Today I think there's a culture of

there's a hustle culture that happens

about hard work will equal wealth and

that is actually not true at all. And we

have seen over time if hard work would

equal wealth then the person who runs my

laundromat would make just as much as

Jeff Bezos. And we know you know there's

an incredible video out there that it

basically shows for the 60 seconds that

Jeff Bezos is in the video how much

money Jeff Bezos is making every single

second as he walks around the factory.

and it shows that he makes let's say I

don't know x millions of dollars per

second and so by the time my laundromat

owner has picked up his coffee put it in

his mouth Jeff Bezos has already lapped

him multiple times for the year now why

Jeff doesn't work as hard as the guy

who's laying actual bricks or actually

cleaning the roof and so I think we have

to ask ourselves if this idea of just

work harder what's your work ethic

that's not true anymore especially in

the age of AI

>> what allows an employee to be great and

make more money as an employee.

>> If you want to make more money as an

employee, number one, you have to

understand how much money you make the

company today. If you don't understand

what your value dollar amount is you

bring into your business, you should

probably go talk to your boss and say,

"Hey, I'd like to understand how I make

you money. If you had to quantify how I

make you money, could you help me

understand that?" One, your boss is

going to be like, "This is amazing.

Nobody's ever asked me this before." And

then two, once you understand that, you

need to figure out how could I make more

money for the company. Once you can

understand how you can make more money,

you can say, well, what do you think the

profits of this business are? If we

bring in a $100 sale, do we keep 20

bucks of it? And if I figure that out,

then I can go, okay, I made you a

hundred bucks, we kept 20 of it. If I do

that, could I keep five of that 20 I

brought you? And then you actually know

how to negotiate for your salary. And a

lot of times this isn't always possible

if you're in a big corporate job, but

more often than not, there is money

available for those who understand how

to ask for it because they've earned it.

>> I love that that that step by-step

process is so brilliant because you're

so right. If someone ever came up to me

and said, "How do I make money and how

do I make you more money?" Yeah.

>> Oh my gosh. It's like the best thing

ever because it's so often not thought

about and you don't realize and like you

said, there may be certain companies

where you can't have that conversation,

but today I feel like there's just so

many more spaces to actually have that

connection

>> that you can. Yeah. You know, and think

about it from your boss's perspective.

Like they hired you for a reason because

they thought that you would make their

life easier and that you would make the

business better. And I think a lot of

times you leave your job before you get

all of the money out of your job you

could have.

>> And I did this so often in the

beginning. I think you'd make way more

money if you thought that you could have

a conversation with your boss and say,

"Man, this isn't exactly working how I

thought it would be. I think I could be

of use over here as well. I'd love some

additional responsibility here. Maybe

less here. You know, could I make you

more money over here if I prove myself

here? Could we do less here?"

[gasps and sighs] You leave the devil

that you know for the devil that you

don't often. And when that happens, I

think you actually lose more money than

you anticipate. It used to be back in

the day, you you made about 20 to 25%

more money every time you job hopped to

the next job. These days, I actually

think that there is a real value you can

have to increase your salary or overall

pay by more like 25 to 50% if you stay

and you diagnose as opposed to you skip

and then you guess. Yes.

>> And so I would highly recommend that you

not do what I did in the beginning of my

career, which was skip and never give

the place a chance to pay me more.

>> Yeah.

>> Cuz they might want to.

>> Absolutely. And and and what you miss

when you skip is you actually miss the

skills of negotiating,

>> up managing, learning new skills and

abilities at that place. You're so

right. And it's so I mean you're you're

so vulnerable for even saying that

because you know you've you've done so

phenomenally well but but it's such a

good lesson for people to understand

because in the carrot of a couple of

extra whatever it may be you're moving

across but you're actually losing the

skills. I've been building this

framework of how to talk to my team

about what helps you grow at the

company. Yeah.

>> And I used a very very simple analogy

and metaphor of beginning at the brick

layer. So the brick layer is usually at

the level with which you come in. And

the brick layer knows I have to lay this

brick and I've got to lay it next to

this one. And I know the pattern and I

can lay a brick and maybe I can build a

wall. Maybe the next level up is a

builder. You actually know how to build

a wall. You know how to paint the wall.

