Is Scott Friends with Tech CEOs?, Who Should Run in 2028, and Overcoming Rejection

0:00As AI reshapes professional services, law firms and in-house teams are rethinking how complex work gets done. Harvey AI is an AI platform built specifically for legal practice, helping teams analyze documents, draft with precision, and collaborate securely across matters. Today, more than half of the Amlaw 100 use Harvey. Learn more at Harvey.ai.

0:27This episode is brought to you by Indeed. Stop waiting around for the perfect candidate. Instead, use Indeed Sponsored Jobs to find the right people with the right skills fast. It's a simple way to make sure your listing is the first candidate C. According to Indeed data, Sponsored Jobs have four times more applicants than non-sponsored jobs. So go build your dream team today with Indeed. Get a$75 Sponsored Job Credit at Indeed.com slash podcast. Terms and conditions apply.

1:23Only on Disney+.

1:31Scott Galloway:Welcome to Office Hours with Prop G. This is the part of the show where we answer your questions about business, big tech, entrepreneurship, and whatever else is on your mind. If you'd like to submit a question for next time, you can send a voice recording to officehoursofpropgmedia.com. Again, that's officehoursofpropgmedia.com. Or post your question on the Scott Galloway subreddit, and we just might feature it in our next episode. first question our first question comes from b duran five on instagram they say do you ever get heat for your views from biz heads um not really the few times i've gotten really severe pushback it hasn't been where you'd expect it i'd say the people i have had the most critical views on have been big tech executives and generally speaking they're very respectful And what they want to do, their response when you are critical of them is, hey, Scott, I'd love to meet the next time you're in town.

2:22Scott Galloway:Let's have lunch. And I almost always say no. I don't want to know them. I have no desire to understand how charming someone is who's figured out a business model to convince young people to start cutting themselves. I have no desire to hear someone's vision for the future of ride hailing. I find these people up close and personal boring and they don't drink. So I have no interest in getting to know them. I do get some pushback that says, well, you're talking openly about our firm. you have a responsibility to hear our side. No, I don't. I'm not a fucking journalist. I don't have any responsibility to hang out with a bunch of people to brighten up the room by leaving it.

2:54Scott Galloway:The times I've gotten pushback, kind of unusual. I wrote a blog post about three years ago talking about how corrupt higher education was and then saying that there were a lot of universities that were sort of in the kill zone or on a ventilator because they did not have the capital to survive a drop in enrollments. They were too dependent upon foreign students with the weak grades, and their admissions rates were so high that it was clearly more like adult daycare. And as soon as they hit a bump in the road, they were going to go out of business. And I called it the nitroglycerin cocktail of, and I had a framework, it got written up in the Journal of Higher Education.

3:30Scott Galloway:I received three cease and desist letters from universities. It's just funny that the people who would come after me most aggressively would be other academics. But in In terms of big tech, they're smarter than that. They're nice to you. I love your stuff. Would you like to get together? By the way, would you ever consider speaking in one of our events, for which I'm sure they would pay me my full freight? I don't do that. Sometimes I do take their advertising. We take advertising from Apple and I think from Alphabet. But generally speaking, the CEOs of these companies got there because they're very, very charming.

4:06Scott Galloway:And they can co-opt you. I just met – I met Bezos recently. He's incredibly charming and likable. I talked to Ted Sarandos on Saturday morning, the CEO of Netflix, who I just think is a wonderful guy. And this is the problem. And this is why I purposely avoid meeting with or having open communications with them is they co-opt you because they're charming people and you stop speaking your mind. So I've gotten pushback in places I didn't expect it. I've gotten a lot of pushback from VCs and I couldn't figure out why. And then I looked at their portfolio and their portfolios is basically a septic tank of shit.

4:40Scott Galloway:And I have called out or said one of their companies is overvalued and they decide that's a crime against humanity and then start shitposting me online. I've also received some online pushback from Elon Musk. He's called me out a few times, but that's fine. That's probably a symbol that I'm doing something well. But in general, big tech executives and the executives of companies are very good at what I'll call winning you over or polite pushback. They don't come after you. They just don't do that. So my pushback has been in places I didn't expect it. It's online. I don't know how much of it is bots.

