What the Worlds Richest and Most Powerful People Get Wrong With Stephanie Ruhle

Everything is about [music] power. The longer you're in office, you get to trade offices on the hill. You get to have a bigger office, a fancier office, a bigger [music] staff, and they cannot leave office because without that job, who are they to the universe? >> Stephanie Rule has spent a career around some of the wealthiest and most powerful people in the world. Before she was a journalist [music] and a television host, she spent almost 15 years working in finance. And now she hosts money, power, and politics with Stephanie Rule on MS. Now, >> we have never seen a [music] president enrich himself or his inner circle like [music] we're currently seeing. Checks and balances are what make us [music] better and smarter and more successful. >> In the midst of the most difficult moment in American history, the Civil War, you'd [music] think that the president would want a cabinet totally on board and behind him 100%. Right? Except no, that's the opposite. Lincoln picks a cabinet of rivals. What he actually understands is that the cabinet is representative of the country. I do not believe the history books will lie. My question for you is you've you've interviewed some of the richest, some of the most successful uh people in the world, people in charge of enormous companies, people who who employ thousands and thousands of people. And I'm sure you've just met them in in New York. I'm curious about the idea of like what problems can money solve and what problems can't it solve? Like if you if have if have if you heard the idea like if money can solve your problem, you don't have a problem. But we still have problems. And so I'm curious about that. >> Okay. So money cannot buy you happiness, but it can definitely afford you freedom. And what I would say about money and and the super important part about it is when you have it, and I'm not even saying a huge amount, what it does, Ryan, is create this cushion. Right? So when you think about industries or people who are uh who face the most abuse at work, the most harassment at work, it's the people who have the lowest paying jobs, the most vulnerable communities who aren't in a position where they can say, "I want to take this job and shove it." And so you know what I really say especially and we'll go to the top top people next but sort of young people. I'm not saying don't go follow your dreams but I am saying please do what you can to have a job and work really hard to cover your rent and have some savings so you can pursue your dreams while sort of walking up the stairs or down the stairs and not jumping out of the window. Right? So for me, I worked in investment banking for 14 years before I made the transition into TV. And it's funny because when I made the move, you know, there are in the last 10 years, so so many people, you know, especially women have said like, "How did you do it? I want to make the switch." And so on and so forth. And then when I say out loud, oh, I took a 90% pay cut. >> Everybody's like, "Oh my god, forget it. Forget it. Forget it." And sort of the beauty about that is if you save that money, and I'm not saying saving is easy, but if you save that money, it gives you the flexibility that you could sort of turn to the right or turn to the left and and make better decisions. Now, the most successful people that I've ever worked for or interviewed, um, and I mean like some of the wealthiest people in the world, they're not people who said, "I've made enough money," but they're people who changed the measure and stopped just measuring themselves based on how much money they have. Because if all you do, Ryan, is focus on the climb, well, then think about how exhausted you're going to be. The climb never ends, right? because you achieve a goal and then you reset and you climb again, you climb again, you climb again and and some of the people that I would say have sort of I don't know maybe disappointed me the most would be like business idols of mine that I would think would be in the you know the last quartortile of their life when they should be on like a 80,000 acre ranch in Montana like surrounded by their family and blah blah blah but instead they're spending three of every four weeks on their G5 five trolling the earth for the next deal. >> Yeah. And I can remember, I don't know, maybe this was eight years ago or so, my husband and I walking into a hotel in Miami, and we ran into one of like the biggest guys in private equity. And it was somebody who my husband actually knew as a child, blah blah blah. And I remember looking at this guy cuz I Andy and I, that's my husband, looked up to him in in so many ways in business. And like there he was at this hotel, right, in this wrinkled suit sitting there sweating outside with a woman with a date who looked like she was maybe like 24 years old. And don't get me wrong, I'm sure he was like, "Look, I have the hottest woman here. This is amazing." And I'm looking at him and I'm like, "Jesus Christ, like what is he even talking to this woman about?" But that's because this guy was so focused on the climb and the chits and like showing the world here's what I've achieved and here's what I have. >> And if you actually have the understanding to say I'm going to start viewing success, >> right, part of my success as just joy. And if you actually make a list, when you think back on your own life, Ryan, and you say, what are my most joyful times? They're eating dinner at home. They are somebody pulling out a guitar when you're hanging out with friends, right? They're playing board games. And I'm not saying, "Oh, don't spend money. Live a simple life." But it's the people who who I've covered who are super super successful, but were able to press pause and actually count their blessings and say, "Hold on a minute." Like, what gives me joy? Those are the people that I think have figured it out as opposed to others who just continue to be on the climb. So there's two things there. I I want to touch both of them. I I think your career journey is interesting and it is something people miss because people talk about following your dreams. They talk about, you know, taking the big risk and that can be good, but you're also very vulnerable if it doesn't work out. Like I I wrote my first three books while I had a corporate job. I I was able to take, you know, when I went to my publisher and I said, you know, I want to write about a an obscure school of ancient philosophy. Like the reason I was able to take like a pretty significant decrease in the advance on my second book compared to my first is that I had this corporate job. How I lived was not going to change either way on this thing. So I think what that comes down to is leverage, right? It's like we all know >> the beauty about that is you employed risk management. Okay, risk management is like the unsexiest idea, but it's the most important. You wanted to pursue a dream and do something that was on the fringe or out of the box. So, you did it. And the only person who suffered was your sleep. Was you, you know, was you getting a good night's sleep because you were writing that book while you had a full-time corporate job. You risk managed it. >> Yes. We all know we we'd live differently if we had a trust fund. And it's like this is a trust fund you give yourself, right? [laughter] like this is this is this is financial independence you are giving yourself rather than getting from a a wealthy you know relative and and it can take time and I I do think look there's some there's some careers where this is harder to do like you know like if if if it's being an actress or being a musician maybe where where the career is so focused on like a certain chunk of your early your late teens early 20s it's hard to go work in obscurity and then pivot towards that. But most things are not like that. And probably especially the kind of entrepreneurial things where the more experience, the more funds you have, the more relationships you have, the more leverage you have to make your thing successful. You're not betraying your dream by