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223: Sabbaticals, Big Stay and Stakeholder Capitalism · Customer Service Revolution | Customer Experience & Employee Experience for Business Leaders

• 2:02
  Thank you to fin.ai for sponsoring the podcast and welcome listeners back to the customer service revolution podcast.
• 2:10
  And John, welcome back from your summer sabbatical.
• 2:13
  How was it?
• 2:14
  was awesome.
• 2:15
  John Free August.
• 2:20
  I bet, I bet.
• 2:22
  And now you have to deal with all my ideas that I had.
• 2:26
  I think, I know this is hard, but I think everyone should take a sabbatical.
• 2:31
  I don't know if you do.
• 2:34
  I was inspired, I think I've been doing it for 15, probably 20 years and it's grown.
• 2:39
  It was two weeks that became a month.
• 2:41
  It works for me because
• 2:44
  August, well, a August was back to school.
• 2:47
  So you want to get vacations in and the kids back to school.
• 2:51
  But also it's my slowest time from a keynote.
• 2:56
  Many people, there's very few conferences in August for that reason, back to school and all that.
• 3:03
  So it wasn't like I was giving up a lot of paid opportunities.
• 3:07
  But I think I was inspired by it.
• 3:09
  20 years ago when I saw that Bill Gates would go away for a week and read, just read.
• 3:16
  And so the sabbatical, people think, you I'm off.
• 3:20
  I stopped communicating with the team and external customers, but I work and it's just, you know, it's just a professional development where I read more, consume more.
• 3:32
  listen more, work out more, just kind of get a reset.
• 3:36
  But it's just a way to work on the things that evolves the business that day to day doesn't let you because of the minutiae and client calls and fires and, you know, got to
• 3:47
  get a podcast out, got to get a blog out, got to get a presentation ready and, you know, all these wish lists of evolving.
• 3:57
  the company and the creativity.
• 4:00
  it's really just that.
• 4:01
  And when you remove all that, the daily stuff, man, it's just, great, you know, so, you know, getting two workouts a day, and, then that carries over for a little while until,
• 4:13
  know, you know, like right now I'm still working out twice a day, which is really nice, but I know that's not gonna last forever.
• 4:19
  My goal is to gain 10 to 15 pounds in the next month.
• 4:23
  I know, can you believe it?
• 4:26
  Well, so I lost.
• 4:29
  Well.
• 4:30
  keeping body fat.
• 4:31
  Obviously I want all to be muscle.
• 4:33
  The reason is because I'm getting my second shoulder surgery in a month and I'm not going to be able to work out for five months and I shrink.
• 4:46
  Wait, you're not gonna be able to work out or not work out your shoulder.
• 4:49
  Lift!
• 4:50
  That's all I do.
• 4:51
  I just lift.
• 4:52
  but you don't lift with anything other than your shoulder?
• 4:55
  Well, I can't have one arm bigger than the other.
• 4:58
  I can't have one shoulder bigger than the other.
• 5:01
  I could do legs.
• 5:04
  I could do that.
• 5:04
  I could do that.
• 5:07
  I can't work on my chest.
• 5:09
  I can't work on my shoulders.
• 5:11
  I can't work on my back.
• 5:12
  I can't work on triceps and biceps because one shoulder arm will be tied up for five months.
• 5:20
  So I shrink.
• 5:22
  And that drives me crazy with that atrophy.
• 5:25
  I'm trying to bulk up so I shrink less.
• 5:28
  Is that the recommended way to do it?
• 5:31
  I mean, I don't know if there is any, recommend just vein and, you know.
• 5:35
  You didn't study that while you were off?
• 5:37
  No, no, no, So, but it was great.
• 5:40
  It was really great.
• 5:41
  The comeback fired up.
• 5:43
  we expect?
• 5:44
  A lot of interesting stuff that'll be coming up on future podcasts and blogs and presentations.
• 5:53
  Yeah.