5:19Scott Galloway:I would say the most pushback I receive is from bots being controlled by the GRU because I've been pro-Ukraine or from the CCP who just want to create agita and dissent wherever there is. If you go onto your feed whenever you say anything political, the really incendiary vile shit is usually Dogmom112 with 22 followers. We have created the most porous propaganda machine in the world that our adversaries can weaponize. But on the whole, I don't get, I wouldn't say I got a ton of pushback. I get some and some criticism that's fair. But no, big tech executives, they're more about trying to co-opt you, win you over, and then create a series of incentives such that you just kind of keep quiet, if you will.

6:06Scott Galloway:Thanks for the thoughtful question. Question number two also comes from Instagram. They say, who is someone that you would like to see run for president in 28? Almost all of them. I would not like to see Vice President Harris run again. I don't, well, I think she did, she was handed a difficult situation. I do not think she is a talented candidate. Also, I think if a woman runs for a third time and loses on a Democratic ticket, we're not going to have a female Democratic president for 50 years. Anyways, who do I, I I think we have an incredibly strong bench. I'm a big fan of Governor Shapiro and Newsom.

6:42Scott Galloway:I think Secretary Buttigieg is fantastic. I think Governor Whitmer is fantastic. I think Governor Moore is fantastic. I'm a big fan of Senators Murphy, Senators Bennett. There's always someone, quite frankly, you haven't thought of before who would be fantastic. And I'm giving money and time to all of them because I have a habit of picking people who don't win. I'm the guy in my fraternity that had a Dukakis or a Mondale poster in his window when all my friends would basically walk by my room and go, pussy, Reagan's a stud. No joke. I supported Dukakis in 92. Six years, when was it? Not the last one.

7:25Scott Galloway:Five years ago, I supported Senator Michael Bennett for president. So I'm not great at backing the right horse, if you will. So what I'm going to do this time is just try and bring a bunch of oxygen and attention to who I think are a series of just outstanding candidates. And if you look back on who is usually leading in the polls at this moment, they almost always win. Just let me give you some Republicans who were number one, who were the most likely person to get captured, the Republican nomination at this point in the cycle. Here's three of them, different cycles. Rudy Giuliani, right? America's mayor was the leading candidate for the Republican nomination at this point.

8:07Scott Galloway:Herman Cain, remember him? Like 7771, ended up dying of COVID. And then my favorite, Fred Thompson from Law and Order was the leading presidential candidate at this point in the election cycle. So being at the top right now isn't necessarily a good thing. And typically it's somebody, if I had to bet on somebody, it would be TBD. And that is nobody had heard of Bill Clinton or Barack Obama at this point. But I think we have a fantastic bench. I think we have some wonderful candidates. I think if you let the primary process run its course, don't have a coronation, but a competition, which really is or was President Biden's mistake and his sycophants who stuck their head up their ass, not even in the sand and pretended that he wasn't too fucking old, which I said early on, quite frankly.

8:53Scott Galloway:And then people would email me and say, Scott, you don't understand the assignment. You're going to get Trump elected. Well, OK, let's take our hands off our eyes and ears. Anyways, enough of my patting myself on the back. If you were to let the primary process run, it's an incredible process because it not only picks the right person, it picks the right person for the moment. It is not easy to go to Iowa and pretend to like fried Snickers. It is not easy to listen to a bunch of old people, the villages in Florida and hear about their concerns and their and them drone on. It is not easy to basically go around and lie all the fucking time.

9:26Scott Galloway:And that's unfortunately what most politicians have to do based on the audience they're in front of who just wants handouts. That's one of the things I hate about the Democratic Party is their solution is to promise people more money. Well, OK, well, then who's going to pay for all this shit? Anyway, not why you're here. But I think the primary process of the electoral process is an outstanding means of maturing a great candidate for the moment. So I would love to see Nikki Haley run. I think Glenn Youngkin, not just Democrats. I'd love to see some moderates run. I think J.D. Vance is a fucking weirdo and a sycophant.

