Anthony Scaramucci - SkyBridge Capital Founder & SALT Conference Creator | 11 Days in the White House Then He Built a $3.5B Investment Firm

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Which version of you wrote this book?

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I took my working class background, my observation of 38 years on Wall Street, my failed White House communication experience, plus my observations in the media.

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I sort of welded those together to create that book.

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Today's guest is Anthony Scaramucci, a Wall Street financier, founder of Skybridge Capital and former White House communications director.

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From finance to politics and now podcasting, Anthony has built a career at the center of some of the biggest conversations in America.

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In this conversation, he shares lessons from Wall Street, his time in the White House, the mistakes that shaped his career, and why learning from failure can be one of your greatest advantages.

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I think some of them feel like entrepreneurship is the only way to survive because life seems very stressful.

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What's your take?

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The number one thing, whether you're stressed out as an entrepreneur or you're stressed out at a job, don't play the victim.

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Now you're so deeply involved and understand politics so well.

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Do you find that people are checking out?

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There's a voting bloc in this country, 100 million plus people.

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They vote the exact same way in every single election.

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It's the non-voter.

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Every single election, they don't vote.

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But they're eligible, but they've checked out.

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MyFitnessPal is a success story partner.

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Now, there's this thing that happens when you start paying attention to what you eat.

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And I think we can all agree that we wanna care about our health and our wellness and our nutrition, but more often than not, we just kind of think we eat clean, we think we eat healthy, but we're not really, really paying attention to every single meal and what makes up every single meal.

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But just by paying attention and starting to log and track what you eat, you start making better choices without really trying.

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And that surprised me because when I first started using the MyFitnessPal app, and I've been using it for a while now, it's a nutrition tracking app.

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And I started logging what I was eating.

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It started showing me my macros, which means how much protein, carbs, and fats I was getting.

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And then I started to understand why some days I felt good, high energy.

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Some days I felt like garbage because those three things, proteins, carbs, fats, that's what your food is made out of.

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And the balance between them affects everything.

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So,

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My fitness pal app truly changed my life when it came to managing my food, which managed and helped everything else.

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Now on the premium version of the app, it breaks down those numbers by meal.

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So I'm not just seeing one calorie number for the day.

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I can see what's happening at breakfast versus lunch versus dinner, where my protein actually lands, whether I'm eating enough earlier in the day or piling everything on at night.

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And all of a sudden,

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When I'm crashing at 3, 4 p.m., well, I can take a look and see, it's not so surprising anymore based on what I ate or what I didn't eat.

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So that's what I mean when I say that MyFitnessPal is a great app for awareness.

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It's not obsessive, it's not stressful, it's not time consuming, it's actually the opposite.

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Guessing is stressful.

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When you have all the information, the food you eat, your nutrition,

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becomes way easier to keep up with.

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Also, a lot of people stress out that logging food is gonna be very time consuming.

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It's not.

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And if it was annoying, I'd stop.

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But what I love about the app is that they've made it super, super simple.

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They've removed all friction in food logging, right?

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They have the largest food database out there.

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So whatever I'm eating is already in it.

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I can voice logs so I can just say what I'm eating.

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They have a barcode scanner that handles all the package stuff.

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They have a tool called MealScan, which lets me point my camera at my plate and it breaks down all the macros and then logs it for breakfast, lunch, dinner, whatever.

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And the app remembers my regular meals.

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And I'm really just in and out of the app in seconds.

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And on top of that, it connects with over 40 fitness apps and wearables.

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So my workouts, my nutrition, they're all in one place.

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See, food is the foundation of everything.

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your energy, your sleep, your weight, your recovery, your performance at work, at home.

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And I really believe that when you start to pay attention to what you eat, every single part of your life improves.

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And to be honest, for me, it's the most useful tool because when I see the information, when I see what I'm eating, and I feel the effects of having good nutrition and good food at the right time, the decisions on what to eat become obvious.

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Not because someone told me to eat better, it's because I have the data.

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And the data makes it super, super easy to stay on track.

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So please do yourself a favor.

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Go to podcast.myfitnesspal.com and use code Scott.

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That's S-C-O-T-T, all uppercase letters, for 15% off MyFitnessPal Premium.

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That is podcast.myfitnesspal.com, code Scott, for 15% off MyFitnessPal Premium.

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So you've lived about five different lives, working class kid, Goldman Sachs, your own firm, the White House, now this.

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Which version of you wrote this book?

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Well, that's the greatest question that you could have asked me because I think it's a compilation of that.

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That would have been my pitch to you, that I took my working-class background, my observation of 38 years on Wall Street, both at Goldman but also as an entrepreneur, my failed White House communication experience, but my Ph.D. in the way Washington works, having been in political fundraising for 30 years—

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And plus my observations in the media, I sort of welded those together to create that book.

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So it's a fusion of the political economy, what actually happened on Wall Street that affected Main Street, and what are some of the things that we could do better.

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I guess when we look at the current state of the US, and I also want to speak to my audience as well.

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So my audience is, I'll give you the breakdown.

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Like half of them are working jobs and they're nine to fives, super ambitious.

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Other half are entrepreneurs.

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And I don't think that all the, I think the people that are working jobs are stressed out because the jobs that they have right now don't have the same security pensions that my parents had.

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And I think that the entrepreneur cohort is,

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I think some of them feel like entrepreneurship is the only way to survive because life seems very stressful.

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What's your take?

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Because you have been entrepreneur.

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You've seen the working class nine to five.

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I think we have to look at the world the way it is, and we have to look at the world from a perspective.

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you know, not a normative state, meaning I hate the following words, should and ought.

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So I have five kids.

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My kids say, well, I should have gotten into this school or I ought to have gotten a 36 on the ACT.

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I'm like, well, that's not how the world works.

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This is how the world is today.

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So take my dad as an example.

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My dad had a great working class job.

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If he was doing that

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we would have been on the poverty line.

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He would have probably needed an EPT cord.

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The wages for his job went down 26%.

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So we have to deal with the world the way it is, not the way we want it to be or the way it ought to be.

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So if you're talking to somebody that's on the job now,

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What's going right about the job?

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What's going wrong about the job?

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Where do they think they're going to be?

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I have a friend of mine who's in biotech.

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They have a great couple of drug products in the small niche biotech firm.

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If they don't get the next round of financing, he's going to lose his job.

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He's got anxiety about it.

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He's done a great job.

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He's a very professional guy, but he's going to lose his job.

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So what I say to him, start looking for a job.

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I mean, let's not worry about it.

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Start looking for a job.

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You then start creating some options.

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Your best place to look for a job is when you have a job.

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Start looking for a job.

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If they get the funding, stop looking for a job.

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But now all of a sudden people know that you're available to them.

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And by the way, your boss is cool.

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Your boss knows if the funding doesn't come in, you're not going to be there.

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You know, I mean, I've had situations where I've had to, I've expanded my firm, and unfortunately I have contracted my firm.

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And these are some of the hardest things to do in the world.

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And so I was very famously fired from the White House, but I also got fired from Goldman Sachs when I was a young kid.

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I was 27 years old.

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They had hired too many people into the real estate department.

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It was the Gulf War.

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We had a real estate recession in New York, and it was first in – I'm sorry, it was last in, first out.

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I got fired.

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And so I could have taken it very personally, and I could have saw myself as a failure.

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But I looked at it like, okay, I got fired.

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I'm going to be nice to the guy firing me because that person could help me find another job.

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I'm going to go find another job.

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And then I've been on the other side of it, Scott, where I've had to tell people, look, I'm sorry.

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The firm is contracting.

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You know, I let, I don't know, 15 people go during the global financial crisis.

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During COVID, I had to let some people go.

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You know, I gave them nice...

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extended pay and I gave them severances and things like that.

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But my point is, you can't, the number one thing, whether you're stressed out as an entrepreneur or you're stressed out at a job, don't play the victim.

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Because the worst human emotion that you can have if you want to be successful is self-pity.

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Because the minute you start thinking badly or woe is me or this is not going my way, it's no good.

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Okay.

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Have you heard of the word pronoia?

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I've used the word before

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I haven't heard this before.

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So P-R-O-N-O-I-A, pronoia.

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That's opposed to paranoia?

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Yeah, that's the opposite of paranoia.

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So you have to have a belief in your heart that the universe is bending towards you, and the universe is bending towards you for good.

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And you have to have a belief in your heart that you are going to attract people that want to help you with your life.

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Okay, so if something bad happens and you are pro-NOIAC, you're like, okay, I'm going to slough that off.

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That's a speed bump on the road to my destination.

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You know, I think people make a mistake in thinking that, okay, I'm going to have an arc that goes up at a 45-degree angle and I'm going to have this stress-free life.

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And maybe you're looking at filtered people on the Internet and those filtered people look like that that's happening to them.

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But I guarantee you everybody's living an unfiltered life.

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I feel like a lot of people right now who are not happy, they default to the victim and they hope that somebody is going to come save them.

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And I think that from what I've experienced in my life, it doesn't matter who's in government.

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No one's really going to come save you.

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If you even want to advocate for your own health, I mean, you've got to find the right doctor.

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You've got to advocate for the right treatment.

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I mean, go ahead.

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Sorry, you had a comment on that.

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for yourself.

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I mean, listen, I mean, there's a couple of axiomatic facts.

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The quicker you understand these axiomatic facts, the better you're going to do in your life.

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Nobody cares about you, number one, okay?

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What other people think of you is none of your business.

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And by the way, they're not thinking of you.

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Okay, so let's go default to number one.

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Nobody cares about you.

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Number two, no one is coming to save you.

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And by the way, your parents, even if they want to save you, and nobody wants you to do better than your parents, it's hard for them to save you.

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They're in a different generation.

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They may not understand the dilemmas that you're faced in your career or the economy as you see it versus the economy that they worked in.

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for the 30 years that they were around before you were born or the 35 years, whatever it might be.

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And so no one can help you.

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And the last thing, and this is the most important thing, it's a few things every day that make you special.

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It's not one big thing.

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It's a few things every day.

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So if you decide, I'm going to take the next hour, I'm going to go through my Rolodex, and I'm going to call 20 people.