• 5:54
  So with all your training, your two-a-days, how'd your team do?
• 5:58
  We have we made it to the championship and the championship is this coming weekend.
• 6:03
  Best of three.
• 6:05
  Yeah.
• 6:06
  Where is it at?
• 6:09
  In Solon.
• 6:11
  Ooh, the big championship.
• 6:13
  we've split with.
• 6:15
  it'll be interesting.
• 6:18
  I got a cortisone shot so I can play and then surgery.
• 6:23
  Good luck with that.
• 6:26
  So I'm assuming you weren't at any Coldplay concerts while you were off
• 6:31
  would love that is on my list is to I hear they're great.
• 6:35
  Yeah, as long as you don't get caught doing something you're not supposed to be doing, it's great.
• 6:41
  So what is this?
• 6:41
  Why is this new?
• 6:43
  mean, nothing in technology is new, but it's the gotcha busted, you know, thing that, you know, it happened in Coldplay, which is old news.
• 6:55
  Then the US Open CEO of a Poland company from Poland.
• 7:00
  That was horrible.
• 7:01
  Like that was, that just showed me his true character of
• 7:07
  his rebuttal on it?
• 7:09
  No, now there was a fake one, I believe.
• 7:12
  That he initially came out with that supposedly he came out with saying, come on, I didn't do terrorism.
• 7:19
  And I don't believe that was his because when I saw his, it was an apology.
• 7:23
  And he also said.
• 7:24
  But for context, let's explain what we're talking about in case someone hasn't seen it.
• 7:29
  Sure, so at the US Open, a player was giving a hat to someone in the stands and someone else grabbed it.
• 7:39
  The kid.
• 7:40
  and the player looked away as soon as he gave it to him, because I'm sure the player would have done something, and the player gives it to him and goes on to the next person, and
• 7:49
  the guy standing next to the kid rips it out of his hand and puts it in his bag.
• 7:56
  And the kid was like, what are you doing?
• 7:58
  It was horrible.
• 8:00
  So in the rebuttal I read, the CEO who grabbed the hat said that the player had signed something for his son earlier.
• 8:12
  And he assumed, because of conversation, that the player was giving the hat to him to give to his son.
• 8:22
  So he took the hat to give to his son.
• 8:24
  He assumed that the player remembered him and was giving him the hat.
• 8:29
  So that was his.
• 8:31
  Yeah, the optics don't look good.
• 8:33
  I mean, it was clearly handed to the kid and the CEO from Poland ripped it out of the kid's hand with no apology or discussion and.
• 8:45
  um
• 8:46
  a hat.
• 8:47
  People are so crazy about these things.
• 8:50
  How about the- how about the Phillies game?
• 8:52
  That's crazy.
• 8:54
  So if you haven't seen that, I'm sure everyone has seen all these, because I see them like 10 times a day.
• 9:01
  A home run ball was hit and this woman went to pick it up, but some dad ran over and grabbed it.
• 9:08
  And she went over and he gave it to his kid and she demanded that he give it to her.
• 9:13
  It was her ball under whatever rule she's going by.
• 9:17
  And the dad handled it pretty good.
• 9:19
  He took it away from his kid, gave it to her.
• 9:22
  And she's getting, you know, just rid of, she's every meme in the world.
• 9:27
  But more than, it's just, what's your thought on this exposure of people's true character?
• 9:38
  Is it bad?
• 9:39
  To me it seems good until I'm the one on it, but like.
• 9:42
  uh
• 9:44
  it, but now we're all bullying this person.
• 9:48
  don't like that afterwards.
• 9:51
  Maybe not, but to me the CEO deserved it and she deserves it.
• 9:56
  No one probably deserves it to the extent that it's going.
• 9:59
  No, even the father whose son had the ball taken away, given to the woman, he was like enough already.
• 10:10
  He doesn't want the ball back.