10:01Scott Galloway:By the way, boss, how did it work out for his last VP when he sent people with nooses and zip ties hunting for them? Yeah, that's got to be fun. I think Ron DeSantis is reasonable. And I'm going to get a lot of push back from my Democratic brothers and sisters, but I feel like Governor DeSantis is someone I could work with. He seems very data-driven, served his country. Is he who I will vote for, who I will give money to? Absolutely not. But he seems reasonable. So I'm hoping, I think Ambassador Haley or Governor Haley is a reasonable person. I'm hoping we can move back to this weird thing called reasonable or a reasonable middle.

10:34Scott Galloway:But I'm going to get very involved with my time, treasure and talent to bring a lot of attention and oxygen to the great bench that the Democratic Party has right now. And then one or two leaders emerge and pull out ahead. Instead, I'm going to get as involved as I can to be very supportive of one and try and restore kind of democracy, rule of law, competitive markets to the U.S. In sum, I'm going to do my best to make America America again. We'll be right back after a quick break.

11:12Scott Galloway:Support for the show comes from Grammarly. You already know the world moves fast. Between constant messages, deadlines, and decisions, even the most organized people can feel pulled in a thousand different directions. But work today still depends on clear communication, and when every message counts, sounding hurried or generic can mean getting missed. Grammarly gives you one place to think, write, and finish your work, and you can find it right where you already write, with access to agents that help you sound natural, clear, and engaging. Whether you're writing an email, proposal, or novel. Grammarly helps you go from draft to final draft to done in no time.

11:44Scott Galloway:You can use Grammarly's AI chat to come up with ideas, outline a solid draft, then refine it with context aware suggestions that fit what you're working on. You can see why 90 % of professionals say Grammarly has saved them time writing and editing their work. That's because Grammarly is designed to simplify complex ideas with clarity that sounds like you, not AI. In a world of generic AI, You don't have to sound like everyone else. With Grammarly, you never will. Download Grammarly for free at Grammarly.com. That's Grammarly.com.

12:19Scott Galloway:Support for the show comes from ShipStation. No business owner can complain about growth, but it definitely brings new challenges. For example, the bigger you get, the tougher it is to fulfill orders. That's just a fact. Unless, of course, you have ShipStation by your side. ShipStation's intelligence-driven platform brings everything you need to get orders to customers and puts it all in one place. That includes order management, rate shopping, inventory and returns, warehouse systems, and comprehensive analytics. So instead of five to seven disconnected tools, you now have one. ShipStation says they can save customers 15 hours per week on fulfillment.

12:52Scott Galloway:And they also do the legwork of comparing rates across all major global carriers, finding the best shipping option on every order. If you already have negotiated carrier rates, just bring them over. One million businesses have trusted ShipStation. You can join them and try ShipStation for free for 60 days with full access to all features, no credit card needed. Go to ShipStation.com and use code PROPG for 60 days for free. 60 days gives you plenty of time to see exactly how much time and money you're saving on every shipment. That's ShipStation.com, code PROPG. ShipStation.com, code PROPG.

13:30Scott Galloway:Support for today's show comes from Upwork. Hiring help for your business shouldn't be a headache, let alone a drain on your budget. That's why Upwork makes it easy to hire specialized freelancers quickly so you can get the expertise you need now without weeks of recruiting or a full-time hire. Upwork is a one-stop platform to find, hire, and pay expert freelancers across web and software development, data and analytics, marketing, business operations, and more. They help grow your business by giving you fast access to specialized talent across 125 plus categories so you can fill skill gaps, launch projects faster, and scale support up or down without committing to full-time headcount.

14:05Scott Galloway:You can browse profiles, review past work, and get help scoping the role so you can hire with confidence and get started quickly. With Upwork Business Plus, you can access the top 1 % of talent on Upwork. And with AI-powered shortlisting, you'll get matched to the right freelancer in just under six hours. No endless searching required. You can visit Upwork.com right now to post your job for free and connect with top talent ready to help your business grow. That's U-P-W-O-R-K.com, Upwork.com.

