Scott Galloway (@profgalloway) is a professor of promoting at NYU’s Stern Faculty of Enterprise and a serial entrepreneur. Scott has based 9 firms and served on the boards of The New York Occasions Firm, City Outfitters, Berkeley’s Haas Faculty of Enterprise, Panera Bread, and Ledger.
His newest e-book is Notes on Being a Man, and I deeply consider in Scott’s mission and messages with this e-book. We’re sitting on a tinderbox and want to deal with the elephant within the room: younger males need assistance.
In highschool, I gained the lottery by chancing upon one coach whose affect saved me from the fates of a lot of my male buddies: jail, overdoses, DUI deaths, and extra. Ever since, I’ve looked for ways in which we would nudge younger males in direction of optimism and higher lives. Left unaddressed, the potential for violence and societal catastrophe can be excessive. Testosterone and aggression will go someplace, so finest to channel it.
I’m hoping Scott’s e-book will act as a digital mentor for younger males who’re feeling misplaced, caught, offended, or despondent concerning the future.
However what am I so anxious about? Listed below are only a few stats from Scott’s e-book and appearances:
- Males are dropping out of school at greater charges, resulting in a commencement ratio of roughly 33:66 (males:girls).
- The share of younger males aged 20 to 24 who’re neither at school nor working has tripled since 1980.
- 45 % of males ages 18 to 25 have by no means approached a girl in particular person.
- Between 2008 and 2018, the share of males who hadn’t had intercourse within the final yr rose from 8% to twenty-eight%.
- On courting apps like Tinder, the highest 10% of males (in attractiveness) obtain 80–90% of all swipe-rights.
- This courting imbalance contributes to elevated susceptibility to misogynistic or extremist content material on-line.
- Males are twice as prone to be suspended from faculty for a similar infraction as ladies (behavior-adjusted).
- Boys in single-parent households carry out worse, whereas ladies’ outcomes stay comparatively secure.
- Males are 3× extra prone to overdose.
- Males are 4× extra prone to commit suicide.
- Males are 12× extra prone to be incarcerated.
I requested Scott if I might reprint “The Scott Technique” from his new e-book, and he and his writer kindly agreed. It does job of highlighting the no-BS powerful love + sensible tactical combo that makes Scott who he’s.
Enter Scott . . .
When buddies ask if I’ll mentor their sons, I at all times say sure. We concentrate on 4 issues—health, diet, cash, work. Grasp these and they’ll be in a spot to begin exploring relationships.
It’s value repeating: many males suppose they should be a mixture of Aristotle, Gandalf, and Mr. Miyagi from The Karate Child to mentor a youthful particular person. That’s horseshit. The questions I get requested are straightforward, and a cat might give the recommendation I do.
I ask questions as mundane as: When’s the final time you ate an actual meal? What do you eat and drink throughout a mean day? Pink Bull, Cheetos, sativa gummies? How do you suppose these may have an effect on your physique and mind? So . . . you’re employed in retail, and/or you earn 4 hundred bucks a week at Chipotle? How a lot of that goes to on-line sports activities betting? 100 {dollars} per week? Which means you’re spending 1 / 4 of your earnings on playing. How are your relationships? Are you courting? What’s your relationship together with your dad and mom like? What about your relationship with your self? What’s your story? Do you might have a plan, a blueprint, a map? If not, let’s give you one. You possibly can regulate it, swap it out in six months or a yr—nonetheless, you want one. Do you need to apply to junior faculty? Skip faculty, enter the workforce? Transfer out of your childhood bed room and begin having intercourse with unusual girls? First it’s good to make some cash.
Younger males have a single supply of capital: time. The place to seek out it? On their telephones. By monitoring their actions, we reallocate these hours to extra productive locations.
I’m eternally amazed by the variety of college-age children who dwell at dwelling and who’re satisfied their dad and mom are the enemy. Sure, your dad and mom may be tone-deaf, uncool, a supply of frustration, however give me a fucking break—they’re not attempting to undermine you or wreck your life. Except house is a hellscape, and so they’re abusing you, assume every part they do comes from place. Don’t need to obey home guidelines? Then cease taking your dad and mom’ cash and discover a fifth-floor walk-up. Accepting their assist means taking their recommendation.