• 10:14
  He doesn't want to be a part of this anymore.
• 10:18
  Yeah, I he handled it very well.
• 10:20
  And I thought the Phillies handled it well.
• 10:22
  Yeah, yeah.
• 10:24
  And the Marlins did something where the boy ended up getting so much more that he wouldn't have gotten.
• 10:29
  But I got to believe this is here to stay.
• 10:31
  I don't understand why it hasn't happened prior.
• 10:34
  Like, no, there's nothing new about, you know, the world of technology and social media.
• 10:39
  But, you know, I don't know.
• 10:42
  You know, this goes back to customer service and how we treat each other.
• 10:46
  Yeah, and it's, I think it says a lot about society, but I think a lot of things can also get taken out of context and we have to be careful.
• 10:55
  And, you know, bullying on the other end is, is just as bad.
• 10:59
  Yeah, I don't know if they've found out who she was.
• 11:03
  I hope they didn't, you know, because.
• 11:05
  if I were her I'd be coloring my hair.
• 11:07
  my god.
• 11:08
  Yeah, yeah, I don't know.
• 11:10
  Yeah, so it's interesting.
• 11:13
  It's interesting.
• 11:14
  We all are, you know, everyone's carrying a camcorder with them these days.
• 11:21
  I guess that's what is that what we have to do.
• 11:23
  That's what it's come to.
• 11:24
  Yeah, mean, but you know, even go back to United dragging the doctor off the flight seven, eight years ago, before we had cameras on our phone, there would have been a he said, she
• 11:39
  said thing.
• 11:40
  And the CEO of United came out and said immediately before footage was shown that the passenger was unruly.
• 11:50
  and for the safety and then the video footage just came out from everyone's cell phones and the CEO had to backtrack and say, we were wrong.
• 11:59
  But like, that's a great thing because, you know, if that would have happened five years or 10 years earlier, it would have been, you know.
• 12:10
  Yeah.
• 12:12
  Yeah.
• 12:14
  And I don't think people are worse today.
• 12:16
  I just think you get busted more, more easily.
• 12:20
  if at all.
• 12:21
  So, I don't know, I kind of like it.
• 12:24
  I know there's drawbacks to it, but I just think we have to be better human beings.
• 12:30
  Yeah, every day, every day, it's something you got to think about, focus on, be a better human being.
• 12:36
  Don't leave your house.
• 12:39
  Oh, well, I have something else to talk about today.
• 12:44
  So in the past, we spent a lot of time on the great resignation.
• 12:49
  And now there's new research that's come out.
• 12:54
  remembering the great resignation back in 2021, a lot of people jumped ship and for many, it paid off.
• 13:01
  Pew research reported that about 60 % of folks who switched jobs saw their pay go up.
• 13:07
  compared to only 47 % who stayed put.
• 13:12
  So in other words, if you left your job back then, chances were you made more money, while the people who stayed often lost ground once you factored in cost of living.
• 13:21
  So no wonder turnover was so high.
• 13:23
  But here's the twist, that trend has flipped.
• 13:27
  Fortune recently reported on what they're calling the big stay.
• 13:31
  Right now, sticking with your current role is actually leading to better wage growth.
• 13:36
  than hopping to a new company.
• 13:37
  And while some white collar industries are still offering big raises, landing those new jobs has gotten a lot harder.
• 13:46
  So do you see leaders actually rewarding loyalty now?
• 13:51
  Yeah, no.
• 13:51
  I think the pendulum swift shifted from an employee market where everyone was short staffed and quitting and all those things coming out of the pandemic.
• 14:03
  Restaurants in Cleveland couldn't get...
• 14:07
  dishwashers, people, not the machines.
• 14:11
  And they were paying $50 an hour.
• 14:15
  And so that's all part of it.
• 14:18
  But I think it's shifted from an employee market to an employer market where the growth isn't there economically, the turnover isn't there.
• 14:28
  so it's not that...
