Latest / Giant Ideas / "Ego Destruction and Humility…": US Presidential Candidate Andrew Yang on Running for President

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"Ego Destruction and Humility…": US Presidential Candidate Andrew Yang on Running for President · Giant Ideas

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_02: I thought, hey, like, if I run for president it doesn't go well, like I'll be able to look at myself in the mirror and I'll survive.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_02: Very, very few people who reach a certain level are willing to do something that will make them look really bad.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: Hello, and welcome to Giant Ideas with me, Cameron McLean, and me, Tommy Stadlin.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_01: We're co-founders of Giant Ventures, which builds and backs purpose-driven companies.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: At Giant, we're lucky to meet extraordinary people with giant ideas that are changing the world.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: This podcast brings you behind the scenes access to those ideas and the inspiring stories of the people behind them.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_01: We explore how one giant idea can kickstart a billion-dollar company, shape culture, and transform life as we know it.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_01: Andrew, welcome back to Giant Ideas.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_01: Great to have you with us.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_01: Last week we talked a lot about universal basic income and US politics.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_01: This week we want to dive into you and your amazing life story.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_01: So we ask all of our guests on Giant Ideas if you had to depict your life in three photographs, what would those photographs be and why?
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_02: Well, now uh I'm a dad and married.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_02: Um so I've got a wife and two kids who are 13 and 10.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_02: So the first photo that comes to mind for me would be uh like a recent Thanksgiving photo of the four of us.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_02: Um, because I don't know if you guys have um kids or families, but uh that that stuff becomes no the core.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_02: Um so that that would be picture number one.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_02: So so grateful for the family.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_02: Uh love them very much.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_02: Uh photo number two that that does come to mind for me is like that there are, and there are a number of photos.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_02: You could take like a few of them.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but this is like a photo of me in front of a crowd rallying for um universal basic income, like the presidential campaign in 2019 or 2020.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_02: And thousands and thousands of people showed up.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, and it's uh a singular experience.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_02: I recommend it.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_02: I recommend that everyone listening to this run for the highest office in their land uh immediately.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_01: Um so that's what's it like, Andrew, what's it what is it actually like to run for president and how does it change your life?
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_01: You're part of a very small, very strange club of people who run for president.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_01: Tell us what it's actually like and how has it changed your life now, years later?
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_02: Uh so what it what it's like in real life is an exercise in um ego destruction and humility.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_02: Uh and I and I tell you why.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so I like you know, I'm a fairly cool, accomplished guy.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but when you run for president, everyone's like, of uh and then you're like of America, obviously.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_02: Or um it like I was at my son's uh school event and then meet another dad, and then the dad asks what I do for a living, very reasonable question.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but it sounds like I'm a lunatic if I say like I'm a presidential candidate, um, because I'm not on TV, I'm not famous, I'm not a current senator or anything.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_02: So they'd be like, what?
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_02: And then I have to go through all this explanation.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_02: And at the end of that explanation, uh, you know what they would say?
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_02: It's like, good luck with that.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_02: So you're like, I don't want to have this conversation over and over again.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: Well, this is the natural thing to say.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: What else?
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: What else would what would you prefer they just say?
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_02: What they should say is like, uh, let me uh donate the maximum right now, drop everything and to follow you to Iowa.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_02: That's what they should have said.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_02: Now, um, so uh, so you know that that's like uh minor humiliation.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_02: Um and you you have like tons of minor humiliations.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_02: Now, in this case, uh, you know, I went from that to screaming crowds of thousands and uh seven presidential debates and uh like the rest of it.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_02: Um so thank you, Yang Gang, uh, you know, if you're listening to this.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_02: But uh, you know, it was months and months of anonymity and slogging and having events that uh very few people would show up to in the middle of nowhere.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so I'm grateful to everyone who believed in me and in particular worked on the campaign because there's this arc.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_02: And to your question, I get recognized on the street every day, uh, you know, here in the states, and 98% of the time it's very, very positive.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, where I'd be like, you know, people ask me all the time, it's like, hey, run again, you were right on AI, uh, you know, things like that.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_02: So there's a lot of love.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: What what gets someone elected?
