Office Hours: How to Get on a Board, Leaving a Company with Grace, and Fostering Civil Discourse

Scott takes a question about the experience necessary to be on a board of directors. He then offers advice for leaving a job at a company respectfully, and shares his thoughts on the importance of listening to people who disagree with you. Music: https://www.davidcuttermusic.com / @dcuttermusic 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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• 0:49Speaker 01

  This episode is brought to you by Michelob Ultra. Good times mean competitions between you and your friends, like seeing who can throw some pigskin the farthest or rush the field the fastest. Winner gets an Ultra. Because it's not just a superior light beer, it's also giving fans superior access to their favorite sporting events. Superior is worth playing for. Visit michelobultra.com/superioraccess to enter. Enjoy responsibly. Copyright 2026 Anheuser-Busch InBev Michelob Ultra Beer, St. Louis, Missouri.

• 1:26Scott Galloway?

  Welcome to Prop G Pod's Office Hours. This is the part of the show where we answer your questions about business, big tech, entrepreneurship, and whatever else is on your mind. I should say, we try to answer your questions. If you'd like to submit a question, please visit officehours.profgmedia.com. Again, that's officehours.profgmedia.com. I have not seen or heard these questions. First question.

• 1:49Speaker 02

  I listened to your show a lot a year ago, and I've learned so much from you, and I appreciate you as a young professional. I am a 25-year-old recent college grad. I recently started a sales development manager position at a tech startup and currently interviewing at a number of different nonprofits for board experience. My end goal as a professional is to be a board member of a publicly traded company. I know that you've sat on a number of boards, so what advice can you give to a young professional who seeks to have that same position in the future? Thanks, Scott. I appreciate you and the work that you and your team do for the show.

• 2:20Scott Galloway?

  The fact that you're even thinking that way at the age of 25 means that you probably will be on a board at some point, so. Boards are really, it's one of those kind of, I think they used to say it about the Gurkhas, which is like the elite fighting force of the Indian army. And that is, many are called, but few are chosen. And that is, the hardest thing about getting on a board is getting on your first one, especially publicly traded one. You usually get there after a long prestigious career as a CEO somewhere else, because you have some domain expertise. And also lately, there's been a huge demand for female or people of color to join boards.

• 2:59Scott Galloway?

  Because basically, boards to this point have been the land of stale, pale, and male. And that is just old fucking white dudes sitting around a table, getting paid $150,000 a year to pontificate on what they think the company should do. So there's a lot of opportunity for groups that have been traditionally excluded from boards. Anyway, it's not your question. I would say that at the end of the day, the way you get on a public company board is you just sort of kill it professionally and develop deep domain expertise, or are seen as somebody who can add value to a board. I get calls, what feels like every week, it's probably every other week, from very accomplished professionals who say, hey, you know what? I would like to be on a board. And it's okay, but unless you're called, it's the kind of thing you don't ask for.

• 3:44Scott Galloway?

  You're either called or you're not. So there's no real algorithm, other than being the CEO of a publicly traded company, you'll get opportunities to be on boards. Also, financial professionals is the hardest board members to recruit are for the audit committee, because those people actually have to do real work on the board, which typically, board members don't like to do. So other than being a CPA and the CEO of a publicly traded company, I would say that at the end of the day, you just have to work hard and develop domain expertise and be successful yourself. But there is no algorithm or secret sauce for immediately becoming a publicly traded board member. The way I got on public boards, I started a public company. So I was automatically on the board. The other way I got on public company boards, I raised a shit ton of money, bought huge percentages of publicly traded companies,

• 4:29Scott Galloway?

  and then demanded to be on the board. So I was not invited on a board. My first public company board was at the age of 34 when I was on my own company's board, but I was not asked or invited to be on a public company board until I was well into my 40s. And now I get asked a decent amount, but that's only because I've been on board. So again, I apologize for the wishy washy answer, but my brother, like anything else, the key to success in that domain is killing it. Thanks for the question. Next question.

• 4:55Speaker 03

  Hey Scott, Aaron here. I'm about to leave my comfortable job at a mid-sized tech company to lead a team at a small 20-person startup, working on NFT infrastructure. Now, I was originally going to ask if I should take the job or not, but given I'm a young, motivated 30-year-old in New York City, I imagined you'd say yes. So I took it. Now, I'm trying to figure out how to elegantly and professionally leave my current job such that I could potentially come back should my startup dreams crash and burn. P.S. Could not agree with you more on how powerful writing is as a tool. I actually got introduced to this startup because of a blog post I wrote last year. Love the show and appreciate the advice. Thanks.

• 5:33Scott Galloway?

  Aaron, first off, congratulations on your new gig. You bring up something that's really important, and that is how you leave, how you end a relationship is as important as the relationship to that point. And that is, you can spend 10 years at a firm, work your ass off, be a good manager, be a good citizen. And if you succumb to the temptation to stick up the middle finger on the way out, or to shitpost people, or to talk about what you don't like about the firm, or to not be gracious when you leave, it kind of stains the entire thing. You want to leave with grace. You want to walk into your boss's office and you want to say, "Look, I'm leaving. I'm taking a job at an NFT infrastructure company. I want to do something like this. It's a great opportunity for me. How can

• 6:15Scott Galloway?

