February 15, 2024 • 34 mins
In this episode, Karol welcomes Mitch Roschelle, Managing Director at Madison Ventures, about various topics including the housing boom during COVID, misunderstandings about personal finance, teaching financial literacy to kids, recognition and living a public life, the problem of tribalism, the feeling of success and relevance, and the importance of following your passion. The Karol Markowicz Show is part of the Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Podcast Network - new episodes debut every Monday & Thursday. Email Karol at KarolMarkowiczShow@gmail.com
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Hi, and welcome back to the Carol Markowitz Show on iHeartRadio.
Yesterday was Valentine's Day, and I have to be honest
with my listeners. We don't do Valentine's Day in our home.
I just have always found the day cheesy, and my
husband obviously loves that he's cleared from buying me over
price flowers or taking me to some five hundred dollars
(00:25):
prefix menu. But I've learned over the years not to
rain on everyone's parade. If you like the holiday and
you celebrate, I really hope you had a good one.
In my last monologue, I said that if you want
to meet someone, if you're single and you're hoping not
to be, one of the things you have to do
is cut off hooking up with someone from the past.
(00:46):
Despite my not enjoying Valentine's Day, I nevertheless think it's
a very good barometer for where your relationship is. If
you're sleeping with someone and you can't spend Valentine's Day
with them, even casually, then they are not for you
need to let go. We talk about loneliness, we talk
about how to meet people, but I rarely hear people
talk about how spending time with the wrong people is
(01:10):
stopping you from meeting the right person. It's really wasting
your time. If you want to meet the right person,
end it completely with the wrong one. When I talk
to single people, like I've said before, I don't want
to give them cliche advice like get out there, or
have you used the apps? Or other such comments. Katrina
Trinko had a great piece yesterday up on the Daily
(01:33):
Signal website. She wrote, it's so so ugly out there
in dating today. That really made me think, and I
feel this for my single friends so often there's no
easy solution. I want to read some more from Katrina's
piece quote. As conservatives look to advocate marriage, it's not
(01:55):
enough to talk about it's important. We need to talk
about healthy marriages. We need to talk about how porn
warps imaginations and hearts. We need to look at the bruised,
wounded singles of today and not say why aren't you married?
But is there a way I can help? Maybe it's
married couple setting up mutual friends. Maybe it's all of
(02:15):
us praying. Maybe it's helping a friend who is struggling
to become a better person which will benefit the culture.
Whether he ultimately gets married or not. Maybe sometimes it
is if asked for advice by a single friend to
gently nudge them away from excessive pickiness. Maybe it's married
couples with decades of success mentoring younger couples, helping them
learn how to communicate and love in a healthy way.
(02:38):
Maybe it's criticizing the dating landscape of today and saying,
who's happy? Can sexual pleasure really be worth all this?
Maybe it's showing there can be a different way where
you prioritize a selfless love, not just sexual pleasure. Maybe
it's more recently married couples who survive today's dating landscape,
sharing how they kept hope and persisted ute. What she
(03:00):
describes is what I hope to do with this show.
Advocate for marriage, yes, but show people how good it
can be and what it takes to make it good,
to be honest about it, to really be honest about it.
Although side note, I'd add that sexual pleasure is much
more common, according to every single study, in the married
(03:21):
world than in the single one, So if you're looking
for it, there there's your first mistake. The dating world
isn't easy, and I agree with Katrina that married people
should help make it easier for our single friends, set
up your single friends, and most importantly, tell them to
stop wasting time with their ex. Coming up next and
interview with Mitch Rochelle. Join us after the break.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
Hi, and welcome back to the Carol Markowitz Show on iHeartRadio.
My guest today is Mitch Rochelle, Mitch's managing director at
Madison Ventures, visiting research fellow at the University of San
Diego School of Business, and a Center Clip contributor.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
Hi, Mitch, So, nice to have you on.
Speaker 4 (04:02):
Great to see it, Carol.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
So, Mitch and I had been friendly for a long
time online and then we finally ran into each other
and met in person at a bot mitzvah in South Florida,
which I think is a very Florida Jewey story. Right,
how long have you been in Florida? What's your Florida timeline?
Speaker 4 (04:22):
So this was a COVID sort of passion project. I
was doing a lot of segments on different networks talking
about this weird housing boom that was happening during COVID,
and my standard line was, when you're stuck in a
cabin and you have cabin fever, the thing you dream
about the most is having a new or bigger cabin. Yes,
(04:43):
So I started doing it. I was doing exactly what
audiences were doing. I was on like Redfin and Zillow
looking at houses in Florida. And we finally but my
college aged kids were at home because they got kicked
off campus. Once my kids went back to schoo my
wife and I came down to Florida, Southeast Florida. We
did our what and war trip to kind of figure
(05:05):
out what we wanted and where, and I finally found
the home that we're living in in July of twenty one.
We closed in July. I found it and closed in
the same calendar month, and amazing, we have been here
ever since.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
That's awesome.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
I mean, I think that that's the sort of the
timeline other than the closing within a month for most people,
like the figuring out where. And it was, you know,
during the COVID years, we just saw this, you know,
obviously huge influx of people. But my brother is a
realtor in New York, and he said that that COVID
time period, he was like, you were home, and you
started to realize everything that you hated about your home.
(05:45):
It was like looking around like I can't live here anymore.
Speaker 3 (05:48):
This is crazy.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
I got to get out of here, and obviously a
lot of people did just that.
Speaker 3 (05:53):
So I see you as a very financy guy.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
You're on Fox Business a lot what to a marias
misunderstand about finance in general, and maybe personal finance in particular.
Speaker 4 (06:06):
I think personal finance is probably the most misunderstood thing
amongst upright walking mammals. All right, it's probably not just
true of America. I think it's probably a global phenomenon.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
You're going to talk about non human like, you know,
monkeys also do not understand personal funding.
Speaker 4 (06:26):
The some monkeys hoard bananas, so yeah, some monkeys can't
find bananas something. But I have a historical perspective in
it because back in my former life, when I was
a partner in a big accounting firm in the world
for for decades, I actually led an effort to teach
(06:50):
financial literacy to kids. And if there's one thing that
the financial crisis taught us, and I'm talking about the
eighth nine global financial crisis, is people didn't understand that
if you borrowed money, you actually had to repay it.
So we thought, maybe there's a way systemically that we
could help make this not happen again, and we started volunteering.