putting it off. You're actually putting yourself in a better position to do it. Ryan, if I would have left banking when I was 23 and gone to journalism school, which I was thinking about doing, sort of one of the guys who ran fixed income at Credit Swiss where I worked, and I told him I was thinking about going to journalism school, he was like, "Are you crazy? You're going to have to go to a small market first." And let me be clear, your sensibility, Stephanie, isn't going to work outside New York, New Jersey, or Connecticut. You you don't sell in Tuscaloosa. and and and he also said frankly he said you're 22 years old there's not a lot of women in this business you're really good at it you can make a lot of money in the next 10 years and what actually helped me right because I didn't come right to NBC I went to Bloomberg television and in business TV the whole ball game is booking guests so because I spent 14 years in banking when I made that transition to TV my sweet spot was I knew all these people it was very easy for me I I spoke their language which I understood the business and I could book really big guests because I knew them. I had that because I stayed in the industry so long and and you were just mentioning something that that comes to mind. Opportunities don't always present themselves, right? So even in your job, let's say you want to get promoted to management, but you don't have any management experience, volunteer outside, right? Go volunteer for a nonprofit and when you go to your review at the end of the year and you say, "I want to manage a team." and they're like, "You have no experience managing a team." You can say to them, "Well, I've been organizing drop offs and pickups for city meals on wheels for the last 10 months, and I'm doing it with a team." So, for me, I started doing public speaking to get girls to study math and science, to get women to go into finance. So, I was sort of building this public speaking stockpile. And that's even how I ended up. I was giving a speech for a nonprofit called the White House Project. And after there was a woman there who was like, "Wow, you'd be great on television." and it and and so I was doing it out, you know, outside in the fringe. Now, there's one thing and I this I have a question for you. >> When you're pursuing a dream, here's something that people don't often tell you. Your peers will often make fun of you. >> Sure. >> Um or they're not even necessarily going to wish you well. And I think it's very very embarrassing to pursue a dream. Pursuing a dream isn't just like having a Having a job is like, "Yeah, we all got to do this. We got to pay rent." Pursuing a dream is putting yourself out there and saying, "World, this is who I am on the inside. I want to I'm going to show you my vulnerability and try." And you think that everyone is rooting for you. There's a lot of people who will root against you or make fun of you. And if you let that get to you, you're a fool. Because when they're making fun of you, it's not you. It's their own It's their own insecurity. Right? And and when you start to realize they don't really care about you, it's just you're the thing to smack talk about for the moment. Once you can push that out of your mind, you can clear the path for yourself much easier. >> Yeah. There's there's a cringe factor to earnestly putting yourself out there. And then also like you're whatever it is that you're pursuing, you're going to be bad at it for quite some time, right? So I think there's two things. It's like one, I'd like to be getting paid by someone else while I'm bad at something, right? like I don't want to be bad at it and >> like how good I am at that thing is determining what I'm eating that day, right? That's the hard part. It's like trying to support yourself as a musician while you're putting in your hours to become a good musician. That's that's a tough cell, right? Um >> and especially think about if you have a family. >> Yeah. You can quickly fall down a spiral of feeling self-indulgent and awful if you're taking a risk to pursue a dream when you're responsible for putting food on the table. >> Yeah. So, so it's like if you can be getting your hours and then also be getting paid to develop adjacent skills, that that's kind of the that's kind of the ideal scenario. And and yeah, it it doesn't it's not as glamorous. There's not the big gesture of like, you know, I'm quitting my job and going all in on this thing. But I I do think it's a much more sustainable path and ultimately a more self-sufficient path, which is which is what >> Yeah. I mean, the only person who suffers is you in that you're sleeping less, you're seeing friends less, you have less disposable income for things that you enjoy. But I would argue you're investing in yourself in the smartest, most responsible way you can. >> Okay. So, so what you were talking about though with some of the very wealthy, successful people you've seen over the years, it it's funny. We think money is freedom and it can purchase freedom. But if actually the source of your kind of lack of freedom is not financially based, no amount of money is going to free you. Like there's this great line from Senica where he's talking about this Roman general and he says, you know, Marius command commanded armies but ambition commanded Marius, right? And he's saying that like this guy is so powerful and successful, you think, except he's not in his own power cuz what he actually wants is more and more and more. And so you can see someone who has, you know, a billion dollars and then for some reason you realize you're both attending the same conference. You're like, what are you doing? Like wasn't the whole point of becoming a billionaire not to have to go to like this? And >> more importantly, those people they their status, their public status becomes everything. So their life becomes more and more and more expensive. So even though they could be worth 10x what you're worth and I'm worth, their life costs 15x what ours does. >> Sure. >> Right. It's sort of like the the the Wall Street golden handcuffs that, you know, I remember when I first started in banking and you could actually see it, right? Like, so people would start and then they would buy an apartment and then they would buy a house in the Hamptons. And if they buy that house in the Hamptons, that house in the Hamptons has to have a manager. And oh, the guys on your desk that you work for, we're all going to buy in a syndicate a racehorse. And once we buy that racehorse, we're going to join a hunting club. And once we join that hunting club, we're going to join a country club. And then you take a step back and you're like, hold on a second. I'm a public school guy from Jersey and all I ever wanted to do was not be bridge and tunnel. I just wanted to live in New York City. How did my cost basis fly out the window and how do I have multiple and so I just think you have to keep pulling it back in and saying what is success for me what is joy for me what makes my life work not my universe because it's extraordinary when you look at at at people and to that point you're like what are you doing still in the hustle and it's amazing when you actually look under the hood and the more successful people become the more beholden they are to needing that paycheck because they felt like they needed their life and their lifestyle to ratchet up and up and up and up. >> Yeah, it's there's the keeping up with the Joneses element of it for sure with the the lifestyle creep and now your monthly nut is X and so you know you're running faster and faster to stay in the same place. But I think the the real tragedy is kind of what you're talking about in that hotel room or that hotel or you see these people crisscrossing the globe to do more and more and more that it's not financially based. It it is though an inability to ever feel like they have enough and that they're good and that this was all for something. >> Ryan, when I remember looking at this guy, he almost looked like like he like like he was an empty shell, right? Just like trolling the universe like a vampire, like needing one more