Role Models
Role Models
Audio Recording by George Hahn
“Society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they’ll never sit under.” There’s an inverse to that wisdom. Great societies decline when old men chop down forests meant to provide shade and oxygen for future generations. Donald Trump isn’t making America great again, he’s clear-cutting American values.
Normal
Late last Thursday night, the president posted a video promoting his debunked 2020 election conspiracy theories. The clip includes images of Michelle and Barack Obama as apes. The following morning, the video drew widespread backlash, including from Senator Tim Scott, a Trump ally and the only Black Republican in the Senate, who called it “the most racist” thing he’s seen out of this White House. (Note the implication: Trump has provided other examples of racism for Senator Scott to benchmark against.) Initially, press secretary Karoline Leavitt dismissed the criticism as “fake outrage.” Insisting he hadn’t made a mistake, Trump doubled down, calling the video “very strong in terms of voter fraud,” and adding that he was the “least racist president you’ve had in a long time.”
Trump’s crisis management role model remains Roy Cohn, the lawyer who served as Senator Joseph McCarthy’s attack dog. Cohn taught Trump to respond to criticism immediately using asymmetrical force: Admit nothing, deny everything, and always claim victory, no matter the actual outcome. I teach a session on crisis communications in my Brand Strategy course at Stern. The scale of a crisis isn’t a function of the mistake, but how you react to it. The better playbook: Acknowledge the issue in plain language, take responsibility, and don’t just fix the problem, overcorrect with force disproportionate to the mistake.
As criticism of Trump’s video continued to mount, he moved on to other targets, calling an American Olympic skier who criticized his policies a “loser.” Next, he attacked Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime performance, writing on Truth Social, “Nobody understands a word this guy is saying, and the dancing is disgusting, especially for young children watching.” Not to worry — Kid Rock performed at an alternate half-time show which felt like watching a Ford Pinto compete at F1 Monaco. Supposedly, the criteria for entrance to Kid Rock’s performance was knowing the purchase limits on Sudafed or wearing an ankle monitor.
Trump’s performative concern over bad role models — won’t someone think of the children? — is rich from a man who appears in the Epstein files 38,000 times. More times than Jesus is mentioned in the Bible; more times than the word “meth” is uttered in all five seasons of Breaking Bad (#awesome). Trump’s depraved behavior is so omnipresent it’s been normalized. Worse, it’s become the cultural context for an entire generation of future civic, business and nonprofit leaders. Trump has been running for president or in office for a decade — if 2024 was the first election you were old enough to vote in, that’s more than half your life. According to a 2018 Quinnipiac poll, 90% of Americans believe it’s important for the president to be a good role model.
Role Models
Sociologist Robert K. Merton coined the term “role model” in 1957 while studying the socialization of medical students. Distinguishing between reference groups (the crowd you want to belong to) and role models (individuals you emulate in a specific social role), Merton found that we learn “scripts” from role models that teach us how to behave in a specific status (doctor, leader, parent, etc.). Emulating role models, the med students engaged in “anticipatory socialization,” adopting the professional values and norms of practitioners before officially becoming doctors themselves. Building on Merton’s work, psychologists Thekla Morgenroth, Michelle K. Ryan, and Kim Peters argued in a 2015 paper that role models serve three motivational functions: acting as behavioral models, representing what’s possible, and serving as sources of inspiration.
In her book Pull: Networking and Success Since Benjamin Franklin, historian Pamela Walker Laird argues that access to role models is essential for accumulating social capital and influencing the career paths of American business leaders. According to Laird, Ben Franklin, the prototype for an American inventor/entrepreneur, served as a role model to countless nineteenth-century business leaders, including Thomas Mellon, B.F. Goodrich, and Frederick Weyerhäuser. For a contemporary example of a business role model, see the Steve Jobs “uniform” — black turtlenecks, Levi’s 501s, and New Balance sneakers. Explaining the enduring popularity of Jobs-coded looks on TikTok last year, psychotherapist Eloise Skinner told Fortune, “Zoomers have expressed confusion about what to wear for work, given that many started their careers working from home in their pajamas during the pandemic.” In other words, more than a decade after his death, Jobs continues to provide a script for how aspiring business leaders should carry themselves.