You know how to put up scaffolding, you

know how to connect walls, you can do a

bit more and you're a builder. Above

from that is something I call the

architect. Now, the architect is not

just good at building a wall. They could

actually go and build me and design me a

new part of the business, an extension

of something, a new idea. And that's how

I want people to grow. And then the

highest stage that I've come to is the

city planner. This person's not just

building me one home. They're planning

the whole city of the ecosystem of how

everything falls into place. And so I'm

communicating this to my team now

because I'm like, I want all of you to

graduate from brick layers to builders

to architects to city planners. And that

is what's attached to more money. It's

not more effort. It's not more work.

>> It's not being more busy.

>> It's not doing more stuff. These all

come with a different type of vision.

They come with a different strategic

element. They come with more care. They

come with a wider scope. It isn't just

about, oh, but I worked more hours this

year or I I put in more time. Didn't you

see how much effort I put in? And I

think those things don't necessarily

result in more success for a company.

What's your thoughts on that?

>> I think it's perfect. one, you know, we

all want to feel like we can see a

future at an organization and I think we

all want to make money, but we also

really want to know that we're getting

better and we want to know that we're

going to get rewarded for all the hard

work we're going to put in over the long

term. And so, if you can show people a

vision for the future, I think that's

incredible. I totally agree. We also

talk about it as um [gasps] and and this

isn't quite the same because a brick

layer is in many ways just as important

as the city planner. And so one of the

way we talk about it is called the NPC

ladder. And we sort of talk about, you

know, how there are video games, right?

And in the video games, you have the

NPCs, which are sort of these people

that sort of stay in the same spot and

repeat the same things, like, you know,

find the dragon, find the dragon. And um

some people choose to kind of stay in

the same spot and to stay as an NPC for

much of their life and not to move to

each level of the game where you become

not the main character next. the

supporting cast member, you know, and

then you might be one of the main

characters and then you might be the

protagonist, etc. And so at the very top

of my best performers where I say the

people who will be paid the most maybe

eventually get equity, well, they're

they're the main characters and that

means that they actually change the

script. They move forward the company

overall. And so I love that. And I

think, you know, for most of us, there's

a saying that you don't leave bad jobs,

you leave bad leaders. And so I like to

try to remember that often in my

companies that when somebody leaves,

that's a reflection on me and my team

that they didn't see a way for them to

become a city planner and that they

didn't see a way for them to come to the

next level. You know, the more I I think

about AI as a total normie. I'm not I'm

not a big tech person. I'm almost like

boomer incapable in many ways with tech.

But the more I think about it, the more

I think it will enable all of us to have

massive knowledge.

And because we'll all have massive

knowledge, we will actually have to

perform better because everybody will be

able to do a midlevel execution. Very

few people will be able to stand out

amongst the noise. And we're already

seeing this 47% increase in creators

just this year online. So why? Because

it's so much easier now to go bang bam

boom, put it on the internet. So that's

going to be everywhere. Which means that

going forward, just doing a lot more,

just working a lot harder

>> won't be what changes it. what will

taking a moment to look at what do I

know different than anybody else how do

I increase my knowledge stack and how do

I get really creative in a world of lack

of creativity but mass production and so

I love invol Ravocant's line which was

in this world today you don't want to

work like a cow you don't want to work

continuously sort of grazing non-stop

like this you want to be the lion you

want to have periods of sprint and rest

sprint and rest and that will be what

the top performers do

>> if someone's living paycheck to

paycheck. What's the very first step

they can take to break that cycle?

>> Yeah. One of the most unfortunate things

about money is we use money every single

day. It costs money to eat. It costs

money to feed other people. We go to

work to earn money. Yet, most of us are

never taught a thing about money. And

there's three rules of money that I

learned that you have to understand.

Number one is that money flows to the

investor.

When I go to Chipotle and I and I buy a

bowl of extra guac, who am I benefiting?

Am I really supporting the employees?

Yes, in a way, because I will be paying

their salary, but the the real profits

are going to the owners of Chipotle.

It's going to the investors of Chipotle.