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_02: Well, in my cycle, and I actually, you know, being a numbers guy too, um, so uh I won the Iowa youth vote uh and was really, really strong on uh cares about people like me, want to have a beer with, um, you know, has like uh my interest at heart.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_02: Um the things I lost on, uh, in that case to Joe Biden in 2020, was um has the right experience to defeat Donald Trump.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_02: Um, you know, and and I actually get that.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_02: Like with Democratic voters, uh, you know, it's like, you want to bet on the magical Asian man from the future, uh, or like the uh, you know, a former vice president um when your opponent is Donald Trump.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_02: And so they they chose Joe Biden.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_02: And I think they got it right because Joe Biden did win.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_02: Now, Joe Biden then got it historically wrong by sticking around to run again.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, that's so he failed us all.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, but they weren't wrong in 2020.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_02: Um, vote voters are kind of simple that way.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_02: Uh and uh, you know, like um that's I think what got Joe elected that time was just people wanted uh to find someone who could beat Trump.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_01: Do you know what's interesting, Andrew, when you say that people recognize you in the street, and actually it's mostly really positive and you get a lot of love, that has uh, by observation, been my experience.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_01: We we work with David Miliband, who's the former Foreign Secretary of the UK, who chairs our advisory board at Giant.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_01: And everywhere I go around the world with David, uh people come up to him literally all day, every day, and recognize him.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_01: But it's all positive.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_01: The only people you come up to are the ones who say, I wish you would have been Prime Minister, you would have been fantastic, I love you.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_01: And it's a very warm experience.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_01: I think it's counter to all everything you hear and read that people don't want shouldn't go into politics or don't want to go into politics because it's so hateful, it's so awful, it ruins your life.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_01: Clearly that's not not your experience in the US.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's true.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_02: I kind of jokingly was like, everyone should do it.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_02: Uh I think more people should um should get into the arena because uh the arena needs great people, great ideas, and uh I have had like a wonderful elevating experience, uh, you know, like not all sunshine and roses, like a lot of stress, um, you know, and obstacles, um, but mostly love.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_01: Amazing.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_01: What would your third photograph be, Andrew?
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_02: You know, the third photo that comes to mind for me is um uh childhood photo uh being born in Skynectany, New York, upstate with my immigrant parents uh in the 70s, uh, you know, and them like smiling and striving.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_02: Uh they came to this country with nothing.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_02: Um, wanted to build a better life for my brother and me.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_02: And uh it worked.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and you know, we're very grateful to them.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_02: Uh now my father um immigrated back to Taiwan and he's in his 80s.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, so I try and get his grandsons to visit any chance we get.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but that, you know, like that decision um that they made back in the 60s uh defined my life.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_01: What's the single biggest thing they taught you?
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_02: You know, like it like they just uh busted ass, man.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_02: They just like worked really hard all the time.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_02: And uh, you know, as a kid that stuff does rub off on you.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_02: So it's one of my contributions to my family is like, look, if I work hard, then like like the they'll see that.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: Amazing.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_00: And you've worked in a couple industries and and sectors, you've been in politics, you've been in business, you've done a range of things.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um any thoughts or reflections on on reinvention and applying yourself to such different areas?
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I recommend that too, but people need to not get stuck in this era.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_02: Um, the way I see it is that we have tours of duty that will take typically um, I'd say like each tour of duty is like three to six years, maybe three to eight years.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, frankly, the longer the tour of duty, the better things are going for you.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_02: So, you know, try and stretch it out.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_02: Um and uh I've had uh politics, I've had business, I've had uh philanthropy and nonprofits, I've had entrepreneurship, uh and loved it all.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, you know, and now I'm working on Noble Mobile, which is something I'm super excited about, um, to try and save Americans billions of dollars and get them off of what one comedian calls our rectangles of sadness, otherwise known as our smartphones.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so uh the average Noble Mobile user uses 17% less screen time uh in uh month two or three relative to how they started.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and I dare say that's like around where most of us want to go.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_02: I think most of us want to decrease our screen time by let's say 20% uh as like a threshold.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_02: Some of us would like to decrease it by a lot more than that.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_01: How does it work?
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_02: Oh my gosh, so glad you asked.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_02: Um, because uh, you know, okay.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_02: Um the average European is spending 35 a month on your wireless data.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_02: Uh that's what you guys are used to.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_02: The average American is spending 83 a month, and I was spending 140 a month with a company called Verizon, which is number one in the US market share.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_02: So what the heck is that extra$48 a month doing?
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and I just want to define how big that difference gets.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, if you multiply it times 12, it's let's call it$600 a year.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_02: And then you multiply it times the hundreds of millions of Americans who have cell phones.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, it amounts to$100 billion in extra spend a year on cell phone services in the US relative to Europeans, um, if we were paying what you guys were paying.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_02: Uh now that hundred billion, 11 billion of it uh was in the form of dividends to Verizon shareholders.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_02: Um, where if you look up Verizon stock, it pays a 6.5% dividend last I checked.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_02: Um ATT might be 4.5%.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so these are companies that are just taking billions of dollars from customers and giving it to shareholders um as their primary draw.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_02: Uh and uh it's not like the service is, you know, like innovating really.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_02: Um like the like it works.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_02: Don't get me wrong, it works, but um, but they're they're not spending billions to make it better.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, they're spending billions on marketing and um convincing us that um what we're spending with them uh makes some sense.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_02: So I ran for president on universal basic income.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, and I figured out that a lot of Americans uh are broke uh and are trying to figure out how to save money.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_02: So if I could get them closer to what you guys are spending, I'd be doing them a huge solid.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_02: Uh so what Noble Mobile does is we license data from T-Mobile and we'll cut the average American's phone bill in half.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_02: And here's how we do it.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_02: So for a Noble user, you spend$50 a month on limited data on the T-Mobile network, but we give you up to$20 back at the end of the month based upon any data you don't don't use below 20 gigs.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_02: So the average Noble user will spend$42 a month, um, which is like magic, half of what the average American is spending.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and because we're giving you money back for not using your phone, uh, your data use goes down when you're out and about because people like money and they like measurements, they like rewards.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_02: Uh so that's how Noble Mobile works.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_01: And in your experience with Noble, what is the best way to get yourself using the phone and the screen less?