Medical students, aspiring entrepreneurs, and sartorially confused Zoomers don’t choose their role models at random, however. In his 2015 book The Secret of Our Success, Harvard anthropologist Joseph Henrich argued that what sets humans apart from other species is our capacity for cultural learning. According to Henrich, role models are “storage units” for cultural survival skills, and we’re hardwired to identify high-prestige role models. Explaining a scenario where players had the choice to contribute money (or not) to a community project, Henrich wrote, “When the high-prestige player had the opportunity to contribute money first, he or she tended to contribute to, and thus cooperate in, the joint effort, and then the following low-prestige player usually did as well. So, everyone won.” But when the low-prestige player went first, they tended not to contribute, and then, neither did the high-prestige player. In effect, high-prestige people can initiate/veto collaboration, giving them power to set a group’s agenda, whereas low-prestige people have limited veto power and often follow the lead of … a role model.
One recent example: The “Trump dance” phenomenon. The dance dates to his 2020 campaign — the nadir of Trump’s appeal/prestige. Four years later, after Trump mounted the greatest political comeback in American history, professional athletes, the general public, and two world leaders (Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and Argentina’s President Javier Milei) were emulating a septuagenarian’s Village People impression. To paraphrase Mel Brooks, it’s good to be the authoritarian.
Cy
Last fall, my Pivot co-host Kara Swisher and I did a live tour. The final stop was Los Angeles, my hometown. It was a full-circle moment for me, as one of my early role models was in the audience. When I was 13, I walked into the Dean Witter office in Westwood with $200 my mother’s boyfriend had given me, with instructions to figure out how to buy stocks or return the money. At Dean Witter, Cy Cerro, a good man with an irrational passion for the well-being of a child who wasn’t his, gave me my first lesson in financial markets. We decided to invest my bounty in 13 shares of Columbia Pictures, ticker CPS, at $15 3/8. Each weekday for the next two years, I’d drop two dimes into a payphone and call Cy to discuss my portfolio. He made time for me. He also made time to call my mom. Not to pitch her for business (we had no money), but to let her know what we discussed in the calls and say nice things about me.
Eventually, I lost touch with Cy and sold the stock to fund a road trip to Ensenada with my UCLA fraternity brothers. But in 2021, I reconnected with my old broker. Our lives had moved along eerily similar paths: UCLA, financial services (both of us at Morgan Stanley, via Dean Witter for Cy); divorce, two kids, and then entrepreneurship. I’ve made a good/great living starting and selling companies. However, the bulk of my wealth is a function of one thing I’ve done since the age of 13 — invest in stocks. Unfortunately, there are three times as many women applying to be Big Sisters in NYC than men applying to be Big Brothers. In sum, we need more Cy Cerros. Note: You don’t need to be a baller or have your own family to mentor a young man. Just a guy trying to lead a virtuous life who has the most important thing to share: your presence.
Weimar
My intellectual sherpas these days are the historians Heather Cox Richardson and Timothy Synder. Whenever they’re on my podcast, I’m reminded history doesn’t repeat itself, but it rhymes. After reelecting an insurrectionist grifter, America doesn’t yet rhyme with the Third Reich, but the late-stage Weimar Republic. One alarming parallel: rhetoric that dehumanizes political opponents and out-groups. In his speeches, Hitler deployed “vermin” and “parasite” to fearmonger Germans into committing mass murder. Trump calls immigrants “garbage” from “shit-hole countries,” priming (some) Americans to want to throw out their neighbors. Meanwhile, the press is the “enemy of the people,” and dissenters are the “enemy within.” A National Bureau of Economic Research study found that the use of violent words in Trump’s speeches has trended upward since 2015, with an increasing focus on crime. “The growing violence of Trump’s language suggests a strategy aimed at spreading anxiety in order to boost demand for a strong leader who can combat the threats he invokes,” wrote the study’s authors, UCLA political science professors Nikita Savin and Daniel Treisman.
Cloud Cover
Another alarming parallel with Weimar Germany? Business leaders who provide cloud cover with their silence. German industrialists might’ve stopped Hitler but chose silence instead, as they wanted his help crushing labor unions. In public, Fortune 500 CEOs are silent about Trump. They prefer to wait him out, issuing watered-down press releases through trade groups only when absolutely necessary and bending the knee in exchange for tariff relief and favorable regulatory treatment. In other words, they’ve chosen the path of zero resistance, creating a speedway for an authoritarian.
