Living an Extraordinary Life with Anthony Pompliano

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1:27Hello, I'm Anthony Scaramucci, and this is Open Book, where I talk with some of the brightest minds out there about everything surrounding the written word, from authors and historians to figures in entertainment, neuroscientists, political activists, and of course, Wall Street. Sorry, I can't resist. Before we get into today's episode, if you haven't already, please hit follow or subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and leave us a review. We all love a review, even the bad ones. I want to hear the parts you're enjoying or how we can do better. You know, I can roll with the punches, so let me know.

2:02Anyways, let's get to it.

2:11My friend Anthony Pompliano joins me today, who I'm sure most of you will know. His new book, How to Live an Extraordinary Life is Extraordinary. I've read it twice already, and there's so many great important lessons in there for people of all ages. I've had many conversations with Pomp, but this one is special. Let's get into it.

2:38Okay, so joining us now on Open Book is a dear friend, fellow Italian. Title of the book, How to Live an Extraordinary Life by Anthony Pompliano, who's incredibly well adjusted for an Italian-American. I would have found you to be a little crazier, to be honest, like the rest of us, Anthony. So let's start there. How did you grow up? Just tell us quickly how you grew up. In my family, there's five boys. I'm the oldest of five. My parents were smart enough to let us get into tons of trouble and do dumb things, but also love us at the same time and convince us that maybe we could make something out of ourselves if we worked hard.

3:15Okay. This book is a gem. Okay. And tell me what you were trying to accomplish with this book. I've actually read the book twice. It's an easy read, but it's loaded with terrific observations. And you're a young guy. How old are you? 36. All right. So you're a young guy. Okay. This is the type of book that a 70-year-old or an 80-year-old could have written. So let's talk about that. What were you trying to accomplish with this book? and where did you get this type of wisdom? Well, my incredibly intelligent, good-looking friend, Anthony Scaramucci, had written a number of best-selling books. And so I was like, you know, I can't let him have all the fun.

3:50Oh, my God, you're so full of shit. Give me the fucking real answer, okay? I mean, this is the Mooch's podcast, but it's your show. Give me the real answer, Pop. Give me the real answer. Come on. Look, I started writing some of the letters to my kids. My wife really pushed me, I think, to write the first one. And I just, after I wrote, I don't know, five, six, seven of them, figured, well, there's probably people other than my kids who could benefit from reading these. And we put it into a book. We published it. The only problem is I now have people throughout my life that read the book, and then they start repeating back to me the lessons at the most inopportune times.

4:26So now people are recognizing my own insights against me. Right. When you're going over the boundaries of the Pompliano book, they remind you. But, you know, Pom, honestly, there's several different topics in this book that I want to address with you. The first one is non-reciprocity or non-linear. And what I mean by that, the genius of your book is to be non-transactional, to be non-linear, to call your friends for no reason, to reach out to people, to make the anonymous check to a charity. Not even for the charity, but because for yourself, because it makes you feel good. So tell somebody who's cynical why that is not only a way to live an extraordinary life, but actually makes you very happy and makes you very balanced on the inside.

5:16Yeah, I think most people are optimizing for what do I get out of life? And what I've found is what you put into life drastically determines what you get out of it. And so if you think about investing, the amount of work you put in will determine the return you pull out. If you think of relationships, the amount of effort or time you put in will determine the joy that you get out of it. You kind of just go throughout life. And it's a lot like leadership. A lot of people think leadership is all about kind of beating your chest and, hey, I'm in charge. But what you find is the best leaders understand that leadership is about service.

5:50How do you serve the people that you're supposed to be leading? And so I think that that is a key theme throughout the book because it's just true. You write in this book on page 125 something that is incredibly hard for people to do. Okay, so I'm going to read what you wrote. Your life changes once you realize that no one else's opinion matters as long as you know who you are. Or as my grandmother would say, other people think of you as none of your business. Now, you know, I've been brutalized in the press. I've been ripped up particularly after my White House firing. And this is a hard thing to do.

6:24okay i'm not i'm not saying i'm perfect at it but i think i'm pretty good at it because i don't give a shit okay and i've been able to release myself from what you describe as a mental prison where i don't really care what other people think about me here i'll show you something okay look this is me sinking in a bitcoin boat see this is the we got comedians at skybridge right so they made a bobblehead of me right looking at sinking in the bitcoin boat because i was getting torched in bitcoin about two years ago after the fdx debacle you either give a shit anthony or you don't How? How do you get your mindset around not giving a shit?