Money rule number two is inflation

benefits the investor. What does that

mean? Over the last 5 years, we've seen

the prices of things rise. This is

because of inflation. Inflation didn't

just start after the pandemic. It's been

happening for a long long long time. And

so you might have heard your

grandparents or parents say, "When I was

young, I used to go to the movie theater

for a nickel, a dollar, whatever it

might be. Now it's $25 to go to a

movie." This is inflation. And then

finally is our system is designed to

benefit the investor. As a licensed

attorney who's not your attorney, I can

tell you that when you earn your money

as an investor,

you are going to pay a lower tax rate

than when you earn your money as an

employee. Now, it's not bad to work a

job. That's not what I'm saying. In

fact, that's probably the best thing for

most people. What I'm saying is you have

to understand that when you go to work,

you now have to take some of that money

and become an investor. Now, when you do

that, now you can start to get into the

practical steps of what you do with your

money.

>> Yeah.

>> Get out of the financial danger zone.

Half of America today does not have

$1,000

put aside to protect them against

emergency. So, if your car breaks down,

your kid gets sick, your window breaks,

the average person

has to go into debt to pay for that

expense. You have zero breathing room.

If you want to go on vacation, you want

to do anything, you have to go into debt

to do that. So, we need to stop that.

And the way you can do that is by

spending less or working to earn more.

And you have to make some extreme

sacrifice if you don't have that.

>> Do you know what people are wasting the

most amount of money on right now in in

the United States? Is there any research

on that?

>> Oh, man.

Well, if you are somebody who does not

have $2,000 saved up, there's a lot of

things you got to cut out. And this is

going to sound mean, but I don't say

what I say to make friends. I say what I

say to help people be better with money.

You should not be eating at a

restaurant. You should not be going on

vacations. You should not be driving

around in a fancy car. You shouldn't be

living in a big fancy house. Right now,

you got to make some extreme sacrifices

if you don't have $2,000. So much so

that what I tell people is you should

not have a Netflix subscription.

Not because it's going to save you $15 a

month, but because the average American

is watching somewhere between two to

three hours of Netflix a day.

If you don't have $2,000,

how can you feel comfortable sitting

there at nighttime watching whatever the

heck is on Netflix? You have to have a

little bit of urgency that, oh my god, I

got to take care of my family. Let me

give you an example, Jay. If I gave you

$6,500

today and you invested that money today,

you never touched that money again, you

never invested another penny again, and

you could get a, let's say, 20% return a

year on that money, in 40, 45 years,

you're going to retire very wealthy.

You're not going to have a million, $5

million, $10 million, $50 million.

you're going to have closer to $60

million

off of that one investment of the $6,400

$6,500 that I give you today. Now,

you're going to say, "All right, sign me

up. Just put give me that money and

where do I invest it?"

>> Well, here's the reality. Do you know

who's getting those returns? Amex, Visa,

Mastercard, Discover. And you know who's

paying it? You. M

>> if you have credit card debt. And so

instead of you having that wealth, you

are the one that's paying for their

private jets. You are the one that's

paying for their big buildings. You are

the one that's paying for their

luxuries.

Which is why I get so serious about this

that if you want to become wealthy, you

have to you have to you have to get out

of this financial danger zone. Once you

get there, now we can get to the next

step. Step number four. This is where

things not get fun because you finally

have a little bit of a foundation.

[gasps]

Now you can create a system for your

money. The difference between wealthy

people and everybody else is wealthy

people know what they're going to do

with their money before they earn it.

Everybody else gets the money and then

they wonder, well, what should I do? How

should I spend this money? And this is

where it is very helpful to have a a

system for your money. One that I teach

is a 751510

plan which says for every dollar that

you earn from here on out.75

is the maximum that you can spend. 15 is

the minimum that you invest. 10 cents is

the minimum that you save. This way

whether you're earning $30,000 a year,

$300,000 a year, or $3 million a year,

you're always going to have a rule of

how much you can save, invest, and

spend. and break that down for us again.

>> 75 15 10. So the way I'd like you to do

this is I want you to open three bank

accounts and you're going to make money.

Money gets deposited into one bank

account. Create an automatic withdrawal

and deposit. That money gets pulled out

of one bank account and 15% goes into

your bank account holding your

investment money. 10% goes into your

bank account holding your savings money.

The reason why you want to have three

different bank accounts is because if

you have $100 in one bank account and

you think, "This is my investing money

and my saving money. You go into the

store and you see this nice sweater on

sale. It's $90. I have $100 in my bank

account. Well, I should be able to

afford it, right?" Well, you forget that

some of that money is supposed to be

saved and invested. And then you pay

taxes on that sweater. And now you spent

$989 on that sweater. And oops, I just

spent my savings and my investment

money. which is why you need the three

different bank accounts. Your savings

are not going to make you wealthy. This

is a big lie that we've been sold. Your

savings are there to protect you. Your

investments are there to make you

wealthy and that spending money is what

you pay for your house, your groceries,

your vacations, and everything else.