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And I'm going to rebuild that relationship with them or start that relationship.

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You're now so far ahead of the game than the average person.

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Average person is showing up, they're doing 9 to 5, 9 to 6, and they work a little overtime, but they're thinking about home, thinking about watching a sporting match or relaxing to a podcast.

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You want to be, you can't be 50% in.

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You can't be 90% in.

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You got to be all in.

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And you got to get that in your head.

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I'm going to go the extra mile.

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I'm going to do what it takes to make this podcast a success, my business a success, my body a success, whatever it might be.

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You can't be this much in because it's not differentiating enough.

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You see the point I'm making?

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the book, All the Wrong Moves.

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It's about these decisions that three leaders made that led to Trump.

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This is what you've been writing about now.

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I think that I try to step back and say to myself, okay, I've been in my adult life, started in age 25, 1989.

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I graduated from Harvard Law School.

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First job was at Goldman Sachs.

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It's now 38 years later.

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And I'm sitting around observing my career and I'm observing what happened to the global economy and to the U.S. What are some of the things that we did wrong?

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And I submit to you in the book, follow the money in the United States.

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The country is about money.

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It was about money in 1776.

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It was about money in the Civil War.

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I mean, it was a fight about slavery, which was tied to money.

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Okay, it was about money in the Great Depression.

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It ultimately became about money after the end of the Second World War.

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So you follow the money, or as I say in the book, the money point of view of history.

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I can tell you where things are going.

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And I'm just simply saying that we got a lot of things right.

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We were running a budget surplus at the end of 2000.

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You know, my contemporaries remember it.

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You may not remember it, but we had a $240 billion budget surplus at the end of 2000.

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And things were generally going in the right direction.

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And then, wham, we got hit with 9-11.

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It's 25 years ago.

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Seems like a long time, but it's a short time.

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And in that 25-year period of time, we changed the trajectory of the United States.

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We went from $2.5 trillion of budget deficit to $40 trillion of budget deficit.

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We took a group of people that were in the lower middle income people that if you interviewed them, Scott, 25, 30 years ago, they felt economically aspirational.

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Like maybe they were going to make it or one of their kids were going to make it.

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And in that period of time, we made those people economically desperation.

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So how did we do that?

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And so I believe there are three big catastrophic mistakes that we made.

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And it's not a partisan book.

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It's not a polemic or a tribal book.

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It's an observation.

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It's an objective observation of decision-making by both Republicans and Democrats that

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By the way, very well intended, good people.

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There was nothing malevolent about it, but the decisions didn't go the way that these people thought that they would.

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Number one, we let China into the World Trade Organization.

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They come in with emerging market status.

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They're able to sell their goods unfettered to Canada, United States, the West.

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We accept tariffs and protected markets from them.

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They do this for 20 years unchecked.

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It's okay to come in with the same rights as the Dominican Republic when you're a poor country.

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But when you become larger than the economy of Germany, well, then guess what?

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For the WTO standards, you have to be treated like that.

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Okay, that caused a crisis in our country.

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We bled out jobs, we bled out manufacturing, and it changed the landscape of a lot of the flyover states, and it hurt the country, and it hurt people's disposable income.

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The second thing that we did is we went to war after 9-11.

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We did two wars, one in Afghanistan in 01, one in March of 2003 in Iraq.

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And we cut taxes two times going into those wars, once in 01, once in 03.

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It's the only time in our history that we cut taxes going into a major war.

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We usually raise taxes.

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And so we set this deficit trajectory like this.

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You want to talk a K-shape?

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People are talking about a K-shape economy.

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How about a K-shape of tax revenues and deficit spending?

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That's what's happened in the United States.

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And so I explained what we did.

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I explained the legislation that we broke and the policies that we changed to create this massive deficit spending.

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It's really hurt the country because remember, guys, if you take anything from this interview, deficit spending is unfunded tax liability.

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You're going to pay the price for the deficit spending.

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And how do we pay it?

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Well, in our country, we pay it through the most pernicious and the most regressive form of taxation.

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That's inflation because it's a sneaky way to get people, right?

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And so now you have a dollar, but guess what?

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Now you only have 70 cents of purchasing power because of what we did.

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But then what is the person who's reading this book?

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This has all happened.

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The situation is what it is.

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It brings it back to your first point.

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You can't be upset, but you can't let that influence how you live your life.

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Like, what does the person do with this information?

256
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So that's a great question.

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So I believe...

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You have to, in other words, really get to the root of a problem.

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You have to understand the problem, where the problem is emanating from, so that you can change the problem.

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And so I believe, starting with the Ross Perot election in 1992, the Democrats and the Republicans literally formed a duopoly or they formed a cartel.

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And so Ross Perot enters this race in 1992 as a reformed candidate.

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He gets 20% of the vote.

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That's telling you, if you had a consumer focus group, that 20% of the population doesn't like Democrats, doesn't like Republicans.

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That's 40% now.

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Go look at the registrants in this country.

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42% of them are independents.

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Then there's Democrats.

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Then there's Republicans.

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And so the largest voting bloc in the country doesn't like either of the two parties.

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And what these two parties did is they tightened their duopoly.

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They made it very hard for third parties to enter.

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Right.

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Trump tried to run in the year 2000.

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He said, no way I could do it because they wouldn't even let me get on the ballot in all 50 states.

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Bobby Kennedy couldn't get on the ballot in all 50 states.

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They have all these sneaky provisions.

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And so we have two parties.

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that half of the people generally don't like.

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And then what do they do?

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They vote the extremes in those two parties.

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This all happened to us.

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We have to understand how it happened so that we can unravel it and make it easier for people to get candidates in the mix that are a little bit more moderate and a little bit more commonsensical.

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And so just quickly on the last decision, we bailed out the bank, Scott.

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We gave a trillion dollars to the banks in the 2008, 2009 time period, helped the banks, restored the banks.

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But we didn't give any money to the middle class people.

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We didn't give money to the lower class.

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No debt relief, no mortgage relief, no rental relief.

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But the fat cat bankers, they got a trillion dollars.

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And guess what they did with it?

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They paid 5,000 people.

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a $1 million a year bonus or more in the year that they got that government bailout money.

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I was telling you, that hurt.

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That created a lot of anger in the country.

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It created the Tea Party movement.

295
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It created Occupy Wall Street.

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It really hurt the country.

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And that anger manifested itself.

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It was almost like those two groups had a baby.

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They got married, had a baby, and they named the baby MAGA, or they named the baby the Bernie Sanders or the AOC movement.

300
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This is what led to it.

301
00:19:09.413 --> 00:19:09.794
Exactly.

302
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This left-leaning and right-leaning populism, in my opinion, this is how we caused it.

303
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So let's analyze it and then let's unravel it so that we can make better decisions going forward to fix the political ills and some of the economic ills of the country.

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I think what confuses me and probably a lot of people that are very moderate is we don't subscribe to extremism on either side.

305
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But we all deal with the downstream effects of this extremism.

306
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And now we have to just navigate it and live our life and figure it out.

307
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I'll just give you an example.

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If you open the primary process, some states have open primaries.

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They usually generate moderate candidates.

310
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Remember, these campaigns are marketing competitions.

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open the primary process, give the independent the right to go into the Democratic primary or into the Republican primary, guess what happens?

312
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The people start moderating their views.

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They want to win.

314
00:20:08.372 --> 00:20:20.675
But if you don't have to moderate your views and you're preaching to the extreme end of your party because the primary process is closed, then you're going to get candidates that you and I are like, oh, holding our nose to the candidates.

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Do people, because you're so, now you're so deeply involved and understand politics so well, do you find that people are checking out, like people that should be more involved, that should be running, that should have a say, they're just like, I'm over this?

316
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And the politicians want that.

317
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There's a voting bloc in this country.

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100 million plus people.

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They vote the exact same way in every single election.

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Incredibly powerful voting block.

321
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It's the non-voter.

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Every single election, they don't vote.

323
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But they're eligible, but they've checked out.

324
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They say, oh, it's not going to matter.

325
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I'm not going to vote.

326
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But just imagine if you had an entrepreneurial politician that could come into the mix, explain and diagnose the problem, and then convince the non-voter to come into the swimming pool and participate in the process.

327
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See, the establishment politician doesn't want that.

328
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They have a formula for success.

329
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Block third parties, gerrymander their districts to protect themselves, create high incumbency rates on both sides.

330
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They want two people playing in the game.

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each other.

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They don't want any third parties coming in.

333
00:21:29.132 --> 00:21:32.913
And yet the American people have given you a Yelp rating.

334
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They said, you suck.

335
00:21:34.573 --> 00:21:34.913
Okay.

336
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The Congress has a 14% approval rating.

337
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It's like slightly above the North Korean dictator.

338
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Okay.

339
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Okay.

340
00:21:41.655 --> 00:21:51.498
But yet you got a 96% incumbency reelection rate and it doesn't reconcile itself because they've got the system game for themselves.

341
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And I'm just describing how they did it.

342
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And I'm suggesting how we can break it.

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Life at the Speed of Play is a success story partner.

344
00:21:58.701 --> 00:22:01.663
Now, this is a book by Mark Pincus, the guy who founded Zynga.

345
00:22:01.683 --> 00:22:02.844
I've actually had him on the show.

346
00:22:03.144 --> 00:22:08.928
I met him in person and Reid Hoffman wrote the foreword, calling him one of the best idea people in Silicon Valley.

347
00:22:09.108 --> 00:22:12.790
The book is Life at the Speed of Play, Launch Products People Love.

348
00:22:12.850 --> 00:22:14.271
About 170 pages.

349
00:22:14.552 --> 00:22:16.053
It's already a national bestseller.

350
00:22:16.333 --> 00:22:22.537
It's his framework for figuring out whether an idea is actually worth going after before you put serious time and money into it.

351
00:22:22.717 --> 00:22:24.218
not theory, the way he actually does it.

352
00:22:24.298 --> 00:22:26.339
And he's repeatedly built successful businesses.

353
00:22:26.619 --> 00:22:28.380
On top of that, you can read it in a weekend.

354
00:22:28.560 --> 00:22:31.622
It can change your entire life and give you the right direction if you're an entrepreneur.

