'm the same way

Sam Parr

And when you talk about how you're worth, you know, $100,000,000+, and you don't feel secure, Sean said, "What a little bitch." You know, like, if you talk about masculinity, man up. You know what I mean? Yeah, like, I have the same thing. I'm like, I can't... so I'll give you, I'm weak.

Shaan Puri

But the only thing I would say is just, I mean, both of you guys are obviously super smart. It's sort of irrational that you're feeling that way. I guess the question I would have, Scott, is like, you know, you actually are financially secure now, right? It would take a lot for you to get to the point where you're not able to fund your lifestyle or provide for your family or whatever.

Scott Galloway

at this at this.

Shaan Puri

So, you know that anxiety is somewhat irrational. You're a very smart guy, and you've clearly done the self-development work in a bunch of other areas of your life. I'm just surprised that I can't tell. Is it just one of these virtue signaling things where you're like, "Hey guys, I'm still like you. I still sweat it"? I'm like, "Oh, is that what these guys are doing? They're just trying to relate to the common man?" Or are you actually just not fixing that irrational part of your brain and just being like, you know, working on that, getting it right? Which one is it?

Scott Galloway

Yeah, so first off, the neurosis is real. It's not a humble brag; it's part of a brag, but it's not a humble brag. The neurosis is real, but it's also a feature as well as a bug. I'm all over the people managing my money. I know where my money is. I think a lot about diversifying. Sam, what you're doing is exactly what you should be doing. You're not just looking to get richer; more than anything, you're looking to not get poor. The mistake I made at your age, when I had some wins, was that I would double down. I would start another company and put all my money into one thing. Quite frankly, you should be selling down your Airbnb and your HubSpot stock and just letting it go. You don't need the needle in a haystack; you just need to buy the whole haystack because you've got enough capital.

Sam Parr

I have a price target. I have a number where I'm like, "When we get to around this, we're gonna get out of those."

Scott Galloway

Yeah, but I would... I mean, a longer conversation, but shantier. I think about financial insecurity a lot. It is still very possible. You know, there have been periods in economic history where, if you're invested, you can lose most or all of it. I've put a little bit of pressure on myself because—and this is virtue signaling—I give a lot of money away. But yeah, I don't... and also, I have a really nice lifestyle. But no, the insecurity is still there. I was always financially insecure growing up, and I just don't know if that goes away. But I think some of it is a good thing. I have my eye on stuff. I think about it a lot. It's like, if you want to be good at money, if you want to be good at anything—if you want to be good at tennis, if you want to be good at stamp collecting—you need to think about it a lot. It doesn't... you know, Roger Federer thinks about tennis a lot. A lot. And if you want to be good at money, I think you have to have a certain amount of financial literacy. You have to understand interest rates. You have to be thinking, "Wait, when my mortgage rolls in 14 months, is it going to go from 2.25% to 7%?" Oh wait, it is. Does that mean I should be thinking about selling it, paying off my mortgage? You just... if you want to be wealthy, unless you're extraordinarily talented at something—I mean extraordinarily talented—and also can live below your means. Most extraordinarily talented people have a tough time living below their means. It's not how much you make; it's how much you spend and your ability to create a delta. So you always say, "Live below your means." Yeah, the insecurity is real. I still am very fearful of being broke. I don't want to go back there. And now I'm getting to an age, right? I don't have that much time to make it back. So no, the insecurity... the insecurity is real.

Sam Parr

What helps is that you have cash flow now. Like a lot of startup people, you're poor, you're poor, you're poor, and then you're poor for seven years. Then you maybe, hopefully, have an exit. You get a windfall, and it feels good for a little while. But then you're like, "But there's no more income." What changed for me, because of this podcast and Sean, is that this podcast has done well. In a few other things we have going on in our life, we actually have regular, yeah, really great cash flow. You have the same, yeah. That has made me feel better. It's like getting checks every month and seeing the balance go up on a consistent basis. There's a difference between entrepreneurs, I found, between those who sell and just make windfalls versus those who have a business that they fully own and are able to take out income every quarter or every year. Having that cash flow definitely makes me feel better.