In private, it’s a different story. I’ve heard from several CEOs since we launched Resist and Unsubscribe. Their rap is always the same. Scott, I share your concerns, but my hands are tied … shareholder value. That’s bullshit coming from a cohort with a bipartisan history of criticizing presidents, especially on tax and regulatory policy. America’s CEOs aren’t acting in the interest of shareholders by staying silent about democracy and the rule of law, they’re acting out of fear. My response to them is also the same. “When the people you love are at your side by your deathbed … how will you answer the following: What did you do?” Do those of us lucky enough to have built rewarding lives and companies owe a debt only to shareholders, or to Americans who sacrificed for our rights? Are we willing to do the right thing even when it’s hard? Are we role models?
Life is so rich,
P.S. Help spread the word by sharing our Resist and Subscribe campaign on social. Use #resistandunsubscribe for visibility and tag me @profgalloway so I can boost your signal.
85 Comments
Scott Galloway
Professor of Marketing at NYU Stern School of Business and host of the Prof G and Pivot Podcasts. For Scott Galloway speaking inquiries, email speaking@profgmedia.com
So many things that we agree on. My #1 issue with life in this country right now is the fact that the CEO’s of top companies are either funding him or just staying silent. Most of them seem to be benefiting from him and making even more money than ever before personally. I stopped purchasing from as many of the evil empire companies (such as WF who I used to be a huge fan of prior to the purchase by Amazon). I feel like this is the Roman Empire and we are about to have a huge downshift in lifestyle and freedoms because of the inability of people who also have power to not actually do something positive with it. And what I find interesting is who is going to purchase all their products and services when the general population no longer makes enough money anymore. Unfortunately, after spending some time with some in-laws & nephews from the North East, I’m realizing Trump still hasn’t done enough awful things to change their minds about his policies or purposes. I’m encouraging my kids to leave the USA because I just don’t see how their lives are going to be anywhere as good as mine has been growing up in CA. And since they are girls, I’m also worried about how many rights will be taken away from them before too long. The world has gone crazy and we live in the most crazy place of all of it.
Dr Professor Galloway , I usually look forward to recieving your No Mercy/No Malice post, and appreciate your honesty , openness and intention. Today I recieved an email from profgpod.substack.com , and in that email you spoke about Who Should Run in 2008 . To be frank I beleive that the first person you dismissed , Kamala Harris , would probably be the best president if elected , with the largest factor against her being that of her gender. This is less of an impediment to being elected than the sexual orientation of Pete Buttigieg . In addition knowing the history of Gov. Gavin Newson , I believe he does not show the positive qualities I have attributed to you in the beginning of this email. His appearance and speech do not seem sincere or inspire confidence . Furthermore in regards to qualities you have listed , I believe any candidate who does not support ending the Ukraine war by negotiation , and as soon as possible is lacking in the important qualities of intelligent , unbiased and humanitarian socio/political understanding and perception.
Thank you for such insights and analysis. Interesting point of order .. You got the wrong McCarthy… Roy worked for Joe. Eugene was the 180 degree opposite! But Roy Cohn was a very important role Model for Trump
“Society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they’ll never sit under.”
That’s rich coming from a guy who calls for the boycott of dozens of companies, which would ultimately affect their stocks, including major entertainment companies, while owning an entertainment company (competition)., and manipulating the stock market for your own personal gain.
However, ignoring the FACT that those companies “employ” hundreds of thousands of American workers who would then become unemployed and dependent on government handouts if those businesses get boycotted into bankruptcy?
Who loses?
The workers, suppliers, transport companies, retail outlets and the economy as a whole.
Who wins.
The stock market manipulators, the Elites, the money changers.
What a Marxist communist thing to do.
Destroy capitalism so that all the people can be “controlled” under a one party rule.
While you sit back and make millions off those falling stocks.
What is “your” net worth? $100 Million?
Doesn’t that put you in the very same capitalist oligarchy category you so vehemently preach against?
Will you be one of those “elites” that prey on the peasants too, when Western civilization collapses?
Will you give 2/3rds of “your” money to the Marxists regime to distribute to the poor?
Hypocrite.
Thank you Scott Galloway. 🙂
Roll models? How about those who teach their students something other than how to manipulate less educated people into buying garbage food, booze, and crap they do not need? How about MBA students who are not greedy bastards hiding behind a Woke veil? Maybe those who do not spend eternity trying to get revenge for their party botching the last election and losing to a former TV reality show star?
I am grateful for the clarity you bring to your readers. I wish American would take the time to invest in what is happening before our eyes. Shame on Corporate America.
Where is all the news about how the tariffs in 2025 rocked the market up and down, setting up opportunities for Trump and his cronies to manipulate the market ?