Subsequent, we unlock their telephones. Not so I can decide them or be absolute—I watch porn and spend an excessive amount of time on TikTok, too. By analyzing display time, we unencumber eight to 12 hours per week. To any extent further, they’ll comply with spend thirty minutes a day, not two hours, on TikTok. Two hours per week watching porn are lowered to forty-five minutes, and six-plus hours spent on Reddit, Discord, Coinbase, Robinhood, are distilled to 2.
Many younger males don’t benefit from their muscle mass, bone construction, and testosterone to get bodily sturdy. To any extent further, they’ll work out three, later 4, occasions per week—we obtain an app to trace progress. The purpose is to begin small and construct up.
Get to Work . . .
Today, anybody with a telephone and a driver’s license could make cash driving for Lyft or doing chores on Taskrabbit. If you wish to earn a living, you first want to begin incomes some through a part-time job. A pleasant factor about being profitable is that you simply begin creating a style for it—suppose Dracula and blood. Cash, you notice, is enjoyable and attention-grabbing, and making it’s a good feeling. Why not see if you can also make extra? Should you work at CVS, do you might have the talents and group to get a job at Complete Meals and earn much more cash?
Together with health and work, I additionally ask younger males to put themselves in an unfamiliar scenario within the firm of strangers three occasions per week within the company of one thing larger—a writing or cooking class, a nonprofit, church, a sports activities league. The one rule is that inside the month, they should introduce themselves to everybody there. Beginning with whats up, then asking a stranger out for espresso. The different particular person may say no. The subsequent day, they should name and inform me how they really feel. It would harm, however guess what? They’re not mortally wounded, or bankrupt, they’re nonetheless standing, and that’s every part. Now do it once more till they begin creating a callus. The extra nos they get, the extra they’ll calibrate what works and doesn’t. The important thing, the ability, the expertise, the mastery, the ninja artisanship nobody teaches, is that the best, most particular ability a younger man can develop is his willingness to endure rejection.
The above works for many younger males—others want extra of a sounding board. It’s freakishly straightforward so as to add worth to a younger man’s life. One younger man in his twenties informed me he deliberate to maneuver from Washington, DC, to Alaska. Unsure why—I feel he noticed a particular on the Discovery Channel as soon as.
SCOTT: Do you might have a job in Alaska?
YOUNG MAN: No.
SCOTT: Buddies? Kin? Any assist system?
YOUNG MAN: No, it’ll be a recent begin. Wait, I forgot to let you know—my mother was simply recognized with Parkinson’s.
SCOTT: Parkinson’s?
YOUNG MAN: I feel that’s what the physician stated.
SCOTT: Why are you being such an fool proper now? Don’t stop your job in DC, you’re making 100 grand a yr!
YOUNG MAN: Oh, okay, good level.
SCOTT: Additionally, it appears like your mother is de facto sick. I’ll guess she wants you. Is that this actually the suitable time to maneuver?
YOUNG MAN: Hadn’t considered that. Most likely not.
SCOTT: Right here’s some extra recommendation. Financial institution sufficient cash so you might have six months of cushion. Take per week off, fly to Alaska, and see in the event you prefer it—you may actually hate the place. Additionally, if I had been you, I’d get a job there first, earlier than you progress. Additionally, your mother wants you.
YOUNG MAN: Wow. I didn’t consider any of this. Thanks, Scott.
A stunning colleague as soon as requested if I’d be prepared to mentor her son, a university sophomore, pre-med. Dan was feeling low as a result of he’d torn his Achilles tendon taking part in soccer and was out for the season.
SCOTT: Are you on the fast-track to taking part in within the NFL?
DAN: [laughs hysterically]
SCOTT: In that case, every part’ll work out. How’s faculty general?
DAN: Actually good. I’m having second ideas about med faculty, although.
SCOTT: Stick it out one other yr. The world gained’t finish in the event you stop and do one thing else.
DAN: Okay.
Dan was tremendous, I informed his mother. The Achilles damage was a setback, however faculty was good, he had sturdy relationships, went to church, and was in common contact with relations. As a profitable skilled, his mother anticipated him to comply with a sure groove, and proper now her son wasn’t grooving—so what? Dad and mom throughout the United States would pray for issues like these.