Scott Galloway

Oh, no doubt. You always want to be making money, and also, it keeps you in shape. Being subject to trying to make as much money as you spend, or ideally more, at any age keeps you in the market. You have to understand what the market values and doesn't value. It keeps you... it's how I think it keeps me. Exercise keeps me, and hopefully, it’s going to keep me sort of young. Understanding how to create something in the marketplace, whether it's a podcast, a book, or a talk, that people are willing to pay for keeps me in the game. It keeps me in the ring; it keeps me in shape. So, I think it's really important. And also, you're right. If at the end of the year, you know, okay, even if my investments are down 20 or 30%, which they were last year, I'm still making, you know, almost as much or more than I spend. You do get huge comfort and peace from that.

Shaan Puri

You know, one of the things we like to do on this podcast that’s different from most is that we ask every guest who comes on about what they’re seeing now. So far, we’ve talked about the past, and most podcasts are just about your past—how did you do it? But we like to talk about trends, opportunities, and business. What business would you be starting, or do you see as something people could start now? Right? Like, if you go on "Hot Ones," you eat hot wings. If you come on "MFM," you talk about ideas and opportunities. That’s sort of the shtick. In fact, we almost canceled this podcast because we didn’t know if you were prepped and ready with that. But Sam said, "No, no, no, he’s good. He’s good off the cuff; he’ll be ready." What opportunities or ideas do you see today that either you’re tempted to do, or you say, "No, I’m out of the game," but if I was 25 again, this is what I would be running at. This is what I would be working on. This is a problem that I think somebody could go solve. What do you see out there today?

Scott Galloway

so first off a lot of it is situational right someone coming out of someone with a degree from an elite university who has the ability whose parents will support them and doesn't have a high burn or maybe a partner that works you know it's just a lot of it's situational I I don't like it I've never liked this hustle culture where people say go offer to carry jeff bezos bags or have coffee because some if you're a single mother that's just not an option for you so some of it's situational so I'll go through a few situations if I'm a young man or woman and I haven't had the opportunity to get credentialed I don't have a traditional 4 year college degree much less a college degree from a legal institution I think there are gonna be a lot of businesses whether it's carpet cleaning or gas stations or you know hanging and selling draperies into small furniture companies that are owned by boomers they're gonna need transition nice small businesses and these individuals will need liquidity events and they're just aging out of the business they don't you know they're hitting their sixties seventies and they don't wanna be calling on car washes to sell in you know their product or whatever it is and these are businesses doing between half a 1000000 and 10,000,000 a year that have no succession strategy because if they made money their kids don't wanna be in this type of business because their kid went to emory and wants to go to work at Google and I would try and find be really scrappy about getting into a business understanding it trying to find people who own it and figure out a way to buy it using that person's capital approach somebody and say I wanna take over your business I'm gonna buy it slowly over 5 years and then I'm gonna give you coupons so you can retire if I'm a credentialed person if I have a degree I'm fortunate enough I would go to work for a big platform I think we live in an era of of where antitrust is no longer in effect so the big companies if you were to divide the stock market into deciles the 10 the companies with the largest market cap over the last 30 years have outperformed the bottom 9 by huge factor so going to work for a big company is vastly underrated they can abuse their monopoly position they will have that mole removed you will get rich slowly working at Google or at mckinsey so if you're credentialed you know we over romanticize entrepreneurship if you have the ability to get into the greatest wealth creating vehicle in history and that is a us corporation do it but they have security at the front saying do you have a degree from an elite college but if you do absolutely go to work for a big multinational conglomerate if you're an entrepreneur I think that and credentialed and can raise money I would say that the intersection between ai and healthcare the most disruptable business in the world is us healthcare 3 and a half to $4,000,000,000,000 4 out of 5 people aren't happy with it its costs have outpaced inflation for the last 40 years meaning it's got the biggest chin in the world and I think the fist of stone coming for it are is artificial intelligence where we can take healthcare from a defensive based industry to offensive I give my grocery receipts my workout routine my healthcare records my sleep patterns to a company that figures it all out and then gives me prescripted goes on offense proactive lifestyle grocery and exercise recommendations and I think there's just gonna be a ton of niche businesses in healthcare that leverage some form