Now, we move on to the next step is how

do you spend your money smartly? And

this is where things start to get a

little bit painful, but this is where

you can really accelerate your wealth.

You know how to spend your money now.

You have a good system. Now, when it

comes to actually accelerating your

wealth, you got to spend your money

smartly. And what I mean by that is no

more financing things that don't put

money in your pocket. And then follow

the rule of five when it comes to

luxuries. If you can't buy five of them,

you can't afford one of them. [laughter]

Especially for luxuries.

>> That's a good rule.

>> So, you want to buy a nice $1,000 watch,

you better have $5,000.

So,

>> of disposable income,

>> of extra money.

>> Yeah. Now we can get into the next step

which is how do you earn more money?

This is step number six because now we

know how to create a system with your

money. You know that I'm going to do 75

15 10 I know how to spend my money. Now

let me earn more money. And this is the

part that many people get flipped

because they assume that I just got to

make some more money. Well, if you make

more money without knowing what to do

with that money, you make more money

then you make other people rich with it

because you just go and spend it. This

is where now it is important for you to

figure out how can you earn more money.

Maybe you ask for a raise at your job.

Maybe you get a second job. Maybe you

create your own business. Maybe you

learn how to utilize artificial

intelligence. You find ways to earn more

money. But you keep following that

system, the 75, 15, 10. And that's the

key is as you earn more money, you keep

investing more money because that's

what's going to make you wealthy. And

then finally at the top, step number

seven

is you have to protect your assets.

And there's two parts to this. Number

one is you got to understand the legal

side. That means understanding taxes

because taxes can be one of the biggest

expenses that you have to pay. You have

to understand how do you pass this

wealth down? How do you put shields

around you? Because when people realize

you have money, they're going to want

some of it for themselves.

And this also means how do you give

back? How do you help others? How are

you going to leave a legacy for yourself

and your family? That's now wealth

planning. And so we talked about now

kind of the whole progression of these

seven steps, but it starts with that

mental side of understanding the

mindset. Then you got to understand the

framework of the rules of money. Then we

start with the basics of saving the

2,000, paying off the credit card debt.

Then you build a system for your money.

[gasps] From there, once you have the

system, you have to know how to spend

your money the right way. Then you have

to learn how to earn more money the

right way. Then you learn how to manage

your wealth, grow your wealth, and pass

on your wealth. like where where do

people start to give them a 60-second

masterass on investing? Where do people

start?

>> So, we believe that to start investing,

we need to pick individual stocks. We

need to find the next Tesla, the next

Nvidia, the next Amazon. But the truth

is that could work, but it's very, very

hard to do and it requires a lot of time

and a lot of energy to do it even

semi-safely and you could still get it

wrong. Even experts get it wrong. So,

the way that I recommend for people to

start when it comes to investing is

through index funds. Index funds is just

instead of buying individual companies,

you're buying tens if not thousands of

companies all at once. So for instance,

an S&P 500, it's 500 of the largest

companies. You're buying a small slice

of 500 of the largest companies,

Coca-Cola, Amazon, Tesla, Johnson and

Johnson, all in one go. And is the

safest and most reliable way to build

long-term wealth. Even Buffett, he

Warren Buffett, he's he's instructed for

90% of his wife's inheritance to go

towards lowcost diversified funds. For

the majority of people, that is the way

to go. Once you have that foundation set

up, once you've got that set up, then

sure, you could have your fund money and

play around with some stocks that you

might think are high growth, but you

can't do that without having a solid

foundation in place. It's just not worth

that level of risk that comes with

individual stock picking. And is that

money that you're planning on leaving

there for like a decade, two decades?

Like this is money you're not touching.

And how much do you need to get started?