  I make my exit as painless for you?" You want to give them, one, as much notice as possible. You want to be as gracious as possible. You want to try and ensure that your responsibilities are covered. In sum, how you leave, how you leave, the 30, the 60, the 90 days before you exit are as important as the previous several years, or even decades. I know a lot of fantastic employees who were just kind of jerks on their way out the door, and that's all anybody remembers. People remember how you behave at the end. So what do you do? Simply put, you have a ton of grace, you make additional effort. Maybe you want to leave in two weeks because your head is already at the new firm. Don't do that. Stay around as long as they need you. I mean, within reason such that you can make your exit as seamless for them.

• 7:00Scott Galloway?

  And the truth has a nice ring to it. You're going to an NFT infrastructure firm. You want to bet on something more risky, more future forward. I think they will understand that. Congratulations. This is a, this is a good problem, Aaron from NYC going into NFT infrastructure. We have one quick break before our final question. Stay with us. Support for the show comes from Nutriful, the number one dermatologist recommended hair growth supplement brand used by over one and a half million people. With age comes knowledge, patience, and for some, hair loss. Didn't say it was all good things. And for those who want to do something about it, there's Nutriful. Nutriful has formulas built for men at different life stages.

• 7:41Scott Galloway?

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• 8:25Scott Galloway?

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• 9:08Scott Galloway?

  Upwork also takes care of contracts, payments, and other administrative tasks, so you can spend less time managing logistics and more time focused on what's next. Visit upwork.com/profg right now and post your job for free. That's upwork.com/profg to connect with top talent ready to help your business grow. That's U P W O R K dot com slash prof G, upwork.com slash prof G.

• 9:37Scott Galloway?

  Welcome back. Question number three.

• 9:39Speaker 04

  Hi, Scott. I started reading No More Sino Malice years ago, and although I find myself disagreeing with many of your opinions, I still look forward to Friday mornings when I know that email is on its way. And now I'm really enjoying the podcast as well. Winning over those who think like you isn't that impressive, in my opinion. But in my case, and I suspect for many others that listen to your content, you're appealing because of the way you think, not just what you think. I might even admit to being persuaded to your side of an argument a few times. But my question is, do you create your content with those that disagree with you in mind? And how can we replicate more of this phenomenon of disagreement but respect in our world?

• 10:22Scott Galloway?

  Chase, I absolutely love this question, and I'm flattered by it. My mission around this stuff is not to be right, it's to catalyze a conversation. I think through civil, thoughtful, rigorous debate, we craft better solutions. And Salman Rushdie, who I've been reading a lot about because of the recent attack on him, a lot of his work is being highlighted. He said that when you conflate a discussion around ideas with personal attacks, or if you start attacking someone personally because you disagree with their ideas, it's the end of modern civilization. And I think there's some real merit to that. And that is, we can disagree with each other politically, but we don't have to be enemies. We can disagree with each other around the value of a company, but that doesn't mean we should shitpost each other on Twitter.

• 11:08Scott Galloway?

  And by the way, you disagree with me a lot? I disagree with me a lot. Occasionally, I find I say something and then I think about it, and then I come back to it, and then people inform me of information that's out there that I didn't absorb. And I realize, you know what? I got that wrong. I was wrong. And the key isn't to be right. The key is to evolve as a person to get to a better solution. I don't, it's dangerous to say right or wrong, because as evidence moves on, as the world moves on, as science moves on, as control groups and experimentation and peer review research move on, we find a lot of us were right or wrong, looking back. So I think it's really important, and I purposely try to like comments that disagree with me on Twitter. They're civil.

• 11:52Scott Galloway?

  Because I recognize I get it wrong a lot. And what I think you should do, or I think how we foment a better world that crafts better solutions, is to recognize, if you're in the other party, it doesn't automatically make you my enemy. If you disagree with what I say, it doesn't mean that my job is to undermine your credibility and shitpost you. Peer-reviewed research in academia, which is the basis for a lot of great breakthrough scientifically, is dependent upon people disagreeing with you. When academic theories are dispelled by a younger academic, we celebrate that younger academic for saying, no, this individual got it wrong. And the initial academic is usually the first to honor

• 12:36Scott Galloway?

  and highlight that person, or to award them, or to honor them. So civil discourse that respects the other side, that bulletproofs our theories and our notions, is so important. I can't tell you how many times people say, I don't always agree with you, but I like your content. Well, that's the whole point. If you're reading... Media, if you're watching media, if you're listening to people who you only agree with, then you have fucked up. You have gone into a bubble that just cements your current biases. We are never too old to evolve. Nobody ever figures it out. No one is ever 100% right. And if you just want to cement the shit you already have a bias towards, you are not going to grow. So I appreciate that you don't agree with

• 13:20Scott Galloway?

  me. But together, if we are thoughtful, if our hearts in the right place, if we push back on each other politely, we're going to craft better solutions. Civil discourse. Thanks for the question, Chase. That's all for this episode. Again, if you'd like to submit a question, please submit a voice recording by visiting officehours.profgmedia.com.

• 13:49Scott Galloway?

  Our producers are Caroline Chagrin and Jew Burrows. Claire Miller is our associate producer. She reminded me that she's Gen Z, not a millennial. If you'd like what you heard, please follow, download and subscribe. Thank you for listening to the Prof G Pod from the Vox Media Podcast Network. We will catch you on Thursday.

• 14:06Speaker 05

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• 14:37Speaker 06

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