Sam Parr

of ai are there any out there that you like

Scott Galloway

Yeah, I'm an investor in a company called 98.6. It does text-based healthcare. It's a private company, so we sell into B2B. A big company, you know, Sam's, offers it for $3 a month to every employee. We charge them $3 for the ability to text somebody, and then AI says, "Okay, that's a rash. We're getting a dermatologist on the line." They look at the rash using your smartphone and say, "This is fine. I'm sending you a cream," or "This needs a prescription. We're hitting the pharmacy." By the way, that investment I've written down by 80%. It's been really hard, and I've lost money so far on that. So I don't want to pretend that this is all easy. But I would say if I were young and had intellectual capital and credentialing, I would go into something around AI and healthcare.

Sam Parr

Man, well, that shocks me that you said that. When I look at the healthcare landscape, it seems impossible. I've done a few healthcare projects, and there seems to be a ton of regulation. Figuring out insurance companies seems like the hardest thing there is. Even though everyone is frustrated with their setup, this seems like a very challenging space to crack into. Of course, there are huge rewards if you can pull it off, but it seems very, very challenging.

Scott Galloway

I just look at this category and how much money is in this category. It's going to happen. There's never been a business, there's never been a carcass so tempting, so bloated, swimming so slowly as U.S.-based health care. We spend $13,000 per person, but we die earlier, we're obese, and we're more depressed. The UK spends $6,500. How can the UK and Australia be living longer and spending half of what we in the U.S. spend on health care? That's just the mother of all challenges. There's going to be disruption there, and I want to get in the way of that. The other thing I'm really excited about, and I think is the most underhyped, I just did a blog post on this. I think GLP-1 is bigger than GPT-4. What's GLP-1? Ozempic, Wegovy.

Sam Parr

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I’ve tested semaglutide a ton. It’s amazing! I think there are so many crazy implications on what it could do. I’ve been saying this—I don’t know much, by the way, other than I tested it and I had drinking problems in the past. I think it could help solve alcoholism. There are so many crazy things. There was this guy on Twitter, our buddy from CB Insights, who said, “Food companies are going to lose money because people are eating less,” and he said, “Airline companies are going to make more money because people weigh less.” He’s like, “That’s how big of a deal these drugs are.”

Scott Galloway

I was starting a hedge fund right now I would have a fund that did nothing but go short food stocks mcdonald's nobody walks into arby's and looks around and thinks this was a good decision no one ever thinks that and if all of a sudden I could get an injection or take a pill every week that helped me make better decisions our instincts have not caught up to the institutional production of our economy we drink too much we eat any anytime we're near salt fat or sugar we gorge because for 99 again 99% of our species' history we couldn't find these things when mating the the majority of men have had almost no mating opportunities through history a small minority of men have had all the mating opportunities and then you're presented with a reasonable facsimile of sex called porn and there's a there's a decent segment of men out there who aren't working aren't getting out of the house because they're staying home and watching too much porn and they're also not engaging in relationships we drink too much I'm addicted to other people's affirmation my kid is on snap too much this could be scaffolding I mean the weight loss thing is arguably the biggest addressable market in the world 40% of america is obese 70% is obese and overweight but even bigger than that this could be the scaffolding on our instincts to update our instincts to where they need to be within in the industrial production that has gone exponential in the last 100 150 years with assembly line technology and the microprocessor and say okay Scott you like thc too much you like alcohol way too much you're too desperate for other people's affirmation and what people say about you on twitter bumps you out way too much we're gonna calibrate these glp one drugs to help you moderate your cravings I mean what these things do is they moderate your cravings when your cravings are getting the incorrect signals from 300000 years of instinct on on the savanna and everybody I mean they're finding out they're finding out people on ozempic drink 60% less alcohol they're biting their nails less so the opportunity to update our instincts for the entire I mean the market I'm just like I'm blown away by this thing I think it could be just enormous and there isn't anybody that doesn't have that has instincts that that has a behavioral model that is that is driven by instinct that is caught up to our world I don't care who you are have you tried it I haven't but as you can tell I'm ready

