"Ego Destruction and Humility…": US Presidential Candidate Andrew Yang on Running for President

0:00Andrew Yang:I thought, hey, like, if I run for president and it doesn't go well, like, I'll be able to look at myself in the mirror and I'll survive. Very, very few people who reach a certain level are willing to do something that will make them look really bad. Hello, and welcome to Giant Ideas with me, Cameron McLean, and me, Tommy Stadlin. We're co-founders of Giant Ventures, which builds and backs purpose-driven companies. At Giant, we're lucky to meet extraordinary people with Giant Ideas that are changing the world. This podcast brings you behind-the-scenes access to those ideas and the inspiring stories of the people behind them.

0:35We explore how one giant idea can kickstart a billion-dollar company, shape culture, and transform life as we know it. Andrew, welcome back to Giant Ideas. Great to have you with us. Last week, we talked a lot about universal basic income and US politics. This week, we want to dive into you and your amazing life story. So we ask all of our guests on Giant Ideas, if you had to depict your life in three photographs, what would those photographs be and why?

1:02Andrew Yang:Well, now I'm a dad and married. So I've got a wife and two kids who are 13 and 10. So the first photo that comes to mind for me would be like a recent Thanksgiving photo of the four of us. because I don't know if you guys have kids or families, but that stuff becomes, you know, the core. So that would be picture number one. So grateful for the family. I love them very much. Photo number two that does come to mind for me is like there are, and there are a number of photos. You could take like a few of them. Um, but there's like a photo of me in front of a crowd rallying for, um, universal basic income, like the presidential campaign in 2019 or 2020 and thousands and thousands of people showed up.

1:55Uh, and it's, uh, a singular experience.

2:00Andrew Yang:I recommend it. I recommend that everyone listening to this run for the highest office in their land, um, immediately. Um, so what is it actually like to run for president and how does it change your life? You're part of a very small, very strange club of people who've run for president. Tell us what it's actually like and how has it changed your life now, years later? So what it's like in real life is an exercise in ego destruction and humility. And I tell you why. So like, you know, I'm a fairly cool, accomplished guy, but when you run for president, everyone's like, of? And then you're like, of America, obviously.

2:43Or I was at my son's school event and then meet another dad,

2:49Andrew Yang:and the dad asked what I do for a living. Very reasonable question. But it sounds like I'm a lunatic if I say I'm a presidential candidate because I'm not on TV, I'm not famous, I'm not a current senator or anything. So they'd be like, what? And then I have to go through all this explanation. And at the end of that explanation, you know what they would say? It's like, good luck with that. So you're like, I don't want to have this conversation over and over again. Well, it's a natural thing to say. What else would you prefer they to say? What they should say is like, let me donate the maximum right now, drop everything and follow you to Iowa.

3:24Andrew Yang:That's what they should have said. So, you know, that's like minor humiliation. you have like tons of minor humiliations. Now in this case, you know, I went from that to screaming crowds of thousands and seven presidential debates and like the rest of it. So thank you, Yang Gang, you know, if you're listening to this, but you know, it was months and months of anonymity and slogging and having events that very few people would show up to in the middle of nowhere. So I'm grateful to everyone who believed in me and in particular worked on the campaign because there's this arc. And to your question, I get recognized on the street every day, you know, here in the States and 98 % of the time, it's very, very positive where I'd be like, you know, people ask me all the time.

4:20Andrew Yang:It's like, Hey, run again. You were right on AI, uh you know things like that so there's a lot of love what gets someone elected well in my cycle and i actually you know being a numbers guy too um so uh i won the iowa youth vote uh and was really really strong on uh cares about people like me want to have a beer with um you know has like my interest at heart. The things I lost on in that case to Joe Biden in 2020 was, has the right experience to defeat Donald Trump. And I actually get that. Like the Democratic voters, it's like, do you want to bet on the magical Asian man from the future? Or like the former vice president when your opponent is Donald Trump.