>> Yeah. So I recommend not investing

anything that you're going to need in

the next 5 years because historically

the stock market has averaged 8 to 10%

over the long run. That's the average

annual return of the stock market. But

that is over the long run. If you look

at any given year the stock market could

go up 30%, it could be down 40%. So, if

you need that money in the next 5 years,

say you're saving for a home, you're

saving for a car payment, you're saving

for your kids' education, if you need

that in the next 5 years, you don't want

to put it in the stock market because

the last thing you want is to save money

and then need it in the next couple of

years. And actually, at that time, the

stock market is at a dip and you have to

pull out at a loss. You want to avoid

that. So, any money that you want to

invest, you want to make sure you don't

need that money in the next 5 years, and

you want to keep it there for 10 years,

20 years. The longer you keep it,

therefore, the closer you get to the

average stock market returns.

>> Yeah, great advice.

>> You could start with a dollar. You can

start with the price of a loaf of bread.

The hurdles that we had to invest back

in the day just don't exist anymore. You

could do it within a second on your

phone with as little as a dollar.

>> You just brought this up. Should people

even plan on buying a home?

>> You do not want to look at a home as an

investment opportunity. There was a time

when I thought buying a home was a

really, really good decision. And when I

bought my home, I thought that was a

great financial decision and it gave me

a lot of comfort and peace of mind

knowing that no matter what happened, I

will always have this roof over my head.

That psychological comfort, it's hard to

put a number on. Now I rent and that

gives me a huge amount of psychological

comfort because knowing that I could

pick up and leave if an opportunity

comes up, that I'm not tied to a certain

place, that gives me a lot of freedom.

So there's two ways to look at the buyer

rent situation. First is actually when

it comes to your home, it is a

psychological part of it that plays a

big big role. And then the second part

then comes the numbers. You want to

figure out okay does it make sense to be

for me to be putting this money towards

buying a home? Also taking into account

the cost that most people forget which

is stamp duty, buying all the

furnishing, legal fees, surveyor fees,

all of that comes into the maintenance.

Yeah.

>> Or does it make sense for me to rent and

invest that difference? So those are the

ways you want to look about the buy and

the rent situation. It's not a what we

used to think which was just buying is

the way to go and if you're paying

someone if you're paying rent you're

just paying someone else's mortgage.

There's so much more that comes into the

emotions and the psychology of making

something like a house purchase which is

one of the biggest purchases you're

going to make in your entire life.

>> A few decades ago it felt like that's

what you had to do. Why has it suddenly

become a debate over the last 5 to 10

years? Maybe

>> a decade ago, even for our pre for our

parents' generation, it was a lot easier

to get onto the property ladder. And if

you compare the way house prices have

gone up since then, the way insane

>> everything has gone up since then. And

compare that to wages, it's not the same

anymore. And for the majority of people,

it's not as easy to do as it was for

previous generations. And actually with

the way the stock market is going, it

might make a lot more sense saving that

money, but you have to be disciplined

enough to save the money that you would

have otherwise put in towards a mortgage

or the difference between a rent and a

mortgage and saving that money and then

putting towards the stock market. So

it's a very very different economy that

we're in. And whilst having or buying a

home, if you if that's your goal, that's

a great goal to have, but I don't think

it's the be all and end all if you don't

get onto the property ladder. other ways

to make a lot of wealth that doesn't

require you to buy a home.

>> If someone wants to completely transform

their finances in the next 6 months,

what's the plan?

>> There's a specific order of steps that

I'd recommend people take and especially

the first bit. I think a lot of that

fear comes from the first thing which is

not having an emergency cushion in

place. So, saving your expenses, the

first one that I recommend or the first

step that I recommend anyone saving is

$2,000. And Vanguard research shows that

just by saving that $2,000, that

increases your financial well-being by

up to 21%.

>> Wow.

>> From saving $2,000. And then if you up

that amount to 3 to 6 months, that's a

further 13% on financial wellbeing. We

don't realize the extent of having that

cushion has to not operate from a place

of scarcity.

>> Just 2,000 to start.

>> Just 2,000 to start. Yeah. After that,

you want to make sure that your high

interest debt has been paid off. And by

high interest, I mean anything above 8%.

This is credit card debt. This is

consumer debt. And I say 8% because

historically the average stock market

return has been 8 to 10%. So if you have

debt that is more than 8%, you're

actually worse off financially by

keeping that debt than by paying it off.

So that's the first thing that you want

to do. And then for interest or for debt

that is less than 8%. Again, this is

where the mathematically smart choice is

to invest instead of paying off the debt

below 8%. But again, we're not robots.

We're not AI. We're humans with

emotions. And we look at finances in

terms of optimizing revenue, expected

value, expected rate of return. But

peace of mind has value, too.