By the way, what about CUSTOMERS??? Don’t these companies need to put their customers ahead shareholders? Isn’t this is exactly why you, Scott, are pushing for RESIST AND UNSUBSCRIBE?
Costco is suing the Trump administration’s tariffs along with Toyota, Revlon, and Bumble Bee Foods. I consider that pushing back.
Also, just as a point of interest, here in Montana we have a beautiful outdoor sculpture park, Tippet Rise, owned/managed/created by Peter Halstead and Cathy Frank Halstead. Cathy’s maternal grandfather, Lewis Rosenstiel, was the man whose signature Roy Cohn forged ultimately resulting in his (Cohn’s) disbarment. Cohn died shortly thereafter of AIDS related complications. Once Trump found out Cohn was gay, he never spoke to him again. It will be interesting to see how Trump’s life ends….I can hardly wait. It’s the world’s most anticipated obituary !
you said it nancy
“the president posted a video promoting his debunked 2020 election conspiracy theories”
2008 Obama. First Black USA President. 69M votes
2012 Obama. 65M votes
2016 Hillary Clinton. Would have been the 1st female USA president. 65M votes
2020 Joe Biden 81M votes.
2024 Kamala Harris. Would have been the 1st female POC USA president. 75M votes.
Biden, old white guy that had been an elected official for almost 50 years, part of the establishment, got the most votes in American history. 12M more than Obama.
Not buying it.
Those are counterfeit numbers.
What happened to those 81M voters in 2024?
You telling me that given the opportunity to vote against Trump again plus vote for the 1st female president + person of color bonus points that the Left’s 81M just evaporated away to 75M.
Not buying it.
Math does not add up.
When Numbers Guys start pushing counterfeit numbers and defending counterfeit numbers like it like it was their religion, they become counterfeit.
Everything they say now can’t be trusted.
Hey Counterfeit Numbers, I double-checked the data and Scott’s numbers are correct. The thing to keep in mind is that the electorate and turnout vary considerably from election year to election year. One theory could be that turnout increased as partisanship increased. Everyone’s sense of the stakes were that they were getting higher. Whatever the case may be, maybe try not to reject information just because you don’t understand it. Consider being curious about it instead.
Do you honestly believe that Joe Biden really got 81M votes in 2020?
Yes or No answer only.
Hey Counterfeit Numbers, I double-checked the data and Scott’s numbers are correct. The thing to keep in mind is that the electorate and turnout vary considerably from election year to election year. One theory could be that turnout increased as partisanship increased. Everyone’s sense of the stakes were that they were getting higher. Whatever the case may be, maybe try not to reject information just because you don’t understand it. Consider being curious about it instead.
Calling out the business world for enabling MAGA and Trump is spot on. Shame on them. When this guy falls, and he will, capitalism and conservative thought will also be seriously damaged.
When Capitalism fails, so do you. You lose your job, your source of income, your supermarkets, clothing stores, gas stations. Your state loses tax revenue, which supports your schools, repairs your roads, bridges and power grids.
You then fall into a communist socialist state, run by elites who take what little you have and distribute it according to “their” needs first. They control where you work, how much you earn and the “businesses” that employ you and sell you goods, but not what you need or want, but what they have “allotted” to you.
Think.
Thank you Scott. Taking a stand and putting yourself out there is not without risk – as some of these comments confirm (trolling?). I remember a wise man once said calling someone out as having Trump Derangement Syndrome is what people who have no cogent argument resort to. Great commentary!
Good post Scott. I support and agree with most of what you say and stand for, but you did az post on education I disagree with. You said people who send there kids to private school should pay more with the money going to public schools. That idea is so ridiculous on so many levels it ain’t even funny.
1. Why and how should a family like mine subsidize the public school system. Combined income of $150-175k a year.
2. The money you Rip off from me goes into a broken system to support more do nothing administrators fat salary’s.
3. You let public schools off the hook to be better. Throwing money at this problem is not the answer. (Especially my freaking money)
4. How does taking my money giving it to the do nothing fat cat overpaid administrators help students who parents are not involved in their educational success help?
Stop spending my money on your hair brain ideas….. all due respect …….