355
00:22:31.642 --> 00:22:38.305
So right now, if you go to getmarksbook.com slash success, you get two copies for $32, that's $16 each.

356
00:22:38.666 --> 00:22:45.009
Mark is paying for the second copy himself because he wants you to give it to somebody, a friend who's been sitting on an idea, someone who needs to push, whoever.

357
00:22:45.269 --> 00:22:47.890
That's getmarksbook.com slash success.

358
00:22:48.271 --> 00:22:50.792
Mark with a K, buy one, second one's free.

359
00:22:50.992 --> 00:22:52.794
My Fitness Pal is a success story partner.

360
00:22:52.975 --> 00:22:53.655
Now, a quick story.

361
00:22:53.675 --> 00:22:56.279
A few weeks ago, I was in the middle of a very heavy recording week.

362
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So five episodes back to back.

363
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By Wednesday, I could feel it.

364
00:23:00.283 --> 00:23:01.245
I felt tired.

365
00:23:01.425 --> 00:23:07.292
And I pulled up my food log in the My Fitness Pal app, and I could see why I felt tired.

366
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I was heavily under eating.

367
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I was not keeping up with my meals.

368
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My macros were all off.

369
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On weeks like that, staying on top of your fuel and your food and what you eat is the difference between being sharp on episode five and being flat.

370
00:23:21.221 --> 00:23:24.043
And that's the kind of thing you only catch when you're paying attention.

371
00:23:24.223 --> 00:23:28.265
And that's why I keep logging every single meal I eat in the MyFitnessPal app.

372
00:23:28.305 --> 00:23:30.046
It's not because I'm obsessing over numbers.

373
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It's not because I'm trying to diet.

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Because I'm trying to have an awareness about what I eat in the day.

375
00:23:36.069 --> 00:23:39.012
And the app makes it so easy to maintain that awareness.

376
00:23:39.092 --> 00:23:41.835
I can point my camera at a plate with meal scan.

377
00:23:42.175 --> 00:23:46.319
It'll tell me exactly what I'm eating, all my macronutrients, proteins, fats, carbs.

378
00:23:46.520 --> 00:23:48.141
There's an intermittent fasting tracker.

379
00:23:48.582 --> 00:23:51.625
If I want to intermittent fast, it keeps my eating window honest.

380
00:23:51.925 --> 00:23:54.548
And it all syncs with my watch and all of my fitness apps.

381
00:23:54.808 --> 00:23:56.410
And it just runs in the background.

382
00:23:56.730 --> 00:24:00.231
See, food is a foundation for energy, sleep, recovery, performance.

383
00:24:00.511 --> 00:24:03.292
It is the one input that you cannot skip.

384
00:24:03.512 --> 00:24:05.973
So do yourself a favor, track what you're eating.

385
00:24:06.333 --> 00:24:09.734
It'll make you feel better, perform better in everything that you do.

386
00:24:09.754 --> 00:24:16.317
Go to podcasts.myfitnesspal.com and use code SCOTT, all uppercase for 50% off My Fitness Pal Premium.

387
00:24:16.597 --> 00:24:19.798
That's podcasts.myfitnesspal.com, code SCOTT.

388
00:24:20.318 --> 00:24:25.380
So for people that are upset and checked out, do you feel like there's

389
00:24:27.161 --> 00:24:31.723
a light at the end of the tunnel because politics really, I feel, hasn't changed much?

390
00:24:31.963 --> 00:24:37.186
Or is the advice, check out and focus on yourself, be selfish, focus on your own career?

391
00:24:37.287 --> 00:24:39.968
No, you certainly have to focus on yourself.

392
00:24:39.988 --> 00:24:41.969
But let me talk to you for a second.

393
00:24:41.989 --> 00:24:43.030
Okay, you live in Florida.

394
00:24:43.870 --> 00:24:47.453
But even in Florida, the government is a 40% partner in your life.

395
00:24:48.593 --> 00:24:49.814
Okay, I live in New York.

396
00:24:50.275 --> 00:24:52.296
I'm a minority partner in my own life.

397
00:24:52.936 --> 00:24:57.039
My general partners are Donald Trump, Mayor Mondani, and Governor Hochul.

398
00:24:57.780 --> 00:25:00.922
Okay, because if a dollar comes into me, I can only get 48 cents.

399
00:25:00.942 --> 00:25:02.363
I'm only allowed to keep 48 cents of it.

400
00:25:02.943 --> 00:25:08.587
So I submit to everybody listening to this, even if you are in a lower tax bracket than me,

401
00:25:09.448 --> 00:25:10.629
These people are in your life.

402
00:25:10.649 --> 00:25:11.809
They're your partners in your life.

403
00:25:12.449 --> 00:25:15.711
Good executive leadership matters, Scott.

404
00:25:15.751 --> 00:25:18.812
Good executive leadership is a cleaner road.

405
00:25:18.993 --> 00:25:22.374
It's a better sanitation system, a better subway.

406
00:25:23.475 --> 00:25:27.356
It's easier for the tourists to come in and buy things from your shop.

407
00:25:28.357 --> 00:25:32.619
If the trains are running on time and they're clean, the tourists will come in from New Jersey and New York.

408
00:25:32.919 --> 00:25:33.960
They'll go to your restaurant.

409
00:25:33.980 --> 00:25:35.180
They'll go to a Broadway play.

410
00:25:36.201 --> 00:25:39.062
So good executive leadership matters.

411
00:25:39.791 --> 00:25:41.572
matters in our society.

412
00:25:41.872 --> 00:25:51.016
And so if you check out, you are failing at your responsibility to help the civic side of your life.

413
00:25:51.636 --> 00:25:53.317
Listen, you can do it.

414
00:25:53.697 --> 00:25:55.678
And it feels like most of us are doing it.

415
00:25:55.718 --> 00:26:04.802
And so you want to end up in a bob-wired McMansion living there in your security perimetered house while your fellow neighbors are suffering?

416
00:26:04.822 --> 00:26:05.623
Yeah, we could do it.

417
00:26:06.827 --> 00:26:07.627
could be heading that way.

418
00:26:07.707 --> 00:26:08.588
I don't want that to happen.

419
00:26:08.668 --> 00:26:10.489
I want the people around me to do well.

420
00:26:10.909 --> 00:26:14.571
I want my neighbors to be like, yeah, Anthony may have more money than me.

421
00:26:14.611 --> 00:26:15.871
He may have less money than me.

422
00:26:16.232 --> 00:26:16.672
But you know what?

423
00:26:16.692 --> 00:26:21.054
My kids are going to have a shot at having a great aspirational life here in America.

424
00:26:21.740 --> 00:26:24.601
Why don't more entrepreneurs get involved in politics?

425
00:26:24.821 --> 00:26:25.481
Because it's stupid.

426
00:26:25.741 --> 00:26:27.182
It's stupid to get involved in politics.

427
00:26:27.342 --> 00:26:30.603
You know, like James Baker had one of the best lines ever.

428
00:26:31.143 --> 00:26:32.103
He wrote a memoir.

429
00:26:32.143 --> 00:26:35.084
He was the former Secretary of State, Reagan's Chief of Staff.

430
00:26:35.444 --> 00:26:36.585
He's 98 years old.

431
00:26:36.625 --> 00:26:37.725
He's a legendary guy.

432
00:26:38.605 --> 00:26:43.567
He wrote a memoir about himself, and the title of it was, Don't Go Into Politics.

433
00:26:44.387 --> 00:26:48.050
And the first chapter was his father telling him not to go into politics.

434
00:26:48.671 --> 00:26:50.152
And he explains all the reasons why.

435
00:26:50.252 --> 00:26:51.313
It's a nasty business.

436
00:26:51.353 --> 00:26:51.994
It's brutish.

437
00:26:52.594 --> 00:26:54.336
You can get kicked out of office very quickly.

438
00:26:54.356 --> 00:26:56.518
You're on top of the heap one second.

439
00:26:56.538 --> 00:26:58.319
You're at the bottom of the heap the next second.

440
00:26:58.920 --> 00:27:01.182
And so it's also partisan.

441
00:27:01.202 --> 00:27:01.682
It's cost me.

442
00:27:01.822 --> 00:27:02.503
It's hurt my business.

443
00:27:02.523 --> 00:27:03.383
It's hurt my business.

444
00:27:04.224 --> 00:27:06.747
I'm a politically minded person.

445
00:27:06.827 --> 00:27:07.608
I have an opinion.

446
00:27:07.628 --> 00:27:08.769
You may not like my opinion.

447
00:27:08.789 --> 00:27:10.451
You won't buy from me.

448
00:27:10.731 --> 00:27:11.692
Remember Michael Jordan.

449
00:27:11.772 --> 00:27:13.353
Michael Jordan was selling sneakers.

450
00:27:13.774 --> 00:27:14.254
Still is.

451
00:27:14.294 --> 00:27:18.679
But in the 90s, working for the Bulls, arguably the best player ever.

452
00:27:19.380 --> 00:27:20.961
Well, are you a Democrat or Republican?

453
00:27:20.981 --> 00:27:21.602
Take a stand.

454
00:27:21.662 --> 00:27:22.303
He's like, hey, man.

455
00:27:22.463 --> 00:27:23.224
I don't want to take a stand.

456
00:27:23.244 --> 00:27:25.566
The Republicans, you know, they buy sneakers too.

457
00:27:26.106 --> 00:27:26.787
Dolly Parton.

458
00:27:27.748 --> 00:27:30.570
Dolly Parton had 20 opportunities to criticize Trump.

459
00:27:30.590 --> 00:27:31.190
She never did.

460
00:27:31.731 --> 00:27:33.952
20 opportunities to criticize or praise Joe Biden.

461
00:27:33.972 --> 00:27:34.452
She never did.

462
00:27:36.253 --> 00:27:38.455
It doesn't make great business sense to do what I'm doing.

463
00:27:39.015 --> 00:27:43.858
No, because a lot of, I think about the entrepreneurs that have tried to get involved, and I don't even know all of them.

464
00:27:43.878 --> 00:27:45.479
You probably know, but I think about Bloomberg.