We actually volunteer as a firm a million hours in
(07:14):
schools across America, and so I learned a lot, and
I realized that teachers don't teach financial literacy to kids
because to teach it. Here's the one thing I'll say
about a teacher. Every teacher in their life has been
a substitute teacher once, and when you're a substitute teacher,
you're kind of unprepared and that the kids take advantage
of you. The thing that they feel most unprepared about
(07:37):
is to teach a topic that they don't know. So
financial literacy is a topic that they don't know. They're
probably not financial literacy themselves, so they don't teach it
to kids. So the problem we have is that no
one's teaching our kids about money, so that us as
a society don't understand money like it's period, full stop.
(07:58):
I think I mass hear the art of explaining complicated
financial things to America, and I do it on TV regularly,
but for the average person, they don't get it. And
I think until we start making financial literacy part of
the curriculum in fifty states, and we teach teachers how
(08:19):
to teach it. We're going to continue to have this
problem where people just don't understand money.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
What age group do you aim that education at.
Speaker 4 (08:29):
I thought the sweet spot was third to fifth graders. Literally,
first of all, they're interested in it. We would show
up in a school with fifteen volunteers and we'd say, hey,
we're here to talk about money. It wasn't an eye
in the room that didn't write up right, because kids
understand what money is and it's a topic that they
are somewhat passionate about, and we just put it. We
(08:52):
had a professional firm create curriculum for us, so it
was sort of boiled down. And our people and our
firm love volunte hearing in schools, so it was a
really neat program. It could be replicated. But teachers, again,
like there's probably not a teacher that hasn't been laid
on a credit card payment or doesn't have a student loan,
Like they just feel inadequate to talk about a topic
(09:15):
that they don't feel that they've mastered themselves. And that
as a result, and by the way, it's not like
the people in my firm who volunteered were like so final.
They were financially literate, but they probably you know, fell
behind a credit card payments like everybody else, right.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
I mean, I don't think I could teach a class
like that. I feel like I generally understand the financial
systems or personal finance and what I could pass on
to my kids, But I don't know that I could.
Third to fifth graders. That's a tough demographic.
Speaker 4 (09:44):
They're way more cooperative than the sixth to eighth graders.
That's why we like the third fifth graders.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
That seems right. But I love that idea.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
I think that that's something that we should be having
in all schools. Like, you know, we used to talk
about how to balance it check book and of course
nobody has check books now, but still the idea of
what comes in and what.
Speaker 4 (10:05):
I come with props. Carol, This is on my desk,
a simple bag full of check book What do you
use them for?
Speaker 3 (10:12):
Like electricity bills and that kind of thing.
Speaker 4 (10:16):
No. There, one was there because I had to pay
taxes on January fifteenth. One was there because I had
to pay the guy who's doing my garage floor and garages.
Speaker 5 (10:27):
With a check.
Speaker 4 (10:29):
Yeah, they wanted a check, and.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
They don't know about benmo.
Speaker 4 (10:36):
Venmo Zelle, PayPal wire Well, I didn't want to pay
the fifteen dollars wire transfer fee, but they wanted to check.
Speaker 3 (10:44):
Wow, I don't even know where to get one. I
call my bank.
Speaker 4 (10:49):
My wife and I have this debate all the time,
like because my kids are in the workforce now, and
she goes, no one's ever taught them how to balance
a check book. I'm like, they don't write checks, right,
They've never they they yeah, they pay rent electronically. It's
an automatic hit from there.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
Like yes, But the concept is the same, like making
sure that you don't have more going out than your
have going in. And I just and that seems like
an easy concept, but I think for a lot of
people that's really tough. I just read this fiction book
unrelated to you know, the financial system or anything. It
was called fast Food for Millionaires. And in the book,
(11:28):
this woman keeps making the wrong financial decisions. And that's
not even like the theme of the book, but I
felt like just yelling at her all the time. And
at the very end, after she's like gone to business
school and decided to like and she was trying to
get into this financial firm and she got landed a
really great job. She decided to like pursue her happiness
and like not take that job, And I'm like, no,
(11:48):
you're in debt, take the job, like you know. So
I think that kids could benefit from understanding that they
need to kind of make this visions that will pay
their bills and not just like we pursue happiness, you know.
Speaker 4 (12:05):
I would say this that anxiety forget about like range
anxiety of electronic electric vehicles. I don't want to talk
about that, but like anxiety about the range of one's
money is probably the thing that keeps most people up
at night and causes stress in relationships. Right, Infidelity is
(12:25):
not the number one cause of the worse in this country.
Money is the number one cause of the worse in
this country. And people don't have honest conversations about money
and the simple the basic unit of financial literacy or
platform of financial literacy is the budget. You just said
it yourself, Carolin. Knowing that what's going coming in and
(12:47):
what's going out, like there's a gap between the two
of them, like more's coming in that what's going out.
I had a conversation with my almost twenty four year
old son who works for a big accounting firm, who
majored in accounting and finance, because he said he could
afford like something like cable is a cable television is
a scam in America, Like that's maybe a whole nother show.
(13:08):
But he said I couldn't afford this, like sports package.
I'm like, Sam, it's like, I don't know, sixty nine
dollars a month you can afford it. I was sitting
at a pizzeria in Murray Hill in New York City,
and I like, literally, I looked at his checking account online.
I looked at the inflows and outflows. I showed him
as check and balance. I wrote it out on a napkin, literally,
(13:28):
and I said, you can absolutely afford sixty something. And
so he has the tools to understand that. He has
the tools to do that. But people are so anxious
about money that they don't even do the math because
they're worried what the outcome is going to be.
Speaker 2 (13:43):
It's funny because I think it usually works the other
way with twenty four year olds, where they're like, I
could totally afford this, and they actually.
Speaker 3 (13:50):
Cannot afford it.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
I don't know, I don't think it's bad that your
son is like, no.
Speaker 4 (13:54):
No, real, you know, no, No, he's he's good that way.
But he's also he said to me once, I don't
know some I have a boat and I got a
new one, and he goes, Dad, can you afford that?
Don't worry about it, Sam, I I can afford the boat.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
Don't worry cutting into your inheritance, Sam, Exactly. So I
mentioned that you're on Fox Business a lot. Do you
get recognized?
Speaker 4 (14:24):
Like? Is it that? That's I'm going to tell you
two interesting things. One, first of all, I could walk
down I could literally walk down Sixth Avenue in Manhattan,
a building that you used to work in, a building
that we've both had makeup put on our faces in sure,
and I've walked outside of the building and people don't
recognize me. I'm literally in New York City, coming out
(14:47):
of Fox getting walking into a town car. I can
go to a pizzeria in my town in Florida and
people will recognize me.
