The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway - Office Hours: Thoughts on the 2024 Presidential Election, Career Disappointments, and Scott's Private Investment Strategy

Episode Date: November 1, 2023

Scott provides his thoughts on the 2024 presidential election, specifically who he’s thinking of voting for. He then offers advice to a listener who finds themselves in a career trajectory dilemma after being relocated abroad for work. He wraps up with insight into how he manages his private investments.  Music: https://www.davidcuttermusic.com / @dcuttermusic Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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NMLS 1617539. Welcome to the Property Pod's Office Hours. 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, please email a voice recording to officehours at propertymedia.com. Again, that's officehoursatproptimedia.com. And just a quick note, I'm on the road and having technical difficulties, which is why I might sound a little different today. Let's just call it daddy. Daddy went deep in the paint last night and had a few makers and ginger, and that's why

I sound like shit. No, it's not technical difficulties. It is that I have gotten more out of alcohol than it's gotten out of me. Boom! First question. Hello, Prof G and fellow Gooner. This is Ben from Encinitas, California. My question for you is around the 2024 presidential election. That news cycle is in full swing, so I'm curious who you got. And if you don't know yet, I'd be curious to hear what your overall philosophy is on voting. What character traits do you look for in a candidate?

And or what are the topics that are most important to you this cycle? Thanks, Prof G. First off, I am a gooner. I finally come out of the closet, so to speak, as an Arsenal fan. Thanks, Prof G. In terms of voting in the election, I think I've been pretty transparent about this. I will canvas, probably give some money and vote for the Democratic nominee, assuming it's most economy, whether it's jobs added, whether it's infrastructure act, he's legislatively been a successful president. I think he's handling the conflict. I don't even call it conflict. I think he is handling the terrorist activity of Hamas really well. I think he looks like a guy who knows what he's doing and he's providing comfort and he's being decisive and unequivocal. I think sending the SS forward carry strike group

to the Gulf is kind of doing the best at keeping a reasonable amount of peace right now. I'm glad he's in charge. I think he's a good man. My fear, and I've said this and also be quite transparent, I think it is ridiculous that we are going to have a president who's going to be 86 if he's reelected leaving the last time he leaves the West Lawn. I think that is just insane that we are going to have a president who's going to be 86 if he's reelected, leaving the last time he leaves the West Lawn. I think that is just insane that we are choosing between an obese 77-year-old and or 78-year-old and an 82-year-old. Our electorate or elected officials are just way too fucking old. And if that sounds ageist, I am ageist. You know who else is ageist? Biology. It is ridiculous that we are counting on people this old to endure this sort of physically and mentally taxing a job with so much on the line.

And just we need either term limits or rank choice voting or to de-gerrymander districts such that being an incumbent isn't the premier criteria for who gets elected. Having said that, I will vote for Joe Biden, assuming he is the candidate. What people don't realize about the election that I think is really interesting is that the media wants to keep you glued to their content, so they pretend that these national polls mean anything. No, they don't. The election has already happened. It's already taken place in 44 of the 50 states. It's Nevada, maybe Arizona, Michigan, Wisconsin, maybe North Carolina, Pennsylvania, maybe Georgia. Nothing else matters. They've already voted in California. They've already voted in South Dakota. We know what those states are going to... The candidates are going to spend no money in 40 to 44 of the states because they have already made up their mind. It comes down to, and within those states, this is where it gets really wild, within those states, those swing states, it comes down to a small number of counties, these kind of, and then a small number of voters,

basically soccer moms in ex-urban areas who are sort of moderates. There are probably 50,000 people in a nation of 355 million are going to decide who is the most powerful person in the world. What do I think is going to happen? What are the externalities and the weirdness that'll create? If I were Putin and I saw that the fastest blue line path to victory in Ukraine was the reelection of Donald Trump, I would take five, $10 billion and weaponize Albanian troll farms and AI. Russians have very smart scientists to start A-B testing different types of deepfake content that depositions Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. I think Vice President Harris has been a disaster. Everyone I speak to who works with her says she is a competent,

impressive person. But in our nation, perception matters. And the perception of Vice President Harris to date is that she brightens up a room by leaving it with respect to her leadership skills. Who would I like to see as president? I think our bench is really deep on the Democratic side. I personally would really like to see Governor Newsom run for president. And as Trip to Israel kind of says that he's going to run for president, it's either going to be, I don't know, in 2024, most likely in 2028. I think he's sort of saying, I'm ready, coach, should our current quarterback. He's Steve Young on the bench saying, yeah, Joe Montana is great, done a great job. But if he blows a knee or comes out of the game or gets hurt, I'm ready.

Put me in, coach. I'm warmed up. I'm ready. The fact that he runs the fifth largest economy in the world. California has a huge amount of problems. It also has a huge amount of assets. California runs a huge amount of problems. It also has a huge amount of assets. California runs a budget surplus. I think the contrast of youth, of stature, of someone who comes across

as reasonable and empathetic, I think that's how we hold on to the White House. I think President Joe Biden's legacy will be fantastic. Let's go deeper into our bench. Let's put up a fantastic nominee who represents the future. Appreciate the question. Question number two. Hi, Scott. My name is Kennedy and I'm 24 and I'm looking for some career trajectory advice. I have a degree in marketing and fashion, but for the past two years, I have been working in a buying and revenue planning role for what we can call a CPG company. For the past 12 months, I've been advocating for myself to move to the London office within this company. I was given an offer letter to join the marketing

team over here. My visa was sponsored and I was relocated. On the day I was supposed to start, they told me that my position and salary can no longer be supported. I was given the option to relocate myself back to the U.S. and return to my old position or to take another role here and a $25,000 salary decrease. I'm eager to get experience building a brand and supporting a marketing team, so I'm wondering if it's in my best interest to go back to New York or maybe even L.A. and find a new job or take the salary cut just for the experience on a marketing team. Thank you for any thoughts you have on this situation. And thank you so much for the podcast. It's not only a source of joy, but keeps me highly informed. Kennedy, first off, I'm sorry. This just sucks at 24.