465
00:27:46.420 --> 00:27:48.161
And he was like, I'm out of, I'm done.

466
00:27:48.181 --> 00:27:51.763
I think Kevin O'Leary for a very brief moment.

467
00:27:53.644 --> 00:28:01.731
I guess Trump is entrepreneurial to a degree, but he's the one who isn't like a politician for life.

468
00:28:02.151 --> 00:28:04.012
But there's probably others too, but I mean...

469
00:28:04.133 --> 00:28:08.156
Son, you know, I have my issues with Donald Trump, but I will just say this, that on paper...

470
00:28:09.037 --> 00:28:13.081
He could have been a great because he was a non-politician.

471
00:28:13.141 --> 00:28:15.523
He could have been a post-partisan politician.

472
00:28:16.164 --> 00:28:18.006
He could have transcended the tribalism.

473
00:28:18.026 --> 00:28:19.888
He could have acted like a business leader.

474
00:28:20.809 --> 00:28:21.910
You know, he didn't do that.

475
00:28:21.930 --> 00:28:24.173
I think that's what people were wanting from him.

476
00:28:24.193 --> 00:28:25.934
Listen, he campaigned on not going to war.

477
00:28:25.954 --> 00:28:27.276
He's in Iraq now.

478
00:28:27.534 --> 00:28:35.259
I want to talk about decisions because this whole book is about these key decisions that turned the U.S. into what it is today.

479
00:28:36.320 --> 00:28:41.343
What are some of the lessons that people can learn from these decisions that were made, not maliciously?

480
00:28:41.363 --> 00:28:46.087
I think there's many different lessons, but I think we are fallible.

481
00:28:47.267 --> 00:28:50.770
We make pride-based decisions, ego-based decisions.

482
00:28:51.650 --> 00:28:54.331
we have a little bit of a consensus thought pattern.

483
00:28:55.072 --> 00:29:01.334
You know, your coach or your father maybe said, or your mom said, you know, you're the weighted average of the five people you hang out with.

484
00:29:01.894 --> 00:29:04.715
And so you get the confirmed biases of the people that you hang out with.

485
00:29:05.516 --> 00:29:07.337
And so we develop these consensus ideas.

486
00:29:07.357 --> 00:29:08.337
And by the way, what do we want?

487
00:29:08.937 --> 00:29:10.118
We don't want to be out of the consensus.

488
00:29:10.158 --> 00:29:11.518
I want to get invited to the country club.

489
00:29:11.538 --> 00:29:14.099
You know, I want to go to the football game with you.

490
00:29:14.279 --> 00:29:15.980
You know, I don't want to tell you something that you don't like.

491
00:29:17.602 --> 00:29:18.423
And we do that a lot.

492
00:29:19.024 --> 00:29:26.732
And so it's like a lot of groupthink took place in Washington, and they didn't think through some of the ramifications of the decisions.

493
00:29:27.332 --> 00:29:28.774
Let China in, no problem.

494
00:29:29.274 --> 00:29:30.355
You want China to grow.

495
00:29:30.375 --> 00:29:32.678
You want to sell goods into their market, no problem.

496
00:29:33.359 --> 00:29:36.522
But hey, guys, when they're the size of Germany, start treating them like Germany.

497
00:29:36.982 --> 00:29:39.623
And it's all about groupthink that causes the bad decisions.

498
00:29:39.843 --> 00:29:40.403
No question.

499
00:29:40.923 --> 00:29:47.605
It's crazy because you'd think that at that level, people would have the confidence not to follow the herd.

500
00:29:48.105 --> 00:29:49.345
We're people.

501
00:29:49.405 --> 00:29:51.806
You know this because you've met a lot of famous people.

502
00:29:51.906 --> 00:29:53.166
You yourself are famous.

503
00:29:53.186 --> 00:29:57.947
You have this wonderfully high-profile, super successful podcast and social media feed.

504
00:29:58.827 --> 00:29:59.548
But you're a person.

505
00:30:00.148 --> 00:30:02.268
And I guarantee you've made some mistakes.

506
00:30:02.768 --> 00:30:04.129
If the book that I wrote...

507
00:30:05.682 --> 00:30:11.246
Again, I didn't want to be pedantic in the book, and I'm not being a Monday morning armchair quarterback.

508
00:30:11.927 --> 00:30:15.950
If I wrote a book about my mistakes, it would have been the size of a phone book.

509
00:30:15.970 --> 00:30:18.732
I mean, you wouldn't have had enough time in the podcast for me to go over all of them.

510
00:30:19.172 --> 00:30:20.814
So I'm not sitting here saying, oh, that guy.

511
00:30:21.514 --> 00:30:22.956
Barack Obama did a lot of good things.

512
00:30:22.996 --> 00:30:23.677
I can list them.

513
00:30:23.897 --> 00:30:25.519
Bush actually did a lot of good things.

514
00:30:25.579 --> 00:30:26.119
I could list them.

515
00:30:26.159 --> 00:30:26.860
So did Clinton.

516
00:30:27.501 --> 00:30:34.609
But here are some mistakes that got made that did change the trajectory of America's finances at the federal level.

517
00:30:35.270 --> 00:30:40.115
It changed the directory about the way we identify with ourselves in terms of how we're going to fight with each other.

518
00:30:41.076 --> 00:30:47.360
And unfortunately, it did create a sense of haves and have-nots that there's a two-tiered system.

519
00:30:47.400 --> 00:30:50.683
So, you know, wait a minute, the bankers are rich, so you're going to make them richer?

520
00:30:51.263 --> 00:30:51.843
And what about me?

521
00:30:52.184 --> 00:30:53.104
I'm going to lose my house.

522
00:30:53.625 --> 00:30:54.325
Okay, so I got it.

523
00:30:54.385 --> 00:30:57.127
I'm losing my house, but the banker's getting a $1 million mortgage.

524
00:30:57.927 --> 00:30:59.549
Can you see how that could upset somebody?

525
00:30:59.829 --> 00:31:00.209
Of course.

526
00:31:00.609 --> 00:31:09.135
So when you, do you have, because you've operated in both arenas, in politics and as an entrepreneur, I think that most people listening to this podcast have never been involved in politics.

527
00:31:09.155 --> 00:31:09.255
Yeah.

528
00:31:09.473 --> 00:31:10.534
And stay out of politics.

529
00:31:10.554 --> 00:31:11.675
James Baker was right.

530
00:31:11.735 --> 00:31:12.376
Okay, but go ahead.

531
00:31:12.436 --> 00:31:12.876
I'm sorry.

532
00:31:13.157 --> 00:31:19.542
No, I'm just curious if you have a mental model for decision making that you've learned over your career that would be helpful for the audience.

533
00:31:19.663 --> 00:31:21.404
You are really a good questioner.

534
00:31:21.544 --> 00:31:26.349
So the mental model for me is a very hard thing to do.

535
00:31:26.989 --> 00:31:28.491
Probably the hardest thing you could do in your life.

536
00:31:29.111 --> 00:31:30.453
Get your ego out of things.

537
00:31:31.590 --> 00:31:35.653
When I made the decision to go work for Donald Trump, I was not the right person for that job.

538
00:31:36.313 --> 00:31:39.295
I also was too combative for Donald Trump.

539
00:31:39.355 --> 00:31:42.898
Donald Trump wants somebody to be more pliant, more flattering.

540
00:31:43.618 --> 00:31:50.203
And he doesn't want the bilateral relationship as much as he wants unilateral praise.

541
00:31:50.867 --> 00:31:53.668
and then him have a unilateral relationship in terms of doing things.

542
00:31:54.008 --> 00:31:55.008
It's not bilateral.

543
00:31:55.308 --> 00:31:56.588
It's not a business relationship.

544
00:31:56.608 --> 00:31:57.468
It's not a give and take.

545
00:31:58.109 --> 00:31:59.049
I missized that.

546
00:31:59.089 --> 00:32:00.169
I paid dearly for it.

547
00:32:00.229 --> 00:32:01.069
But I knew better.

548
00:32:01.989 --> 00:32:02.729
So why did I do it?

549
00:32:02.749 --> 00:32:04.370
I did it because my ego was talking to me.

550
00:32:05.350 --> 00:32:05.830
Oh, my God.

551
00:32:05.850 --> 00:32:07.450
I grew up in a blue-collar neighborhood.

552
00:32:07.470 --> 00:32:09.531
I went to Tufts and Harvard Law School.

553
00:32:09.571 --> 00:32:10.351
I worked at Goldman.

554
00:32:10.371 --> 00:32:11.451
I built these businesses.

555
00:32:11.851 --> 00:32:13.592
Oh, now I'm going to go work for the American president.

556
00:32:13.612 --> 00:32:14.292
I'm a big shot.

557
00:32:15.352 --> 00:32:17.754
My wife was telling me, you know, you're crazy.

558
00:32:17.774 --> 00:32:18.414
It's not going to fit.

559
00:32:18.434 --> 00:32:19.175
It's not going to work.

560
00:32:20.315 --> 00:32:22.277
11 days later, I got my ass handed to me.

561
00:32:22.837 --> 00:32:30.422
I got shot out of a cannon out of the North Portico of the White House and rolled in margarita glass after they skimmed me alive.

562
00:32:32.003 --> 00:32:37.445
And I let my pride and I let my ego influence my decision-making.

563
00:32:37.465 --> 00:32:40.947
So the big message in the book is let's take a beat.

564
00:32:42.028 --> 00:32:43.569
We may not know everything.

565
00:32:44.029 --> 00:32:48.211
We have to seek answers from people that are necessarily smarter than us and get their advice.

566
00:32:48.892 --> 00:32:53.694
And oh, by the way, even when we do that, there's some fallibility to our decision-making.

567
00:32:53.714 --> 00:32:58.777
You can be the best decision-maker in the world and still get 30%, 40% of your decisions wrong.

568
00:32:59.377 --> 00:33:01.940
By the way, in money management, if you did that, you're a multibillionaire.

569
00:33:02.681 --> 00:33:08.067
One of your quotes that I love, and you touched on this earlier, money and ambition have always lived in tension with ideals.