Speaker 2 (14:57):
So here's my thinking on this, because I have had
obviously the same experience. Right, I'm a New York Post
columnist like thirteen years now, but I almost never got
recognized in New York, like occasionally it would happen, like
I remember one time on Facebook Marketplace, I bought some
like Thomas the Train for my sons and they were like,
oh my god, we're such big fans of yours, so
stuff like that. But I would say, what I think
(15:19):
is that in New York we are trained not to
like react to famous people, not that you know, or
not that I'm famous, but yeah.
Speaker 4 (15:29):
Not to make eye contact with people.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
And we sat like, I mean, I've a million times
next to celebrities. But one time we were at Little Owl,
which is this tiny restaurant in the West Village, and
we sat like three inches from Will Ferrell and we
didn't even like not I mean to say, we did
not acknowledge him, like he was just any other. Like
if he was having this conversation right now, he'd be
like nobody recognized me that night, because we didn't even
(15:52):
like look at each other and be like, oh, look
it's Will Ferrell. So I think that that's just a
New York thing, whereas in Florida, you know, the lady
of publics is like I saw you on TV. Like
it's a lot more common here to you know, just
be like, oh, I know who you are, and that's funny.
Speaker 4 (16:09):
Where she said, hey, wait, I recognize you. Your Mirando
Divine from the your coast.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
No, but you know what, I do get a lot like, hey,
you look really familiar. Did we go to high school together?
Like no, I'm like, do you watch Fox? And like, oh, yes, yes, Fox? Right,
not high school?
Speaker 3 (16:28):
But do you like getting recognized? Do you like living
a public life?
Speaker 4 (16:32):
I don't mind it, but you know what, I was
in the presence of Roger L's twice in my life. Okay,
once was a random elevator ride with mister L's and
once was another time when he was holding court and
I got kind of pulled into him holding court and
(16:53):
he said, not to me, but to this group. Know
who's listening, Know who's watching you all the time. I
never lose sight of that when you're talking to the
camera or green dot right now in my computer, like,
know who you're talking to? And that literally sent kind
of chills up and down my spine. But like I
(17:14):
feel like the people in New York, I'm not talking
to them. I'm talking to whatever, thirty eight other states
and random people. So when I meet them, long win
did answer to your question when I meet them. The
guy who was trimming my palm trees for my house
who recognized me, But I feel like I already have
a relationship with him, right because because he's been watching
(17:38):
me and listening to me. And that's why I engage.
I watched one of your clips, I think it was
with Daniel Ashwell. I like I engage with viewers who
or listeners on Twitter because they took the time to
listen and comment. If somebody's just throwing shade at me
because they're an anti Semite and they don't like what
I said, forget it, I block them and I move on. Yeah,
(18:00):
but I try to engage with those people because they've
taken the time. So quite honestly, I'm flattered. Being on
television is a is a honor to me, Like it's
not a right, it's a privilege, and I never take
it for granted and I never lose sight of it.
So I love the people at the pancake place around
(18:21):
the corner who stop at my table, like I'll talk
to them for twenty minutes because I'm the same. Yeah, yeah,
I like the people. I don't want to shift topics,
but when I wear my Fox I don't. There's only
one hat I wear the gun range, which is my
Fox News hat, and I end up getting into long
conversations with people there who recognize me.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
So oh funny, Yeah, I I should wear some paraphernalia
at the gun range. The only thing that now at
the gun range it's like, you know, I'll wear a
Star of David all the time. I always did, but
now it's like they're just all over the gun range,
and you know, people are with the massive highs and
it's nice.
Speaker 4 (18:59):
I see you. I had to pick up when I
got my concealed Carrie permit in Florida. I had to
pick up my certificate of completion of the class that
you have to take, you know, whatever it is.
Speaker 3 (19:11):
The NRA used to believe that not anymore.
Speaker 4 (19:14):
Yeah, you constitutionally you can carry if you don't want
to wait the five day waiting period or if you
want reciprocity in other states, you need a concealed carry permit.
So I had taken the class one on one with
an instructor several months ago, and I had my appointment
for my permit, so I had to get the certificate
(19:34):
from him. So I went to a gun shop where
he teaches the class on Sundays because they're clothes, and
I happened to be wearing an IDF T shirt a
hoodie I don't remember which one, and I was in
and out. I just didn't want to interrupt his class.
He saw me, he handed me the certificate, and then
one of the guys who works in the gun shop
(19:55):
who helps him teach the class, says, what's with that shirt?
Everybody's wearing it? And I looked at the the people
sitting around the table in the class. Three of the
people were wearing IBF shirt.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
So he wasn't being a jerk, because that's what I thought.
It curious, like what's going on? What I kind of
called this?
Speaker 4 (20:13):
The guy who owns the gun shop happens to be Jewish.
But in any event, it was funny that, like there's
this theme. So maybe I'll wear the IDF hoodie next
time to the gun rage.
Speaker 5 (20:25):
Yeah, that's that's good, right, good move. We're going to
take a quick break and be right back on the
Carol Marcowitch Show.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
So we talked about what people don't know about, you know,
the financial world. What would you say is our larger,
largest cultural or societal problem, and do you think it's solvable.
Speaker 4 (20:49):
Let me go with solvable, and because that's the that's
the easier answer, and I don't think it is. It's
harder for society solve the problem. I think tribalism is
the biggest problem we have as a society. I didn't
make up that turn. Probably our mutual friendly Carter, who
we've done TV with over the years, Lee actually said
(21:10):
it on the air once and I said, wow, that
that so perfectly sums up what we are all about.
I remember when like George Bush forty three ran for president,
and there were there was he was a polarizing figure,
you know, amongst certain you know folks, But I don't
remember our country being tribal on September twelfth, Okay, our
(21:37):
country was like sort of the way Israel is right
now when you're attacked, like everybody comes together and they
push stupid politics aside. I feel like no event can
bring this country together from how tribal it's become. And
I know your show's not about politics, but I just
(21:57):
feel that, like, how many friends have you and I
lost because we feel a certain way about politics and
we have friends who can't see past that to continue
to be friends with us because we voted for somebody.
And I'll give you the worst possible example of this.
(22:17):
We my wife and I were at Costco and we
bought an American flag because it was cool, and we
put it on our house in New York. A neighbor
saw it while walking her dog and texted my wife
and said, couldn't help, but notice the flag on your house.
New look for the neighborhood. What was your inspiration?
Speaker 5 (22:39):
Wow?
