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The No. 1 worst career advice billionaires give, says bestselling author: Anyone who says it is 'already rich'
CNBC ^ | Ashton Jackson

Posted on 07/20/2025 9:31:37 AM PDT by aquila48

Billionaires tend to give one bad piece of career advice, according to self-made millionaire and bestselling author Scott Galloway: Follow your passion.

"The worst advice the billionaires give is 'follow your passion,'" Galloway, a serial entrepreneur and New York University marketing professor, told LinkedIn's "The Path" video series in an episode that published on June 3. "Anyone who tells you to follow your passion is already rich."

Born in Los Angeles to a single mother, Galloway said that his family's income never exceeded $40,000 during his childhood, and that he thought his passion for athletics would bring him financial freedom. After discovering that professional sports weren't in his future, he graduated from UCLA and got an analyst job at Morgan Stanley.

He quickly realized, 'I don't have the skills for this," he said. He started to workshop different ideas and decided that he'd be better suited for entrepreneurship than as an employee at a big company. In 1992, he co-founded marketing firm Prophet, ultimately selling it in 2002 for $33 million, according to LinkedIn.

Galloway later co-founded a research firm called L2 in 2010, which was acquired in 2017 for a reported sum of more than $130 million. His career journey indicates that success isn't about blindly following passion or going into a field that's stereotypically lucrative. Instead, combine what you're good at with what can make you money, and embrace opportunities to pivot.

"I applied for 29 jobs [after graduation]. I got one offer," said Galloway. "The key to my success is rejection, or specifically my ability to endure it. Because if you don't get to 'no' a lot of times, you're never going to get to wonderful 'yeses.'"

(Excerpt) Read more at cnbc.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Education
KEYWORDS: advice; passion; scottgalloway; success
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To: TangoLimaSierra

“””””That’s like the rich twits who say, “Money isn’t important to me”.”””””

I get a kick out of the people who say, “he’s a billionaire, he doesn’t need money, so you can trust him as a politician” as though men who accumulate 1000s of millions of dollars are not obsessed with money and have devoted their lives to gathering more and more of it until that magic moment when they want you to believe that no, they are actually just laid back fellows who enjoyed work but don’t really care about money, the 1000s of millions in my life just came naturally.


21 posted on 07/20/2025 10:24:34 AM PDT by ansel12 ((NATO warrior under Reagan, and RA under Nixon, bemoaning the pro-Russians from Vietnam to Ukraine.))
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To: All

The $37T debt future that looms essentially renders any advice to the young, any advice at all, to be worthless.

There is nothing that can be done.


22 posted on 07/20/2025 10:27:52 AM PDT by Owen
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To: aquila48

Galloway is a liberal dummy. His advice for young men is terrible.


23 posted on 07/20/2025 10:35:13 AM PDT by KC_Conspirator
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To: aquila48
Instead, combine what you're good at with what can make you money, and embrace opportunities to pivot.

This
24 posted on 07/20/2025 10:41:09 AM PDT by af_vet_1981 ( The bus came by and I got on, That's when it all began.=)
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To: aquila48

Instead of blindly following their passion, individuals should focus on developing valuable skills, prioritizing financial stability, and embracing hard work and continuous learning to achieve success and build wealth


25 posted on 07/20/2025 10:48:00 AM PDT by mjp (pro-freedom & pro-wealth $)
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To: aquila48

If he went 1 offer per 30 applications, that’s very good by my standards.


26 posted on 07/20/2025 10:58:17 AM PDT by scrabblehack
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To: aquila48
As Trump has said (paraphrased), do what you love and you'll never work a day in your life.

And from another perspective, without passion, a person will always fall short of their own potential — no matter their talent.

27 posted on 07/20/2025 11:18:21 AM PDT by RoosterRedux ("There's nothing so inert as a closed mind" )
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To: aquila48
Billionaire: "Follow your passion."

Listener: (to himself) "My passion is robbing billionaires."

28 posted on 07/20/2025 11:20:58 AM PDT by T.B. Yoits
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To: aquila48

It’s always rubbed me the wrong way when a filthy rich person without a care in the world tells young people something like “the most important thing is to follow your passion”.