570
00:33:08.788 --> 00:33:14.135
So I'm curious, how do you define the difference between ambition and ego?

571
00:33:14.800 --> 00:33:22.705
I think it's okay to be ambitious, but I think you have to check yourself because, you know, I mean, there are things I could have done on Wall Street.

572
00:33:23.206 --> 00:33:27.528
I could have been a way more ruthless operator on Wall Street than I actually was.

573
00:33:28.209 --> 00:33:29.810
It probably would have made me a little bit more money.

574
00:33:29.910 --> 00:33:31.231
You know, it could have been richer.

575
00:33:31.851 --> 00:33:34.273
But I'm not sure my quality of life would have necessarily been better.

576
00:33:34.293 --> 00:33:39.917
You know, I've run into a lot of people who make the extra dollar, but for some reason...

577
00:33:40.677 --> 00:33:42.458
If it wasn't enough, they needed two extra dollars.

578
00:33:42.678 --> 00:33:43.138
You know what I mean?

579
00:33:43.158 --> 00:33:46.539
And you can create a pattern of misery, so you got to be really careful.

580
00:33:46.679 --> 00:33:53.622
I just, you know, for me, the way I look at things, I say, I went to Wall Street because I had interest in business.

581
00:33:54.283 --> 00:33:56.003
I've had a great career on Wall Street.

582
00:33:56.363 --> 00:33:57.684
It hasn't been a perfect career.

583
00:33:58.164 --> 00:33:59.925
I took exogenous risks.

584
00:34:00.785 --> 00:34:04.107
I could have just stayed as a happy camper on Wall Street and not gone to work for Donald Trump.

585
00:34:04.127 --> 00:34:05.207
My life would have been totally different.

586
00:34:05.523 --> 00:34:09.326
Like a bit of ambition is okay, but for the right reasons.

587
00:34:09.526 --> 00:34:11.448
And, and also I think that you can't lose yourself.

588
00:34:12.108 --> 00:34:13.309
That's where the ego comes into it.

589
00:34:14.069 --> 00:34:26.039
Like if you, if you're, if you're pursuing ambition just because you think you deserve the thing or you are the best, or you're pursuing something that actually wasn't even your goal, but like the opportunity to work with the president.

590
00:34:26.059 --> 00:34:28.060
Well, all of a sudden now the ego gets into play.

591
00:34:28.180 --> 00:34:31.743
You already have the ambition, but then like the ego is a fuel on the fire.

592
00:34:31.763 --> 00:34:31.883
Yeah.

593
00:34:31.963 --> 00:34:32.484
Yeah.

594
00:34:32.504 --> 00:34:36.408
So ambition is healthy, but you got to make sure it's morally balanced, it's morally anchored.

595
00:34:37.168 --> 00:34:38.350
You want to sleep well at night.

596
00:34:38.710 --> 00:34:39.491
You're a young guy.

597
00:34:39.511 --> 00:34:45.277
When you get to be my age, I guarantee you're going to make a series of decisions.

598
00:34:45.895 --> 00:34:47.296
Some of them are going to go really well.

599
00:34:47.316 --> 00:34:48.337
You're going to pat yourself on the back.

600
00:34:48.797 --> 00:34:49.858
Some of them are not going to go well.

601
00:34:49.878 --> 00:34:51.640
You're going to be like, what the hell happened?

602
00:34:51.660 --> 00:34:51.860
Okay.

603
00:34:51.920 --> 00:34:54.142
And so I'm just saying I've been humbled by life.

604
00:34:54.802 --> 00:34:56.263
I've been humbled by markets.

605
00:34:56.964 --> 00:35:13.217
And I'm just saying if we can acknowledge our mistakes or we can see the path that we're on caused us some hardship and we can admit that to each other without tribalism and without the rancor that you usually get in politics, I think we can fix it.

606
00:35:13.958 --> 00:35:17.120
How fast do you forgive yourself when you make the wrong decision?

607
00:35:17.660 --> 00:35:18.641
That is the issue, right?

608
00:35:18.781 --> 00:35:22.363
I mean, ultimately, in a Christian faith, you get taught to forgive others.

609
00:35:23.003 --> 00:35:25.045
If you really want to help out, you got to forgive yourself.

610
00:35:26.445 --> 00:35:30.808
And I'm really good at it now, and I really sucked at it when I was your age.

611
00:35:31.488 --> 00:35:34.230
Like, if I made a mistake when I was your age, I would kick myself in the pants.

612
00:35:34.910 --> 00:35:37.372
By the time I got to 53, I got fired from the White House.

613
00:35:38.012 --> 00:35:40.034
I was like, all right, I'm not going to wear this millstone.

614
00:35:40.054 --> 00:35:44.217
I'm not waking up in the morning with this millstone of regret on my neck.

615
00:35:44.277 --> 00:35:46.939
And, oh, my God, I did something stupid in the White House.

616
00:35:46.959 --> 00:35:48.200
Let me go kick myself in the pants.

617
00:35:48.540 --> 00:35:49.141
I'm not doing it.

618
00:35:49.821 --> 00:35:52.564
Take the millstone of regret off of your neck.

619
00:35:53.765 --> 00:35:56.387
Put it down beside you and go forward.

620
00:35:57.388 --> 00:36:01.289
You know, forgiving yourself is the superpower.

621
00:36:01.689 --> 00:36:03.330
You could be in a bad relationship.

622
00:36:03.350 --> 00:36:06.410
You could be in a bad business partnership.

623
00:36:06.450 --> 00:36:08.951
You could be in a bad political situation.

624
00:36:09.751 --> 00:36:11.352
And things could go badly for you.

625
00:36:11.852 --> 00:36:13.172
And some of it could be your fault.

626
00:36:13.192 --> 00:36:14.672
Some of it could be the luck of the draw.

627
00:36:15.253 --> 00:36:17.073
But whatever's your fault, forgive yourself.

628
00:36:17.560 --> 00:36:18.620
That's the toughest thing to do.

629
00:36:19.321 --> 00:36:30.585
And it's like, I think that people's success in life, however you define that, but let's say business success, is directly correlated to how fast they can forgive themselves for their mistakes.

630
00:36:31.721 --> 00:36:35.923
It is very hard because you got yelled at as a kid.

631
00:36:35.963 --> 00:36:37.663
Your mother told you not to touch the stove.

632
00:36:37.703 --> 00:36:38.844
Your teachers yelled at you.

633
00:36:38.884 --> 00:36:40.325
Your football coach yelled at you.

634
00:36:41.025 --> 00:36:46.747
And so when you're yelling at yourself and you're tight in between your own ears, that chant can be deafening.

635
00:36:47.467 --> 00:36:48.948
But you got to forgive yourself.

636
00:36:49.346 --> 00:36:54.689
Because if you think about the very public firing, that's like the ultimate.

637
00:36:54.909 --> 00:36:56.270
I got crushed, man.

638
00:36:56.290 --> 00:36:56.990
Come on.

639
00:36:57.030 --> 00:36:57.390
Listen.

640
00:36:57.570 --> 00:36:57.991
Are you ready?

641
00:36:58.511 --> 00:36:58.731
Ready?

642
00:36:59.391 --> 00:36:59.631
Okay.

643
00:37:00.132 --> 00:37:01.112
Try not to fall off the chair.

644
00:37:02.073 --> 00:37:04.974
My wife files for divorce on me on July 7th.

645
00:37:05.855 --> 00:37:08.496
I go to the White House on the 21st of July.

646
00:37:08.516 --> 00:37:13.619
I'm in the Boy Scout camp on Monday the 24th.

647
00:37:14.479 --> 00:37:16.520
Deirdre's pregnant with our second baby.

648
00:37:16.540 --> 00:37:17.501
Okay.

649
00:37:17.681 --> 00:37:18.982
He's due on August 8th.

650
00:37:19.202 --> 00:37:22.424
She gives premature birth due to the stress of everything.

651
00:37:23.384 --> 00:37:25.185
And the baby comes out on the 24th.

652
00:37:25.946 --> 00:37:26.566
Beautiful baby.

653
00:37:26.586 --> 00:37:27.467
He's nine years old now.

654
00:37:28.147 --> 00:37:29.528
Okay, so James is born.

655
00:37:29.708 --> 00:37:31.089
I missed the birth of my son.

656
00:37:31.109 --> 00:37:33.150
So let's go over this for your viewers and listeners, okay?

657
00:37:34.048 --> 00:37:35.709
I'm fired from having a bad day.

658
00:37:35.729 --> 00:37:36.689
Let me tell you something, Scott.

659
00:37:36.709 --> 00:37:37.849
You have my cell phone number.

660
00:37:38.350 --> 00:37:41.631
As long as it's not cancer, you call me when you're having a bad day, okay?

661
00:37:42.011 --> 00:37:42.671
Here's my day.

662
00:37:43.031 --> 00:37:43.652
I'm fired.

663
00:37:43.832 --> 00:37:45.652
The 31st of July, 2017.

664
00:37:46.433 --> 00:37:47.793
My wife has filed for divorce.

665
00:37:48.433 --> 00:37:49.894
I missed the birth of my son.

666
00:37:50.434 --> 00:37:52.675
I'm fired from the White House publicly.

667
00:37:53.295 --> 00:37:56.978
I'm being called a Jersey Shore cast member by Bill Maher on The Bill Maher Show.

668
00:37:57.418 --> 00:38:00.321
I think Stephen Colbert called me Tony Soprano on The Potomac.

669
00:38:00.561 --> 00:38:02.803
You can't be both those people, ladies and gentlemen, okay?

670
00:38:03.263 --> 00:38:05.745
I'm getting eviscerated in the press.

671
00:38:06.586 --> 00:38:11.329
I'm getting eviscerated by the late-night comedians, destroyed by the cable news pundits.

672
00:38:12.390 --> 00:38:13.051
What am I going to do?

673
00:38:13.211 --> 00:38:14.252
I'm going to be a big baby.

674
00:38:14.612 --> 00:38:15.373
A lot of people would.

675
00:38:15.393 --> 00:38:16.053
What am I going to be?

676
00:38:16.134 --> 00:38:17.194
I'm going to pick myself up.