>> Yeah. And if you've got debt that keeps

you up at night and that stresses you

out and that adds to the way you're

feeling, then who's to say that you

should be investing first?

>> Absolutely. Yeah.

>> You want to be doing the things and

making sure that your finances set up in

a way that helps you sleep at night. And

then once you're comfortable on that

debt position, then you want to start

investing and going on towards your

long-term wealth journey. But that's

what I recommend.

>> What are the three things we should stop

wasting money on that most of us don't

even realize? The first thing people

need to stop wasting money on is

anything that they think increases their

value by showcasing to others what they

have.

>> Oh, good answer.

>> I mean, it's one of the quickest ways to

save money by saying, "I'm not going to

buy this thing to show other people that

I've got it." And actually, with every

purchase that you buy, ask yourself, am

I buying this for me or am I buying it

because I want other people to know that

I have it? The second thing that people

shouldn't waste their money on is

upgrades. I actually believe that when

you buy something for the first time,

your level of happiness increases

massively. But then for every marginal

upgrade that you have after that,

there's this diminishing law of return

where the amount that you spend in

proportion just doesn't match up to the

extra happiness that you get. So

actually rather than spending that money

on a new thing every single time,

spending it on experiences or memories

has a way bigger impact on your

happiness and overall life satisfaction

than buying spending it on the next big

thing.

>> Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. The new iPhone

for example, like it's going to be the

same for the next four years anyway.

>> Yeah. And every time you bought the

upgrade, it you really barely tell the

difference between the first one.

>> Totally. I really appreciate that you're

thinking about this advice because the

quality of insight you're giving is

allowing us all to reflect. It would be

so easy for you to just say cancel your

subscriptions, cut out the coffee. Like,

and those are basic things that sure

people can look at, but the questions

you're making us ask are actually the

drivers of how and why we spend money.

And I feel like that's so much more at

the root of it. And the third thing I

would say is actually when you're buying

something understand are you buying it

for the name or are you buying it for

the purpose that it holds the utility of

it. So are you buying a designer purse

because of the designer of it or is it

because you like the purse and it can

actually help you carry your money

around. Having that way of thinking

actually can shave off a lot of the

spending that you're unnecessarily doing

in your dayto-day. One of the things I

love you talk about in the book, The

Algebra of Wealth, is you talk about the

challenge we have with our goals. The

first is we set unrealistic goals and

then they're super long-term.

>> So, we say things to ourselves like,

"Well, in the next 12 months, I'm going

to save $12,000 and it's like we've

never even saved $500."

>> And and you talk about this need to set

a goal of like this is how much I'm

going to save this month. Like, this is

where I'm going to start. And it's so

interesting you talk about time and your

work with young men because I think time

is so interesting because I think today

most people would rather finish their

workday

>> and we'd love to just switch on a show

or doom scroll on TikTok

>> and so there is more time that could be

engaged in creating other revenue

streams etc. But what is really blocking

us from doing that? I think everyone

knows they have time. They know they

want to make more money, but there's

something there that's just blocking us

from getting activated. What have you

found that is?