5:17Andrew Yang:And so they chose Joe Biden. and i think they got it right because joe biden did win now joe biden then got it historically wrong by sticking around to run again i mean that so he failed us all uh but they weren't wrong in 2020 um voters are kind of simple that way uh and uh you know like um that's i think what got joe elected that time was just people wanted uh to find someone who could beat trump yeah you know what's interesting andrew when you say that people recognize you in the street and actually it's mostly really positive and you get a lot of love that has by observation been my experience we we work with david milliband who's the former foreign secretary of the uk who chairs our advisory board at giant and everywhere i go around the world with david people come up to him literally all day every day and recognize him but it's all positive it's the only people who come up to are the ones who say i wish you would have been prime minister you've done fantastic i love you and it's a very warm experience i think it's counter to everything you hear and read that people don't shouldn't go into politics or don't want to go into politics because it's so hateful it's so awful it ruins your life clearly that's not not your experience in the u.s yeah it's true i kind of jokingly was like everyone should do it i think more people should um should get into the arena because uh the arena needs great people great ideas and uh i have had like a wonderful elevating experience uh you know like not all sunshine and roses like a lot of stress um you know and obstacles um but mostly love amazing what was your third photograph be andrew you know the third photo that comes to mind for me is um a childhood photo uh being born in schenectady new york upstate with my immigrant parents uh in the 70s you know and them like smiling and striving.

7:09Andrew Yang:They came to this country with nothing, wanted to build a better life for my brother and me. And it worked. And, you know, very grateful to them. Now, my father immigrated back to Taiwan, and he's in his 80s. So I try and get his grandsons to visit any chance we get. But that decision that they made back in the 60s defined my life. What's the single biggest thing they taught you? They just busted ass, man. They just worked really hard all the time. And as a kid, that stuff does rub off on you. So it's one of my contributions to my family. It's like, look, if I work hard, then they'll see that.

8:00Amazing. And you've worked in a couple of industries and sectors. You've been in politics, you've been in business, you've done a range of things. Any thoughts or reflections on reinvention and applying yourself to such different areas?

8:13Andrew Yang:Yeah, I recommend that too. But people need to not get stuck in this era. The way I see it is that we have tours of duty that will take typically, I'd say like each tour of duty is like three to six years, maybe three to eight years. I mean, frankly, the longer the tour of duty, the better things are going for you. So, you know, try and stretch it out.

8:37Andrew Yang:And I've had politics. I've had business. I've had philanthropy and nonprofits. I've had entrepreneurship and loved it all. You know, and now I'm working on Noble Mobile, which is something I'm super excited about, to try and save Americans billions of dollars and get them off of what one comedian calls are rectangles of sadness, otherwise known as our smartphones. So the average Noble mobile user uses 17 % less screen time in month two or three relative to how they started. And I dare say that's like around where most of us want to go. I think most of us want to decrease our screen time by, let's say 20 % as like a threshold.

9:22Andrew Yang:Some of us would like to decrease it by a lot more than that. How does it work? Oh, my gosh. So glad you asked. Because, you know, okay. The average European is spending$35 a month on your wireless data. That's what you guys are used to. The average American is spending$83 a month. And I was spending$140 a month with a company called Verizon, which is number one in the U.S. market share. So what the heck is that extra$48 a month doing? And I just want to define how big that difference gets. If you multiply it times 12, it's let's call it$600 a year. And then you multiply it times the hundreds of millions of Americans who have cell phones.

10:08Andrew Yang:It amounts to$100 billion in extra spend a year on cell phone services in the U.S. relative to Europeans if we were paying what you guys were paying. Now, that$100 billion,$11 billion of it was in the form of dividends to Verizon shareholders. If you look up Verizon stock, it pays a 6.5 % dividend last I checked. AT &T might be 4.5%. So these are companies that are just taking billions of dollars from customers and giving it to shareholders as their primary draw. and it's not like the service is innovating, really. It works. Don't get me wrong. It works. But they're not spending billions to make it better.