677
00:38:17.435 --> 00:38:17.615
Yeah.

678
00:38:17.975 --> 00:38:18.295
Okay.

679
00:38:18.396 --> 00:38:21.278
My wife was right about a lot of the things that were going wrong in the marriage.

680
00:38:21.318 --> 00:38:23.000
I got to take responsibility for that.

681
00:38:23.540 --> 00:38:24.541
I got to rebuild myself.

682
00:38:24.821 --> 00:38:26.063
I got to get her trust back.

683
00:38:26.483 --> 00:38:27.584
I got to make the marriage work.

684
00:38:28.264 --> 00:38:29.965
I got to go back and repair my business.

685
00:38:30.626 --> 00:38:38.851
I got to go, you know, I had a PR guy that told me that I had such a disaster going on, he told me to move to Tuscany, okay?

686
00:38:38.871 --> 00:38:41.953
He said, hey, I mean, you're never recovering from this.

687
00:38:41.993 --> 00:38:46.335
Hey, five years from now, why don't you, you're a rich enough guy, buy a villa in Tuscany.

688
00:38:46.816 --> 00:38:48.617
Why don't you sit in Tuscany for the next five years?

689
00:38:49.117 --> 00:38:50.078
I looked at him, I said, Howard.

690
00:38:50.598 --> 00:38:51.479
And by the way, he passed.

691
00:38:51.559 --> 00:38:52.479
By the way, I love this guy.

692
00:38:52.499 --> 00:38:53.640
He passed a few years ago.

693
00:38:54.240 --> 00:38:56.241
I said, Howard, I didn't pay you for your advice.

694
00:38:56.301 --> 00:38:57.281
I paid you for your Rolodex.

695
00:38:57.642 --> 00:38:59.082
Give me Stephen Colbert's number.

696
00:38:59.582 --> 00:39:00.023
Bill Boyd.

697
00:39:00.043 --> 00:39:01.023
I got to go on the air.

698
00:39:01.883 --> 00:39:02.864
I got to go.

699
00:39:03.264 --> 00:39:13.468
This two-dimensional caricature that they created of me and that high profile firing nine years ago, I have to blow myself back up.

700
00:39:14.048 --> 00:39:17.250
And so people can see all the facets of me, the good and bad of me.

701
00:39:18.010 --> 00:39:23.812
my career, my legacy education, the things that I'm able to bring to this society.

702
00:39:23.832 --> 00:39:26.172
And then some people will like that and accept it.

703
00:39:26.272 --> 00:39:27.953
And some people will never accept it.

704
00:39:28.573 --> 00:39:29.593
And I have to not care.

705
00:39:30.873 --> 00:39:31.554
You see what I'm saying?

706
00:39:31.614 --> 00:39:31.974
I get it.

707
00:39:32.254 --> 00:39:34.474
And so if you're having a bad day, give me a call.

708
00:39:34.875 --> 00:39:37.375
As long as it's not a hell of a reason, I'll cheer you up.

709
00:39:37.395 --> 00:39:38.436
You'll put it in perspective.

710
00:39:38.516 --> 00:39:38.936
I will.

711
00:39:38.976 --> 00:39:40.116
I'll be able to do that for you.

712
00:39:40.582 --> 00:39:57.650
One of the most powerful ideas that I've heard from somebody is to schedule your misery, meaning that if shit happens, you give yourself 15 minutes, 30 minutes to just grieve and then it's over.

713
00:39:58.490 --> 00:39:58.891
I like it.

714
00:39:58.911 --> 00:40:01.072
Let me tell you why I like that because, and that's good.

715
00:40:01.092 --> 00:40:02.212
I'll probably start to lose it.

716
00:40:02.692 --> 00:40:03.793
You have to ventilate.

717
00:40:04.888 --> 00:40:07.830
You can't pretend that something that's bothering you isn't bothering you.

718
00:40:07.850 --> 00:40:11.492
You can't be one of those guys that's into toxic positivity.

719
00:40:11.652 --> 00:40:12.132
You know what I mean?

720
00:40:12.632 --> 00:40:13.813
You just got your ass kicked.

721
00:40:14.033 --> 00:40:15.794
Oh, la-di-da, I didn't get my ass kicked.

722
00:40:15.814 --> 00:40:17.355
No, you got your ass kicked.

723
00:40:18.335 --> 00:40:21.717
Deal with it, absorb it, but now you got to move on from it.

724
00:40:21.757 --> 00:40:23.478
You have to do that, otherwise you make yourself sick.

725
00:40:23.817 --> 00:40:26.779
I think it's useful because I think people just sit in it for forever.

726
00:40:27.079 --> 00:40:27.779
Or they ignore it.

727
00:40:27.839 --> 00:40:30.961
They either code over it and pretend it didn't happen, which makes them sick too.

728
00:40:31.341 --> 00:40:33.022
HubSpot is a success story partner.

729
00:40:33.182 --> 00:40:38.005
Now, every entrepreneur, founder, CEO is listening right now needs to pay attention.

730
00:40:38.025 --> 00:40:39.106
I have a question for you.

731
00:40:39.426 --> 00:40:47.050
When a buyer asks AI for a solution or a product that your business sells, does your business come up?

732
00:40:47.330 --> 00:40:50.172
The answer is that most companies have no idea.

733
00:40:50.493 --> 00:40:57.318
They don't know if their name shows up in any of the AI tools, chat, perplexity, Claude.

734
00:40:57.719 --> 00:41:04.304
And by the time they find out, they have lost tons of traffic and tons of deals to someone who did show up.

735
00:41:04.684 --> 00:41:06.206
HubSpot AEO.

736
00:41:06.686 --> 00:41:13.972
It helps you show up in those moments with the right answers that your customers and your buyers are looking for when they go type in a question.

737
00:41:14.192 --> 00:41:15.393
It's before the first click.

738
00:41:15.433 --> 00:41:18.215
It's before they fill out some form on your website.

739
00:41:18.715 --> 00:41:22.498
That is the moment that HubSpot AEO is built for.

740
00:41:22.879 --> 00:41:28.563
So if you want your company to show up in AI searches when your customer is looking, check out HubSpot.com.

741
00:41:28.923 --> 00:41:32.606
They are the agentic customer platform for growing businesses.

742
00:41:32.906 --> 00:41:34.308
NetSuite is a success story partner.

743
00:41:34.508 --> 00:41:36.030
Now, you probably know NetSuite already.

744
00:41:36.050 --> 00:41:39.794
It's a software that a ton of companies use to basically manage everything.

745
00:41:39.814 --> 00:41:42.257
Their finances, their inventory, their HR.

746
00:41:42.317 --> 00:41:43.499
It's just all in one place.

747
00:41:43.719 --> 00:41:45.721
Now, they just came out with NetSuite Next.

748
00:41:45.921 --> 00:41:47.884
This is the AI version of

749
00:41:48.144 --> 00:41:48.584
all of that.

750
00:41:48.624 --> 00:41:53.247
So now you can ask it a question the way you'd ask someone on your team who just knows everything about your business.

751
00:41:53.567 --> 00:41:54.488
It gives you the answer.

752
00:41:54.748 --> 00:42:00.471
It keeps you up to date on all the things you need to know about your company and your business without you having to go digging for them.

753
00:42:00.712 --> 00:42:06.335
And it has these AI agents that take care of all the routine work in your business that eats up everybody's day.

754
00:42:06.595 --> 00:42:11.417
Now, the bigger picture here is that AI is starting to change how teams actually work together.

755
00:42:11.717 --> 00:42:15.479
It's happening incredibly fast, and most companies don't have a plan for it.

756
00:42:15.739 --> 00:42:16.399
NetSuite does.

757
00:42:16.699 --> 00:42:22.182
They have a free guide called Aligning for the Agentic Era, how AI is changing everyday work.

758
00:42:22.342 --> 00:42:27.344
It breaks down how AI could reshape the way your whole organization works and what your business should be doing to get ahead of it.

759
00:42:27.524 --> 00:42:30.245
If I needed a tool like NetSuite, it's what I'd use and you should too.

760
00:42:30.525 --> 00:42:39.489
So if your revenues are at least in the seven figures, get our free business guide, Aligning for the Agentic Era, How AI is Changing Everyday Work at netsuite.com slash scottclary.

761
00:42:39.769 --> 00:42:43.471
The guide is free to you at netsuite.com slash scottclary.

762
00:42:43.731 --> 00:42:46.152
That's netsuite.com slash scottclary.

763
00:42:46.232 --> 00:42:47.553
Monarch is a success story partner.

764
00:42:47.633 --> 00:42:48.354
Now, quick question.

765
00:42:48.494 --> 00:42:50.456
Do you know where your money went last month?

766
00:42:50.556 --> 00:42:52.298
Not roughly, but exactly.

767
00:42:52.418 --> 00:42:53.119
And most people don't.

768
00:42:53.339 --> 00:42:54.280
And I didn't for years.

769
00:42:54.320 --> 00:42:56.442
And that is most of our money stories, right?

770
00:42:56.522 --> 00:42:59.144
When we first start our career, we have one income and one account.

771
00:42:59.224 --> 00:43:00.265
And you can kind of wing it.

772
00:43:00.505 --> 00:43:08.373
But once you're running businesses, once you're investing, once you're carrying 50 different subscriptions that you stop paying attention to, winging it gets super expensive.

773
00:43:08.593 --> 00:43:09.594
Monarch fixed that for me.

774
00:43:09.694 --> 00:43:12.435
It is the personal finance app that tracks everything.

775
00:43:12.495 --> 00:43:16.557
So that means accounts, investments, savings goals, spending all on one screen.

776
00:43:16.677 --> 00:43:20.379
The first week I had it, it flied recurring charges I've been paying for months without realizing.

777
00:43:20.479 --> 00:43:26.222
And every single week, the AI recap tells me if spending spiked, if my net worth moved, and what bills are coming.

778
00:43:26.242 --> 00:43:29.463
And I can just ask it, hey, can I afford this trip without touching my savings?

779
00:43:29.523 --> 00:43:32.645
And I can get a real answer based on my actual numbers.