6:58I once heard a quote that said something to the effect of don't worry about the opinions of people you wouldn't ask advice from. And so there's this thought process of if you know who you are, people around you know who you are, then just keep going forward. And the world is full of kind of short termism and people will jump from, you know, whatever the latest shiny thing is to the next one very quickly. But what I have found is if you take the perspective, whenever you're going through the shit, what can I learn from this? What can I take away? And the more that you can glean insights or glean lessons from even the bad times, it in a weird way makes you thankful for them.

7:37And so, you know, yeah, you got fired from the White House, but you probably learned a lot about yourself and what you want out of life and, you know, the type of person you are. And so in a weird way, it may be one of the most positive impact, you know, situations that you lived in your life. But it's all about mindset. It's all about, you know, did I actually take information out of this or did I just get punched in the face? And, you know, everyone made fun of me on the Internet. And that's all that situation. But does it really affect my life? I'm still having my look. I got my Starbucks. I'm still having my Starbucks.

8:06You're still athletic. You're still rich. Like we get it. We're trying to. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. This is why you're so good. Flattery will get you. everywhere with the Scaramucci's. Okay. All right. So listen, I've got limited time with you. I want you to say something to me that you don't usually say to people. There's something inside Pompliano's brain that you don't share. There's something, there's a self-talk, there's a self philosophy, there's something going on in the Pompliano brain that I want you to share with us. What is it? Well, I think there's, there's two things that probably people would appreciate.

8:40One, and Italians more so than most, I think, understand this, but my wife and I always repeat the same thing to each other at different times throughout our life, which is like it ends with us. And it's this idea that when you grow up, you are taught a bunch of things. You pick up habits. You pick up different components. Thankfully, the bad habits in my life are not alcoholism or very serious things, but simple things like growing up. We used to eat a very carb-heavy diet at 9 p.m. every night. You're kind of a classic Italian family. And so that's probably not the healthiest thing. And this idea of it ends with us is ending these kind of generational situations where we just said, look, we're going to eat healthy and we're not going to eat at 9 p.m.

9:25And I know that I grew up in that household doing that, but that's not what I want for my kids. And so we're going to go a different direction. So I think a lot of people, they feel empowered when they realize like you can change those generational things if you recognize them and then are intentional about it. And then the second thing is, it's weird to say out loud, but you can accomplish anything you want in the world as long as you are willing to outwork people. And I do think there are many times throughout the week where I will say to myself, whether something's going well, not going well, whatever, it's just like, just keep working hard and it'll work out.

10:01And I think there's a lot of people, especially young people today, who they want instant results. They want to immediately get wealthy or accomplish their goal or whatever. And as you get older, you just realize, look, you've got to enjoy the work of it, and the outcome kind of takes care of itself. I think you are a generational entrepreneur. I really do believe that about you. I've said this to you privately, but I think you have the DNA and the mechanisms of being a generational entrepreneur, not only just in terms of your philosophy, Munger-like philosophy, but also, you know, if I could buy stock in you personally, I would.

10:40But I want you to tell me about a failure. I want you to tell me about a Pompliano setback, okay, that you've had to deal with either personally or professionally and what went through your mind and did it change your mindset or not. And I'll just give you mine. When I got fired brutally from the White House, I think it made me more psychologically minded. I think it made me more empathetic for other people. Okay. And perhaps I was a little bit too detached from other people and I have to own that. But tell me about you and potential pitfall that you've had. Yeah, probably the biggest professional one was the bankruptcy of BlockFi.

11:18You know, we were the second largest investor there. I've been very public about, you know, kind of my thoughts of how well it was. Okay. So I'm going to interrupt you for a second. Some of the people may not know BlockFi. So what BlockFi was, it was a crypto lending facility. You could put your Bitcoin into BlockFi and they would give you a return. They would lend out your Bitcoin to other people. And unfortunately, during the FTX debacle and the Bitcoin crash of 2022, they became insolvent. FTX, a company I'm very well familiar with and actually sold a piece of my company, was about to take it over.