14:39Scott Galloway:Welcome back. Our final question comes from Smith Patel on LinkedIn. Which personal habit or mindset has helped you most in your professional success and why? I talked about it before, and that is, I don't know if I played with the wrong toys or the right toys, but I wasn't afraid to ask Maureen Burke to the prom, even though she was much, much hotter than me. She said no. I wasn't afraid to run for sophomore, junior, and senior class presidents, and I lost all three times. And based on my track record, run for senior or student body president where I went on to wait for it, lose. It's an ability to mourn and move on.

15:16Scott Galloway:That's my superpower. I'm not afraid of public failure. I'm not afraid of taking risks. The majority of my businesses have not worked. The majority of women I have asked out have said no. The majority of my relationships, when I have been head over heels in love, they have not returned my affection. Is that true? Maybe that's not true. Anyways, I've been very lucky with women. Anyway, but I've had more businesses fail than succeed. I've absolutely had way more schools reject me that admit me. I can't tell you how many jobs I've applied for, but I have the ability to get shot in the fucking face.

15:55Scott Galloway:And then a little bit like Wolverine, I heal and I get up and I try again. That is my superpower. One of my weaknesses that I'm trying to work on is I have a really gross habit of feeling sorry for myself where, you know, I have a day where I do a bunch of podcasts or I feel like things don't work out or I'm frustrated or my work sucks or someone is unkind to me, whatever it is, and I feel sorry for myself. I think, oh, woe is me. And the way I solve that is I don't own art or wine. I've always thought I didn't grow up with any money. And what I saw amongst my friends when they started making a shit ton of money, specifically, I hung around a lot of really wealthy guys in the early 2000s who were in their 30s, made a shit ton of money and thought that it was them not recognizing there was this anomaly of two and 20, the compensation structure of hedge funds who were making millions, sometimes tens of millions.

16:49Scott Galloway:And I noticed the first thing they did was they started ordering really expensive wine and buying art. I have never done either of those things. I don't, wine tops out at 20 bucks a bottle for me. I'd rather have a beer. I don't really own any art because I think you're, or at least me, I'd be trying to pretend that I'm something I'm not. But I do have one piece of art that I spent a decent amount of money on. And it's a photo of Otto Frank in his attic. Otto Frank was the father of Anne Frank, and it's a photo of him after he returned to the attic they hid out in in Amsterdam. And the brief backstory is Otto, his wife, and their two daughters, Margot and Anne, who would, of course, go on to write, have her diaries published.

17:32Scott Galloway:They were betrayed in 1944. They were living up there in the attic with another family. The family was sent to Auschwitz, where Otto was separated from his wife. His wife was murdered. And ultimately, his daughters, Margo and Anne, were shipped to Bergen-Belsen, where they died. Both of them died of typhus just months before liberation. And there's this picture of him standing in the attic. And I purposely placed this photo outside my bedroom. And my practice is the following for resetting my perspective, resetting my mood. The last thing I do every day is I look at this photo for 10 seconds. I'm about to open my bedroom door.

18:13Scott Galloway:I stop and I look at Otto and I look at the photo for 10 seconds. And I try to imagine what's going through his mind. And then when I wake up in the morning, I come out, I stop for 10 seconds and I look at Otto. And I imagine just like, where does he go from here after experience what he experienced? And at that moment, something really wonderful happens to me. Right away, I'm washed over with a truth. What is that truth? That I may have some inconveniences in my life, but I have no problems. so my superpower is that i'm able to mourn and move on and i'm not afraid of public failure and where i'm trying to address my weakness my achilles heel is feeling sorry for myself by recognizing that compared to everybody else compared to so many people in history my worst days are better than most people's best days

19:11Scott Galloway:that's all for this episode if you'd like to submit a question please email a voice recording to officehours at proptomedia.com that's officehours at proptomedia.com or if you prefer to ask on reddit just post your question on the scott galloway subreddit and we just might feature it in an upcoming episode this episode was produced by jennifer sanchez and laura janair Kami Rika is our social producer. Brad Williams is our editor. And Drew Burrows is our technical director. Thank you for listening to the Prop G pod from Prop G Media.

20:02now spent challenging and innovating and pushing your way to greatness. So pick up the Irish flute or those calligraphy pens or that daunting beef Wellington recipe card and leave the laundry to us. Rinse. It's time to be great.