11:01Andrew Yang:They're spending billions on marketing and convincing us that what we're spending with them makes some sense. So I ran for president on universal basic income, and I figured out that a lot of Americans are broke and are trying to figure out how to save money. So if I could get them closer to what you guys are spending, I'd be doing them a huge solid. So what Noble Mobile does is we license data from T-Mobile and we'll cut the average American's phone bill in half. And here's how we do it. So for a Noble user, you spend$50 a month on unlimited data on the T-Mobile network. But we give you up to$20 back at the end of the month based upon any data you don't use below 20 gigs.

11:53Andrew Yang:So the average Noble user will spend$42 a month, which is like magic, half of what the average American is spending. um and because we're giving you money back for not using your phone uh your data use goes down when you're out and about because people like money and they like measurements they like rewards uh so that's how noble mobile works and in your experience with noble what is the best way to get yourself using the phone and the screen less uh well the the main thing is to so I say this, like don't sleep with your phone in the same room. That's a great place to start. Try not to use your phone during meals.

12:38Andrew Yang:That's a fantastic step. Take one break from your phone a day minimum. It could be your gym workout or a walk or something along those lines. and be aware of how you are around other people because studies have shown that if you look at your phone while you're talking to someone, they want to punch you in the face. I mean, understandably so, but that is such a good moment. We've all gone into a store or room and then realized you're still on your phone when you should really just be engaging and looking at people. But I think a good place to start is definitely not bringing it into the bedroom and certainly not doing it in mealtimes.

13:20And an alarm clock. That's my recent, the last couple of months, I bought an old school alarm clock, which was the last remaining excuse to keep the phone in the bedroom. It's gone.

13:29Andrew Yang:We heartily recommend that at Noble. Something on an alarm clock. And it cost you what? Like 15 US dollars? Yeah, it's fantastic. Well, we like to end every episode, Andrew, by asking what it is about you that has enabled you to have the success you've had in your life so far. And you can't be modest. You must be honest about what it is about yourself. You know, guys, I read a book called On the Edge by Nate Silver about risk taking. And the main thing that has made me successful is that I think I've had a realistic assessment of the risk reward of various situations. And so I'll use the one that I'm most famous for.

14:12Andrew Yang:Decide to run for president. What are the downsides? Opportunity costs, time away from your family, and possible total public humiliation. Those are the main downsides. And then the upsides were things like accelerate the end of poverty for millions and millions and do what you thought was the right thing to do. and I thought, hey, if I run for president and it doesn't go well, I'll be able to look at myself in the mirror and I'll survive. In part because the total public humiliation thing was a real possibility, but I thought I could live with that. And I think too many people get scared off of things because they make too much of that kind of risk.

15:05Andrew Yang:uh you know and it's it's been yeah it's like like i like one of my aggravating things i mean by the way a lot of people listening to you guys in resemble this is like you get to a certain level very very few people who reach a certain level are willing to do something that will make them look really bad uh you know they they take risks in like a narrow band and it makes them lame

15:33Andrew Yang:And so to the extent that I've had an interesting career, I don't think I'm necessarily better than other folks in most dimensions. But I'm willing to take risks that other people have shied away from. and I don't think, like, I think that I'm right and there wrong in the sense, like, you should be willing to take this risk too. Like, what's keeping you? Like, what's the problem? And I see that it gets stacked on top of people, like, these layers of success and socialization. You know, you just have to be willing to let some of it go. You know, we don't have that much time on this planet. And if you can't, I actually gave this impassioned speech to a bunch of donors for, like a democracy event they were really for the most part very rich successful folks and i was like you know what's missing from this room an appetite for total public humiliation you know like you you guys like uh are are messing around because like you know like the investments you're making they're very significant but they're not going to change any of your lives not going to make you look bad like you guys have to be willing to look bad um that to me is like the the message It's like, be willing.

16:52Andrew Yang:If you're willing to look bad, you might wind up changing the course of history. But if you're not willing to look bad, you're not going to change shit. That's a great note to end up. Love that. Thank you so much, Andrew. Appreciate you guys. I do send out a weekly email at andreyang.com. A lot of it's US-based, but people might enjoy aspects. I'm going to be talking a lot about what AI is doing with the labor market if you want to join for that. thank you for joining your ideas Andrew really appreciate it