Speaker 4 (22:40):
Okay, That to me is how tribal we've become. That
the existence of an American flag, which you know, anybody
who said the Pledge of Allegiance in kindergarten or learned
it in kinderwork garden understands the significance, hopefully of what
that flag represents. But somehow the American flag has become
(23:01):
a I don't know whatever, a symbol of a tribe.
It's not the tribe's flag, it's our collective flag. And
that's what frightens me. And I don't think it's fair
to throw hyperbolic language and at one political figure versus another.
I think is the cause Cable television. I don't think so,
(23:25):
because in seventeen seventy three. The framers of this country
before seventeen seventy six had left right and center and disagreed,
and they yelled about it, and they printed about it.
The New York Post, your employer, you know, the oldest
newspaper in America, has been on the side of, you know,
(23:46):
a certain political view for much of its existence. That's
not cable Television's fault, right, So, but the dial has
been turned up to like if one to ten, where
ten is like you can't touch it. We're like at
an eight point five in terms of how toxic the
(24:08):
tribalism is in this country. And I don't know what
fixes it. But because it's a two part question, just
like I talked about financial literacy at the top of
the show, and how we teach financial literacy in you know,
to kids, and it hopefully makes a difference. I think
we need to teach tolerance to our children, and not
(24:30):
just tolerance for this marginalized community, and we have to
be tolerant of them. Tolerance for all, right, the Constitution,
freedom of speech, freedom of expression, right, those constitutional rights,
civil liberties. Freedom that should be taught to kids in school,
not the ideology you know, if Vecramoswami talks about the
(24:52):
tyranny of the minority, like not tyrannical ideology, but just tolerance.
I think we should teach that to our kids and
what that really means, and then maybe that's the fix,
because I think older generations they're lost, right.
Speaker 2 (25:11):
That American flag story is really depressing. I think about
that where. You know, there was a New York Times
columnist that like the woman who thought that Bloomberg could
give every voter a million dollars, like, you know, so she's.
Speaker 3 (25:24):
Really up there.
Speaker 2 (25:25):
She said that she went to Margay, actually her name
is Margay. She went to Long Island and she saw
these American flags and she felt like threatened by them.
And I was just thinking, if like my worst enemies
started flying the American flags, Like if they the people
who I don't even know, like I just hamas supporters
(25:46):
in America started rallying with American flags, would I surrender
that as my own flag, as my own symbol.
Speaker 5 (25:54):
Never, I don't care who else flies it.
Speaker 3 (25:56):
It's mine.
Speaker 5 (25:56):
It belongs to me, it's part of my culture, it's
my country.
Speaker 2 (26:00):
And the idea that like somebody else flies the flag
and it means something else.
Speaker 5 (26:05):
That's that's crazy to me. It's just being an immigrant.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
I mean the Pledge of Allegiance is literally the first
English I ever knew. I am all about the patriotism,
and I think it's so sad that people just give
it up because they think, oh, the other side is
into this and I can't be into it too.
Speaker 4 (26:22):
I'll say two more things about the flag. One is
my golf bag. I know it sounds like a first
world problem, in my golf bag is a well, this
is from New York. It's all red, white and blue.
There's nothing on my golf bag that is in red,
white and blue. It has an American flag on the
side of it. And the woman who runs a pro
shop at my club. Sorry, that sounds.
Speaker 2 (26:43):
In New York, but this is New York is still
New York.
Speaker 4 (26:47):
She saw that thing and she says, Mitch, I'm getting
one of these things for you. It's got your name
written all over it. So in any event, I had
my golf bag outside and a guy who is a
political operative for the left said to me, I love
your maga golf bag. And I like when I went bananas,
(27:09):
and I said, I'm not going to use his name,
but I said, there's nothing on my golf bag that
says Maga. It's just red, white and blue. And in fact,
Maga is red and white with no blue, okay, And
so to him, he's in a tribe. To him, just
the existence of the red, white and blue in his brain,
there's like a Sinas gap that jumped to Maga. The
(27:33):
other thing I'll say in my orange theory that I
go to somewhat religiously around the corner from me, I
don't know. I'd gotten this conversation with this woman about
moving to Florida. She's also a refugee from New York,
and I said, I moved down here because no one
is going to say to me anything about having an
American flag. And she goes, oh, that's not true. She goes,
(27:54):
in my community, people will say something to you if
you don't have an American flag, okay, And it's like,
how have we ever weaponized the American flag.
Speaker 5 (28:03):
I don't think that's true if you don't have an America.
Speaker 2 (28:05):
I mean, like my communities, you know, mix some people
have it, some people don't.
Speaker 3 (28:08):
It's not like come on, you know.
Speaker 4 (28:10):
But I just I found that comment to be I
just I literally, I don't do a talk to the hand.
But I just got up and walked out. And my wife,
God God bless her, was still talking to the woman
like playing you know, Jewish geography for ten minutes, and
she said, why did you walk out? And I say,
because I don't engage with morons. I just don't. Somebody
makes a comment that's that vapid. I'm just walking out
(28:32):
the door. I'm listening to that saying, so.
Speaker 2 (28:35):
You have a red, white and blue golf bag. You
are on TV a lot, you say really smart things.
Do you think that you've made it?
Speaker 4 (28:45):
You know that's you were kind enough to send me
that question in advance. I think that I am on
my second career. My first career was four decades long.
I started at graduating from college in nineteen eighty three,
and I retired from the firm that I started with
(29:07):
in twenty twenty. So I think there was a lot
of milestones in my life that would have checked the
box of having made it. I think the most important
thing to me retiring and trying to do something else
was I worked really hard in my career to be
relevant outside of the world that I was in, so
(29:30):
I worked at a big accounting firm and I was
a partner, and I ran businesses there and I did
a whole bunch of different things. But all the while
I tried to be relevant in the real world, because
a lot of people who work for companies become very
relevant in the company with then when they move on,
they're irrelevant. Maybe it goes back to being noticed in
the streets. But I did a lot of public speaking.
I did a lot of things that just kept me relevant.
(29:52):
So the answer to your question is yes, I feel
like I've made it because I accomplished the goal of
being relevant and having marketable skills outside of what I
did that that, you know, paid my salary and created
wealth for me and my family for the four decades
in which I was there. So I think the answer
is yes. And it's also I've been able to pursue
(30:15):
things that I'm passionate about. I once was worried because
I was doing TV, and this is a phenomenon that
only people who do TV truly appreciate. You get bumped
from a show which happened you know, you know when
you get bumped at three o'clock in the morning, you
know that's annoying. When you get bumped in the green room,
(30:36):
it's really really annoying.