I mean, it sounds like you're obviously pretty good. They relocated you. You're in London. You're killing it. And then you have this bullshit. I'm sorry. The one thing I would tell you, though, is that in 10 years, much less 20 or 30, you're going to look back and think, yeah, that sucked. But what you're going to be upset about is probably how upset you are about it. And that is this is a bummer, but this is meaningful, but it's not profound. And a lot of this is situational. My initial gut is the following, and I would need some more information around your specific situation. But that is, if you can afford to stay in London with that cut,

I would probably stay. The opportunity to live in London at the age of 24, I just, I just wonder if you're going to look back and think, if you were to move back to the US, I think you're going to wonder and look back and think, oh, you know, I should have done what I could to stay in London and experience that for a couple of years. It's like you got here, when I say here in London, you got the visa, you got relocated. I think you're more likely than not to think or wish you had tried to figure out a way to experience living in Europe as a young woman. You need a kitchen cabinet right now. You need someone within the company you trust, someone who knows you, someone you can talk to about the situation, who you can provide more color and nuance, who can give you

some advice here. I mean, the bottom line is if you can't afford to be there, you can't afford to be there. And a $25,000 cut for a 24-year-old is real. Also, I would potentially think about finding a role or maybe doing a little bit of searching to see if there's an equivalent role in London at the salary you had with another firm. It sounds to me they like you, they want to keep you, but they've said we can't justify your role at the current cost. But the head fake of getting you over there and relocating you and then laying this shit on you, I don't know, that's pretty rough. Here's the bottom line. You're 24, you're obviously very talented, and you figured out a way to do what 99% of the world dreams of doing, and that is getting to London, getting a visa, being relocated.

I just, I would hate to see you, I'd hate to see you give that up. Best of luck to you. And again, again, don't be too hard on yourself. The fact that you got there means that you're an impressive young woman and you are doing something right. We have one quick break before our final question. Stay with us. Welcome back. Question number three. Hey, Scott. My name is Ben. Longtime listener and big fan of yours. Several months ago on Pivot, you mentioned you were considering a private investment in

Puttschack. It was kind of an offhand comment, but I've found it super interesting. I'd like to dive a bit more into it. With that opportunity as an example, could you walk us through the private investment experience that you often have, how opportunities generally arise, what sort of due diligence you conduct, how you decide whether or not to invest, how much you typically invest, and then ultimately what your relationship is like with the company after you've invested in them. I think it'd be super interesting to hear all that. Thank you so much for your content and your time. Appreciate it. Ben, thanks for the question. So first off, I believe that for the

vast majority of people, the best investment strategy is probably low cost index or ETF funds. That if you have a friend or you have access to a private investment and you want to take a small amount of your capital, 10, 15, 20% max at your age, then go for it. If you feel it's something you're really passionate about or it's something you're doing, then 100%. And sometimes to start your own business, you got to go all in and you don't have any choice but to invest everything you have. And I get that. But to be blunt, I have access and opportunities that most people do not have. And it's taken me 30 years of working my ass off and luck to get those opportunities. So what is my approach? I coach a lot of companies and CEOs and boards and VCs and private equity funds.

And occasionally I get the opportunity to co-invest with a venture capital or a sector that I feel like I understand and I can bring some value to, I will invest somewhere between, call it one and 4% of my net worth, never more than 5% because I assume there is a huge probability, a real probability the investment will go to zero. Private companies are very volatile. They're illiquid. Over time, they should return more because of the illiquidity, but you got to assume or got to calculate the possibility to go to zero. And you also want to be able to sleep at night. So imagine it goes to zero and say, would I be able to sleep at night if it went to zero? And if the answer is no, you're investing too much, you shouldn't do it. So I co-invest with VCs and private equity firms in small private or sometimes bigger private companies. In the instance of Putschack,

I met these really talented private equity guys out of Edinburgh. I have not invested, but the reason I like Putschack is I think there's gonna be a huge trend towards trying to get out of the house. And as a father, I just see one, how hard it is to get your kids out of the house and find interesting things to do. And two,

that I think you're going to see more and more of it post-COVID. I think there's sort of a revenge activity mindset. Let's get out of the house. Let's do stuff on the weekends. And I've been to Puttschack. I think it's a neat concept. I think there's some barriers because the real estate is expensive to acquire. I just like it. And I want to be also, I want to invest in things I personally have an attachment to, but the majority of people don't have the opportunities I have. I did not have the opportunities I have until I was 30 years in. So what I would suggest is that if you find something, a private company that someone you know and trust is doing, you want to take a small amount of your capital, fine. You want to invest in yourself and you want to start a business, I get that you may have to go put a disproportionate amount of your own human and financial capital. But for the most part, for the most part, most people should

invest in diversified, low-cost funds. That is the best way to get rich slowly. What I would suggest is if you want to invest or take advantage of private companies, you invest in a fund that invests across a diversified set of private companies. I appreciate the question. Best of luck to you. That's all for this episode.

If you'd like to submit a question, please email a voice recording to officehoursatpropertymedia.com. Again, that's officehoursatproptimedia.com. This episode was produced by Caroline Shagrin. Jennifer Sanchez is our associate producer, and Drew Burrows is our technical director. Thank you for listening to The Prop G Pod from the Vox Media Podcast Network. We will catch you on Saturday for No Mercy, No Malice as read by George Hahn and on Monday with our weekly market show.