780
00:43:32.745 --> 00:43:34.906
It is a financial advisor in your pocket.

781
00:43:35.166 --> 00:43:37.007
It costs less than an hour with a real one.

782
00:43:37.167 --> 00:43:38.928
So write your own money story with Monarch.

783
00:43:39.168 --> 00:43:43.751
Use code success at monarch.com and get your first year of Monarch Core half off at just $50.

784
00:43:44.012 --> 00:43:47.534
That's 50% off your first year at monarch.com with code success.

785
00:43:47.794 --> 00:43:56.240
Was there something that happened in your entrepreneur life that made all of the shit that happened around Trump and getting fired in public a little bit easier?

786
00:43:56.280 --> 00:44:01.143
Like this was not your first exposure to something bad happening.

787
00:44:02.462 --> 00:44:08.147
say that working for Trump was the stupidest decision I ever made, just flat out was.

788
00:44:08.787 --> 00:44:09.108
Okay?

789
00:44:09.248 --> 00:44:11.630
And I own it, and I'll have to own that for the rest of my life.

790
00:44:12.150 --> 00:44:13.351
But there was a silver lining.

791
00:44:13.371 --> 00:44:15.873
You probably wouldn't know who I am if I didn't work for Trump.

792
00:44:15.893 --> 00:44:17.674
I wouldn't be on your show.

793
00:44:17.694 --> 00:44:21.458
I probably wouldn't be able to have the standing to write the book that I just wrote.

794
00:44:21.498 --> 00:44:23.679
I have my own podcast which does reasonably well.

795
00:44:24.620 --> 00:44:30.145
I don't think I could be mentoring as many young people if I didn't have that

796
00:44:30.785 --> 00:44:33.029
You know, like there's a silver, that's another thing people need to think about.

797
00:44:33.049 --> 00:44:41.202
There's this, as long as you're breathing, you're above ground, living another day, there's a silver lining to your life experiences.

798
00:44:42.064 --> 00:44:44.628
Did that experience change how you make decisions yourself?

799
00:44:45.207 --> 00:44:46.527
No question, yeah, 100%.

800
00:44:47.187 --> 00:44:53.069
I think a big, back-breaking decision, I take a lot more time with.

801
00:44:53.749 --> 00:44:55.129
I'm way more thoughtful with it.

802
00:44:56.130 --> 00:45:04.112
Jeff Bezos has a framework that he categorizes different decisions into decisions that will, basically you can walk back from that decision.

803
00:45:04.772 --> 00:45:13.734
So for example, if you choose to go out on a limb and reach out to somebody who you're not comfortable reaching out to, or you choose to,

804
00:45:14.534 --> 00:45:17.377
post a new type of content that you've never posted before.

805
00:45:17.397 --> 00:45:22.602
Like these are, these are reversible decisions, but irreversible decisions.

806
00:45:22.662 --> 00:45:27.727
So who you marry, maybe who you go into business with, maybe working for Trump.

807
00:45:27.967 --> 00:45:30.290
These are, these are not easy things to walk back from.

808
00:45:31.251 --> 00:45:33.693
these are the things that you spend the most time thinking about.

809
00:45:33.753 --> 00:45:40.840
And most people overthink the reversible decisions and they don't spend enough time thinking about the irreversible.

810
00:45:40.880 --> 00:45:42.682
Yeah, listen, I think it's a really good point.

811
00:45:43.323 --> 00:45:44.944
But I also think that, you know,

812
00:45:46.245 --> 00:45:51.266
He married Mackenzie Bezos and they built the business together.

813
00:45:51.426 --> 00:45:59.048
If you read about their life story, she got billions of dollars in that divorce settlement as a result of building that business with him successfully.

814
00:45:59.908 --> 00:46:01.968
And I think that there's a time and place for things.

815
00:46:02.008 --> 00:46:07.750
I mean, I don't have Jeff Bezos here, but I don't think he would know he's got beautiful children as a result of that marriage.

816
00:46:07.790 --> 00:46:08.890
I don't think he regrets that.

817
00:46:08.910 --> 00:46:09.470
You know, I had a,

818
00:46:09.743 --> 00:46:10.583
No, it's not about regret.

819
00:46:10.603 --> 00:46:12.584
It's about the thought that goes into those decisions.

820
00:46:12.604 --> 00:46:13.725
But it was irreversible, right?

821
00:46:13.765 --> 00:46:15.965
I mean, I married somebody very young.

822
00:46:16.426 --> 00:46:17.806
She's a very lovely person.

823
00:46:17.846 --> 00:46:18.867
She's a great mom.

824
00:46:19.367 --> 00:46:20.687
We ended up getting divorced.

825
00:46:20.707 --> 00:46:22.308
We were probably married too young.

826
00:46:22.328 --> 00:46:25.549
That was an irreversible decision.

827
00:46:26.169 --> 00:46:28.190
But I'm not sure I would have gone back and reversed it.

828
00:46:28.210 --> 00:46:29.951
I got three beautiful kids out of it.

829
00:46:30.131 --> 00:46:33.652
And she did a great job raising them.

830
00:46:33.832 --> 00:46:34.853
And so to me...

831
00:46:35.573 --> 00:46:36.734
I guess I would say a little bit different.

832
00:46:36.754 --> 00:46:40.676
By the way, far be it from me, he's way more successful than me, Jeff Bezos.

833
00:46:41.396 --> 00:46:43.657
So I'm not, I mean, I get his point.

834
00:46:44.318 --> 00:46:54.243
But I guess what I would say, there are some irreversible decisions that you're going to get on the wrong side of that you're going to inevitably make no matter what.

835
00:46:54.763 --> 00:47:00.686
I don't know anybody that's got out of life and said, you know, you're the 20 potentially irreversible decisions.

836
00:47:00.746 --> 00:47:02.267
I went 20 for 20.

837
00:47:02.827 --> 00:47:04.168
I got every single one of those right.

838
00:47:04.409 --> 00:47:05.590
I understand where you're coming from.

839
00:47:05.790 --> 00:47:19.481
It's a good way to think about making decisions, but it's also dangerous at the same time because if you do end up in a supposedly irreversible decision and you realize it's the wrong one, you can't get too hard on yourself for that.

840
00:47:19.541 --> 00:47:20.142
That's my point.

841
00:47:20.182 --> 00:47:21.363
I mean, what are we going to do?

842
00:47:21.383 --> 00:47:25.586
We're going to make these decisions, and whether we like it or not, we're going to get some of them wrong.

843
00:47:25.606 --> 00:47:30.010
But I think that's the pathos that I would like an entrepreneur to understand.

844
00:47:30.831 --> 00:47:31.911
Go make the decisions.

845
00:47:32.952 --> 00:47:38.634
Have an imperfect, you know, Reid Hoffman, the founder of LinkedIn, said, if your website's perfect, you waited too long to start the company.

846
00:47:39.214 --> 00:47:42.535
You know, make the, put the clip out, Scott.

847
00:47:42.695 --> 00:47:43.935
It may not be perfect, okay?

848
00:47:44.275 --> 00:47:47.896
I mean, this is how the podcast is built, just iterating a thousand times.

849
00:47:47.936 --> 00:47:48.596
That's what I'm saying.

850
00:47:48.656 --> 00:47:52.838
And by the way, we are in a weird environment this way culturally.

851
00:47:52.858 --> 00:47:53.738
Talk about our culture.

852
00:47:54.881 --> 00:48:00.988
My parents, perhaps your grandparents, were in a homogenized, sanitized culture.

853
00:48:01.708 --> 00:48:03.871
The lights were on in the television station.

854
00:48:04.371 --> 00:48:06.673
The presenter had a perfect tie on.

855
00:48:07.214 --> 00:48:12.359
His hair had more hairspray than Joan Rivers, you know, and he was sitting there reading the news.

856
00:48:13.283 --> 00:48:14.104
We don't do that anymore.

857
00:48:14.744 --> 00:48:19.428
We now have a culture that rewards authenticity and rawness.

858
00:48:20.149 --> 00:48:26.133
Literally, the more open you are and the more honest you are with somebody, and they can smell it on you now.

859
00:48:26.153 --> 00:48:27.114
They smell it on you.

860
00:48:27.474 --> 00:48:28.836
Is Scott a real guy?

861
00:48:29.496 --> 00:48:30.337
Or is he a BSer?

862
00:48:30.437 --> 00:48:32.558
You have such a big following that people have bought in.

863
00:48:32.578 --> 00:48:33.299
You're a real guy.

864
00:48:34.380 --> 00:48:38.583
And so you have to like, for me, I'd rather tell you this group.

865
00:48:38.683 --> 00:48:39.824
It may not make me look well.

866
00:48:40.345 --> 00:48:42.646
I may not have done the right thing at certain times in my life.

867
00:48:43.307 --> 00:48:45.048
But at least you'll know that I'm human.

868
00:48:45.228 --> 00:48:48.951
At least you'll know that, hey, I'm bringing myself to the game.

869
00:48:48.971 --> 00:48:54.415
I'm not trying to make you think something differently than what my actual authenticity is.

870
00:48:55.096 --> 00:48:57.678
And I think that that's a superpower in this world right now.

871
00:48:57.778 --> 00:48:58.298
I think so too.

872
00:48:58.318 --> 00:48:59.419
When everybody's trying to like.

873
00:48:59.479 --> 00:49:00.139
People want that.

874
00:49:00.799 --> 00:49:02.780
Everyone's trying to be something they're not.

875
00:49:02.820 --> 00:49:03.681
Everyone's trying to show up.

876
00:49:04.101 --> 00:49:04.541
You can't.

877
00:49:04.801 --> 00:49:05.541
I know.

878
00:49:06.502 --> 00:49:10.324
People listening to this, like I mentioned before, there are half of them are entrepreneurs.

879
00:49:10.344 --> 00:49:15.306
Half of them are working the nine to five, various incomes, various degrees of success.

880
00:49:15.426 --> 00:49:22.289
But the question, the most important question is, is the American dream still alive and well for all of them?

881
00:49:23.151 --> 00:49:23.792
It is.

882
00:49:24.352 --> 00:49:25.673
It's harder.