Shaan Puri

yeah jeez I feel like you just injected me digitally just now with it that was amazing

Shaan Puri

you know

Sam Parr

how much it costs a month

Scott Galloway

it's about $1,000 a month right

Sam Parr

It's between $500 and $1,000 a month. When I was trying it, it was $500 a month out of pocket. Most insurance companies, and I think if you have diabetes, they actually only cover it for a limited time. But most people using it now are just paying $500 to $1,000 a month. And here's the crazy thing about this drug: you have to increase your dosage every week. You start with a very small amount, and every two weeks or so, you have to increase it.

Shaan Puri

like forever

Sam Parr

Well, I don't know about forever, but over the course of at least a year, you have to... So, when I first started taking it, I would test out just a little bit, and it would make me a little bit sick to my stomach. There are a few downsides; one is an upset stomach. After about three weeks, I thought, "Alright, I feel great. Let's increase it." Now, at the end of six months, you're taking ten times more. You're basically on a syringe; you have to fill it up to 100. At first, you fill it up to 10, and over a year, you have to increase it. So, you have to pay more and more money.

Shaan Puri

what could go wrong

Shaan Puri

there's a

Sam Parr

lot of things that can go wrong with that

Shaan Puri

I I

Sam Parr

I've tested it. One downside is I actually don't know if you develop healthy eating habits; you just eat less.

Scott Galloway

and you lose muscle

Sam Parr

You lose muscle. There are definitely downsides to it. It's not a terribly new drug; I think that these types of things have been around for like 30 years. So, there are some studies, but as it's being prescribed now, it's definitely new-ish. There are definitely going to be downsides, but it's super promising. Another one is Metformin, which isn't in the same category entirely, but it does similar things. That's super interesting. I always think it's interesting when people like Sam Altman—these geniuses who see everything—take it. He's been like, "This is the drug I take. I take Metformin all the time." So, that's super fascinating. I agree; I think this classification of drugs is quite interesting.

Scott Galloway

I mean, I was even thinking... I'm trying to figure out the second-order effects here. Does Moderna's stock go down 80%? The reality is, through the pandemic, the far right weaponized and politicized masks and vaccines. They decided, "Well, if you take them, it means you're far left." So, if you're far right, you don't want to take these things. On the far left, we weaponized and politicized obesity. We didn't want to acknowledge that 88% of mortalities had at least one comorbidity that was obesity-related. We started with this trope of, "Oh, you're not obese; you're finding your truth." No, you're not; you're finding diabetes. There's nothing to celebrate here. We decided we didn't want to have an open conversation about the fact that America is obese. **40% of kids** are more likely to commit suicide due to obesity. It's terrible. You're much more likely to be depressed as an adult, not go to college, and become more likely to kill yourself. So, what happens to Moderna's stock if, all of a sudden, we drastically reduce obesity in America? You drastically reduce the vulnerability of the population to a coronavirus. So, do you need Moderna? I mean, at some...