deal and one more deal. But the problem is each deal, right, feeds you less and less. And you're like, "How could this person that has everything still appear to be starving cuz it's the vampire that needs one more kill?" And you're going, "For what? Your children's children will want for nothing. Find yourself a big beach house and watch some kids play in the sand." >> It's crazy how timeless it is, too, though. Like it's like you read these ancient works and like they're lamenting people doing that 2,000 years ago. Like it that personality type of like I've got to stay in the hunt. I've got to maintain my relevance. There's one more deal. You know, there's one more luxurious property that I want. Like that that personality has always existed and tragically probably always will exist. >> I think there's a place we see it even more though. So, right, so in my career, I've either worked with or covered business or politics. Yeah. >> And if you think about the most successful business people or politicians, right, like they're all in the hunt for money and power. And I think that there are lots of business examples where in the first half of their career, business people are making the most ruthless decisions, maybe st, you know, having the sharpest elbows. And maybe when they get to that back half, they're actually taking their foot off the gas and saying, you know, how can I better the world around me? How can I have the best life? I actually think politicians are the reverse. Right? We have politicians who are in office in their 80s. Right? Yeah, if Chuck Grassley wins his next election, by the time he leaves office, he'll be 95 years old. And I'm not saying this specifically about Chuck Grassley, but but what I've witnessed in politicians is they haven't necessarily made the money where they've got that beach house. So for them, everything is about power. So as soon as they lose that position, and remember in Congress, it's it's amazing the longer you're in office, right? Every time you win, you get a bigger position, a bigger leadership position. You get to trade offices on the hill. You get to have a bigger office, a fancier office, a bigger staff. So that power mounting is everything. And they cannot leave office because without that job, who are they to the universe? And the sick thing is then the older they get, the less viable they potentially are for the next chapter, which would be a media career. And so you watch these people in politics where you're going, why does this person want to still be in office, right? The next most important thing they're doing is figuring out how we going to regulate AI. And so we've got people in office. They're going to regulate the future, right? Every element of the way that we work, the way we live, and the way we play. and they're not going to live to see it, but they desperately need to keep that job because in their mind without that power, what do they have? And so I take that same sentiment and I compare it to that same private equity guy sitting in that hotel and say neither of those people or those personality types have ever prioritized. What is what does my peace look like? Where have I actually derived joy personally? And the answer is I don't think it's going to another committee meeting in Congress and I don't think it's trolling for another deal. >> The tragedy of the political people that you talk to, you know, the the business people tend to actually like what they do, right? Like it's glamorous, it's luxurious, uh it's fun. The weird part about talking to these politicians who hang on is that like the complaints are not far from the surface. Like very rarely do you meet a politician, they're like, I just love it. Right? They hate campaigning. They hate raising money. They hate the moral compromises. And then they will debase themselves to continue the thing because they dread being the ex senator from Nebraska. Um >> Yes. But but debasing themselves, that's when you see them as the most compromised because they're like, "What do I need to do to hang on to this position?" >> It's a tragedy to not be able to be good with yourself, to be able to know like, "Hey, I did it and if I get to keep doing it, awesome." But at some point, you know, uh I do have to walk away from it. And here's who I want to be or who's here's who I am without either the money, the title, or yeah, the committee status or or whatever. I think in politics, it's it's especially hard because yeah, as you point out, the power compounds, right? Because the the the longer you stay in, the more seniority you have when your party is in power. And so you're like, "Hey, I I sacrificed the first 30 years to be able to be in this position and now you're telling me to walk away." And yet again, the timelessness of it, right? Like if you described, you know, Joe Biden to, you know, a Roman historian 2,000 years ago, they'd be like, "Oh yeah, we've seen that guy a lot of times." just like they waited the whole time for their shot and then they couldn't accept that they only got one shot and now it was time to walk away on top >> and everyone else could see it's time to walk away. But when you're that person >> and you think about your sacrifice or you believe your hype, you're not going to walk away. But what's funny examples of politicians and I I never think of it until I'm in Washington and I see them and when I remember, oh my gosh, they're not even home, right? They don't live here. This isn't their home state. This isn't where their grandchildren are or even potentially their spouse. And I'm like, "Oh my god, they've been on a business trip." [snorts] And if you think about your own life, right? Like I do love to travel, but I like to travel with my family, but the older I get, >> I just want to stay home more, right? Like I want to go I, you know, I want to go to a live sporting event or a live concert, but I don't even want to go to restaurants so much. I don't want the hustle and I just want to be home. So, it's when I see politicians and I remember I'm like, "Oh my gosh." Like, because I always see them at airports and I'm like, "They're not even home." Like, there's that person who's been doing this for decades with this little dinky carry-on that they're putting in the overhead and I'm like, "Holy cow." For me, like, I stop at nothing. Even if I work a 15-hour day, I just want to sleep at home and count all the heads in my house to make sure we're all sleeping there. I'm like, "That's the opposite of what I want." But they're on these diamond encrusted gerbble wheels and they they they can't get off or they've convinced themselves they can't. >> Yeah. Know, I saw John Cornin getting off a Southwest flight at the Austin airport a couple weeks ago and you just go, "Okay." You know, >> exactly. >> I hope it was worth it, bud. [laughter] >> No, that's exactly it. It's exactly it. And and and then the irony though, this is this is how we move the goalpost financially and career-wise. You'd think you'd go, "Okay, now he is really empowered. He starts out idealistic. You know, the machine gets a hold of you." As you said, there's either the media contracts on one side or, you know, if I get too far outside the party now, they're not going to take my calls as a lobbyist where I'm actually going to cash in. And Ryan, I would argue the latter is more than ever because we have never seen in modern history, in American history, we have never seen a president enrich himself or his inner circle like we're currently seeing. So, so the universe around the president, you know, and all the business dealings, all of that, right? Our federal government has now invested in over 30 companies, right? $277 billion. And whether it's the president and his family, cabinet members and their family, or the universe that they're around, wealthy people are right now are wealthier than we have ever imagined. So if you are one of these Republican lawmakers who are leaving office, even if Trump campaigned against you, even if you're on the outside, you're now saying, "I don't necessarily want to get too far on the outside because if you can't beat him, join