The oublic will get tired of hearing the administrations excuses before they get tire of telling them. We have sunk in consumer confidece, reached our lowest rating in happiest place to live, 59% of young americans believe that their life will be fabulous. The happiest places on earth have trust in government and sleep at nigh knowing they will not be thrown out to the streets if something happened. In the US the top 20% own 70% of the fiancial assets. 10.6% of the public is inpoverty levels. The spectrum of the populace being inthe “must be nice” crowd vs “you don’t stand a chance crowd”.is growing wider. Mind the gap
And you think Tim Walz, who introduced himself to America as the jerk who made juvenile sexual taunts at J.D. Vance, was somehow better than Donald Trump? Trump ain’t great, but if all Trump had to do to win was be a little better than Walz, he was going to win, and that’s about how he won.
If you look around honestly, Scott, you’ll notice that there are two parties that would make any rational person cringe in this country.
It scares me that a lot of people loudly embraced Walz as their kind of guy.
Maybe if you want the Democrats to win, you could encourage them to be less cringey themselves. A party that sounds like the bullying jerks on the elementary school playground, older but at the same third-grade level of maturity, really isn’t anything to brag about or identify with.
I love your essay and appreciate all you are doing. My only request is if you could read your essay in your own voice. You have a great speaking voice, and I’d rather hear this coming from you directly.
First a correction, twas Senator JOSEPH McCarthy who mentored Roy Cohn.I volunteered for Sen. Eugene McCarthys campaign in high school. Sadly he lost primary to Hubert Humphrey.
It’s very reassuring to know that we share the same mentors, Heather Cox Richardson, Timothy Snyder, also for me Rachel Maddow and Thom Hartmann who have the unique ability to give historical context to our current politics. I as raised in a litter of Irish children, my mother was intelligent, well read and active in our community. To this day it’s been a blessing and a curse because I want to school those who just don’t discern facts from fiction. I’ve had to learn to listen without reacting and calmly steer folks to truth. You are now among those I recommend highly as you cut through BS and break it down to palatable portions. I believe I’m making progress one person/ meal at a time. Keep it up Scott, what you say and most importantly HOW you say it resonates! Amd I absolve the love and banter between you and Kara.
**absolutely love the banter between you and Kara 😉
I am so tired of hearing the private/public comment discussion. A Democratic Senator says a Republican Senator colleague in private admits he/she is troubled by Trump’s actions. I think those who are talking about this give cover to senators and congressmen and leaders. Don’t tell anyone that somebody privately talks the right talk, or walks the right walk. Call them authoritarian/fascist supporters until they speak against the fascist authoritarian. Do not let them get away with silence. Do not let them avoid moral responsibility. Call them to be responsible for all the actions of the administration.
See how Canada’s leaders, the right and left TOGETHER, responded to a ONE-OFF, for us, tragedy…clearly understanding their roles as elected leaders of a modern democracy.
Amen. It will take all of us all the time everywhere. American CEOs are failing their duty to protect democracy which ultimately means they are failing not only their shareholders but society at large.
In this pendulum motion between personal and collective duty to past and future, between honouring what was done to advance us and being a role model for those to come, in this dance maga and trump are also engaged.
They speak of what is owed to the whites and confederates and formulate versions of manhood (mostly) to be emulated – role models for the future generations.
The disgusting and disingenuous part in their movement/ dance is the lie, knowing they don’t do anything to honour the past or the future but to grab as much as possible right now – money, pussies, police power- the people of past, present and future be damned.
So it is this puerile (monstrous in adults) lack of availability for others and for time perspective combined with the storytelling seducing for adults and children alike that breeds the monstrosity that is Trump and those who lie with him (irrespective of why they choose to lie).
Thank you for leading resist. We also need to capture the lies and deeds that my MAGA friends believe do not exist. I would love to see a Large Counter of Lies like the sign the counts the national debt or a sign that reflects the safety data in the workplace. We need better communication of the things that most of us find objectionable but denied by MAGA.
Fantastico
Nailed it.
Thank you for being so insightful! Taking the time. That is a beautiful to thing.
AIPAC is the best role model of the chosen ones to be “lucky” enough to have built a “rewarding” country by sacrificing the sovereignty of the US of A and more than willing to do absolute nothing and make others do everything on a sunny day and flee at a sign of slight breeze. And of course turn around and ask if that’s a good role modeling. Oh the times we live in – savage thieves, murderers and liars crying in pain for having to be savage thieves, murderers and liars.
Bravo 💗
When you refer to Roy Coen, I think you meant to say Joseph McCarthy, not Eugene McCarthy.
Hello Scott,
You, like most of the people in media, live in a communication, social, information and economic bubble, and generally, have no clue what life is like for the average American in 2026.