• 14:30
  that leaders are rewarding their employees.
• 14:33
  It's the opposite that they're the incentives to quit and get an unbelievable offer.
• 14:40
  Aren't there?
• 14:41
  So, yeah, I don't I don't think this one says.
• 14:44
  thanks to a softer economy and AI eliminating jobs, this has resulted in less recruiting of existing talent.
• 14:51
  Many unemployed white collar workers are struggling to find opportunities.
• 14:55
  As US businesses are hiring at one of the slowest rates since 2014, excluding the pandemic downturn.
• 15:04
  So this trend that they're calling the big stay is seeing a lot of white collar workers hanging on to their current jobs, even if they're not totally happy.
• 15:14
  And why?
• 15:14
  Because in today's market, staying put feels safer to them than rolling the dice on a job hunt or risking unemployment.
• 15:22
  And financially, it seems to be working out, right?
• 15:26
  I don't know if it is.
• 15:27
  It's just that you have less opportunity.
• 15:29
  So if you get a cost of living raise or whatever that looks like, it's more than someone else is offering you.
• 15:37
  So by comparison, you just have a lack of opportunities compared to.
• 15:43
  Well, companies are running leaner, trying harder to hold onto people they already have.
• 15:47
  But on the flip side, employees are being more cautious about jumping ship.
• 15:52
  Glass door data shows, I have this, more and more people who do switch jobs are ending up with smaller paychecks, especially in tech.
• 16:02
  So for now, it looks like sticking around is the smarter move.
• 16:06
  But if more employees are staying put and companies are saving on turnover costs,
• 16:10
  why aren't workers seeing even bigger gains?
• 16:13
  Is it a corporate profit thing or what some are calling greedflation?
• 16:18
  Is that part of the story?
• 16:20
  And can you describe greedflation?
• 16:21
  yeah, great inflation refers to how employee compensation is falling further and further behind relative to senior level executive pay.
• 16:33
  The last time the federal minimum wage was increased was in 2009, meaning that it has declined by 26%.
• 16:44
  This is from 2009 to 2023.
• 16:50
  so haven't gotten a minimum wage has not moved.
• 16:54
  The Economic Policy Institute, EPI estimates that CEO compensation has grown at 1,460 % since 1978, while typical worker compensation has risen just 18%.
• 17:12
  So CEO compensation has rose 1,500%.
• 17:18
  since 1978 and the typical worker composition has gone up just 18%.
• 17:24
  In 2021, CEOs of the top 350 firms in the US made $27.8 million on average, 400 times more than the typical worker.
• 17:37
  Yeah, mean, yeah, CEOs.
• 17:39
  I don't think they need to get $123 million a year.
• 17:45
  That just seems absurd to me.
• 17:48
  I know they do a lot for the company and shareholders, but not at the cost of so many people not being able to make a livable wage.
• 17:55
  So who's to blame?
• 17:56
  Well, a lot of people blame Milton Friedman.
• 17:58
  was an American economist and famous for the theory.
• 18:03
  Was he the Philly Karen back in the day?
• 18:05
  Yeah, yeah.
• 18:07
  He he is a famous for his he introduced in the 70s an essay for the New York Times titled A Friedman Doctrine, in which he stated there's only one and only one social
• 18:18
  responsibility of every business to use its resources and engage its activities designed to increase its profits to maximize shareholders wealth.
• 18:30
  He argued.
• 18:32
  that a company has no social responsibility to the public or society.
• 18:37
  Its only responsibility is to shareholders.
• 18:40
  For his theory, which became extremely influential in the corporate world over the following decades, Friedman was awarded a Nobel Prize.
• 18:50
  You know, but we could argue that Friedman's theory ignited corporate greed and unethical behavior, the effects of which are still
• 18:58
  we're still feeling over 50 years, 60 years later.
• 19:01
  People like Jack Welsh, former CEO of General Electric became the poster boy for corporate capitalism.