him. At the very least, I want to make some money." And right now there's more money to be made and it's more unapologetic and blatant more than ever. >> This is the the timeless sort of perennial human thing. Even if you were satisfied yesterday, if you suddenly see what other people are getting, it makes it hard for you to go, "Hey, I've got a nice house in the nicest part of town. I've got former senator, former congressman, former CEO, whatever. Former general, you know, retired general, whatever the title is, I've got all of it. that was the dream since I was a little boy or a little girl, but now I hear so and so is flying private or now I hear so and so is doing X Y or Z. You go, oh actually this was never enough. Now I need that. Ryan, take that to the investment community. Take that to the CEO community who has has always, you know, they have been increasingly, you know, public speakers talking about the state of the world or the economy or labor, all these different issues. But now we are now in a situation where just yesterday Treasury Secretary Scott Besson said the key to growth is going to be less regulation on corporate America, right? Like that is I mean that is like the sweet nectar of the gods for CEOs who said hold on a second I'm not going to face regulation and and and those who always said wait a minute having three separate but equal branches of government making sure we had an independent Federal Reserve were were part of the framework of American exceptionalism. They're one of the main reasons foreign investors from around the world invest their money here. And suddenly all of that is out of whack. And when I talk to my sources on the street and I lay it out and I ask them about it, they're all kind of sheepish and quiet right now because they're in the if you can't beat them, join them. Look at the stock market performance, right? It has been extraordinary. And it it's amazing because I wonder like what just today, okay, 9 months ago, the CEO of Exxon after we originally detained and arrested Maduro, the CEO of Exxon said, "Yeah, yeah, yeah, but we're not going back into Venezuela. It's uninvestable. We've tried to do it over the last 50 years. We've all gotten burned." Fast forward to today, right? The president basically announces three days ago that we're going to have a a state-owned oil company w with with what we're doing with Venezuela. And all the big oil executives were invited to the White House today except the Exxon CEO. >> Right? >> So you've got to wonder that person stood up, told the truth about their business or the way of the world. And I wonder are they happy they did that or today is their board saying you should have kept your fat mouth shut? you shouldn't have told the truth about an industry that you lead because now maybe we've left money on the table. That's the situation that we're in right now. And I think we haven't begun to to realize what the consequences of that will be. But we live in a universe of short- termism and we're, you know, we're high on our own supply. How can with with all of this money on the table, people can't resist. >> Yeah. and and and those CEOs probably agree, but they tell themselves, "Hey, my obligation is not to the truth. My obligation is not to my country. My obligation is not to right and wrong. My obligation is to shareholder value." That the the way we can rationalize doing what we know isn't right is >> No, but you nailed it. Those are the same CEOs that know it's not right that for the last year and a half have crawled to the White House hat in hand. They've either they they may have paid a lobby a a a newly formed lobbyist that's close to Howard Lutnik to get a meeting with Howard Lutnik and then get a meeting with the president and say, "Dear Mr. President, what can you do to give my company an exemption from these tariffs knowing that none of this is the way business is supposed to operate?" which is the reason the president loves the tariffs because it is one place where he can truly hold a wand and be a kingmaker. But they rationalize it by saying, "Listen, my obligation is to make sure my employees have jobs. My obligation is to make sure my customers are buying my products and my obligation is to my shareholders. And if I do those three things, then I'm fulfilling my fiduciary responsibility and I'm getting my job done. And then when I go home from my job, I have to take all my clothes off before I get out of the garage and take two showers because I know how gross this is. >> Yes. But the irony is, and this is like why it's it tends to be a bad bargain over time, is you think, hey, this is what I'm doing to get access to protect my business, right? This is the same reason people pay protection money to the rackets or to to mobsters is is you think it's buying you security, but what it's actually doing is compromising you and now that person owns you, right? So it you you think it's it's like this short-term hack to success, but actually it creates this kind of long-term dependence either specifically on the person you've compromised yourself to or because you just, you know, took a whack to the the security of the system itself. And and so it's this collective action problem where we've all taken for granted the rule of law, general honesty, you know, a a system that doesn't play favorites. I'm not sure that survives this. >> I 100% agree. But I think the people who we're talking about are either so scared and panic that they're going to lose their business or lose their position. They're like, "I've got to do it." Or they're so arrogant. They believe they're the only one in the history of Trump's universe that are not going to get screwed. Look at the murderers row that that take position, take position, and then he turns on them and they're like, "I can't believe this happened." And it's like, you thought you were going to be the one woman to change that guy who was a jerk. Uh-uh, honey, he's always going to be a jerk. >> Yes. Yes. Yes. It's fascinating that, you know, I was just reading this interview with Daniel Ellsberg for this book that I'm writing, and the interviewer points out like that hundreds, if not thousands of people knew at some level one of the lies about Vietnam, right? He's not the only one, for instance, that knows the Pentagon papers. He's not the only one that knows about what happens in the Gulf of Tonkan. He's he's not the only one that knows about the covert raids. Like lots of people knew different things, but he's basically the only one that says, "Hey, actually my duty is not to the president or even to like my employer. My duty is to the truth generally, right?" and and >> the only one >> basically the only one I mean McNamera there's this famous quote from McNamera who there's a there's actually a quote in the Pentagon papers where it says like it talks about this meeting where you know McNamera I is saying he thinks this thing will work and then the damning line in the Pentagon papers is McNamera would never be so optimistic about the war again except in public. So he knows privately that it's it's it's over, but he continues to make these public statements and and there's this McNamera thing where McNamera goes like this idea that that you have a higher duty is is rubbish. He says your duties to the president, not to the truth generally. So So my point is we make all these excuses, right? We make all these rationalizations and we expect somebody else ultimately to stand up or speak out or we hope other people are living honestly. Here's where I take issue with that, right? If you want to go truly live a private life, right, and and and and get no credit and not be on a public stage, then you're you're more than welcome to mind your business. >> Yeah. >> But if you chose to be in public office, if you chose to be a publicfacing CEO, it kills me that like what they say in private. I I mean I remember in Trump's first term when when anonymous sources used to call us all the time, right? This would be specifically around Ivanka Trump when when Trump was doing I don't know like when we were maybe at the height of Stormmy Daniels. I