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_02: Uh well, the the main thing is to I I say this like don't sleep with your phone in the same room.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_02: Um, that's a great place to start.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_02: Uh try not to uh use your phone during meals.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_02: Um, that's a fantastic step.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_02: Take one break from your phone a day minimum.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_02: Um it could be your gym workout or a walk or something along those lines.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_02: Uh and um be aware of how you are um around other people because studies have shown that if you look at your phone while you're talking to someone, uh they want to punch you in the face.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, understandably so, but that that is such a good moment.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_00: We've all gone into the store or a room and but then realize you're still on your phone when you should really just be you know engaging and looking at people.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_00: But I think a good place to start is definitely not bringing it into the bedroom and certainly not doing it in the old time.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_01: So and an alarm clock.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_01: That's that's my recent last couple of months.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_01: I bought an old school alarm clock, which was the last remaining excuse to keep the phone in the bedroom.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_01: It's gone.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_02: We uh we heartily recommend that at Noble.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_02: Something on an alarm clock, and it cost you what, uh like 15 US dollars?
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's fantastic.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_00: Well, we like to end every episode, Andrew, by asking what it is about you that has enabled you to have the success you've had in your life so far.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_00: And you can't be modest, um, but must must be uh honest about what it is about yourself.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_02: You know, guys, um I read a book called uh On the Edge by Nate Silver about um risk taking.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_02: And then and the main thing that has made me successful is that I, you know, I I think I've had like a realistic assessment of um the risk reward of various situations, and so I'll use the one that I'm most famous for.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_02: Um decide to run for president.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_02: What are the downsides?
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_02: Opportunity costs, time away from your family, and possible total public humiliation.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_02: You know, like that, those are the main downsides.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_02: And then the upsides were things like accelerate the end of poverty uh for millions and millions, uh, and do what you thought was the right thing to do.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_02: Uh and I thought, hey, like if I run for president, it doesn't go well, like I'll be able to look at myself in the mirror and I'll survive.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_02: Um, in part because like the total public humiliation thing uh was a real possibility, but like I thought I could live with that.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_02: Um and I think too many people get scared off of things because they make too much of uh that kind of risk.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, you know, and it it's like it's been a risk.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's like like I like one of my aggravating things, and by the way, a lot of people listening to you guys can resemble this, is like you get to a certain level, very, very few people who reach a certain level are willing to do something that will make them look really bad.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, you know, they they they take risks in like a narrow band and it makes them lame.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_02: Um and and so to the extent that I've had uh you know like an interesting career, um like I don't think I'm necessarily like um better than other folks um in most dimensions, um, but like I'm willing to um take risks that other people have shied away from.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_02: And I don't think like I think that I'm right and they're wrong in the sense like you should be willing to take this risk too.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_02: Like what's what's keeping you?
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_02: Like, what's the problem?
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_02: Um and and I I see that it gets stacked on top of people, like the these uh layers of success and socialization.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_02: Um, you know, you just have to be willing to let some of it go.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_02: Um, you know, we don't have that much time on this planet.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_02: Uh and if you can't, I actually gave this impassioned speech to a bunch of donors for like a democracy event.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_02: They were really, for the most part, very rich, successful folks.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_02: And I was like, you know what's missing from this room?
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_02: An appetite for total public humiliation.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_02: You know, like you you guys like uh are are messing around because like you know, like the investments you're making, they're very significant, but they're not gonna change any of your lives, not gonna make you look bad.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_02: Like you guys uh have to be willing to look bad.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_02: Um that to me is like the the message.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_02: It's like be willing.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_02: If you're willing to if you're willing to look bad, you might wind up um changing the course of history.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_02: But if you're not willing to look bad, you're not gonna change shit.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_00: That's a great note to end on.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_00: Love that.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much, Andrew.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_02: Appreciate you guys.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_02: I do send out a weekly uh email at andrewyang.com.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_02: Um, a lot of it's US based, but you know, people might enjoy aspects.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna be talking a lot about what AI is doing with a labor market.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_02: Um, if you want to join for that.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for joining John Ideas, Andrew.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_01: Really appreciate it.