Video summary
Scott Galloway argues that the primary skill for connecting with high-level people and punching above one's weight class is not merely grit or talent, but a specific willingness to endure rejection by taking uncomfortable risks. He illustrates this point with an anecdote from his time living in Miami, where he promised himself he would speak to an attractive woman at a pool party despite her being surrounded by others; after initially walking away out of fear, he returned and successfully initiated the conversation, eventually leading to a son named Raleigh. Galloway emphasizes that unless one possesses exceptional credentials like graduating from MIT or working as an AI prompt engineer, success for the vast majority requires resilience in face of rejection, whether it comes from women, political campaigns, or business ventures. To demonstrate how this mindset translates into professional and economic success, Galloway shares his extensive history of failure and persistence. He recounts applying to nine different business schools before getting accepted to two, running unsuccessfully for class president three times before losing the student body election, and starting nine businesses where only one succeeded. Despite these setbacks, he maintains that rejection is actually a secret ingredient to success because it forces individuals to keep trying. This approach mirrors the behavior of top salespeople who are often overcompensated relative to their IQ; they possess the "scrappy" ability to follow up with people who ignore them, pretend to be friends when treated poorly, and persistently call those who do not want to hear from them until a connection is made. Galloway provides concrete examples of his own aggressive networking strategies that defy conventional etiquette but yield results. When he launched his podcast, he manually sent the same subscription message via WhatsApp or email to nearly every single contact in his address book—about one thousand people—who had not been seen for years. Similarly, when running an events company, he tracked sending four million messages on a phone before wiping it clean. In his early career at age 26, while trying to sell strategy engagements to Fortune 1000 companies like Levi's and West Elm, he would write detailed letters via FedEx offering free strategic advice on topics ranging from gray market problems in denim distribution to ice cream flavor discovery. Although most of these efforts were met with indifference or dismissal by assistants who threw the mail away, occasionally a CEO would respond, leading him to build a significant consulting firm through cold calling and providing value upfront without expecting immediate reciprocity. The core lesson Galloway draws from his experiences is that everyone should adopt the mentality of a "club promoter" for at least two years, treating networking as an essential skill rather than relying solely on pedigree or intelligence. He suggests that young people learn this resilience by engaging in uncomfortable activities like door-to-door canvassing for political campaigns; after being slammed in the face and receiving rejection from non-supporters, individuals eventually move past trauma to anger, and finally reach a state of indifference where they can laugh about it. This ability to endure unpleasantness without letting ego interfere is what allows ordinary people to access opportunities reserved for celebrities like Kanye West or Stephen Hawking, who do not need to fight as hard because their status shields them from rejection. Ultimately, Galloway concludes that the path to success lies in putting oneself repeatedly into positions where one might be rejected and having the fortitude to keep going regardless of the outcome.
Read the full video transcript
how can people become better networkers
what are the skills of being a good
networker I bet you know more about this
this than me I would say it's uh being
friendly being
open uh being honest transparent um and
quite
frankly I find the key to punching above
your weight class is not I mean sure
it's
grit uh it's some talent but more than
anything I think it's the willingness
and maybe this is grit to endure
rejection
if you're a club promoter you've got to
be comfortable going up to strange women
and saying hi and introducing yourself
and saying there's a great party here or
putting up with some douchebag [ __ ]
who's spending a lot of money and giving
you a hard time and putting your own ego
aside because he bought a bottle he
thinks he's you know [ __ ] Prince
Charles you're just going to have to be
willing to get out a spoon and eat a lot
of
[ __ ] and I've always said to the kids in
my class and I tell the story I tell the
following story when I was um had just
moved to New York on weekends I'd go
down to South Beach in Miami and I got
an apartment in the Continuum and I used
to go out and I went to the Raleigh
Hotel and I walked in and I saw a woman
I was very attracted to or anyone's
going be attracted to she was very
attractive and I promised myself I am
going to speak to that woman before I
leave this hotel and it was in the
middle of the day they had a DJ was a
pool party at the Raleigh Hotel and I'm
like oh [ __ ] she's talking to she's with
a woman and a guy I don't I don't know
how to like open and I walked out I was
out the valet and I'm like [ __ ] you
promised yourself so I went back and I
just went up to him right right up to
him and said where you guys from anyways
long story short 18 months later you
know our son's middle name is Raleigh
and what I tell people is unless you're
willing to take uncomfortable risks
you're never going to put yourself in a
position of economic or professional or
romantic success or you let me feel way
you're never going to punch above your
weight class and so your ability to
endure rejection your ability to put
yourself in uncomfortable situations is
absolutely you know people have
different words for it Scrappy right but
if you want unless you have an
unbelievable certification and you come
out look if you come out of MIT business
school and you're an AI prompt engineer
you don't need to have much grit I mean
maybe you got grit going there but
Microsoft's coming for you to offer you
a world of opportunity for the another
99.9% rest of us get used to emailing
people who will not email you back and
then when they say they not interested
assume that that means they want to hear
from you a month later right I I I the
amount the secret to my success is
rejection I applied to nine schools
Business Schools I got into two really
just one one put me on the waiting list
I can't tell you how much rejection I've
endured from women I mean it's
staggering I I ran for sophomore Junior
and senior class president I lost all
three times and based on my track record
I decided to run for student body
president where I went on to wait for it