I don't remember what it was, but I would get all of these calls from sort of anonymous sources from sort of like Ivanka allies that would say like, I just want you to know that behind closed doors they she really thinks this or they really do that or there the support she gives to the LGBT community or the environment. And to that I just say no. If you are choosing a public-f facing role where you want public credit and public accolades, I don't think you get to have right private views that oppose what you're saying and doing publicly as it impacts policy, politics, businesses across this country. To that I say no, I I I don't think you deserve that grace. >> Yeah. It's like you're so powerful except you can't say what you think. Uh what kind of power is that? You know, if you don't have the job, the job has you is ultimately what it comes down to. >> Yes. I think listen, it's one of the reasons you could love Bernie Sanders or hate Bernie Sanders, but but Bernie Sanders has never deviated right from listen, it's probably one of the reasons if you actually look legislatively, and I don't say this in a mean way, Bernie Sanders hasn't gotten a lot done. And I'm not saying it in a bad way. And it's because he stays absolutely true to his values and his ethos and he what what he wants to do. Now an outsider could say, "Well, because he doesn't play ball or because he doesn't compromise, he hasn't gotten much done." But at the same time, he could say, "This is who I am. This is what I believe and this is what I represent." And that level of authenticity is what has made him continue to be a super superstar well into his 70s. >> Yeah. Yeah. It's like, look, in some moments of time, you need you need people who can play ball. You need people who are a little bit more pragmatic. Maybe people who can say one thing in public and do another in private. But in times of corruption or dishonesty or in moments like now, almost certainly we need you to play less ball and be more principled, right? Like we need we need more. >> There should be a baseline, right? And that baseline in the current right now in this moment in time has been completely blurred. like I get in life, in business or in politics, you should play ball, right? You shouldn't completely abandon your your your your values, but you should play ball because compromise is the answer, right? It's how we solve things in our private lives and our public lives. But but right now we're watching Congress, at least Republicans in Congress, completely just walk away from even even their their basic job functions because the president is saying, "If you don't side with me, you know, I have a $400 million war chest of campaign dollars that can go to one of you. So you boys and girls better behave." And it's becoming increasingly difficult for all of these Republicans to side with him because he's presiding over a war that makes no sense. that were boxed into an economy that's problematic for millions of Americans. Health care that millions of people are losing and even more are going to lose after the midterms. It's actually why Mike Johnson wants to wants to recess sooner than they're supposed to because they don't want to debate on the floor and have to talk about these policies because they're so wildly unpop. Just today, the president, I I'm I'm blown away, put a post on social media that basically said, "Anybody who doesn't want to have an AI center where they live just wants to live somewhere junky and be poor." And I'm paraphrasing it, but that was the the spirit of what he said. And I'm like, how is he going to help Republicans win? It's something like 71% of Americans are saying, "I don't want a data center in my backyard." In your state, Greg Abbott, right? like he's dealing with this more people are saying I don't want this. So how's he going to thread the needle trying to answer to constituents who have no political affiliations but they're saying I don't want this here and a president who is very very clearly sided with the the the the tech you know oligarchs one could say and largely unregulating an industry that's going to impact every element of our lives while you're having massive growing dissent among the American voters. Well, and that goes to the compromise we're talking about, which is you tell yourself, "Hey, I'm allying myself with this person. I'm not challenging this person because he's popular because it's good for my political prospects." But those tend to be a bad bargain in the long run, right? Because you're actually there's a reason we have an adversarial system, right? There's a reason that each branch is supposed to jealously guard its prerogatives. It's it's it's good for the politicians, too, right? like you're throwing it out of balance by not doing your job and and then ultimately it screws you up. >> But don't you think checks and balances are what make us better and smarter and more successful, right? When you actually have to to to to make your pitch, right? When you have to make your pitch to voters, when you have to make your spiti pitch to the rest of your caucus, when you have to convince people on the other side of the aisle, you learn to make a better argument. you learn to create better policy that serves more people. If you can just steamroll the universe and get what you want, that's when you really risk hurting more people. >> To go to to politics and power specifically, you would think that in the midst of the most difficult moment in American history, the Civil War, you'd think that the president would want a cabinet totally on board and behind him 100%. Right? Except no, that's the opposite. Lincoln picks a cabinet of rivals and and they have these knockdown dragout debates. They're plotting against each other, but but what he actually understands is that the cabinet is representative of the country, all the different threads of the body politic, right? And the different interests and so he wants their opinions in those meetings. he wants to have to convince them and figure out the compromises that they can all live with that that actually this this sort of lack of unity is what allows him to unify the country because it's a proxy for the larger problem that he's trying to solve. >> But Ryan, what you're leaving out is that Abraham Lincoln chose a really hard job. Yes. >> Okay. He chose to make it hard. Fast forward. You're the CEO of a publicly traded company, right? You know that you're not just answering to shareholders. You're answering to your board, your highly critical, difficult board that you need to win over and sell. And then you look to the left and you say, "Wait a minute. What did Elon Musk do? He padded his board. He has super voting shares of everything and he has absolute ultimate control and has a huge amount of influence over our government. >> Yeah. >> And and you're one of those other CEOs, obviously a much smaller one, and you're like, damn, I've made this too hard for myself. I don't want to get shot in the theater, Mrs. Lincoln. I want to go the Elon Musk route. >> But the but the funny thing is like what they're missing, right, is the hard is a feature, right? The the hard is a feature. And yes, Elon Musk is incredibly wealthy and has been incredibly successful. Also though, that system has been profoundly bad for him by any other measure, right? It's broken his brain. It's responsible I I I won't dance around this, for the deaths of potentially millions of people, right? Like the the richest man in the world stole medicine and money from the poorest people in the world. And the consequences for that will play out over the next several years, and they will be heinous and vile. and it hasn't been good for him. I would argue that Elon Musk would have been better served for, by the way, he has an he had an unlimited amount of money before. He has unlimited money now. It hasn't actually improved his life in any way. I think Elon Musk would be closer to accomplishing the things he wants to accomplish if he was served as a board is supposed to serve him and as if checks and regulation and the way the financial markets are are supposed