11:50But FTX went bankrupt and it imploded BlockFi. Okay, go. I'm sorry, Anne. I just need to give some background to people. I think it's helpful. And so, you know, during that, there's a couple of different things that I think, you know, in that experience. One is the company didn't really do anything that was malicious, nefarious, et cetera. They basically, they did business with somebody who did that stuff. And so you kind of get the knock-on effect, which obviously isn't ideal. On top of that, obviously my personal reputation, you know, with thoughts that I had put out there, I had a pretty pristine record before that, but it was the first time that I had to go to investors and say, hey, listen, you know, this isn't going to go the way that we want it to go, et cetera.

12:31And what I think it did was it reminded me that, you know, everything doesn't go up. You're not always right. And there was a little bit of like an intellectual humbling or humility that it injected. And what I think is probably the single best part of that entire situation is in a weird way, I walked away saying, hey, the investing style that I pursue is correct. You know, the company went from zero to three plus billion dollars in about three years. But you have to remember that just because something is working at one point, you know, it doesn't always mean that it's going to work forever. And so it was just, you know, you got to take your lumps, you got to take the losses.

13:06And, you know, those losses were both in our portfolio for me personally. But I do think that, again, it's only in hindsight, can you say, hey, hey, I learned something from that situation. And then you got to go and you got to make sure that you implement whatever those lessons are moving forward. Okay, but it didn't change your self-esteem. It didn't alter your self-confidence. It didn't alter your family life, right? And so there's a lesson here, right? That bad things can happen to you or setbacks that you don't anticipate or certainly don't wish for, but you've got to get through them, right?

13:38And I would say this to Anthony, I want you to react to it. Every entrepreneur, every business leader has gotten their you-know-what kicked. Every single one of them, okay? Jeff Bezos, the stock in close goes down 90%. Michael Dell, the laptops in 1993 are catching on fire. The company, the stock goes from 41 to seven. He's got to rebuild the company. I don't know an entrepreneur. Bill Gates, the first operating system doesn't work. Him and Paul Allen are trying to figure out what to do. They're on a deadline with IBM. I mean, you name the company, I can tell you a story about the trials and tribulations.

14:10Elon Musk on his knees. Listen to Elon Musk, on his knees in 08. Okay, I'm going to be insolvent. He's on his knees. And he finds a way to figure it out. And he's got two amazing companies. He's the richest commercial billionaire in the world. There are political billionaires worth more. So what's the lesson, Ian? You have to tell me who's richer than him. It sounds like there's a story there. Oh, come on. Putin is a lot richer than him. Come on, my man. You're not stupid. How much money do you think he's got? Putin? Yeah. No, he's got a one T. He's got a trillion. First trillion. Oh, 100%. Come on, he controls the company.

14:48These are oligarchs. They plundered the country, man. Come on. I think the big lesson is - You're very rich in the United States as an entrepreneur. You can get richer if you control a country loaded with natural resources. You just put it in your pocket, right? Yeah. But this is the problem with the egos, right? The egos are such, I want my neighbors to do well, Ann. So do you. I don't want to live in a barbed-wired mansion with a security compound while my fellow neighbors are suffering. You know what I mean? Well, the secret is the quality of life improves the richer your neighbors get, right?

15:21If you think about living inside that barbed-wire fence, it's not very fun. If you can't leave, you're basically just imprisoned by the wealth. And so I do think that there's something about you want society to win because it makes everything around you better, right? If the small business owner down the street has more resources, a better business, can better service customers, et cetera, it improves the life for everybody. And so it's kind of capitalism at work. So, all right. I got four minutes to go with you. OK. What's the 66th lesson that you learned from the experience of writing your first book and becoming a published author?

15:57I think that the whole book process is very broken. I was fortunate to work with a publisher that I think is pretty forward thinking in terms of what they do. But product market fit is a hell of a thing. And books have it. Right. You know, books have been published for hundreds, if not thousands of years. And we're still reading them today. And so with all the technology, with all the different things that have happened in society. And it just reminds you that, especially for people in technology that are constantly thinking about what's going to get disrupted. There are things, there are form factors, there are technology.