• 19:07
  He was obsessed with doing anything to increase GE stock prices and value, such as laying off massive numbers of workers, which became known as corporate restructuring.
• 19:19
  The pressure was on leaders to either hit their number or hit the road.
• 19:24
  Something else if you write,
• 19:26
  So I, back in the day that when this was happening, I read Jack Welch's books and I was like, Oh my God, like he's, you know, he's, you know, you got to do it.
• 19:38
  And stuff he did was he would force his leaders to, they had every, I don't know if it was every year, every quarter, but it was a regular basis.
• 19:53
  They had to turn in a report on their employees.
• 19:56
  everyone there and grade them and the bottom 10 % had to be let go.
• 20:02
  And so maybe initially it was relatively easy, but then it became harder and harder.
• 20:10
  The book said, so leaders were putting people on the list that had either died or retired trying to get around, laying up, but what a, what a horrible sentiment that you got to get
• 20:25
  rid of the other top, the bottom 10%.
• 20:29
  The truth is that despite today's
• 20:31
  profusion of customer-centric rhetoric most companies and its leaders still believe and more importantly, their actions translate that to the primary purpose of business is
• 20:43
  profit.
• 20:44
  so the great shareholder slash stakeholder debate.
• 20:50
  Stakeholder theory is a more recent theory of businesses that argue against
• 20:55
  the separation of economics and ethics.
• 20:58
  It states that short-term profits gained by prioritizing shareholders should not be the primary objectives of a business.
• 21:08
  Here, stakeholders include customers, employees, suppliers, local communities, and more.
• 21:14
  Under the theory, prioritizing the needs and interests of over shareholders is more likely to lead to long-term success.
• 21:23
  both for business and for the communities that it is a part of.
• 21:27
  The stakeholder mindset in turn likely to create long-term value for both stakeholders and shareholders.
• 21:34
  So in contrast to Friedman's shareholder theory,
• 21:38
  Dr.
• 21:38
  Edward Freeman, not to be confused with Milton Friedman, Dr.
• 21:45
  Edward Freeman, professor at Darden School of Business, University of Virginia, and longtime proponent of the stakeholder theory suggests that accompany stakeholders are
• 21:56
  those groups without who support the organization would cease to exist.
• 22:02
  This view paints the corporate environment as an ecosystem of related interdependent groups, all of whom need to be considered and satisfied to keep the company healthy and
• 22:15
  successful in the long term.
• 22:18
  Thoughts?
• 22:18
  Hmm.
• 22:19
  Well, where do you think that stands today?
• 22:23
  I don't know if we have enough examples of companies that apply this stakeholder theory philosophy.
• 22:30
  I mean, I'm sure we do.
• 22:32
  I just feel like it's still the job of the executive team to maximize profits and shareholder wealth.
• 22:43
  mean, just, it just feels the same.
• 22:45
  Everything is about the stock.
• 22:47
  price and if you don't produce, you're gone.
• 22:51
  And we have to be profitable, know, 100 % it's oxygen.
• 22:57
  Agreed, agreed.
• 22:58
  have to be profitable.
• 22:59
  But at what percentage?
• 23:01
  I mean, if companies are raking in record profits while workers and consumers are feeling the pinch.
• 23:07
  Who were they really looking out for?
• 23:10
  does a CEO have to get paid seventy five million dollars?
• 23:15
  Like, isn't there a limit to, you know, that?
• 23:19
  I know they want to reward them.
• 23:20
  Starbucks recruited the it's a one year anniversary of Brian Nicol, former CEO of Chipotle.
• 23:28
  But I believe he got one hundred and twenty three million dollars.
• 23:31
  to come run Starbucks.
• 23:33
  That's crazy.
• 23:35
  Like that is crazy.
• 23:37
  I guess it goes back to it's like playing, like well paying We all could say, why do athletes have to make 30 million a year while police and teachers struggle?