to be there. I think that would all be better, you know, and like we we only have to look at history for an example. Like like I'm sure nobody felt super empowered to tell Napoleon that invading Russia was a bad idea. You know, Hitler got rid of the people that told him invading Russia would be a bad idea. Vladimir Putin got rid of the people. If if Ukraine is supposedly part of Russia, then invading Russia in winter is a bad idea, right? like like these checks and balances can be ownorous and obnoxious and unpleasant, but they save you from destroying yourself. They're not supposed to be fun dayto-day, and they may cost you something in the short term, but ultimately they're there to prevent catastrophic failure. >> As long as we have a free press, and despite efforts to repress it, we do, I do not believe the history books will lie. Earlier this year, I don't know, maybe we were five weeks into the war with Iran, I was at a conference in LA with without a doubt the biggest investors, at least the biggest US investors, but probably the biggest investors on the planet. And I got back on the plane just just almost despondent, right? They talked about our extraordinary military might, what we did in Venezuela, and then they talked about what we were about to do in Cuba. And they all basically leapfrogged right over [snorts] Iran like it hadn't happened. Like it was this quick blip. Oh, it just happened. I mean, that's over. You know, I just talked to Howard Lutnick. He said, "We're finished." I talked to Scott Besson. He said, "We've moved on. Trump's not interested in it anymore." And two days ago, yesterday, we marked six months in this war in Iran. We are now boxed in. We are spending, we know, hit 40 trillion in terms of our deficit. Okay? We're spending billions of dollars. We've lost 18 American lives. The straight of four muzzes closed. It's impacted gas prices, fertilizer prices, food prices. And I sat there leaving this conference with the smartest minds in finance with everybody being like, Iran, what Ron and I'm going, gosh, is this what German industrialists were? Is this how they talked when they were at cocktail parties and conferences a few decades ago? And I wonder is that what we are going to say? And I I do have faith in the history books just like I have faith in journalism that the president has absolutely put the fear of God in a lot of people and there has been a chilling effect. But Ryan, just look at the way this war is being accurately covered every day. The fact that we are seeing people at the Pentagon, people in the military talking to the media, that's not usually the leaky branch of government. Remember when Pete Hegsth kicked the Pentagon press corps right out? They basically had to sign a piece of paper that said, "The only thing we are going to report is the press release that you hand us every day and then we're going to walk to a microphone and read it." And when the press corps said, "We are not going to do that," they didn't stop fighting. They didn't stop telling the truth. And I think something that's really important is understanding that the truth is not biased. >> Yeah. >> Lots of people just don't want to hear the truth because often times the truth doesn't tell a doesn't tell a story that people want to hear. And I think that's a really important thing that we need to keep communicating, understanding, and holding ourselves back from getting in petty fights or insults or mocking people or or allowing people to say, "You're just biased." I think we have to press pause and say, "Hold on." Every time someone says it, say, "What does biased mean?" >> Right? >> Okay. Because you could say you're biased and that you want America to survive. You want the country, you want our kids to be better and stronger than we are. And the truth isn't biased. It's just something that a lot of people don't want to hear. >> Yeah. And and look uh speaking of Vietnam, like the reason the the press cor is is so adversarial to the government in war is we realize because they they did give the government such a a bit of latitude and they they assumed it was acting in good faith or worse that they assumed it was competent, right? And we we walked into this horrendous war that we that by the way we desperately wanted to get out of but couldn't, right? Which should sound familiar like like it it it's not just that we start things in error but some errors are very hard to extract yourself from. And so the reason that the press is supposed to be hostile and by the way the the people should be suspicious and somewhat cynical and and and there's supposed to be a prepoundonderance of evidence and then by the way military action has to have consent of Congress, the representatives of the people is to prevent us from making that error again. And we're we're in the middle of doing it. You could say we've already done it and it's going to be a generation uh or or so to to undo it. But yeah, like you think that you want people to tell you what you want to hear and you think you want them to back you up. But actually what they're going to do is save you from yourself if you say that their higher obligation is to the truth, to the country, you know, to peace, to principle, whatever it is. You you you you don't want them pledged to to you personally. You want them pledged to the principle. But Ryan, we more than just started this war in error. We started it dishonestly, and we've yet to explain to the American people or the men and women that are serving our country. Our administration has yet to honestly explain why we did this. Right? If you remember, right after we launched these attacks on Iran, the president in the beginning wasn't doing many sort of sitdown long- form interviews, but what he was doing was taking phone calls, right? I spoke to the president. Lots and lots and lots of people would call the president on his cell phone and he would talk. And that was his way to just sort of >> shoot information out of a cannon that wasn't true. And he was basically on message saying the same thing over and over. We had no choice. Two I remember it. Two weeks from now Iran was going to have a nuclear weapon. It was going to be complete and they were going to use it. Right. And when you would say, "Mr. president, you said that a year ago you wiped out their nuclear efforts and how could that possibly be? But he wasn't going to pause. He was just and and there was no evidence backing up that they had nuclear power, but he was just going to flood the zone. Flood the zone. Flood the zone. The problem is less and less people are believing it. And you have to go back to his original promises, right? When you brought up Elon Musk, Elon Musk potentially holding back money and holding back medicine that cost thousands and thousands of lives. The reason they put Doge in place, right, was because we needed to have checks and balance. We needed to clean things up. Well, it turns out the opposite has happened. And now we've entered a situation where we're spending billions and billions of dollars. And think about all of those Trump voters who who who when when we got rid of USA ID, right? I can remember even talking to my own mom and she was like, Stephanie, I know this is bad and I know but but you know what? There's kids in West Virginia that are suffering and I've got to care about the kids in West Virginia before I I care about the kids in West Africa. Well, how do you think those voters feel right now who say we didn't care about the kids in West Africa and now we're not caring about the kids in West Virginia where they can't where their families can't afford to put to put three meals a day and they can't afford to put gas in the car. So, so even the political argument that the president was making, there's not a continued through line. >> Well, it's also just stupid. I mean, we were buying corn from Iowa and giving it to people in, you know, this country or that country. So, it actually was taking care of both. But I I think that the the the Tekken >> now we have a farm aid bill because those we now have a farm aid bill on the table because of all those