Scott Galloway: Do This In Your 20s To Make Millions In Your 30s

**Scott Galloway** (0:00)
My first million.

**Shaan Puri** (0:02)
Let's go.

**Scott Galloway** (0:03)
My first baby mama. My first ketamine experience. My first addiction.

**Shaan Puri** (0:20)
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?

**Scott Galloway** (0:34)
I wanted to be an athlete. That was my passion. And then going to UCLA was a blessing because I figured out pretty quickly that I wasn't in the 0.1 percent you need to be in to make your living as an athlete.
And there's some pretty basic axioms that should guide your career choices around where you invest your most precious capital, and that is your time, your human capital. The first is the sexier the business, the lower return on investment.
You wanna be in fashion, the arts, movies, modeling, sports. Unless you get really incandescent green lights from a very early age, so you're gonna be in the 0.1 percent, try and make a living somewhere else and then do that on the weekends. And that is if you, the SAG-AFTRA, the most talented actors in the world, it's hard to get a SAG-AFTRA union card. You have to actually ban something. These are the most talented actors 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 passion, but finding your talent and then committing to developing mastery. And if you can develop mastery in anything that has a 90 plus percent employment rate, which 98% of sectors enjoy, the economic accoutrements, the camaraderie, the prestige, the relevance, just the sheer joy of mastery will make you passionate 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 Rafael Nadal 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 Nadal, but pretty much anyone else playing tennis, I'd rather be. And I got there with boring companies. So the less sexy a business, the higher the return on investment.
So I would suggest that we stop, think about, well, what could I be good at? I think that's what your 20s are for, workshopping stuff 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 industry could I be great in? So find what you're good at and then get great at it, and then be a DJ on the weekends.

**Sam Parr** (3:08)
By the way, congratulations. Today is the release date of the book, right? Algebra of Wealth.

**Scott Galloway** (3:14)
Yeah, today is the day.

**Sam Parr** (3:15)
So that's going to be huge. I mean, I read the Algebra of Happiness a while ago, and I've been watching the videos forever. And so 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.

**Scott Galloway** (3:28)
By the way, we're number one on Amazon today. I just thought I would drop that because I'm desperate for your affirmation, Sam.

**Sam Parr** (3:34)
That's all right. I'll give it to you. I won't starve you from that. You've got it. I look up to you. I think you're the man.

**Scott Galloway** (3:39)
Thank you.

**Shaan Puri** (3:40)
Well, let me ask you about the number one on Amazon real quick. You're a pretty stoic guy. In fact, when you come on the pod, 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. How does Scott Galloway celebrate?

**Scott Galloway** (3:59)
I'm pretty flat. I congratulate the team. It feels great. It's very gratifying. I love benchmarks. I'm addicted to me. Everyone's addicted to something. I'm addicted to a stranger's affirmation, which is kind of pathetic in 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 my researchers, my analysts, my PR people, my social people, my publisher, my book agent, greatnesses in the agency of others, which is very gratifying. And plus my podcast co-host got to number three on the bestsellers list, so goddamn it if I'm not going to get to number two. I must beat Kara Swisher.