>> So, I can't speak for the whole

population, but generally speaking, the

lack of executive function

is the part of the brain that controls

that is the prefrontal cortex, the kind

of gas on, gas off. The part of the

brain that says stop playing video games

and start studying. That is maturing

later and later in boys. It's somewhere

between 12 and 18 months behind young

women. So, in many ways, a senior in

high school, a woman who's applying to

college, and a young man who's applying

to college, senior in high school, the

woman is competing against a 16

1/2year-old. And as a result, fewer and

fewer men are going to college. And

we're in an economy where 40 years ago,

one in three jobs needed a college

degree. Now, it's two and three. Women

are correctly and justifiably,

especially young women, blowing by young

men. Uh they have more discipline. They

have higher EQ. who quite frankly

they're just more more mature. I say

this in my own company. I have a lot of

young people, a disproportionate amount

of young people working in my

organization. There's some very talented

young men, but I would describe them

kind of as dopey, almost a little

boyish. I have some young women in my

firm who could be the junior senator

from Pennsylvania. Women are just

maturing [snorts] uh earlier. So,

there's certain biological things that

get in the way of men having executive

function. I also think that there's so

much temptation. I think there's a

little bit of belief of kind of yolo,

you know, this is it, live for today. I

also think it's harder for them to save

just because everything's so goddamn

expensive. So,

>> it's discouraging for them. It's like,

okay, I'm working my ass off and I can

barely pay for my barely pay for my

rent. So, just as a this is anecdotal

evidence, but it largely represents the

economy. When I got out of business

school, the average salary was 100

grand. You know, I went to a quote

unquote elite business school. I went to

the high school. The average house in

San Francisco costs $280,000. So 2.8

times the MBA salary. Now the kids at

Haw still in elite business school,

incredible compensation. Average 200

grand right out of business school. But

the average home in San Francisco is 2.1

million. Why? Because as soon as you

have a house, you become very concerned

with traffic and you start showing up to

local review meetings and making sure no

new housing is built, which is great if

you already own a home. going back to

the rejection of strategy, but it's

almost impossible now. It's almost like

saving for a home is out of my reach.

The travel industry has boomed. And my

thesis is that you have millions of

young people who are going into their

mating years and decided, let's save for

a house. Let's save for a house. Then

pre- pandemic, a house is 290K. Post

pandemic, it's 420. Interest rates from

from 3% to 7%. Average mortgage went

from,00 to 2,200. All of a sudden, the

American dream has become a

hallucination, a fantasy. it, I'm

getting a backpack and I'm going to do

an Airbnb in Bangkok. And travel stocks,

hotel stocks, airline stocks have all

boom because I think young people have

given up on the American dream of owning

a home. But circling back to your

question, it's I think recognizing you

have agency, realizing that this is

hard. It's hard work. You work in an

economy. Build a kitchen cabinet of

people who can advise you. It's very

hard to read the label from inside of

the bottle. Uh, you got to work hard.

There's just no getting around it. I

don't care how talented you are. Beyonce

works their ass off. I mean, it just

people who want to be successful and

influential have to work work work

really hard. And then what I would also

say is that forgive yourself. My first

job out of college was investment

banking. I hit the lottery. Everyone was

super impressed. I hated it and I wasn't

going any good at good at it. And within

two and a half years, I was back living

at home with my mother unemployed. That

almost kind of devastated me. But I was

my my kind of success comes from my

ability to endure rejection and move

through it, to mourn and move on. So if

you're in your 20s and you're thinking,

I'm not making a lot of money. I'm

having trouble like having a nice life.

I'm I'm not entirely sure what I want to

do. Then you are exactly where you

should be. Your 20s are for

workshopping. forgive yourself, but keep

trying. Reach out to people for help.

Show up. Get the easy right. Show

up early. Be courteous. Be kind. You

know, think about how do I get more

certification? And then the moment you

lock in on something that you're good at

and could become great at, go allin on

it. And I come from the attitude, I'm

assuming people want real economic

security. Some people say, "Scott, I'm

not like you. I don't want to live to

work. I want to work to live." Fine. But

have an honest conversation with

yourself around what you need to make to

have a reasonable life. If you want to

live in LA and you want to have a nice

lifestyle, you just have to make a

ton of money. There's just that's just

the reality. But if you say, "I'm not

all about work," then fine. Do you want

to move to Santa Clarita? Do you want to

move to the Inland Empire? Do you want

to move to somewhere in Oregon? Fine.

But have a sober conversation with

yourself. What are your expectations?

And realistically, what kind of

commitment and tradeoff are you going to

need to get there? What I tell young

people is you can have it all. You just

can't have it all at once. I have

amazing balance right now. And looking

around, I think you do. But that's

because I had almost none in my 20s and

30s. And I I don't you know, this whole

life I I don't know much about you, but

the life I lead now when I'm in LA, I

didn't even know it existed in my 20s.

>> Same

>> because I'm like, I need to make money

and I I'm not I'm not exceptionally

talented. So, the thing I can control is

how hard I work. And there's no getting

around it. It'll cost you some

relationships. It cost me my hair. It

cost me my first marriage. And this

sounds crash, but it was worth it

because now that I have kids, now that

I'm older, I have a lot of balance. So,

it's a sober conversation. It's a

kitchen cabinet. It's forgiving

yourself. It's trying to find something

you're good at. It's a lot of things.

But more than anything, more than

anything, forgive yourself. If things

aren't working out in your 20s, boss,

that's where you should be. It very

rarely do people come right out of

college and go like this.