Ask yourself, how did Donald Trump win election twice?
Let’s start with the 18+ million (26% of workers) people who work in retail making less than $20 per hour with minimal if any benefits.
If you are working your ass off and barely hanging on and your kid is sick and you do not have health insurance what is the value of democracy to you.
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is your priority every day.
As a kid, my mother (industrial welder, American Tube Bending 1942 – 1945) told me that Hitler came to power because he gave the German people their dignity back, and a subhuman race of people to blame for all their problems.
President Trump is the perfect reflection of the voters who believe, “The Young Bucks are taking the baby mama’s food stamps and buying beer and cigarettes.”
Cancel Netflix, NO! Fix the social safety net.
You and all your podcasts and MSNOW buddies should stand up and challenge the craven politicians that have been using anger and resentment to demonize the least among us to gain and keep power for 40 years.
The decision To Feed Hungry Children or give tax cuts to Oil Companies is a political decision.
YOU TAKE A SIDE. Cancelling Netflix does not get to the root of our problem.
Scott, it is hard to fathom the number and contents of comments not in support of the general premise of Role Models. I can only shake my head and despair.
We all need role models at any age , people we aspired to be. My mum always said when my brother and were going out “ try and be good “ As much as I try , I fail but at least I’m still on the path, Trump is a role model for self , to hell with humanity,
Scott , I know you are a good person .
Bernard
I love the effort but I feel it’s too pale to move the needle. We have this thing called social media- I think used properly could be a more effective method to turn this tide. Either way I appreciate any effort to try and budge out new oligarc. Regardless Scott, please keep fighting the good fight and maybe, just maybe you’ll have a change of heart towards politics (physical). Great weekend to all,
Stay the course, Scott! My fear is that we increasingly act like capitalism is just a spreadsheet — maximize shareholder value and call it a day. But the version that works long term has always included a social contract. Trust. Responsibility. A sense that companies are part of the communities in which they profit, not separate from them.
When leaders stay quiet because of shareholder value, things start to feel unstable — not just economically, but culturally.
You can believe in markets and still believe in stewardship.
Appreciate you saying this out loud. More leaders should.
I would not look to CEOs. They do what they do and will continue to do what they do. We get a new far-left president and they will just go the other way. I do not think the people you describe are going to come from national figures who have their private lives under a microscope or their job on the chopping block if they enrage 150M people. The people who “stand up to power” are usually those who financially benefit from standing up to power. If one can make political resistance a brand that pays one back then you will see astounding bravery so fast.
Good role models are going to come locally from what used to be called FCLC (Family, Church, Local Community) – I’m sure today we can add some more letters to that. Good role models are also not likely to be people at all involved in politics and are unlikely to be Trump-haters or Maga folks. They are relatively boring people who tell you to be respect yourself, respect others, work hard, invest your money, volunteer, give back. Take any one of these people, extract their political opinions and give them national scrutiny and believe me, all of them will look like monsters.
oh CEO’s did you read that? Where the hell are you, you bunch of cowardly pricks?
In your commentary you mentioned that Ro Cohn and Senator Eugene Mc Carthy were cohorts. Nothing could be further from the truth. It Joseph Mc Carthy the junior Senator from Wisconsin who was in leafy with Roy Cohn. Please correct the error. I enjoy your work. Thank you
Where was Merrick Garland when he had a chance to stop the monster?
Professor. Who are the intellectual sherpas that inspire your podcast jokes? Is that humor illustrative of the role models you seek?
Can’t spell sanctimonious without “Scott”
Comment # 2
I just read the other comments, hmmmmm. How about TOS. Trump Ostrich Syndrome, or HBSS Head Buried in
Sand Syndrome. For God’s sake people, open your eyes! Actually listen to Trump. He’s a mess and a dangerous mess at that. He’s got a boatload of villainous evil doers all around him. What leader, in the history of our nation could stomach watching and listening to those sycophants praise him like they do. Its beyond belief that you cannot see .
Scott- I appreciate what you are trying to do. You clearly mean well. And… Corporations have a fiduciary responsibility to their shareholders. Politics are bad for business when you automatically piss off approximately 1/2 of your customers. And we won’t really know if the issues you cite will come home to roost until after the fact.
In other words- it’s the wrong path. The direction of the country is decided at the polls. It is from there that energy must be made if you want change. So far, America has chosen this ugly path. We are collectively responsible. And the far left looks just as dangerous but in a different way.