Speaker 5 (30:38):
Okay, just means you're already in the studio, you.
Speaker 4 (30:40):
Already and you got makeup on, and they come to
you and sorry, you know, rand Paul going long, So
you got to shut up and not come on the air.
But then you get ghosted by producers because it just happens.
It just happens, okay, And you can get very self
conscious when that happens. So I turned to a friend
I'm on who's a longtime TV person not on Fox,
(31:04):
and I asked her about it, and I said, I
really wonder if I'm like a narcissist and like I'm
addicted to being on television, and now that they're ghosting me,
like I like, you know, my narcissism becoming more obvious.
And she said no, she said, it's not narcissism with you.
You actually have this innate desire to share knowledge with people,
(31:26):
and when you don't have the ability to share knowledge
with people, it frustrates you because you have this knowledge
that you want to share. And my mother was a
New York City public school teacher, so it's probably genetic,
like she was a knowledge share But like so that
to me is the thing that I actually in retirement
and get to take my accumulated knowledge and share it
(31:50):
with people. That to me shows not it's not a
matter of making it. It's not a success check the
box thing, but it's I'm passionate about it and it
allows me to do it. So I only get frustrated,
like when I get bumped, not just I'm not going
to be on TV. That means I actually don't have
to shower, which is cool, but it's that I missed
(32:10):
an opportunity because there was something that I wanted to
tell people and I don't have the ability to tell me.
That's why I do podcasts and other stuff, because I
just have this desire to share things that I've learned
and perspective with people, hopefully for their benefit.
Speaker 3 (32:25):
Well we're all the better for it.
Speaker 2 (32:27):
So end here with your best tip for my listeners
on how they can improve their lives.
Speaker 4 (32:34):
I'm going to go to what I just said, which
is I think the biggest tragedy in people's lives is
they never pursued things that they were passionate about. And
there's a variety of reasons why people don't. They don't
have the resources to do it, they're a spouse, partner, whatever,
doesn't support it. But if there's something you're truly passionate about,
whether it's a hobby or a line of work, I'd
(32:57):
rather see my kids make less money doing something that
they truly love to do, then make more money being miserable.
And to me, that's my best advice for people young
and old. Find things that you're passionate about, and don't
do things in life purely for obligation. Religion is the
(33:19):
best example. Like I have a friend who grew up very,
very religious and now is Jewish Orthodox, not ultra Orthodox,
but you know, modern observant Orthodox. And he will text
me on Shabbat and I'm like, dude, it's Shabbat. He
goes and Israel, but you're in the Five Towns. But
(33:45):
you know, And we had that conversation, like religion has
become obligatory to him and it's something that he's not.
He's passionate about Israel. Okay, he's a Zionist, but religion
is not as But do things out of passion, don't
do things out of abel.
Speaker 2 (34:01):
Follow your passion. Thank you so much, Mitch, is really
great to having you on. Thanks for coming on anytime.
Speaker 4 (34:07):
It was my pleasure.
Speaker 1 (34:08):
Thanks so much for joining us on the Carol Marcowitz Show.
Subscribe wherever you get your podcast
Hi, and welcome back to the Carol Markowitz Show on iHeartRadio.
Yesterday was Valentine's Day, and I have to be honest
with my listeners. We don't do Valentine's Day in our home.
I just have always found the day cheesy, and my
husband obviously loves that he's cleared from buying me over
price flowers or taking me to some five hundred dollars
(00:25):
prefix menu. But I've learned over the years not to
rain on everyone's parade. If you like the holiday and
you celebrate, I really hope you had a good one.
In my last monologue, I said that if you want
to meet someone, if you're single and you're hoping not
to be, one of the things you have to do
is cut off hooking up with someone from the past.
(00:46):
Despite my not enjoying Valentine's Day, I nevertheless think it's
a very good barometer for where your relationship is. If
you're sleeping with someone and you can't spend Valentine's Day
with them, even casually, then they are not for you
need to let go. We talk about loneliness, we talk
about how to meet people, but I rarely hear people
talk about how spending time with the wrong people is
(01:10):
stopping you from meeting the right person. It's really wasting
your time. If you want to meet the right person,
end it completely with the wrong one. When I talk
to single people, like I've said before, I don't want
to give them cliche advice like get out there, or
have you used the apps? Or other such comments. Katrina
Trinko had a great piece yesterday up on the Daily
(01:33):
Signal website. She wrote, it's so so ugly out there
in dating today. That really made me think, and I
feel this for my single friends so often there's no
easy solution. I want to read some more from Katrina's
piece quote. As conservatives look to advocate marriage, it's not
(01:55):
enough to talk about it's important. We need to talk
about healthy marriages. We need to talk about how porn
warps imaginations and hearts. We need to look at the bruised,
wounded singles of today and not say why aren't you married?
But is there a way I can help? Maybe it's
married couple setting up mutual friends. Maybe it's all of
(02:15):
us praying. Maybe it's helping a friend who is struggling
to become a better person which will benefit the culture.
Whether he ultimately gets married or not. Maybe sometimes it
is if asked for advice by a single friend to
gently nudge them away from excessive pickiness. Maybe it's married
couples with decades of success mentoring younger couples, helping them
learn how to communicate and love in a healthy way.
(02:38):
Maybe it's criticizing the dating landscape of today and saying,
who's happy? Can sexual pleasure really be worth all this?
Maybe it's showing there can be a different way where
you prioritize a selfless love, not just sexual pleasure. Maybe
it's more recently married couples who survive today's dating landscape,
sharing how they kept hope and persisted ute. What she
(03:00):
describes is what I hope to do with this show.
Advocate for marriage, yes, but show people how good it
can be and what it takes to make it good,
to be honest about it, to really be honest about it.
Although side note, I'd add that sexual pleasure is much
more common, according to every single study, in the married
(03:21):
world than in the single one, So if you're looking
for it, there there's your first mistake. The dating world
isn't easy, and I agree with Katrina that married people
should help make it easier for our single friends, set
up your single friends, and most importantly, tell them to
stop wasting time with their ex. Coming up next and
interview with Mitch Rochelle. Join us after the break.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
Hi, and welcome back to the Carol Markowitz Show on iHeartRadio.
My guest today is Mitch Rochelle, Mitch's managing director at
Madison Ventures, visiting research fellow at the University of San
Diego School of Business, and a Center Clip contributor.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
Hi, Mitch, So, nice to have you on.
Speaker 4 (04:02):
Great to see it, Carol.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
So, Mitch and I had been friendly for a long
time online and then we finally ran into each other
and met in person at a bot mitzvah in South Florida,
which I think is a very Florida Jewey story. Right,
how long have you been in Florida? What's your Florida timeline?