883
00:49:26.734 --> 00:49:27.674
It's more narrow.

884
00:49:28.395 --> 00:49:37.121
You know, if my dad was born in 1965 and had the same job versus 1935, his wages would have been less for the same amount of work.

885
00:49:37.741 --> 00:49:40.283
We wouldn't have been able to afford the house that we're in.

886
00:49:40.964 --> 00:49:49.389
You know, we were able to live a nice middle class upbringing because of the economic times associated with the time that my father was doing his work.

887
00:49:50.390 --> 00:49:51.410
that work has changed.

888
00:49:51.450 --> 00:49:54.412
He would have had to have changed jobs or he would have gotten a different skill set.

889
00:49:55.292 --> 00:50:00.634
And so, but if you're saying to me, can you start de novo in this country and make something of yourself?

890
00:50:00.674 --> 00:50:00.954
Yes.

891
00:50:01.854 --> 00:50:06.356
But I think what happens now though, you may have burdensome school debt.

892
00:50:07.176 --> 00:50:08.817
You know, I want to be an entrepreneur.

893
00:50:09.640 --> 00:50:10.420
But I couldn't be.

894
00:50:10.940 --> 00:50:11.941
I had during school debt.

895
00:50:12.501 --> 00:50:16.883
I wrote, I was in the Harvard Law Library the week of my graduation.

896
00:50:16.903 --> 00:50:18.283
So this is June of 1989.

897
00:50:18.363 --> 00:50:20.084
So I really date myself.

898
00:50:20.644 --> 00:50:23.845
And I wrote my goals, manifesting my goals.

899
00:50:24.766 --> 00:50:27.727
And one of the things I wrote, well, I don't have, I wanna be an entrepreneur.

900
00:50:28.287 --> 00:50:30.748
So I wrote, I have to pay off my school debt

901
00:50:32.036 --> 00:50:33.257
before I could be an entrepreneur.

902
00:50:33.277 --> 00:50:36.158
Because if I fail at being an entrepreneur, I'll be able to pay off the school debt.

903
00:50:36.979 --> 00:50:42.122
So it took me seven years to completely pay off my school debt.

904
00:50:42.682 --> 00:50:46.144
It put me in a position to think like an entrepreneur.

905
00:50:46.824 --> 00:50:49.266
But imagine today, maybe it would have taken me 10 years.

906
00:50:49.326 --> 00:50:50.407
Maybe it'd take me 14 years.

907
00:50:50.527 --> 00:50:50.947
I don't know.

908
00:50:51.667 --> 00:50:55.709
My point is it's harder today than it was back then.

909
00:50:56.830 --> 00:50:58.210
But it's not impossible.

910
00:50:58.971 --> 00:51:03.953
And I think you've got to dream really big in our society because anything can happen in our society.

911
00:51:04.133 --> 00:51:15.638
And I think that a really powerful message, because it's harder and I don't want people to be upset and depressed by that, is that you really only have to figure it out once in life, whatever it is.

912
00:51:16.339 --> 00:51:17.199
I think it's a good point.

913
00:51:17.628 --> 00:51:21.690
If you figure out the business, say it takes 15 years instead of seven.

914
00:51:22.170 --> 00:51:23.491
If you figure it out, you know this.

915
00:51:23.511 --> 00:51:24.831
You'll make more money than you know what to do with.

916
00:51:24.932 --> 00:51:28.353
You know, so interestingly, our philosophies are pretty much in sync.

917
00:51:28.913 --> 00:51:30.114
I would just add something to it.

918
00:51:31.054 --> 00:51:32.035
Stay in the game.

919
00:51:33.055 --> 00:51:33.255
Right?

920
00:51:33.295 --> 00:51:34.256
What did Woody Allen say?

921
00:51:34.296 --> 00:51:35.797
80% of life is just showing up.

922
00:51:36.637 --> 00:51:37.377
Stay in the game.

923
00:51:38.078 --> 00:51:40.039
You know, I got hit three or four times.

924
00:51:40.099 --> 00:51:42.220
I could have said, oh, it's not for me and left the game.

925
00:51:43.172 --> 00:51:45.336
2008, I was really close to going out of business.

926
00:51:45.396 --> 00:51:46.898
One of my friends was a Goldman partner.

927
00:51:46.918 --> 00:51:47.679
He was doing really well.

928
00:51:47.719 --> 00:51:49.442
He was like, you should shut this down.

929
00:51:50.383 --> 00:51:51.385
I'm not shutting it down.

930
00:51:51.425 --> 00:51:53.268
I'm going to go down in a blaze of glory.

931
00:51:53.288 --> 00:51:54.450
It's 22 years later.

932
00:51:55.513 --> 00:51:56.614
You've got to stay in the game.

933
00:51:56.634 --> 00:51:58.396
You've got to stay lit and jacked for the game.

934
00:51:58.596 --> 00:51:59.577
Where do you want to send people?

935
00:51:59.897 --> 00:52:01.059
Your social website, all that?

936
00:52:01.259 --> 00:52:06.844
Well, I mean, listen, you can follow me on Instagram at at Scaramucci or on X at Scaramucci.

937
00:52:06.864 --> 00:52:08.346
That's sort of my handle everywhere.

938
00:52:08.366 --> 00:52:12.910
You can go to Amazon or buy the book or Barnes & Noble or your local bookseller.

939
00:52:13.811 --> 00:52:15.793
And I guess this is what I would say about the book.

940
00:52:15.813 --> 00:52:16.994
The goal of the book...

941
00:52:17.595 --> 00:52:20.138
was to write a short book that you could finish in a few settings.

942
00:52:20.859 --> 00:52:22.461
Hopefully you'll learn something from the book.

943
00:52:23.342 --> 00:52:28.027
And hopefully the book is a lot of fun, because I wrote about a lot of crazy stories that have happened in my life.

944
00:52:28.888 --> 00:52:33.293
And, you know, the reviews have been generally good on those categories.

945
00:52:33.954 --> 00:52:34.775
He's fantastic.

946
00:52:34.915 --> 00:52:41.958
Funny enough, and I learned something, and he is making a persuasive case that all the stuff that we're dealing with today is fixable.

947
00:52:42.058 --> 00:52:47.360
So hopefully the book will provide somebody with some hope among all the other things.

948
00:52:47.380 --> 00:52:50.161
What do you want that main takeaway to be?

949
00:52:50.782 --> 00:52:53.523
Hope, but go a level deeper for the reader.

950
00:52:53.543 --> 00:52:54.703
I think it's a humbling book.

951
00:52:54.983 --> 00:52:58.145
I think the main takeaway would be, wow, I'm going to be a little less critical.

952
00:52:59.065 --> 00:53:00.106
of the opposing side.

953
00:53:00.126 --> 00:53:02.708
If I'm a Democrat, I can be a little less critical of the Republican.

954
00:53:02.728 --> 00:53:06.031
If I'm a Republican, I'd be a little less critical of the Democrat.

955
00:53:06.691 --> 00:53:14.177
That these big decisions have a lot of unknowns attached to them, and it's very humbling when you're in the seat.

956
00:53:14.737 --> 00:53:17.820
But for the grace of God, I could make those bad decisions myself.

957
00:53:18.580 --> 00:53:24.024
And so rather than dwell on and point blame at people and do all that sort of nonsense, let's fix it.

958
00:53:24.305 --> 00:53:25.205
Yeah, I love that.

959
00:53:25.305 --> 00:53:27.307
I love the idea that the...

960
00:53:28.993 --> 00:53:34.735
The best future for the U.S. is to remove all the hate, all the anger, all the animosity.

961
00:53:34.775 --> 00:53:35.176
That's it.

962
00:53:35.276 --> 00:53:39.297
Because if you do that, you know, look, it's not going to be perfect.

963
00:53:39.337 --> 00:53:43.479
Listen, they were spitting and cussing at Jackie Robinson when he crossed the color line.

964
00:53:44.239 --> 00:53:45.520
We had slaves in this country.

965
00:53:46.040 --> 00:53:47.181
Okay, it's not going to be perfect.

966
00:53:47.201 --> 00:53:50.462
They told my Italian grandmother to go back to the country she came from.

967
00:53:51.183 --> 00:53:53.404
It's not a perfect country, but no country is.

968
00:53:54.305 --> 00:53:58.867
But it's a good country, and it's a country that's trying to get things closer to perfection.

969
00:53:59.387 --> 00:54:02.349
And I think we have to hold up to that ideal.

970
00:54:03.069 --> 00:54:06.511
At the beginning, I mentioned you've gone through about five different lives, right?

971
00:54:06.551 --> 00:54:14.856
The working class kid, Goldman Sachs, your own firm, White House, now this version of yourself, author, podcaster, still running your hedge fund.

972
00:54:17.262 --> 00:54:22.165
If you could go back and tell 20-year-old Anthony the most important piece of advice that you wish he had, what would it be and why?

973
00:54:22.605 --> 00:54:25.927
The number one thing is what we talked about with other people.

974
00:54:26.688 --> 00:54:28.369
What other people think of you as none of your business.

975
00:54:28.389 --> 00:54:30.170
I was probably too concerned about that at age 20.

976
00:54:31.879 --> 00:54:32.519
appearances.

977
00:54:33.320 --> 00:54:34.601
Appearances lead to ego.

978
00:54:34.621 --> 00:54:35.962
You make ego-based decisions.

979
00:54:36.262 --> 00:54:38.524
I would say, hey, you're going to have a great ride.

980
00:54:38.544 --> 00:54:39.364
It's going to be a little crazy.

981
00:54:39.384 --> 00:54:40.085
You're having a great run.

982
00:54:40.725 --> 00:54:42.307
But take yourself less seriously.

983
00:54:43.207 --> 00:54:45.289
Care less about what other people think about you.

984
00:54:45.589 --> 00:54:50.853
Take more risk and enjoy the ride and recognize there are bumps on the ride.

985
00:54:51.334 --> 00:54:53.015
It's supposed to be bumpy, Scott.

986
00:54:53.656 --> 00:54:54.696
It's supposed to be bumpy.

987
00:54:54.716 --> 00:54:56.778
I think those are things I would want to tell my 20-year-old self.