Lastly, I remind younger males to chop themselves slack and cease being so arduous on themselves. Reminded day by day of their very own perceived bodily and monetary shortcomings in a numbing, dumbing, deep-pocketed digital ecosystem designed to make them really feel like screwups and cultural outsiders whereas concurrently persuading them they’ll have a viable social and work life on their telephones—whereas different voices on-line whisper that the world is towards them due to girls, trans athletes, and immigrants—their judgment and sense of actuality take a beating. Adolescence is tough, the twenties more durable, as one’s potential begins narrowing, extra is at stake, perspective is restricted, and any/all profession selections really feel dispositive (see above, restricted perspective).
One highschool senior I met received rejected by his father or mother’s alma mater. It devastated him. I informed him he would nonetheless go to varsity, that there are 100 nice colleges in America that double as one of the best hundred colleges on the earth. He would get into one, transfer right into a dorm, drink an excessive amount of beer, hang around along with his buddies, meet and have intercourse with girls, check his limits, and have a completely superb time. In 5 years, when he and I caught up, the one factor he’d be upset about could be how upset he as soon as was.
S-C-A-F-A
My anger and despair points began once I was in my thirties, in all probability handed down from my dad. I’ve by no means been clinically recognized for despair, by no means taken an SSRI. In my thirties, although, I started creating grudges towards myself and others. I had a tough time transferring previous issues, would get triggered by one thing trivial, might really feel my blood thickening, and I’d really feel hole and down. I nonetheless have hassle getting previous issues, and intervals once I really feel nothing—my common day by day temper doesn’t at all times sync with my privilege and blessings.
It’s not one problem or set off that makes me anxious, it’s extra about me. The nerve fibers of the spinal ganglia penetrate our guts, the place they establish ache, stress, and extra. What makes me go darkish is much less a operate of a nasty telephone name or a shitty funding resolution than my personal mind and physique chemistry. As soon as, I used to be on the telephone with my sister when she remarked I at all times appeared pissed off about one thing. “I’ve to be trustworthy,” she stated. “You’ve got much less proper to be offended and upset than anybody I do know. I imply, take a look at your life.”
She was proper, although I’m nonetheless a great distance from mastering happiness. Today, I decide up the warning indicators extra simply that I want to pay extra consideration to myself. If I haven’t exercised, the depth and frustration that builds up in my physique and mind are displaced. I get snappish, monosyllabic, and self-absorbed. I begin role-playing aggressive conditions in my head that by no means occurred, like a face-off with a coworker, a cab driver, or an unfriendly barista. These simulations are verbal, by no means bodily. The largest giveaway is I begin occupied with the Holocaust.
I noticed sure behavioral modifications might assist snap me out of it. I got here up with the horrible mnemonic SCAFA, quick for Sweat, Clear consuming, Abstinence, Household, and Affection—my 5 prescription drugs.
Sweat and train are good for resetting my system. They’re the closest factor we people should an inexpensive, indiscriminately out there youth serum—and so they make me a nicer particular person, too. Clear consuming means I attempt to eat home-cooked meals versus gorging on trans fat or too many over-seasoned restaurant meals. Abstinence means no alcohol and weed—a brief ban towards no matter hits my pleasure sensors. Lastly, I spend time with my household, even when my sons are being terrible and demanding, absorbing as a lot affection as potential from them, my spouse, and our canines. Love my canines.
Notice: Should you really feel low, return to the fundamentals: Sweat, Clear Consuming, Abstinence, Household, and Affection. Take care of your mind and physique and the remaining will comply with.
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From Notes on Being a Man by Scott Galloway, revealed by Simon & Schuster. ©2025 Scott Galloway. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission.
Extra on Scott:
Scott has gained a number of Webby and Greatest Podcast awards, and his New York Occasions–bestselling books have been translated into 28 languages. Throughout his Prof G Pod, Prof G Markets, Raging Moderates, and Pivot podcasts; his No Mercy / No Malice e-newsletter; and his YouTube channel, Scott reaches hundreds of thousands. His prior bestselling books embrace The 4, The Algebra of Happiness, Publish Corona, Adrift: America in 100 Charts, and The Algebra of Wealth: A Easy Formulation for Monetary Safety.
Picture credit score: Lukas Rychvalsky