Speaker 4 (04:22):
So this was a COVID sort of passion project. I
was doing a lot of segments on different networks talking
about this weird housing boom that was happening during COVID,
and my standard line was, when you're stuck in a
cabin and you have cabin fever, the thing you dream
about the most is having a new or bigger cabin. Yes,
(04:43):
So I started doing it. I was doing exactly what
audiences were doing. I was on like Redfin and Zillow
looking at houses in Florida. And we finally but my
college aged kids were at home because they got kicked
off campus. Once my kids went back to schoo my
wife and I came down to Florida, Southeast Florida. We
did our what and war trip to kind of figure
(05:05):
out what we wanted and where, and I finally found
the home that we're living in in July of twenty one.
We closed in July. I found it and closed in
the same calendar month, and amazing, we have been here
ever since.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
That's awesome.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
I mean, I think that that's the sort of the
timeline other than the closing within a month for most people,
like the figuring out where. And it was, you know,
during the COVID years, we just saw this, you know,
obviously huge influx of people. But my brother is a
realtor in New York, and he said that that COVID
time period, he was like, you were home, and you
started to realize everything that you hated about your home.
(05:45):
It was like looking around like I can't live here anymore.
Speaker 3 (05:48):
This is crazy.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
I got to get out of here, and obviously a
lot of people did just that.
Speaker 3 (05:53):
So I see you as a very financy guy.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
You're on Fox Business a lot what to a marias
misunderstand about finance in general, and maybe personal finance in particular.
Speaker 4 (06:06):
I think personal finance is probably the most misunderstood thing
amongst upright walking mammals. All right, it's probably not just
true of America. I think it's probably a global phenomenon.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
You're going to talk about non human like, you know,
monkeys also do not understand personal funding.
Speaker 4 (06:26):
The some monkeys hoard bananas, so yeah, some monkeys can't
find bananas something. But I have a historical perspective in
it because back in my former life, when I was
a partner in a big accounting firm in the world
for for decades, I actually led an effort to teach
(06:50):
financial literacy to kids. And if there's one thing that
the financial crisis taught us, and I'm talking about the
eighth nine global financial crisis, is people didn't understand that
if you borrowed money, you actually had to repay it.
So we thought, maybe there's a way systemically that we
could help make this not happen again, and we started volunteering.
We actually volunteer as a firm a million hours in
(07:14):
schools across America, and so I learned a lot, and
I realized that teachers don't teach financial literacy to kids
because to teach it. Here's the one thing I'll say
about a teacher. Every teacher in their life has been
a substitute teacher once, and when you're a substitute teacher,
you're kind of unprepared and that the kids take advantage
of you. The thing that they feel most unprepared about
(07:37):
is to teach a topic that they don't know. So
financial literacy is a topic that they don't know. They're
probably not financial literacy themselves, so they don't teach it
to kids. So the problem we have is that no
one's teaching our kids about money, so that us as
a society don't understand money like it's period, full stop.
(07:58):
I think I mass hear the art of explaining complicated
financial things to America, and I do it on TV regularly,
but for the average person, they don't get it. And
I think until we start making financial literacy part of
the curriculum in fifty states, and we teach teachers how
(08:19):
to teach it. We're going to continue to have this
problem where people just don't understand money.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
What age group do you aim that education at.
Speaker 4 (08:29):
I thought the sweet spot was third to fifth graders. Literally,
first of all, they're interested in it. We would show
up in a school with fifteen volunteers and we'd say, hey,
we're here to talk about money. It wasn't an eye
in the room that didn't write up right, because kids
understand what money is and it's a topic that they
are somewhat passionate about, and we just put it. We
(08:52):
had a professional firm create curriculum for us, so it
was sort of boiled down. And our people and our
firm love volunte hearing in schools, so it was a
really neat program. It could be replicated. But teachers, again,
like there's probably not a teacher that hasn't been laid
on a credit card payment or doesn't have a student loan,
Like they just feel inadequate to talk about a topic
(09:15):
that they don't feel that they've mastered themselves. And that
as a result, and by the way, it's not like
the people in my firm who volunteered were like so final.
They were financially literate, but they probably you know, fell
behind a credit card payments like everybody else, right.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
I mean, I don't think I could teach a class
like that. I feel like I generally understand the financial
systems or personal finance and what I could pass on
to my kids, But I don't know that I could.
Third to fifth graders. That's a tough demographic.
Speaker 4 (09:44):
They're way more cooperative than the sixth to eighth graders.
That's why we like the third fifth graders.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
That seems right. But I love that idea.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
I think that that's something that we should be having
in all schools. Like, you know, we used to talk
about how to balance it check book and of course
nobody has check books now, but still the idea of
what comes in and what.
Speaker 4 (10:05):
I come with props. Carol, This is on my desk,
a simple bag full of check book What do you
use them for?
Speaker 3 (10:12):
Like electricity bills and that kind of thing.
Speaker 4 (10:16):
No. There, one was there because I had to pay
taxes on January fifteenth. One was there because I had
to pay the guy who's doing my garage floor and garages.
Speaker 5 (10:27):
With a check.
Speaker 4 (10:29):
Yeah, they wanted a check, and.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
They don't know about benmo.
Speaker 4 (10:36):
Venmo Zelle, PayPal wire Well, I didn't want to pay
the fifteen dollars wire transfer fee, but they wanted to check.
Speaker 3 (10:44):
Wow, I don't even know where to get one. I
call my bank.
Speaker 4 (10:49):
My wife and I have this debate all the time,
like because my kids are in the workforce now, and
she goes, no one's ever taught them how to balance
a check book. I'm like, they don't write checks, right,
They've never they they yeah, they pay rent electronically. It's
an automatic hit from there.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
Like yes, But the concept is the same, like making
sure that you don't have more going out than your
have going in. And I just and that seems like
an easy concept, but I think for a lot of
people that's really tough. I just read this fiction book
unrelated to you know, the financial system or anything. It
was called fast Food for Millionaires. And in the book,
(11:28):
this woman keeps making the wrong financial decisions. And that's
not even like the theme of the book, but I
felt like just yelling at her all the time. And
at the very end, after she's like gone to business
school and decided to like and she was trying to
get into this financial firm and she got landed a
really great job. She decided to like pursue her happiness
and like not take that job, And I'm like, no,
(11:48):
you're in debt, take the job, like you know. So
I think that kids could benefit from understanding that they
need to kind of make this visions that will pay
their bills and not just like we pursue happiness, you know.