Scott Galloway

The reality is, a 25-year-old who's thin... yeah, you get vaccinated for a variety of reasons, but it's not as obvious whether you need these vaccines when society is healthy and not obese. I mean, I'm just kind of blown away. Hospital networks—entire hospital networks—go out of business if they're really honest. The Milken Institute said obesity-related costs are **$1.7 trillion** a year. When you look at everything from knee replacements to cardiac issues to cancers that are obesity-related, we're looking at **$1.7 trillion** a year. That's **7%** of our economy. So, what happens when the entire economy gets a cost cut of **7%**? I want to get kind of near this technology. I think this technology is going to have a bigger impact on the real economy than AI. I think we've kind of hit peak AI. I love it; I use it a lot, but it's a little bit overhyped right now. We're definitely... I would say about a month ago, we hit peak AI in terms of an investor standpoint. I would not want to be buying into AI companies right now. As an entrepreneur, I'd want to be raising money for an AI company. But anyways, you asked me what I was excited about. I'm trying to find a baby boomer that wants to sell a small business and do seller financing. If you have certification, you're fortunate enough for whatever reason—either you have rich parents or you're freakishly remarkable and you ended up at Dartmouth—go to work for a big American company. They are amazing! You'll get rich slowly. It's a smart place to meet mentors and mates. These companies are totally underrated in terms of their power and what they can do for you professionally and economically. If you're an entrepreneur, something around healthcare and AI... and I think from an investment standpoint, I just want to be near it. I'm very excited about GLP-1 as an emerging technology.

Sam Parr

we need to get you to start taking it so we can just

Shaan Puri

Well, have you not taken it because you're afraid of the side effects? Or have you not taken it because you're like, "I'm already cut, I don't need this"?

Scott Galloway

Oh no, I'd like... I think I don't know this, but who "GOP 1" should reach right now is poor and middle-income households that are obese. That's where the greatest societal benefit would be right now. Who I think is probably driving the sales are rich people who want to lose the last 10 or 20 pounds. That's my gut feeling. My gut is that the people taking it right now are the Hollywood types... 100%.

Sam Parr

Dude, I went to CVS the other day. I had to get the whooping cough vaccine, and I had to wait for an hour to get it. Five people were in line. The worst thing about CVS and Walgreens is they say out loud, "Oh, are you here to pick up your Cymbalta?" They say it really loud, and I'm like, "What the fuck?" Five people had lied, and it was all older people who looked like they had diabetes. They were like, "Oh, are you here for the Ozempic?" They say what the pricing is, and they go, "Alright, I'll pay it." These people, it was like the white New Balance crowd. It wasn't like a high-end crowd; they didn't look like yuppies. They were swiping their cards.

Scott Galloway

just jump up and yell chlamydia oh wait you said something else

Sam Parr

I hate that about the pharmacies is

Shaan Puri

what they say

Sam Parr

I'm like can you I'm like did you shut the fuck up

Shaan Puri

Scott, this could be your philanthropy thing. You should be giving away GOP 1 to the masses. That could be your moment. Nobody's on that train.

Scott Galloway

So, you inspired a thought. When I was 19, I had terrible acne growing up, and it was a real source of enormous insecurity for me. I was painfully thin; I looked like Ichabod Crane with bad skin, and it was just really, really painful. I was starting to get scars on my face because my acne was so bad. I started taking Accutane, and it was around the time I made the crew team at UCLA. I put on a bunch of weight and a bunch of muscle, and my skin cleared up. It literally changed my life. It just changed my life, not only because people were more attracted to me, but also because I started having...

Shaan Puri

sex which was a wonderful thing in my

Scott Galloway

Life... but I just felt so much better about myself acting. I'm like, "Take this as you want; I don't mean to offend you, but if you heard... you know, there's great drugs for this." So I'm out there basically trying to prescribe, not as an unlicensed doctor. I don't know what made me think of that, but this drug, that drug... literally, I found the guy who invented it. This guy who sold the patent to Hoffman-La Roche. I tried to write him a letter, and they're like, "Oh, he's dead, but we appreciate the letter anyways." Anyways, no, I haven't taken it. I do take creatine. I struggle with... no one's gonna feel bad about this, but I struggle with keeping weight on.

Sam Parr

creatine's all the rage

Scott Galloway

right now

Shaan Puri

I've made a bunch of money, and I just don't feel good. God, it's hard for me to put weight on; I just keep losing it. So, you're 2 for 2 on unlikable hate.

Scott Galloway

Yeah, cry me a river, boss. Yeah, give me a river. I'm too rich and too thin. Yeah, Professor Punchable. You got Professor Punchable? I hate that guy. I hate that guy.