I don’t know if you read these comments but you are the real deal. I admire you and I do not say that lightly. You are smart & brave. Keep doing your thing and remember you have an army of people who think the world of you.
Prof, This is one is a classic! You continue to out-do yourself in pathetic word salad. Have you been secretly attending Kamala-Carnegie writing classes? (Used your ad hominem method. Ha Ha!) You really need a wing man to review this nonsense, unless you are writing only for writing’s sake. A prior comment listed 3 statements from Biden, clearly racist. Bad Bunny….Trump stated the truth. Not family entertainment, for sure! Not supposed to swear, drop F bombs on live TV. Is BB one of your role models? He’s not one of mine! Obama lied about Obama care. Premiums went up!! Role model? You’d have to pay me to attend one your classes. Here’s why….You want to write about role models, referencing one of yours. Then you use a politician as an example of the negative. You failed miserably at getting anyone to be a role model, except, this piece is a model of how not to write on role models and examples of them. Grade: D-
Thanks Scott for your strong opinions. How is the movement going? Any data or is it just symbolic? Why wouldn’t 2.5% of the populations do this when democrats retake the White House. Wouldn’t the tech CEO’s need to listen to them? Isn’t this mutually assured destruction?
Thanks Scott for continuing to clearly and reasonably and passionately giving voice to the heart of our mess and for providing an actionable set of ideas for moving forward. I live in Minneapolis and it is especially clear to me and the majority of our neighbors that crisis is upon us. Role models and leadership. Honor and integrity. Honesty and shame. I miss those elements of our societal norms.
I appreciate this essay and your focus on how we learn scripts from the high‑prestige people we choose to elevate. That is why I was troubled to see that you continue to follow Peter Attia given the reporting on his relationship and emails with Jeffrey Epstein. Even with his public apology, many survivors of sexual abuse and assault experience this kind of statement as lip service rather than real accountability, especially when the underlying power dynamics and choices are not fully confronted. I am genuinely curious how you reconcile this with your call for men in positions of influence to be intentional about the examples they set for young men who are looking to them for guidance.
I loved that you reconnected with Cy. Ive beard you speak about him often. He must be so proud of you. Twice kids i had mentored in the past showed gratitude to me and it was so rewarding. As per role models—i find it upsetting that my 13 yr old grandson only knows trump, which is an example of how NOT to be. Sometimes there can be valuable lesson in that.
Read the room, Scott. The TDS obsession is not where the audience is and never was. Run your lane, the one where your view is insightful and inspired. Is it too late for you? Get well and God bless.
Sure, TDS is real—trump is unequivocally deranged (probably frontotemporal dementia)
Ah, man people hate Trump. I’m a black man at 73 years old. And I don’t hate him, but I hate when he does. And how he does it, even though he, it’s clearly a racist, but none of that matter what manages that Biden in the left, including Obama, then America down a very dark path of nihilism and immorality, and gods in Trump. Like he sent Nebuchadnezzar to punish us, to wake us up to change us to call us through repentance.
Instead of spending all the money on ice and mistreating the American people. And destroying our democracy.My request is only that.He finds a way to house the homeless.
Be prayerful
Scott, this was a great column, but you owe the late Senator Eugene McCarthy an apology.
Minnesota U.S. Senator Eugene McCarthy, known as “Clean Gene,” was a highly respected, ethical politician, best remembered for running against Bobby Kennedy for the 1968 Democratic presidential nomination. He was not associated with Roy Cohn.
Roy Cohn was the henchman of Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy, who led the red scare of the early 1950’s. Joe McCarthy was eventually driven out of the U.S. Senate and died from alcoholism. Nearby states, different decades, different men in every meaningful way except non-overlapping service in the Senate.
I’m with Jack on this one, Scott. Wrong senator. Big miss.
Somebody got an “F” in proofreading.
The problem is CEOs and BODs never ask what shareholders value? To them shareholder value simply means higher stock price when in fact shareholders value many things besides money. I don’t invest based solely on a company’s stock price potential, but I certainly might increase my investment in a company’s whose CEO has the guts to tell truth to power. I suppose they, as are Democrats, afraid what they might lose (the investment/votes of MAGAmorons). But I wish both would take risks, to shine a light on truth, to be brave in the face of intimidation. I’m not holding my breath that either might do so.