• 23:51
  But it goes back to, if I don't pay them, the other teams are going to pay them.
• 23:55
  If I don't recruit this CEO, someone's going to pay him that and I won't get him.
• 24:01
  How has it gotten so out of line though?
• 24:04
  I mean, it's become relative for them, right?
• 24:07
  When you talk in those kinds of numbers, it's that 1%.
• 24:12
  Yeah, I don't know.
• 24:13
  Is it a good thing to be?
• 24:15
  stop it now?
• 24:17
  Is it a good thing to be a billionaire?
• 24:19
  Like.
• 24:20
  Is it necessary?
• 25:42
  Is it necessary?
• 25:43
  And then it goes into, you know, they should be taxed higher and all those things, but.
• 25:49
  don't know.
• 25:50
  So they did come up with stakeholder capitalism metrics that major accounting firms are expected to use to drive greater transparency and accountability from companies on issues
• 26:01
  like climate, diversity, governance.
• 26:07
  Will those things make a difference and can that eventually lead to?
• 26:13
  only if there's penalties and ramifications, right?
• 26:17
  But if I'm a board member and you're
• 26:23
  you, the CEO, is greatly increasing my portfolio.
• 26:30
  I don't care if you give back to the community or all those things.
• 26:35
  I don't know how.
• 26:36
  If the metric doesn't affect the stock price, I don't know how it ever gets fixed.
• 26:42
  And shouldn't there be a trickle down?
• 26:43
  Don't people want to work for CEOs that care and that care about stakeholders, not just shareholders?
• 26:55
  You would think, you would think that's why, you I always loved Howard Schultz because he made it.
• 27:00
  I'm sure he wasn't perfect, but he made everyone a partner.
• 27:04
  I mean, that's what they call their employees partners and you get stock.
• 27:07
  And I know they have, they had a lot of problems and unions and all that, but he just, he seemed to care.
• 27:13
  He seemed to really care, but, I don't know if there's enough people out there.
• 27:17
  So who are the billionaires that care that...
• 27:22
  I don't know.
• 27:23
  But in January 2020, the World Economic Forum came out with a manifesto urging companies to move to stakeholder capitalism.
• 27:32
  Around the same time, the Business Roundtable, BRT, published a proclamation on the purpose of a corporation.
• 27:41
  We share a fundamental commitment to all of our stakeholders.
• 27:46
  It was signed by 181 CEOs whose companies
• 27:49
  represented over one-third of the total market capitalization in the U.S.
• 27:53
  equity markets.
• 27:55
  As a result, Fortune described it as the ending shareholder primacy and the Financial Times called it abandoning the shareholder first mantra.
• 28:09
  Sounds like good news, but I think you found out that
• 28:13
  Yeah, well, not surprisingly, in 2021, Harvard researchers found that the commitment to stakeholders that had been made two years earlier had not been followed by meaningful
• 28:24
  action.
• 28:25
  So thus had been mostly for show.
• 28:27
  Similar conclusions were drawn by researchers at Yale and Columbia.
• 28:31
  The fact is, as you had mentioned, delivering real value to workers in the environment costs money, which reduces shareholder dividends and executive pay.
• 28:41
  the real priorities of the Business Roundtable members.
• 28:44
  So in fact, the compensation of CEOs who signed the stakeholder capitalism commitment has continued to reflect their success in delivering share.
• 28:55
  Did ever see the John Stewart interview with, I don't know if it was a politician or a corporate person.
• 29:04
  I think it was a politician.
• 29:06
  But he was talking about Walmart and how much money Walmart makes and their profitability.
• 29:13
  Yet a significant percentage of their full-time employees need government assistance.
• 29:23
  Did you ever see that?
• 29:24
  Mm-mm.
• 29:26
  It was powerful.
• 29:27
  It's really it.
• 29:29
  think one that does something interesting like take out life insurance policies on their employees too.