farmers who have not been able to sell their crops uh uh uh to USAD to other organizations. So we can send that food abroad. >> It's it's madness. But I do think, you know, you can see the the the problems of big powerful elected leaders or heads of state, how their information diet degrades even though they have access to the best intelligence. They're not getting the truth from the people around them. Like Biden's obviously an example of this, Trump's an example of this. But I I'd be curious because we started this talking about sort of tech people and Wall Street people. Do you find that that just the more powerful, successful, rich someone gets, the the more they live in a bubble? I I I think there's an argument that part of the radicalization of of tech specifically is rooted in them deciding that the media was hostile to them and deciding to kind of create their own media bubble. So, they all talk to each other on group chats. They all read the same blogs and and listen to the same weird podcasts and and they spend ironically way too much time on social media. Like you talk to them and you hear them say things and you're just like, are people around you afraid to say that you sound like a or that you sound like a a villain when you say that? like that. I I just found that there's something about the bubble of of those people as they become more and more powerful that that has warped who they are and what they stand. >> I would say two things. That's why they said we have to wipe out the media that exists and create our own because of all the things that they could c they could control. They could not control the power of the pen, right? and they couldn't control a person who made 130th of what they made, right? Who they consider, you know, it's funny like think back to COVID for example. >> You know, my my kids go to fancy private schools in New York City and we have seen an insane amount of of principles from public schools but headmasters from private schools retire, walk out of the job since COVID. Why? because titans of industry during COVID because I'm a guy who made a ton of money on Wall Street. I'm gonna tell you how you should run this school. I'm gonna tell you what your co approach should be because I made all this money I know best. And that same mindset has been the mindset to say, I'm now going to create and control a media sphere that I like. Now, that being said, are there bad journalists out there? Sure. Do people make mistakes? Sure. Are there people that are highly motiv? Absolutely. Nobody's perfect. But but tons of people, especially in the business universe, uh felt like they were so threatened by that power of the pen. >> So they had to do everything they could to wipe it out. But I would say among the people that I sort of admire the most >> are always the most well read, right? Like look at look at look at David Rubenstein from Carlilele. >> Yeah. I remember years ago David Rubenstein talking about a huge risk was people who are illiterate, not illiterate, people who chose not to read, who chose not to advance themselves. And when I think about people who are the most thoughtful or who are the most impressive, they're people who read the most. And I don't just mean read their own tweets. They I mean people who are saying, "I want to get better and smarter." >> Yeah. It's it's like there's something about these people. They went from reading these these big biographies and history and psychology and now they just read, you know, like the latest thing from the free press or these like same seven substacks. And it's not to say that there's anything wrong with that, but they're just missing the way that that as they have become more powerful and important, there's become a whole media industry around giving them the information that those people want, confirming that worldview. They all think they're contrarian independent thinkers and then they're reading like the same five sources and then and then quoting it back to each other and because of the halo effect of how powerful and important they are, a lot of other people who want stuff from them are saying like you're a genius. >> Correct. But yes, and they've become more powerful and more successful. But I would argue the people's approval who they seek the most, they're not only still not getting >> Yeah. >> they're infuriating. Like it's it's funny, you know, when I talk to people and, you know, they talk about Mum Donnie like he is this boogeyman who's coming for them and wants to destroy their universe and and they talk sort of about, you know, DSA. And I'm kind of like, guys, it's not Mdani [clears throat] who created this. It's basically the fact that you've taken such a big piece of the pie, right? That you're gorging yourselves on the pie that the rest of the universe is saying, you know what, power isn't necessarily or isn't only the power of money. And we're actually seeing this shift. And I think it's the biggest shift we've seen in our lifetime. Just this like uh-uh people saying no, it's power to the people and I don't want to see this be the case. And listen, you can look right now at political fundraising, right? There is more money in politics, right? Ju just in these midterms. It was just reported today. There's a billion dollars of dark money, right? And it could just extraordinary. But we're actually starting to see diminishing returns in that dark money as more and more people despite Citizens United, despite a recent decision by the Supreme Court to say, "Let's just put more corporate dollars into politics," more and more Americans are saying, "This doesn't work for me." And I find it interesting to watch people start to say, "No, I'm more energized than ever to vote against this structure." And so it's funny, it's like I don't think it's Democratic socialists that are coming for capitalism. I think it's many of those who sit on top of capitalist mountain. They're the ones who are destroying it and they don't necessarily realize it. >> Yeah. It's like that Simpsons meme where Superintendent Charmers is like, "Could I be wrong?" No. No. Oh, it's the children who are wrong, right? Like you just can't conceive that maybe you have you you used to create things that were incredibly popular with people >> and now everything you do and say is incredibly unpopular. What could have shifted? And it's like, no, no, no. I'm the same. Everyone else has changed. It's like, >> but Ryan, like I say this as somebody who deeply believes in free markets, who deeply supports, you know, good capitalism, all of it. And I'm like, "Guys, I I I'm into capitalism. What you're currently practicing, which is like the ultimate in crony capitalism, that's what's taking it like that's what's causing the unrest. Right. Right. Not somebody, not someone you've never heard of from an outer burrow who said, "By the way, defund the police." And I'm convinced that defund the police was started that even that slogan was started by the far right. And I'm like, "No, no, no, no, no. It's coming from inside the house, guys." >> Sure. No. And look, and we've seen moments like this before. You know, this is the real this is the progressive era coming out of the Gilded Age, and then this was the wave that FDR rides into office. Because >> Ryan, don't you think the guilded age we're experiencing right now, when people don't have empathy, when they don't see, when they don't understand how people live. Doris Karns Goodwin. I remember interviewing her soon after Trump's first term and I remember she had interviewed or she she had written about sort of every living president and her concern for Donald Trump is one thing she didn't see him exhibit was empathy. And she said everyone else maybe not when they were campaigning but after they won they traveled the country right they went to small towns they went to big cities and they truly understood the plight of the American people. And that's when they sort of said, "How am I going to serve this country?" And she said, "I don't see that in him." >> Yes. >> Look at how we're living right now. And I said this earlier, wealthy Americans are wealthier than we