How inspiring — standing up against authoritarianism at the risk of your own personal gain. I will never understand the people who aren’t supportive of freedom and democracy as some of your readers have demonstrated. All my life I have been perplexed on how humanity became so dark 80 years ago but sadly, I am understanding the algorithm for this to happen.
Keep inspiring Scott!
I read your articles for insights into the business and culture. However your Trump Derangement Syndrome has diminished your value. I wish you would have someone who is not as afflicted as you read your writing before subjecting it to your readers. For example, you pounce on Trump’s comments on the about the Super Bowl half time show then immediately use ad-hominem references on anyone who was involved in the Kid Rock alternative. Talk about double standards. I was forced to stop reading at that point. Get some therapy for your problem, consider what you are going to obsess about when Trump is out of office?
Agree 1000% Stan –
I used to read for the markets, business, entrepreneurial insights, but now Professor Galloway is beyond TDS…
The most concerning thing is that Trump’s policies are only positive for the United States and its survival. And to see Scott dumping on Trump and his policies like this does not make sense.
No. You don’t make any sense.
I agree more with you than you do with yourself.
What was once 100% insightful has now devolved into predictable, shallow 98% TDS and a couple of worthy sentences.
It’s not even inspiring TDS. It’s shallow, predictable, and boring.
We will all obsess about how to celebrate his disappearance, the sooner the better
Joe McCarthy, not “Clean Gene” McCarthy.
It seems like you wrote this post specifically for the CEOs in your audience. I’m glad you did, because you have something important to tell them, but it was confusing for me as a non-CEO because I didn’t understand the purpose of your post until the last paragraph. Perhaps you could write something for my section of the audience next. I have a question: Given everything you’ve said, how should ordinary people like me feel about rich people? Honestly, most of my friends and I feel a quite visceral hatred for rich people, these days — but not because we personally know any. It’s more like we hate the idea of rich people; we hate how much power they have to slowly ruin our lives and the world around us. We hate their blithe disregard for our wellbeing, and even though we know they never think about us, we take their injuries against our class personally. How could we not? We’re the ones being doomed by them, one papercut at a time, day after day after day.
I believe your thoughts and insights are so far off track and so politically leftist and totally misguided and uninformed. As a businessman you should know better than this.
Thank you, Richard
Well said.
Thank you, Richard
I believe that Scott should know better.
Trump may love himself and say some off the wall things, but he is absolutely doing the right things for the USA –
We were going up against Russia and China as well as Europe, and the guy is performing a master class on how to change that around and keep the USA at the forefront of what happens in this global world
Trump is kowtowing to Putin and losing to Zhi, both his role models
Trump says “some off the wall things”? Trump says dangerous things; savage things; unconstitutional things; things not tethered to reality; completely non-sensical things. These are things that cannot be minimized or explained away, Steve.
Try teaching ethics at this time. Try teaching college students to do the right thing while people in power are ditching moral standards and benefiting in some way.
I think I’ll just unsubscribe from you.
If I could needlepoint this on a pillow I would!: “Society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they’ll never sit under.” There’s an inverse to that wisdom. Great societies decline when old men chop down forests meant to provide shade and oxygen for future generations. Donald Trump isn’t making America great again, he’s clear-cutting American values.
The whole article was great but that start off nugget was inspired. And – wouldn’t it be great if everyone had a mentor like Cy at some point in their life?
Speaking of role models, how about the previous president?
“I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy.”
“If you have a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or Trump, then you ain’t Black.”
“You cannot go to a 7-Eleven or a Dunkin’ Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent.”
A great read on the eerily similiar rise to authorianism in Nazi Germany is Erik Larson’s (or Larsen) In the Garden of Beasts. Validates your analogy.
In the garden if beasts is in my lap ready to be read as soon as i finish here
Kind sir. You have become deranged. Where are all the insightful business and market ideas and theories this Friday newsletter used to provide? I always loved the ways these insights were presented. It’s sad that you are so myopic to other view points politically, that this newsletter is rendered worthless. I guess all good things come to an end.
Agreed. Where did the Real Scott go? I’m tired of reading from the deranged DTS guy
Galloway’s TDS has progressed into the equivalent of stage four syphilis, rotting out his brain and internal organs. He’s past the point of absurd. I hope his students can request and obtain a tuition refund.
Hadn’t occurred to me that trump was suffering from stage 4 syphilis, but makes sense, given his history (see Stormy Daniels, Epstein, et al). I thought it was frontotemporal dementia, but now I’ll include syphilis. In my differential diagnosis.