• 29:34
  I don't know.
• 29:35
  Look that up.
• 29:35
  yeah.
• 29:36
  So greed, flation, obsession with being a billionaire, all those things.
• 29:42
  So I have a video audio I want to play.
• 29:48
  My favorite podcaster, Scott Galloway.
• 29:51
  And so I love love the way he thinks.
• 29:54
  And I've never heard of someone talking like this.
• 29:59
  And now I want to do what he talks about of.
• 30:04
  He had an opportunity, years ago, he was on pace to become a billionaire.
• 30:09
  And if he kept on making moves and deals and he started nine businesses and sold some of them and did very well.
• 30:16
  And then he was just like, why, why be a billionaire?
• 30:19
  So let's listen to him.
• 30:23
  Oh,
• 30:22
  be rich in America is to be loved.
• 30:24
  Full stop.
• 30:25
  It's a violent, rapacious place.
• 30:26
  If you don't have money, it's a loving, generous place if you do have money.
• 30:30
  Once you hit your number, there's no reason to be a hoarder, because this is what makes you happy.
• 30:34
  Spend it.
• 30:34
  I spend so much fucking money and it's amazing.
• 30:38
  And then you know what I do?
• 30:39
  I give it away.
• 30:40
  And so what I would say to anyone else who has a lot of money, why do you need to be a billionaire?
• 30:46
  It's not going to get you anything.
• 30:48
  Here's what you do.
• 30:49
  You do amazing things with friends and family.
• 30:52
  You take care of your parents.
• 30:53
  You fly your friends to Aspen to hang out with you.
• 30:56
  And then anything above that, you give it away.
• 30:59
  And there's so many amazing causes and people and overpay the people who work with you.
• 31:04
  Throw money around like you're a fucking gangster in the 50s diagnosed with ass cancer.
• 31:08
  Just live it up.
• 31:11
  And you know what?
• 31:11
  You're gonna love life.
• 31:13
  Don't do it because you're noble.
• 31:14
  Don't do it because you're praying to some God or whatever it is.
• 31:16
  I can tell you firsthand,
• 31:18
  It feels amazing.
• 32:27
  uh
• 31:21
  What were your thoughts or listening to it?
• 31:23
  I like that.
• 31:24
  I like that attitude.
• 31:25
  What did he say his number was?
• 31:27
  100 million?
• 31:28
  Did he have a number?
• 31:29
  I've seen that video or him talk about as podcast dozens of times.
• 31:35
  So like I forget what I just but I know it's a hundred million and he seems, you know, he acts like, you know, he easily could go over it.
• 31:46
  So I love that he pays his employees like rock stars.
• 31:51
  He's generous and gives the charity like.
• 31:54
  Like, why can't more people think like it?
• 31:55
  Like, so that's gotten me like, you know, to try to get to my number that is going to allow me to be comfortable and then live like that.
• 32:07
  Like, why do we have to?
• 32:09
  And I don't know if you've seen these studies.
• 32:11
  They say for happiness, they say there is correlation between money and happiness.
• 32:20
  And so I want to say
• 32:22
  Yeah, millionaires, the study says are happier than non-millionaires.
• 32:28
  But they say after that, there's no correlation that multi-multi-millionaires or billionaires are not happier.
• 32:38
  Like how many yachts can you ski behind?
• 32:41
  You know, how many vacation homes can you have?
• 32:46
  And I love money and I love what it does, but
• 32:50
  I think there needs to be a limit.
• 32:52
  Well, and I think it's probably easier, well, easier said than done.
• 32:56
  And that number needs to be figured out earlier rather than later.
• 33:03
  Because the more you have, the more comfortable you get with what you have and what you're surrounded with.
• 33:10
  where if you asked, if you asked yourself,
• 33:14
  20 years ago, what that number would be, it would be different than what it is today.
• 33:20
  But would it be necessary?