lose and I've started nine businesses
most of them have failed one out of
seven businesses succeed so I started
nine and I two and two1 and that's all
you need all you need is one good Mentor
a few good friends one wonderful mate
one business that works but to get there
means putting yourself in a position of
rejection over and over and over and
here's the thing it sounds easy most
people will not do what you did in
Newcastle or was it Newcastle is that
what you said they're not going to go up
to strength ERS and say hey there's a
great party Friday night you should come
here's a thing on it texting back and
forth give me your credit card if you
want a table I mean people just the
majority of people 99% of people will
not do that that's why in any company
the most overcompensated people relative
to their IQ and their work ethic are the
salespeople and this is what they have
in common they either played with the
wrong toys or the right toys and they
will get out that spoon and start
calling people that don't want to hear
from them and then following up
pretending to be their friend being nice
to them when they're not nice back that
is that is the key in my view to success
if you're Kanye or meline Albright or
you know Stephen Hawking you're going to
be fine assume you are not that person a
much more reliable route to success is
just resilience and an ability to eat
[ __ ] I went back in there's a a way that
you can view on your phone you can see
the number of messages that you've sent
and received on WhatsApp and I went in
um before I wiped it when I exited the
events company I went in and I'd sent
and received I'd received six million
and sent 4 million WhatsApp messages
while I'd been on that last phone 4
million WhatsApp messages and almost all
of them had been sent like via
fingertips when I first launched this
podcast I went through I think I might
have about a thousand people in my
address book and I went through every
single one of them and sent them the
same message which was hey I've just
released this podcast would you mind
subscribing an apple podcast to a thous
thousand different contacts most of whom
I hadn't seen for forever but that was
just like baked into the blood of what
I'd kind of done that was part of the it
was just part of the course you you
message random people that's how you get
them to come to your your nightclub so
uh yeah basically what we're saying is
everybody should become a club promoter
for a couple of years and then they can
be I think there's I would love my kids
I want to do I'm I'm really hoping that
the election in America turns out one
way and I'm thinking about taking my
16-year-old to do canvasing caning is
knocking on doors and trying to get
people to register to vote and then
telling them hi I'm here with the Biden
campaign in a few times there's a
pitbull and there's someone who is not a
Biden supporter and it is really
uncomfortable and really unpleasant and
you have to be polite and they slam the
door in your face and then you have to
go to the next house I think that is
really important for a young person to
learn those skills to recognize that was
really
uncomfortable and then 10 minutes they
realize I'm fine the first time it
happens you're traumatized the second
time it happens you're like whatever
third time it happens you're angry at
the person by the time the 20th time
happens you're like I don't care I'm
fine I'm fine oh you can laugh about it
yeah I just I'm fine that is an
unbelievably um powerful skill and what
you did I mean I did something very
every business I've ever started u I
started a strategy firm when I was 26
trying to sell strategy engagements into
you know Fortune 1,000 companies and I
would write a letter I would sit down
and I would write a letter to William
snowman say uh the growth potential in
this brand is William is is West Elm
office home office is going to be huge
West H's perfectly positioned for it
here are the SKS here's your
distribution strategy your Capital
strategy how you would signal and I
would basically do a strategy engagement
and then I would send it via
FedEx i' you know this was word
processing you know not a lot of email
back then some email not a lot this is
30 years ago when I was 26 and I'd sent
him a letter with this like strategy
engagement and say this is free and the
next one if you have other big hairy
questions you want answered you know
call me and most of the time you're
working you're putting in you know I
don't know four eight hours to write
these things up I I can do this stuff
pretty quickly I have an aptitude for it
and most of the time you never hear back
you call them and the the assistant
would say oh yeah we found it we don't
know what it was we threw it out please
don't call us again and occasionally I
would get a meeting with the CEO of
Levis he bring me in and say we're
trying to figure out the gray Market
problem people are buying 501s in JFK
and taking them to Germany and you know
Consulting is give me your hardest
questions and I'm going to try and
answer them thoughtfully and I built a
big consulting firm by cold calling CEOs
and I wouldn't just cold call them I I
do a perspective engagement for them and
most of the time it was kind of
humiliating like let me get this I spent
all Sunday telling you know telling
dryers ice cream how that you know how
they should discover new flavors and
that they should be thinking about uh
using nestly for their distribution you
know all this [ __ ] and and but
occasionally it would hit if you're not
willing to do that never going to punch
themove your way class this episode is
brought to you by element stop having
coffee first thing in the morning your
adenosine system that caffeine acts on
isn't even active for the first 90
minutes of the day but your adrenal
system is and salt acts on your adrenal
system element contains a signs backed
electrolyte ratio of sodium potassium
and magnesium with no sugar no gluten no
coloring no artificial ingredients or
any other BS plays a critical role in
reducing muscle cramps and fatigue while
optimizing brain health regulating
appetite and curbing Cravings the orange
flavor in a cold glass of water is
literally the best way to start your
morning I've done it every single day
for over three years now way before they
were a partner on the show and I love it
best of all there is a no BS no
questions asked refund policy so you can
buy absolutely risk-free and if you do
not like it for any reason they will
give you your money back and you don't
even need to return the box right now
you can get a free sample pack of all
eight flavors with your your first box
by going to the link in the description
below or heading to drink LM nt.com slod
wisdom that's drink LM nt.com
slod wisdom thank you very much for
tuning in if you enjoyed that clip you
will love the fulllength podcast in all
its Glory which is available right
here go on press it