Shaan Puri

Well, you didn't get a lot of punches. There's the... what's it called? The inverse... the inverse. Oh.

Scott Galloway

the the atl index

Shaan Puri

the inverse galloway index

Shaan Puri

what what do you

Shaan Puri

think about that that's pretty good I I like that

Sam Parr

yeah and the craziest call was the macy's the macy's call that was a crazy

Scott Galloway

I'm going to apologize in advance, but I'm going to sound defensive. The Macy's call was... I said that multichannel retail was the future of marketing. I mentioned this about 10 years ago in Germany at a talk. I said that Macy's, which had a great website and stores, represented that future. In the same talk, I also stated, "I believe Amazon will buy stores," and I predicted, "I think Amazon will buy Whole Foods." However, my detractors don't take that clip; they take the clip where I said, "The future looks more like Macy's," which is the anti-Galloway ETF or index. It's a bit cherry-picked because I know my picks, and they've actually done pretty well. But the reality is...

Sam Parr

The index says that since October 4, 2019, tech companies that the professor has predicted would fail have outperformed the S&P and seen a whopping 61% return, even excluding Tesla.

Scott Galloway

when was that published

Sam Parr

I don't know

Scott Galloway

Because I think I... well, one, I picked some companies that would lose, that skyrocketed, specifically Tesla. But I think someone who tracks it, as of last year, the end of last year, because a lot of those stocks got hammered, it was up again. But I want to be clear: I get it wrong all the time, and someone who makes predictions like me should be held accountable. What I find, though, is that people stop tracking the index when there's no longer a story there. I mean, this is what I've found when I talk about... when I say that I think that Tesla is overvalued, by the way.

Shaan Puri

You're right. The last update on one of these, the Inverse Gallery Index, was on 2/28/2022, which I believe is correct.

Scott Galloway

interested because the narrative's lower than that

Shaan Puri

started to turn

Scott Galloway

Yeah, because quite frankly, the index is probably overperforming right now, and no one's interested in that. The people who invented the index, what I find generally, especially on Twitter, is when I am disparaging about a company or cryptocurrency, the people who are long that start engaging in not only professional assassination but character assassination. Whenever someone really comes after me, I'm like, they must be an investor in one of the companies I have been critical of. I would say, "Don't ever get in between a venture capitalist and their second million," because they will take to Twitter and call you a plagiarist or accuse you of having done terrible things at NYU, which you've never ever been accused of, much less that people have found you guilty of.

Sam Parr

what what did they accuse you of

Scott Galloway

I'm not even gonna go there I've been accused of everything

Sam Parr

like behavior stuff or just getting pics wrong

Scott Galloway

Oh, I know it gets really ugly. Then you click on the Twitter account, and it's a picture of a dog. It's an anonymous account. I think that there are venture capitalists who you know fairly well. When I'm talking about this company, this cryptocurrency, this coin, the underlying technology—there is no underlying technology. They are funding it with their brand name so that they can dump it because they don't have to disclose their sales. They hire a PR agency that creates 10,000 bots and then creates a list of people who don't think Kumrocket is going to replace the dollar.

Sam Parr

here I've got a good shirt that you can wear for for when you're having those conversations

Scott Galloway

You're just for virgins? No, I would say, yeah, no, it's for people. Yeah, that's right, it means you never kissed a girl. Anyways, what I have found is that I wasn't used to getting attacked like that. Every time I tried to, you know, I hired a firm to unmask some of the people who were attacking me. It was clearly like the same language, and they were using fake accounts. It was almost always someone who had a large financial position in a company that I said was overvalued. But look, at the end of the day, I should be held accountable. When I get it wrong, you know, I'll have several hundred thousand people on Twitter call me out. But as somebody who is very close to his own stock picks, you know, things have kind of worked out over here.

