Digital & Dirt
01:30:54 · Ian Dallimore, Anthony Scaramucci, Raj Lala
[01:30:54] S0: Yep. But [01:30:55] S4: if you're a guy or a woman who's like, all right, that happens. That's the trials and tribulations of life. Yep. I'm here to experience the whole thing. Oh, wait a minute, maybe Mel Brooks is right. His immortal words are relaxed. None of us are getting out of here alive. How about So why take it that seriously? Think is a good message for people. And I think you can turn a setback into a real success as you're saying, but you gotta have the right attitude. [01:31:22] S0: A 100. [01:31:23] S4: If you get hurt in baseball and now you've got self pity and you're not rehabbing properly, well then you're not gonna get better, you know? Nobody cares. Same thing in a business career. [01:31:33] S0: So let's talk about your book, All the Wrong Moves. What inspired you to write the book? Why? And tell us a [01:31:40] S8: little bit more about it.
01:31:41 · Anthony Scaramucci
[01:31:41] S4: Well, you know, I you know, I got fired from the White House very famously nine years ago. I grew up in a blue collar family, went to a public high school, then went on to Tufts and Harvard Law School, then went to Goldman Sachs, built a successful business after leaving Goldman. And I've been in and around the American political system as a presidential fundraiser for three And I'm always asked this question, Ian, what happened? Why are we so polarized? Why are we fighting with each other? How do we get into this deficit spending rut? What could we do to improve the situation? And so All the Wrong Moves is a 276 page book that you can read in about four hours. It's a breezy book, not dense in terms of the economic data, but it's explanatory about some policy decisions that we made that we frankly got wrong. And it's not partisan. It's not an indictment of anybody. It's just, hey, these are very smart, well intended people. They're trying to get the decision right. They make a decision. They're expecting one outcome and they get a completely different outcome. And then how does this lead to the anchor based politics that we have today? And I think it was important, at least for me, to write down what I think happened based on my 38 adult observation or almost forty year adult observation now. And also, you know, my vantage point, my experience growing up, my experience on Wall Street, my experience in Washington, And I feel like if we can explain to people what happened, we can then work on policies and ideas that could potentially fix the problem that we're facing. Yeah.
01:33:24 · Ian Dallimore, Anthony Scaramucci
[01:33:24] S0: And we once lived in a world where failures and setbacks and policy and decisions that are made were historical pivots that allowed us to then make the right decision the next time and to learn from those things and not hide from them. [01:33:38] S4: Right. Well, we have a hard time doing that now. You got certain politicians that won't admit that they're wrong or they take you in a direction that's not working, but they double down on it. One of the things that we did, one of my big catastrophic decisions, we went to war in Afghanistan and Iraq and we cut taxes. So we had this huge expectation, this huge anticipation that we were going to be out of those wars in a few months. And so we cut the taxes. We ended up putting $8,000,000,000,000 on our credit card. You know, that's 20% of our national debt was spent in Iraq and Afghanistan. Yep. Wow. Just imagine what our bridges, roads, and tunnels, and airports could look like if we spent that money here in The United States.
01:33:38 · Anthony Scaramucci, Ian Dallimore, David Sable
[01:33:38] S4: Right. Well, we have a hard time doing that now. You got certain politicians that won't admit that they're wrong or they take you in a direction that's not working, but they double down on it. One of the things that we did, one of my big catastrophic decisions, we went to war in Afghanistan and Iraq and we cut taxes. So we had this huge expectation, this huge anticipation that we were going to be out of those wars in a few months. And so we cut the taxes. We ended up putting $8,000,000,000,000 on our credit card. You know, that's 20% of our national debt was spent in Iraq and Afghanistan. Yep. Wow. Just imagine what our bridges, roads, and tunnels, and airports could look like if we spent that money here in The United States. [01:34:25] S0: Yeah. And it's such a powerful statement because as we continue to grow as humans, we want that authenticity that you spoke about and that trust. And that trust comes from, hey, look, we messed up here, but how do we pivot and make this right? Shifting gears again, you were yourself and you've been around plenty of people that walk into the room and they kind of command attention. Right? So what is that trait? We have a lot of listeners that are in the tech advertising world, some a lot younger walking into the room. Maybe it's something you experienced as a child. Like I teach my boys specifically, walk in, shake a hand, look at eye contact, look sharp wherever you go, that sort of thing. But what is that about when someone walks in a room and everyone just kind of [01:35:05] S9: stops and pauses?
01:35:05 · David Sable, Anthony Scaramucci
[01:35:05] S9: stops and pauses? [01:35:06] S4: Well, you know, it's a great question. I don't have the perfect answer to it, but I think people like people who have some familiarity to them. We don't know each other, but I'm sure there's a lot that you and I have in common with each other. And I'll come into the room and treat you with respect like you were one of my best friends from thirty years ago. And I think if you do that with people, they warm up to you pretty quickly. Like, okay, this guy is not full of himself. He doesn't think he's more important than me. He doesn't think he's better than me. He's not being pedantic, trying to talk down to me based on his education versus mine and that sort of And I think that there's a natural magnetism to people who are not judging. There's a phenomenal line from Winston Churchill. And what I love about it the most, he didn't live by it. No. Okay. But you you don't have some people say, do as I say, don't do as I do. Churchill said that the best among us choose not to judge human frailty so harshly. And then the additional sentence was, Of course, that wouldn't be me because he used to judge people. But my point is when you don't judge other people and you're warm, I think you can magnetize people. I think that's where a lot of charisma comes from.
01:36:31 · Ian Dallimore, Anthony Scaramucci, David Sable
[01:36:31] S0: Yeah. So last question here. So what's one piece of advice that you would give to people? You've been successful throughout your entire career regardless of setbacks, but most people would sign up for your career and say, Yes, I'll take that path. But someone thinking about taking a big swing at something, even when it may not work. So almost taking a gamble on a career, not being complacent in what they're doing. [01:36:52] S4: Well, I think it's showing up. I think that's the number one thing. Woody Allen said this, know he's a disgrace guy now, but he said that 90%, 80% of life is just showing up. When you have a setback or something goes badly, don't cower in the corner, get up, dust yourself off and show up. I think the biggest thing that we have to do in life, and I got raised Catholic, just hear me out for a second. [01:37:16] S0: Yeah, same. [01:37:16] S4: We get taught the redemption. We get taught forgiveness and we have to forgive other people. What about forgiving yourself? And so I've had so many different things that I've done in my life that I regret, but I don't have a millstone of regret on my neck. And I don't wake up in the morning and say, okay, geez, I did something really stupid ten years ago. Let me kick myself in the pants today. [01:37:36] S9: You got