Almost nobody should try to turn their passion into a career, bet the farm on a single investment, expect to escape rejection in life — or pay for private school, says Scott Galloway.
Galloway is a marketing professor at NYU Stern and a host of podcasts like “Pivot” and “The Prof G Show.” He offered some frank and surprising advice to young people on a recent episode of the “Modern Wisdom” podcast.
1. Passion comes later
The author and founder of multiple startups including L2 and Red Envelope emphasized that chasing a passion rarely pays the bills.
“Just keep in mind that the person telling you to follow your passion is already rich usually, and they made their billions in iron ore smelting,” he quipped.
Instead, Galloway advised working hard to hone a talent that lets you pursue a career you can excel in, but in an industry with ample jobs.
“Find something that you’re naturally good at, that you could become in the top 10% or top 1%, in an industry that has a 90%-plus employment rate, and focus on it,” he said.
The business guru said that people become passionate about careers that provide them with status and economic security, and allow them to meet the demands of other parts of life.
“As you get older, you become really passionate about taking care of your kids,” he said. “You become really passionate about doing wonderful things with your spouse, taking care of your parents, and your priorities change.”
2. Spread your bets
Galloway said he never wagers more than 3% of his net worth on a single investment. He explained that diversifying your portfolio allows you to shrug off losses from bets that don’t pay off.
“It’s a bullet to the chest when it goes to zero, but I’ve got Kevlar,” he said. “Yeah, it knocks me off my feet, but then I get up and I’ve got a bruise and I’m like, I’m fine.
“Nothing’s ever critical, much less fatal,” he continued. “Whereas before, when I got shot in the chest in 2000 with the dot-com explosion or implosion, and the great financial recession in 2008, I almost never could get up again.”
3. Prepare to hear ‘no’ a lot
Putting yourself out there and asking for a job or date is often the only way to snag the position or partner you want, but it carries the risk of being turned down. Learning to shrug off a “no” is an important life skill.
“All you need is one good mentor, a few good friends, one wonderful mate, one business that works,” Galloway said. “But to get there means putting yourself in a position of rejection over and over and over.”
“You’re Kanye or Madeleine Albright or Stephen Hawking, you’re going to be fine,” he continued. “Assume you are not that person. A much more reliable route to success is just resilience and an ability to eat shit.”
4. Save, don’t spend — even on your child’s education
Galloway argued that paying a ton of money to send a child to private school isn’t the best option for many families.
If their goal is to give their kid a better life than they had, he said, sending them to public school and investing the cash they would have spent in a low-cost index fund for the long term is a better idea based on historical returns.
“Assume you are wrong,” Galloway said. “You sent that kid to public school and you screwed up. They didn’t get into the best college. They ended up with a mediocre career. They have trouble buying their first home.
“They can’t live the life that you got to lead or that you really hoped for them,” he continued. “Here’s what’s going to ease your pain. If you were disciplined and reinvested that money you would have spent on Grace Church, by the time they are 35, you’ll have $5.3 million to give to them.”
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