Shaan Puri

wait wait you hired a firm to figure out who's behind these twitter accounts

Scott Galloway

I think it's political. I've been very critical of Putin, and I know this sounds paranoid, but it doesn't mean I'm wrong. If I were Putin, I would hire... I would spend a small amount of money. I'm spending $100,000,000 a year in Ukraine and 100,000 lives. Why wouldn't I take 5% of that, or $5,000,000, and take some very bright scientists to do AI-generated A/B testing? I would create a list of my 5, 7, or 10,000 biggest detractors who are pro-Ukraine and start slowly but surely undermining their authority on social media platforms that have an amoral management team who will cash my checks. That's what I would do.

Sam Parr

do you have any proof that anything like that has happened or is this just

Scott Galloway

a in the comments go go any

Sam Parr

well I don't know you that's not that that that in itself is out

Scott Galloway

for us

Sam Parr

it could just be someone in

Scott Galloway

The queue... anytime you say anything, you'll do it. Go on and talk about Ukraine, and you're going to start to see a lot of people attacking you personally and professionally who are anonymous. You could say, "Wow, it's just amazing that all of these anonymous bots seem to have decided to engage in character assassination because I consistently am pro-Ukraine." Wouldn't they be stupid not to do it? Because people don't click on the profile; they just see the comment, and it's always the same language. — Professor Galloway

Sam Parr

I don't know. It's like, what's the threshold of "you're a big deal"? In my eyes, you're a big deal, but what's the threshold of "you're a big deal" to the decision-makers who decide these things?

Scott Galloway

But it's all about public opinion. You can't win a war without public support, and you can't lose one with public support. So, the fastest blue line path to victory in Ukraine for Putin, in my view, is the election of Donald Trump. He is also trying to diminish or reduce public support for the war there. Wouldn't they be stupid not to have the GRU identify the 10,000 most critical people or biggest supporters of Ukraine and slowly but surely undermine their credibility? Why would they be stupid not to do that, especially on platforms that will cash anybody's checks? As it relates to the fog of misinformation, they have their smoke machines. Why on earth would they not do that?

Sam Parr

No, I mean, I think they should. I was just giving you a hard time of like, "Are you a big enough fish?" That's what I'm trying to figure out.

Scott Galloway

Oh, I might be 20,000 out of a list of 20,000 people, but I think I've made the list when I go on.

Shaan Puri

It's actually the Forbes 30 Under 30... Putin's 10,000 Under 10,000. That's the list.

Shaan Puri

the real

Shaan Puri

list of influence right there

Shaan Puri

if you

Scott Galloway

Go on "Face the Nation" and say, "This is the best investment in the history of the West." Unifying for the first time, Europe is a union. We've taken NATO out of the brain coma. We pushed back on a murderous fascist 90 years ago. This is a wonderful moment for the West. It's 10% of our military, but this is the best investment we ever made. I think that qualifies me to get on the list.

Sam Parr

That's what... well, are you enjoying being Scott Galloway the brand more than being Scott Galloway the founder? Are you enjoying it more than being an operator of companies? I mean, you have some cool blog posts where you're like, "When people say hi to me in the streets, I love it. It makes me feel great." Which one are you enjoying more: Scott Galloway the brand or Scott Galloway the business person?

Scott Galloway

Oh, on the whole, this is really wonderful. I mean, people come up to me and are super nice. You know, I have 13 and 16-year-old boys, so everything I do is just like tragically uncool in their eyes. They don't really seem to like me a great deal. So when someone comes up to me—this happened yesterday—and wants a picture with me and they're excited to meet me in front of my boys, to be honest, it just feels really nice. People, generally speaking, are just so nice. They come up, and I get to meet new people. Yeah, it's awesome, and it feels very gratifying. I'm also, we talked about addictions, I'm addicted to affirmation from strangers. It's sort of pathetic, but I at least know it, so I can modulate it. It's really wonderful; people are really friendly and really nice. You know, I went to the Arsenal game with my boys, and a bunch of people came up to me and said hi. I was at the Taylor Swift concert, and a 16-year-old girl had made me a bracelet and came up and gave it to me. I mean, it's just like I have all these wonderful moments with strangers, so it's wonderful. I do think there is an algorithm for happiness, though.