• 33:21
  Know what I mean?
• 33:22
  Yeah.
• 33:23
  Yeah, no-
• 33:23
  you, I mean, if you're somebody that has $300 million.
• 33:27
  What's your number?
• 33:29
  You're not going to say, my number's 300.
• 33:31
  Well, my number 500 million, and then I'll stop.
• 33:35
  Yeah, it becomes intoxicating because you're closing in on the billion.
• 33:40
  And if I just make a couple more deals or execute something for the next five or
• 33:48
  no one's stopping you from making a billion.
• 33:50
  It's just stopping you from keeping it.
• 33:54
  Right?
• 33:55
  Isn't that the goal is it's not necessary to keep that much.
• 34:00
  I'm not against it.
• 34:02
  What other opportunities can you create for other people with that?
• 34:06
  do great for the economy and jobs and all that.
• 34:10
  It's just hoarding all that I think is dangerous.
• 34:14
  But you're going to get the argument, is it their jobs to?
• 34:17
  help the people who aren't as ambitious.
• 34:19
  I don't think it's that.
• 34:20
  I think it's people who aren't as fortunate.
• 34:22
  You was it Martin Luther King?
• 34:25
  You can't you can't expect a man to pick himself up by his bootstraps when he doesn't have any boots.
• 34:31
  Well, it's why I started believe in dreams.
• 34:34
  The nonprofit is because the number one indicator of a child's.
• 34:38
  Future success is the zip code he or she's born into.
• 34:43
  That's messed up.
• 34:45
  Right, they have no control over that.
• 34:47
  None of us do.
• 34:48
  Scott Galloway says the smartest thing he ever done was being a born a white male in the 60s.
• 34:55
  Right.
• 34:55
  I mean, that's so true.
• 34:56
  Of which he obviously had no control over.
• 34:59
  So, yeah, I love that.
• 35:01
  I like that.
• 35:01
  It's inspired me.
• 35:03
  I want to.
• 35:05
  I want to, you know.
• 35:07
  Hit my number and then.
• 35:09
  be extremely generous and I don't want to wait till I hit my number.
• 35:13
  I'm trying to be generous along the way, but yeah.
• 35:17
  Yeah, generosity is a good thing.
• 35:20
  Nothing bad ever comes from giving something away.
• 35:24
  Unlike taking something, like a ball out of someone's glove.
• 35:28
  Yeah, yeah.
• 35:29
  All right, anything else?
• 35:30
  This is Yeah, this is this is hard for me to.
• 35:35
  Work again, I mean.
• 35:38
  You got it, you got to slowly bring me back.
• 35:41
  You better get used to it real quick.
• 35:44
  We've got a lot we need you for.
• 35:46
  Yeah, yeah.
• 35:47
  Now I'm excited.
• 35:48
  I mean, I come back so fired up.
• 35:52
  We have a meeting tomorrow, a company meeting to talk about all my ideas I had.
• 35:57
  Yeah.
• 35:58
  All right.
• 35:59
  I'll be ready.
• 36:00
  There with those.
• 36:01
  well, you and Dave did well without me.
• 36:04
  We did, we survived.
• 36:06
  Dave did a couple podcasts.
• 36:08
  He has a couple good ones if you haven't caught them yet.
• 36:10
  And there's one that will be released today with some of his clients that he's been working with.
• 36:17
  So really good work.
• 36:18
  They've been doing case studies, great things for people to learn from.
• 36:24
  Yeah, and then I know we have some episodes we're going to be doing listener questions.
• 36:32
  Yes, we are.
• 36:33
  So listeners, if you have questions, get them in.
• 36:36
  send any questions you have for John to tdg.click forward slash ask and we will get those answered for you.
• 36:46
  will feature your question on an upcoming podcast.
• 36:50
  All right.
• 36:51
  Thanks, Denise.
• 36:52
  Thanks, John.
• 36:53
  See you tomorrow.