Most of those young people’s passions may not be enough to even pay the bills, let alone enable them to reach a comfortable financial place in life.


29 posted on 07/20/2025 11:22:28 AM PDT by simpson96
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To: aquila48
“.....success isn't about blindly following passion or going into a field that's stereotypically lucrative. Instead, combine what you're good at with what can make you money, and embrace opportunities to pivot....”

Sometimes, what you are good at can become your passion. More often than not, success brings changes in your job function that takes you into areas you don't enjoy as much as what brought you success. This is why many people who start up successful companies, have a hard time continuing to lead those companies to broader success.

30 posted on 07/20/2025 11:45:03 AM PDT by Robert357
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To: aquila48

Back in the late ‘90s I saw a call-in show for kids on NASA TV. One call was from an 11 year-old girl who said she was blind and she wanted to know if she could be a NASA astronaut someday. The panel of teenagers told her she definitely could and that she should “follow her dream and it will come true”. So far, I haven’t heard of any blind astronauts traveling into and working in space. Soooo, what’s up with that?


31 posted on 07/20/2025 12:05:05 PM PDT by equaviator (Nobody's perfect. That's why they put pencils on erasers!)
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To: aquila48

The best way to get rich is to inherit or marry it.


32 posted on 07/20/2025 12:11:18 PM PDT by AppyPappy (If Hitler were alive today and criticized Trump, would he still be Hitler?)
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To: aquila48

“The worst advice the billionaires give is ‘follow your passion,’” Galloway [said].

Probably, most billionaires’ main passion is making money. That’s not necessarily greed. Probably most of them view it more like a game they play.

There is some truth to the saying, “Do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life.” It’s figurative. Of course, making money is the product of hard work. But some people enjoy working hard if the work is something they are passionate about.

On the other hand, there are many poor people who work very hard and never escape poverty. “Follow your passion” is advice that does not require you to be extremely rich, but most successful entrepreneurs have enough financial stability to dedicate time and energy to pursuing a career they love and get paid well for.

A person who is struggling with health, relationship, financial, or substance abuse issues is not in a good position to pursue wealth. Those issues have to be addressed first.

A lot of financial advice about how to get rich assumes that everyone has control of their circumstances, and that’s not always true. But also, people do not always know what they are capable of until they become very motivated to try their hardest.


33 posted on 07/20/2025 12:15:58 PM PDT by unlearner (Still not tired of winning.)
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To: aquila48

from my experience with people who have more in the bank than the average person, be willing to sacrifice some of your integrity, justify not keeping your promises.


34 posted on 07/20/2025 1:17:57 PM PDT by jimfr
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To: Robert357; simpson96; af_vet_1981; Vermont Lt

My rules are the following...

1. Make a list of the things you are most passionate about/ really enjoy doing

2. Sort them in order of which ones you’re best at(skill, talent, etc0

3. Order that resulting list into those that would make you the best living.

4. Pick the first on that list

This may have to be revisited from time to time as experience dictates.


35 posted on 07/20/2025 1:47:19 PM PDT by aquila48 (Do not let them make you "care" ! Guilting you is how they. control you. )
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To: Owen

What about, “Convert all your wealth to a suitable, diverse mix of hard assets just before the music stops playing.”


36 posted on 07/20/2025 2:12:39 PM PDT by ClarityGuy
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To: ClarityGuy

Ahh timing.

Like with everything else, all you need to be is right.


37 posted on 07/20/2025 2:13:26 PM PDT by Owen
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To: aquila48

I am going to make lots of money by being an “influencer”....


38 posted on 07/20/2025 2:36:19 PM PDT by minnesota_bound (Making money now. Still want much more.)
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To: aquila48

I’ve never heard this from a billionaire. Has anyone actually heard this said in seriousness?


39 posted on 07/20/2025 2:53:38 PM PDT by hinckley buzzard ( Resist the narrative. )
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To: aquila48

Very simple, their passion was to make money.


40 posted on 07/20/2025 3:07:35 PM PDT by ImJustAnotherOkie
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