Scott Galloway

Men's Health: "If You Continue To Do This, You're Going to Die Early"

Episode #474

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Scott Galloway quit everything in 1999. He quit his job, his marriage. “I didn’t like my friends. I didn’t like myself,” he said.

Two years later he felt like he was going to die.

“I only left my loft for food, sex and to go to the ready-teller,” he said. “An instinct kicks in that if you continue to do this, you’re going to die early.”

He did the research.

And found that men who live alone die 8-10 years earlier than men who are engaged in a family.

“How do they die?” I asked

“Well any number of ways, but essentially you have kind of a low-resolution security camera in your brain trying to figure out if you’re adding value. And when you’re on the stairmaster or on a rowing machine and sweating, you fool the security camera into believing that you’re hunting prey or building housing.”

Then your body secretes… 

Sounds gross. But it’s a good thing.

It’ secrets a hormone that signals to your body “this one should live.”

So that’s physical health. But mental and emotional health also count.

“When you’re engaged at work or doing a crossword puzzle, you fool the security camera again into believing that you’re making important decisions for your cohort or you clan and it decides to, ya know, let you stick around.”

But if you’re not moving. Or enganged in other people’s lives, “basically the security camera figures out you’re not adding any value. And stops secreting the hormone that clears out the bad cholesterol.”

“So What does that mean?”

“You can develop any number of ailments whether it’s depression or diabetes… so, yeah, if you want to live a long time? You better–especially as a man–you better be engaged.” 

Scott Galloway wrote a book about this. It’s about the 3 types of love we get, which love keeps us alive. How happiness changes at different ages. Money’s role in wellbeing, etc. He’s the founder of L2, a research company with (highly recommended) YouTube videos called “Winner & Losers.”

My whole team watches these.

He’s also on the board of The New York Times and a professor at NY… where he tells kids not to follow their passion. And to “assume you’re not Jay Z.”

(Great advice).

Here’s more of what we talked about:

  • I announce a special offer for my listeners! [0:00]
  • Episode preview – [2:04]
  • I welcome Scott Galloway back to the show and congratulate him for predicting the first trillion dollar company last time he was on the podcast – [4:36]
  • Scott makes his prediction… who will be the 1st two trillion dollar company… [5:29]
  • Do this to test your idea… Scott tells us why he wrote “The Algebra of Happiness” – – [6:48]

  • How to build “an arc of satisfaction” and the difference between success and happiness – [10:06]
  • Anger, depression, biology and tragedy – [10:58]
  • How isolation can cause depression – [12:05]
  • How Scott radically changed his life, quit his job, moved and started over – [12:48]
  • Men’s health… “If you continue to do this, you’re going to die 8-10 years early” – [14:48]
  • What makes people live long… Scott says the  #1 indicator of longevity – [15:57]
  • Sex, eating and caring for others = the three things that support the development of our species – [18:00]
  • “There’s a lot of research that shows our happy place as a species is when we’re in motion and surrounded by others” – [20:13]
  • Masculinity vs. toxicity… and why you should embrace your gender – [21:53]
  • Who’s happier? People with kids or without kids? – [23:55]
  • The arc to happiness… how happiness changes with age – [25:30]
  • I ask Scott “How do we wean ourselves off social media and the artificial metrics of success & happiness?” [27:20]
  • How much money do you need to be happy? [29:03]
  • Why experiences matter more than things [31:24]
  • How to define what “rich” means – [36:20]
  • “Happiness is not only what you have, but it’s an absence of fear from what can be taken away from you.” – [38:32]
  • The impact of uncertainty vs. certainty on mood, survival and the markets – [40:21]
  • “I would argue that one of the most damaging metrics in the world is the Dow Jones industrial average. It’s an allusuary metric. Because it’s basically an indicator of the economic well-being of the top 10%, maybe even the top 1% who own 80% and 60% of the stocks, respectively. So it’s a great indicator of how the rich are doing… but meanwhile, life expectancy in the United States has declined 3 years in a row for the first time in our history.” – [42:38]

  • Book recomendation from Scott: “Irresistible: The Rise of Addictive Technology and the Business of Keeping Us Hooked” by Adam Alter – [43:53]
  • Social media addiction. Scott says that Twitter is his version of smoking – [44:04]
  • Book recommendation from Scott: “The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure” by Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukianoff  [45:27]
  • Social media as a tool to bully… teen suicide is up 30% among boys and 2x or 3x that among girls  [45:45]
  • How perception of time changes with age [48:17]
  • Hot value your time… Once you’re 20 years old, statistically, you have 2,600 Sundays left… – [49:52]
  • App recommendation: One Second a Day – [52:21]
  • Scott planned out his death – [52:45]
  • What do you want on your tombstone? And what would your obituary say? [53:17]
  • The worst advice successful people give about finding your passion in life… [55:30]
  • I ask Scott the research on finding meaning in life – [57:43]
  • Why he #1 destroyer of happiness is alcohol… – [59:10]
  • The 3 most important relationships in life – [1:00:55]
  • Where real joy at work comes from – [1:02:50]
  • The one piece of advice most adults would give to their younger self – 1:05:51]
  • The difference between mourning your failure or getting stuck and needing help… “Success is the ratio of resilience over failure” – [1:06:10]
  • “One of the many wonderful things about America is we let people get off the ground and step up to the plate again.” –  [1:07:02]
  • The three words Scott Galloway wants on his tombstone – [1:08:14]
  • The issue with college and elitism today… “We should be in the business of making unremarkable kids remarkable. And instead we’re in the business of making remarkable kids billionaires.” – [1:09:24]
  • Advice from Scott gives young people debating whether or not to go to college… “Assume you’re not Jay Z.” – [1:11:21]
  • I say what I love about Scott’s new book, “The Algebra of Happiness.” – [1:12:13]
  • And I recommend Scott’s podcast “Pivot” with Kara Swisher – [1:12:55]
  • Scott says which companies he thinks are the most overvalued (both public and private. Spoiler… it’s Lyft and WeWork) – [1:15:13]

 

 

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