No Mercy / No Malice: Origin Story

As read by George Hahn. https://www.profgalloway.com/origin-story/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:01Scott Galloway?

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• 0:48Speaker 01

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• 1:19Scott Galloway?

  I'm Scott Galloway, and this is No Mercy, No Malice. Everyone comes from somewhere. The stories we tell about ourselves determine where we end up. Origin Story, as read by George Hahn.

• 1:39George Hahn?

  Every one of us has an origin story. We define ourselves by our background, the narrative of what made us who we are. However, people often don't let the truth get in the way of a good story. And the narrative of "I" is often that: a story.

• 2:00George Hahn?

  James Frye found no takers for his novel, so he repackaged it as a memoir, his story, which became the number one bestseller, A Million Little Pieces. Biographies and memoirs are America's second favorite book genre. Ronald Reagan tried to curry favor with Israeli leaders with a story about how he helped liberate Nazi death camps in World War II. He didn't. Did his military service in Hollywood. P. Diddy billed an empire on allusions to his criminal past, but he attended the same prep school as the founder of Sequoia Capital before attending Howard University.

• 2:41George Hahn?

  Fabricated military service is apparently so common that Congress passed a law against it. People embellish their origin stories, as it's the only thing others have to go on, from potential employers and friends to potential mates. We are the product of our circumstances, personally and professionally, and a good origin story confers meaning to our life and career. We should recognize that and embrace it, but also be honest about it. The most important factor in determining a person's future is when and where they are born.

• 3:22George Hahn?

  Each of us, born into any other situation, would experience a different outcome. Just as the market trumps individual performance, so does circumstance. I likely would not be an entrepreneur or an academic had I been born in South Sudan. If I'd been born in 1920 Germany, I'd likely have been a Nazi who perished on a Russian field. This isn't just true across continents and centuries, it's also evident at a micro level. Being born one year earlier or later can make a big difference. People who graduate into a recession earn less for 10 to 15 years than those who graduate

• 4:05George Hahn?

  amid prosperity. Fate also changes block to block. One of the strongest signals of life expectancy and much else is the zip code where you're born.

• 4:18George Hahn?

  Within the same city, life expectancy can vary by 30 years based on zip code. Meanwhile, an American female whose parents rank in the bottom decile of earners has a 3 in 10 chance of having a teenage pregnancy. For daughters in the top decile, it's 3 in 100. This all confirms a basic point: The cards you're dealt matter. A lot. Your income is the clearest indicator of how much money your kid will make when they're 30. Churn is increasingly a rare earth element in the US.

• 5:00George Hahn?

  Per a Georgetown analysis, "It's better to be born rich than smart. The most talented disadvantaged children have a lower chance of academic and early career success than the least talented affluent children." However, the people dealt the best cards can't see their hands. The myth of the self-made man is rife among US citizens who've never faced a draft or registered a devaluation in their currency, people who are remora fish on investments made by the US government. Tech has raised a cohort of people who simultaneously credit their character for their success

• 5:45George Hahn?

  and blame a rigged market for their failures. The real cage match in tech is entitlement versus empathy. The former is winning, and that results in a staggering accumulation of power that's amoral, focused only on the aggregation of more power regardless of what happens to people with less. Side note: I hope they beat the shit out of each other. Is that wrong?

• 6:15George Hahn?

  Until forty, my story was that I was the son of a single immigrant mother who lived and died a secretary. I overcame those humble beginnings to achieve significant success because, you know, I'm awesome. After forty, my eyesight began to wane, but I could see clearer. I was born a straight, white male in 1960s California, which gave me state-sponsored access to elite universities, UCLA and Berkeley. UCLA had an acceptance rate of 76% when I applied. This year, it's less than 9%.

• 6:55George Hahn?

  Later, Berkeley admitted me to its MBA program with a GPA of, no joke, 2.27 from UCLA. Total tuition for all seven years?

• 7:07Scott Galloway?

  Eighteen thousand dollars.

• 7:11George Hahn?

  I came of professional age in an era of processing power and the internet. I lived in San Francisco, where in the decade of the 90s, more wealth was created within a seven-mile radius than in all of Europe since World War II. I was given a rocket ship, built by others. To be clear, I'm talented and navigated the ship well, but I wasn't going to soar without the sacrifice and talent of millions of others. The ship blew up several times, but I survived, and there were other vessels waiting. Luck doesn't begin to describe my situation. My freshman college roommate, born gay, took his own life at 33 when his HIV progressed

• 7:56George Hahn?

  to full-blown AIDS. Two decades later, I'm in Ibiza with friends, finding a quiet place to FaceTime my boys and get updates on our dog, Lea. She's not feeling well.

• 8:09George Hahn?

  Like others, I have faced hardship and absent father and tragedy, lost my mom early. But each of these losses has played a role in my good fortune. I make my living communicating and much of this skill isn't the result of my own hard work. My dad can captivate any room and even though he wasn't around much, I inherited some of his ability. My mom's sickness and our inability to access good care was a hugely motivating, defining moment for me. I saw the rough cut of the American story and decided to get my shit together in hopes of living a richer life and garnering the resources to take better care of the people who mattered to me.

• 8:53George Hahn?

  Capitalism is brutal and motivating. Lately, the balance has swung too far to the former. But that's another post. Supposedly, each of us has bits of every material present at the dawn of the universe. It makes sense, at least the morning after mushroom chocolates, see above Ibiza, that our matter will also be present in galaxies, stars, planets, organisms, birthed trillions of years from now. Our stories may or may not make the journey, but the emotions they inspire will become instinct, then DNA, and this matter will disperse. So the question is,

• 9:37George Hahn?

  distinct from the story you and others tell about yourself, how do you make people feel? When people come in contact with you, do they feel insecure or inspired? Do you leave people cold or comforted? Do you bring joy, harmony, love? I'm in a deficit here. I've taken more than I've given. I have a debt to pay. I've started with my boys and am working outward from there. Still time. It's a comforting thought that bits of us will live on and arrive at distant places trillions of years from now. We all have our longest journey still ahead of us.

• 10:21George Hahn?

  When you get there, when you show up, what will be felt?

• 10:30Scott Galloway?

  Life is so rich.

• 10:48Speaker 03

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• 10:55Speaker 04

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• 11:19Speaker 03

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• 11:26Speaker 03

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