have ever seen. They currently don't go to the same schools as anybody else. They don't go to the same airports. They don't go to the same hospitals. I recently had someone help me uh with someone sick in my family with a hospital. And I wrote them a letter after and I said, "Hey, thank you for getting me help with that doctor. Really helped my help us so much." And they wrote back, "That's that's great to know. I've never been there." And I said, "You sit on the board of this hospital." And they said, "Oh, I we use private concier medicine." And I remember just like just saying, "Holy cow, right? You've got highways that if you don't like the lane you're in on this highway, well, you can pay an extra toll. You can pay an extra toll that you can speed ahead." So now we're in a situation where this sliver of people aren't even experiencing what the majority of the Americans are and in fact they have disdain for it. And this is where I see this real crack in the system. >> Yeah. You cease to live in reality. It's like uh TSA was a a check and balance. You didn't understand it but it's like flying at the Yeah. Flying at the airport like a regular person was part of the the thing that kept you normal. having to do some of the things that other people do kept us all on the same planet. And and so yeah, you think by by getting everything you want that you are, you know, going to be better served, but in fact, you're losing some some really important things than you need. And so if you can have power and success and influence and not lose your mind, it's a really that's a really rare thing to do. And it it I think it's worth pointing out that we don't hate all the same people the same way. Like my son just had to go to the hospital a couple of months ago and and so we spent three nights in in Dell Children's Hospital which was a a a not fun experience. But I did send Michael Dell a text after I'm like this was one of the most incredible thing like you should be incredibly proud of what you've done. And I think it's worth pointing out that there are there are some billionaires who are using their power and influence to do things that people don't hate. But you have to stay rooted in reality. And to go to your point about empathy to know what people want and need. >> I mean, Ryan, look at New York City, right? Like New York is experiencing this like the wealthiest New Yorkers would say like they're coming for us or there this big divide here. And I would argue one of the reasons New York is the best I think one of the best cities in the world is because of arts and culture and our arts and culture thrive because of philanthropy. And so I don't believe the answer is wealthy bad, wealthy good. The answer is how do we understand one another? How do we collectively say right the Trump wants to say the government should run like a business and I understand when people originally have that sentiment but if you look back through the arc of history right when when the DAO was first created none of those companies still exist right our country has existed for 250 years we should not operate like a business right what our government should do is create a framework to ensure that people are physically safe, socially free and have the framework that they can be financially secure. That is different from running a business. Now, should we operate uh in an efficient way? Should there be checks and balances? Absolutely. And we have those things, but the behemoth of a federal government is not going to move fast and break things. Sorry, Mark Zuckerberg. That's going to cost lives. >> Yeah. No, no, you're totally right. It's like look the the actually the purpose of government is to solve collective action problems, right? And and you could argue that the the point of business is to exploit collective action problems, right? So there's a there it's not that there are mortal enemies of each other, but the government gets tasked with the difficult, unpleasant, difficult to resolve, you know, sort of perennial problems of human society. So by nature, it's going to be unwieldy and inefficient. It's going to be a little lowercase c conservative. It's going to be bureaucratic. These are all features and not bugs of >> the the the private business, right? FedEx and UPS could say, "I don't want to go to rural America. I'm not going to get a return on my investment. You know, every house is four [snorts] miles away and they don't even get packages." FedEx and UPS can say, "I'm not going to serve that community," >> right? >> But the US Postal Service can't, right? Those are two different things, right? So, so, so, so a public school has to say if your child is 5 years old and vaccinated and you live in this school district, our doors are open and regardless of your kid's needs, we will educate that child. Right? That is going to mean it is going to be difficult, expensive, less efficient, slower, possibly less performing than a streamline, supercharged, top-notch private school that can say, "Oh, we're going to knock out the whole bottom third because they don't fit our profile." So, so, so I'm just So, those are two different things that can coexist in the world, but they shouldn't necess but they shouldn't be the same. They serve a different purpose. Well, I I will say and then I'm I want to let you go because I want to be respectful of your time. But speaking of money, to go back to where we started, you gave me some wonderful advice about three years ago. My my I was looking at I was Yes. I was looking at a school for my kids. They have some some some learning layers. This was one specifically designed for them >> and and I was telling you, you know, it was quite expensive and and you said, "Yeah, but that's exactly what money is for. If not for that, what is it for?" And that made it a very easy decision. Actually, you said, "Do you want to sit in traffic, you know, uh, during the morning and the evening and hate it, or do you want your kid to sit in a school all day that they hate?" And and both those things were incredibly important and and eye opening to me. And it ultimately brings us, I think, back to this idea of like money is not bad. It's just what do you use it for? >> Money is a tool. >> Yes. And you know, it can be a hammer that you beat yourself with or it can be one that you use. And I know that I worked really hard in my life and I continue to and I'm super blessed to have worked in two industries that do pay really well. And I have had the ability to say, "What are the best schools that'll serve my kids the most?" Because again, it doesn't buy you happiness, but I would argue it buys you that freedom to say, "Fine, I'll sit in two hours of traffic." Because the thought of that kid hating school for eight hours a day is when we lose those kids. And I'm so glad you were able to get the best education for your kid. And my hope and a lot of work that I do is try to figure out how do we get this for more kids in this country because everybody deserves it. >> Yeah. And I I was thinking about it the other day. It's sort of what is your definition of rich? Like obviously being able to afford the tuition is is a is a nice, you know, sort of perk, but I also go like, you know, rich is having the freedom to pick him up from school when I want or to, you know, to to be able to do drop off when I want or when my son was was uh was sick, like it was one not having to worry about, you know, do I have health insurance or not? But also to be like, >> hey, you're not going to hear from me for the next three days while I go deal with this, right? Like like >> Ryan, rich is your kids not coming home from school devastated. >> Yeah. >> Or losing all their confidence >> and their selfworth. Rich is to be able to leave work at 5:00 so you can sit across from your kid at dinner and understand what they're going through. Because I would argue true wealth is watching your kids thrive. and having the means to help them when they need it is for me worth everything. >> H that's the perfect place to stop. Thank you so much. This was amazing. Can't wait to see you again. >> Thank you for having me.