16:32that don't change. They don't change for centuries. And so sometimes you might want to not only find the things that are going to disrupt or change, but you also may want to find the things that are not going to change and bet along those trends as well. Okay. Ready? I got five words for you. I'm going to say the word. You're going to say what goes on in your head. Ready? Yeah. I say the word mindset. Toughness. Okay. I say the word family. Love. I say life. Short. Say how about the word extraordinary? Whatever you want it to be. Okay. All right, this word has four syllables. It's a long word, Ant.

17:16Okay, I say the word pompliano. I'll keep the first word of thought that came to my brain to myself. But no, I just think fun. Come on. I mean, come on. I need ratings for this podcast. What's wrong with you? Come on. I mean, Italians are not like that. We wear everything on our sleeve. What was the first word that came to your mind? Fun. Cut it out, Ian. Fun. What is it? Fun. Fun. Yeah. All right, good. Yeah, I mean, all right. Okay. What was the second word? What was the second word? You were going to say something like sensible. I forgot it already. All right. So you're here to have fun. Yeah.

17:49Look, if life is short, if you want to live your version of an extraordinary life, you got to have fun. It's meant to be enjoyed. It's a gift. It's meant to be enjoyed. And you have to look at it that way, you know? And Mel Brooks is relaxed. None of us are getting out of here alive. You've got to live it that way. What are you going to do? What are you going to do? Yeah. I want to see 2150 in. I want to see 2224, 200 years from where we are right now. I want to see what happens, but I'm not going to be able to because I'm going to be out of here. It's just that you're in a little decaying time.

18:19You're going to be watching from God mode, right? Yeah. Well, I hope so. Who the hell knows? But my point is you've got to enjoy life. The title of the book is How to Live an Extraordinary Life. It's by Anthony Pompliano, bestseller. And I appreciate you coming on. But more important than that, I appreciate you living the way you write about in the book. Keep it up, Ant. I appreciate you having me on. Thank you so much.

18:51What great life experiences Pomp has had so far. We should listen to him, an American military veteran, an entrepreneur, a seasoned podcaster, a seasoned writer. And what I would say about the POMP is that his personal philosophy is something that he's embracing. Three big lessons for young people from the POMP. Don't care what other people think of you. Celebrate the successes of your friends. Be that person where something's going on for your friends that's beneficial to them. They want to call you first. And then the third thing, don't take yourself that seriously. You know, there's a fun whimsiness to Pomp.

19:26You should think about that in your life. Even if your life's not going exactly the way you planned it or exactly the way you wanted it, just live it and be joyous. And that's the lesson from Pomp's book.

19:44So Ma, I have a young friend of mine. His name is Anthony Pompliano, fellow Italian. Okay. And he wrote a great book, and he seems very happy and well-adjusted. So what do you think it is about Italian moms, Ma, that make well-adjusted people? Well, they're very protective to their children. And God forbid anyone steps on their toes. They're very defensive. Right. And they have like a deep love. They won't even let them go to camp because they're afraid something will happen to them. Right. Right. Okay, let me ask you this. somebody if i shot somebody on fifth avenue you would be defending me no problem right of course i would be no matter what no matter what it doesn't matter right could steamroll take the car knock out 100 people on the road no problem right no problem okay why though why are you so crazy uh my children are my whole life though i've made my uh children become i'm like obsessive with my children and my grandchildren.

20:46No one can hurt them. And then I probably over the top because I'm very protective of my kids. Okay. Let me And I'm going to be 88 years old in two months and I still have that same strongness in me. Okay. So let me ask you this at 88. Okay. What's the one Marie Scaramucci life lesson? Go. Say that again? What's the one Marie Scaramucci life lesson? Life lesson? Yeah, what's the lesson? Don't be afraid of anyone. If you're fresh of all in life, you have to do good and forget it. And if you do bad, you've got to remember it because the world will turn and you have to pay for the bad. And I really believe that.

21:31All right, so don't fear anyone, but remember there's karma, right? And there's some level of cosmic justice. All right. Absolutely. All right. Love you very much, baby. All right, call you later. All right, bye. All right, bye. Bye. I am Anthony Scaramucci and that was Open Book. Thank you for listening. If you like what you hear, tell your friends and make sure you hit follow or subscribe wherever you listen to your podcast. While you're there, please leave us a rating or review. If you want to connect with me or chat more about the discussions, it's at Scaramucci on Twitter or Instagram. I'd love to hear from you.

22:06I'll see you back here next week.

22:14Thank you.