Speaker 4 (12:05):
I would say this that anxiety forget about like range
anxiety of electronic electric vehicles. I don't want to talk
about that, but like anxiety about the range of one's
money is probably the thing that keeps most people up
at night and causes stress in relationships. Right, Infidelity is
(12:25):
not the number one cause of the worse in this country.
Money is the number one cause of the worse in
this country. And people don't have honest conversations about money
and the simple the basic unit of financial literacy or
platform of financial literacy is the budget. You just said
it yourself, Carolin. Knowing that what's going coming in and
(12:47):
what's going out, like there's a gap between the two
of them, like more's coming in that what's going out.
I had a conversation with my almost twenty four year
old son who works for a big accounting firm, who
majored in accounting and finance, because he said he could
afford like something like cable is a cable television is
a scam in America, Like that's maybe a whole nother show.
(13:08):
But he said I couldn't afford this, like sports package.
I'm like, Sam, it's like, I don't know, sixty nine
dollars a month you can afford it. I was sitting
at a pizzeria in Murray Hill in New York City,
and I like, literally, I looked at his checking account online.
I looked at the inflows and outflows. I showed him
as check and balance. I wrote it out on a napkin, literally,
(13:28):
and I said, you can absolutely afford sixty something. And
so he has the tools to understand that. He has
the tools to do that. But people are so anxious
about money that they don't even do the math because
they're worried what the outcome is going to be.
Speaker 2 (13:43):
It's funny because I think it usually works the other
way with twenty four year olds, where they're like, I
could totally afford this, and they actually.
Speaker 3 (13:50):
Cannot afford it.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
I don't know, I don't think it's bad that your
son is like, no.
Speaker 4 (13:54):
No, real, you know, no, No, he's he's good that way.
But he's also he said to me once, I don't
know some I have a boat and I got a
new one, and he goes, Dad, can you afford that?
Don't worry about it, Sam, I I can afford the boat.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
Don't worry cutting into your inheritance, Sam, Exactly. So I
mentioned that you're on Fox Business a lot. Do you
get recognized?
Speaker 4 (14:24):
Like? Is it that? That's I'm going to tell you
two interesting things. One, first of all, I could walk
down I could literally walk down Sixth Avenue in Manhattan,
a building that you used to work in, a building
that we've both had makeup put on our faces in sure,
and I've walked outside of the building and people don't
recognize me. I'm literally in New York City, coming out
(14:47):
of Fox getting walking into a town car. I can
go to a pizzeria in my town in Florida and
people will recognize me.
Speaker 2 (14:57):
So here's my thinking on this, because I have had
obviously the same experience. Right, I'm a New York Post
columnist like thirteen years now, but I almost never got
recognized in New York, like occasionally it would happen, like
I remember one time on Facebook Marketplace, I bought some
like Thomas the Train for my sons and they were like,
oh my god, we're such big fans of yours, so
stuff like that. But I would say, what I think
(15:19):
is that in New York we are trained not to
like react to famous people, not that you know, or
not that I'm famous, but yeah.
Speaker 4 (15:29):
Not to make eye contact with people.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
And we sat like, I mean, I've a million times
next to celebrities. But one time we were at Little Owl,
which is this tiny restaurant in the West Village, and
we sat like three inches from Will Ferrell and we
didn't even like not I mean to say, we did
not acknowledge him, like he was just any other. Like
if he was having this conversation right now, he'd be
like nobody recognized me that night, because we didn't even
(15:52):
like look at each other and be like, oh, look
it's Will Ferrell. So I think that that's just a
New York thing, whereas in Florida, you know, the lady
of publics is like I saw you on TV. Like
it's a lot more common here to you know, just
be like, oh, I know who you are, and that's funny.
Speaker 4 (16:09):
Where she said, hey, wait, I recognize you. Your Mirando
Divine from the your coast.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
No, but you know what, I do get a lot like, hey,
you look really familiar. Did we go to high school together?
Like no, I'm like, do you watch Fox? And like, oh, yes, yes, Fox? Right,
not high school?
Speaker 3 (16:28):
But do you like getting recognized? Do you like living
a public life?
Speaker 4 (16:32):
I don't mind it, but you know what, I was
in the presence of Roger L's twice in my life. Okay,
once was a random elevator ride with mister L's and
once was another time when he was holding court and
I got kind of pulled into him holding court and
(16:53):
he said, not to me, but to this group. Know
who's listening, Know who's watching you all the time. I
never lose sight of that when you're talking to the
camera or green dot right now in my computer, like,
know who you're talking to? And that literally sent kind
of chills up and down my spine. But like I
(17:14):
feel like the people in New York, I'm not talking
to them. I'm talking to whatever, thirty eight other states
and random people. So when I meet them, long win
did answer to your question when I meet them. The
guy who was trimming my palm trees for my house
who recognized me, But I feel like I already have
a relationship with him, right because because he's been watching
(17:38):
me and listening to me. And that's why I engage.
I watched one of your clips, I think it was
with Daniel Ashwell. I like I engage with viewers who
or listeners on Twitter because they took the time to
listen and comment. If somebody's just throwing shade at me
because they're an anti Semite and they don't like what
I said, forget it, I block them and I move on. Yeah,
(18:00):
but I try to engage with those people because they've
taken the time. So quite honestly, I'm flattered. Being on
television is a is a honor to me, Like it's
not a right, it's a privilege, and I never take
it for granted and I never lose sight of it.
So I love the people at the pancake place around
(18:21):
the corner who stop at my table, like I'll talk
to them for twenty minutes because I'm the same. Yeah, yeah,
I like the people. I don't want to shift topics,
but when I wear my Fox I don't. There's only
one hat I wear the gun range, which is my
Fox News hat, and I end up getting into long
conversations with people there who recognize me.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
So oh funny, Yeah, I I should wear some paraphernalia
at the gun range. The only thing that now at
the gun range it's like, you know, I'll wear a
Star of David all the time. I always did, but
now it's like they're just all over the gun range,
and you know, people are with the massive highs and
it's nice.
Speaker 4 (18:59):
I see you. I had to pick up when I
got my concealed Carrie permit in Florida. I had to
pick up my certificate of completion of the class that
you have to take, you know, whatever it is.
Speaker 3 (19:11):
The NRA used to believe that not anymore.
Speaker 4 (19:14):
Yeah, you constitutionally you can carry if you don't want
to wait the five day waiting period or if you
want reciprocity in other states, you need a concealed carry permit.