Shaan Puri

pretty good one and that is to be rich but anonymous because at some.

Scott Galloway

I'm gonna

Shaan Puri

because at some. I'm gonna become the villain

Scott Galloway

And some of the things you talked about before, there's an entire industry in America around building people up and then tearing them down. So I wonder when my story turns to the villain. Because, you know, at some point I'll probably mess up and say something really stupid, and then wham! People will weigh in. But for the time being, oh, it's wonderful. People are nice. I just... it's so rewarding, really rewarding.

Sam Parr

We're coming up on our time, but I had one last question. I've seen you talk a few times and I've watched your stuff on YouTube. The difference between your talks and most everyone's talks is that you kind of break a bunch of the rules. You have like 150 slides, each slide has lots of information on it, and you talk super fast. You've got a really beautiful rhythm. I say "fast," but fast in a good way. What is the process of coming up with one of these talks? Your talks seem way more lucrative. One of your talks would be like maybe a big blog post that I wrote or that I would write. I imagine having a talk is significantly more lucrative and probably way more fun. You could travel all over the world and deliver them. What's that process like? Do you start with a headline and then think, "Let me go find data"? How do you find the data?

Sam Parr

And you're like I'm gonna build something around this

Scott Galloway

Yeah, so speaking is the most lucrative business I've ever been in. I had 340 inbound requests for speaking engagements, and I accepted 30 of them. I averaged $112,000 per speaking engagement. My attitude is, if someone's going to pay me $112,000, I can't just show up and be charming and interesting and like, "be me" on stage. I've got to bring something really unique. So, I will spend the better part of three months with a team of analysts at Prop G, trying to come up with themes, data, slides, humor, and video clips. Then, I choreograph it and practice it over and over, and then test it. I try to make it something where you go, "Okay, when..."

Sam Parr

I mean just say a comedian

Scott Galloway

Well, humor is a great way to lower people's defenses so that they'll be open to new ideas. When I say things that are provocative or I'm asking them to think differently, humor is a fantastic way to soften the beach for new ideas.

Sam Parr

but you're testing your like you know before you get the netflix show you're like testing it on the on the on the small yeah

Scott Galloway

But if I'm at Mastercard and they're spending $150,000 to have me speak for an hour in Barcelona, which I did last week, you can't just show up and be Scott Galloway. I've got to be a guy who finds these incredibly smart people to pull data together and do a great job with my design team. You know, greatness is in the agency of others. It's a ton of fun! I get to go to interesting places and pick the most interesting, cool ones. It's nice, and I have an impact. I talk a lot about struggling young men, which is really something I'm passionate about. It's really rewarding; I feel like I'm making a difference. I get to go to cool places, so I kind of feel like it's my victory lap right now. I get to just sort of run around. But if someone's going to pay that kind of money, you just can't show up and start talking about a bunch of war stories and how awesome you are. You have to show up with real insight or something that's going to catalyze a conversation with data they haven't seen before.

Shaan Puri

Back to the drawing board for me then. I thought what I was doing was showing up and giving myself a victory lap.

Sam Parr

Dude, have you seen one of his talks? Every slide has data that is quite good and a story behind it. I'm like, dude, just finding this data is a job.

Shaan Puri

You're an excellent performer, a spherical speaker, and like Sam said, you're very lyrical. We enjoy what you do. I think you're really great at what you do.

Shaan Puri

I don't

Shaan Puri

I know how you were as an entrepreneur, but I feel like this is what you were meant to do: to be smart and then, you know, package that up and perform it. Because you can't educate without entertaining, and you do a great job of both. Thanks for coming on; we really appreciate it.

Scott Galloway

thank you guys congrats on your success

Sam Parr

Yeah, thank you. I think you and I, our pods are going back and forth sometimes in the charts. So, I look forward to kicking your ass.

Scott Galloway

I will bury you

Sam Parr

see you in the trenches thanks man we appreciate it Scott galloway

Scott Galloway

thanks again guys

Sam Parr

that's the pod