So I had taken the class one on one with
an instructor several months ago, and I had my appointment
for my permit, so I had to get the certificate
(19:34):
from him. So I went to a gun shop where
he teaches the class on Sundays because they're clothes, and
I happened to be wearing an IDF T shirt a
hoodie I don't remember which one, and I was in
and out. I just didn't want to interrupt his class.
He saw me, he handed me the certificate, and then
one of the guys who works in the gun shop
(19:55):
who helps him teach the class, says, what's with that shirt?
Everybody's wearing it? And I looked at the the people
sitting around the table in the class. Three of the
people were wearing IBF shirt.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
So he wasn't being a jerk, because that's what I thought.
It curious, like what's going on? What I kind of
called this?
Speaker 4 (20:13):
The guy who owns the gun shop happens to be Jewish.
But in any event, it was funny that, like there's
this theme. So maybe I'll wear the IDF hoodie next
time to the gun rage.
Speaker 5 (20:25):
Yeah, that's that's good, right, good move. We're going to
take a quick break and be right back on the
Carol Marcowitch Show.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
So we talked about what people don't know about, you know,
the financial world. What would you say is our larger,
largest cultural or societal problem, and do you think it's solvable.
Speaker 4 (20:49):
Let me go with solvable, and because that's the that's
the easier answer, and I don't think it is. It's
harder for society solve the problem. I think tribalism is
the biggest problem we have as a society. I didn't
make up that turn. Probably our mutual friendly Carter, who
we've done TV with over the years, Lee actually said
(21:10):
it on the air once and I said, wow, that
that so perfectly sums up what we are all about.
I remember when like George Bush forty three ran for president,
and there were there was he was a polarizing figure,
you know, amongst certain you know folks, But I don't
remember our country being tribal on September twelfth, Okay, our
(21:37):
country was like sort of the way Israel is right
now when you're attacked, like everybody comes together and they
push stupid politics aside. I feel like no event can
bring this country together from how tribal it's become. And
I know your show's not about politics, but I just
(21:57):
feel that, like, how many friends have you and I
lost because we feel a certain way about politics and
we have friends who can't see past that to continue
to be friends with us because we voted for somebody.
And I'll give you the worst possible example of this.
(22:17):
We my wife and I were at Costco and we
bought an American flag because it was cool, and we
put it on our house in New York. A neighbor
saw it while walking her dog and texted my wife
and said, couldn't help, but notice the flag on your house.
New look for the neighborhood. What was your inspiration?
Speaker 5 (22:39):
Wow?
Speaker 4 (22:40):
Okay, That to me is how tribal we've become. That
the existence of an American flag, which you know, anybody
who said the Pledge of Allegiance in kindergarten or learned
it in kinderwork garden understands the significance, hopefully of what
that flag represents. But somehow the American flag has become
(23:01):
a I don't know whatever, a symbol of a tribe.
It's not the tribe's flag, it's our collective flag. And
that's what frightens me. And I don't think it's fair
to throw hyperbolic language and at one political figure versus another.
I think is the cause Cable television. I don't think so,
(23:25):
because in seventeen seventy three. The framers of this country
before seventeen seventy six had left right and center and disagreed,
and they yelled about it, and they printed about it.
The New York Post, your employer, you know, the oldest
newspaper in America, has been on the side of, you know,
(23:46):
a certain political view for much of its existence. That's
not cable Television's fault, right, So, but the dial has
been turned up to like if one to ten, where
ten is like you can't touch it. We're like at
an eight point five in terms of how toxic the
(24:08):
tribalism is in this country. And I don't know what
fixes it. But because it's a two part question, just
like I talked about financial literacy at the top of
the show, and how we teach financial literacy in you know,
to kids, and it hopefully makes a difference. I think
we need to teach tolerance to our children, and not
(24:30):
just tolerance for this marginalized community, and we have to
be tolerant of them. Tolerance for all, right, the Constitution,
freedom of speech, freedom of expression, right, those constitutional rights,
civil liberties. Freedom that should be taught to kids in school,
not the ideology you know, if Vecramoswami talks about the
(24:52):
tyranny of the minority, like not tyrannical ideology, but just tolerance.
I think we should teach that to our kids and
what that really means, and then maybe that's the fix,
because I think older generations they're lost, right.
Speaker 2 (25:11):
That American flag story is really depressing. I think about
that where. You know, there was a New York Times
columnist that like the woman who thought that Bloomberg could
give every voter a million dollars, like, you know, so she's.
Speaker 3 (25:24):
Really up there.
Speaker 2 (25:25):
She said that she went to Margay, actually her name
is Margay. She went to Long Island and she saw
these American flags and she felt like threatened by them.
And I was just thinking, if like my worst enemies
started flying the American flags, Like if they the people
who I don't even know, like I just hamas supporters
(25:46):
in America started rallying with American flags, would I surrender
that as my own flag, as my own symbol.
Speaker 5 (25:54):
Never, I don't care who else flies it.
Speaker 3 (25:56):
It's mine.
Speaker 5 (25:56):
It belongs to me, it's part of my culture, it's
my country.
Speaker 2 (26:00):
And the idea that like somebody else flies the flag
and it means something else.
Speaker 5 (26:05):
That's that's crazy to me. It's just being an immigrant.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
I mean the Pledge of Allegiance is literally the first
English I ever knew. I am all about the patriotism,
and I think it's so sad that people just give
it up because they think, oh, the other side is
into this and I can't be into it too.
Speaker 4 (26:22):
I'll say two more things about the flag. One is
my golf bag. I know it sounds like a first
world problem, in my golf bag is a well, this
is from New York. It's all red, white and blue.
There's nothing on my golf bag that is in red,
white and blue. It has an American flag on the
side of it. And the woman who runs a pro
shop at my club. Sorry, that sounds.
Speaker 2 (26:43):
In New York, but this is New York is still
New York.
Speaker 4 (26:47):
She saw that thing and she says, Mitch, I'm getting
one of these things for you. It's got your name
written all over it. So in any event, I had
my golf bag outside and a guy who is a
political operative for the left said to me, I love
your maga golf bag. And I like when I went bananas,
(27:09):
and I said, I'm not going to use his name,
but I said, there's nothing on my golf bag that
says Maga. It's just red, white and blue. And in fact,
Maga is red and white with no blue, okay, And
so to him, he's in a tribe. To him, just
the existence of the red, white and blue in his brain,
there's like a Sinas gap that jumped to Maga. The
(27:33):
other thing I'll say in my orange theory that I
go to somewhat religiously around the corner from me, I
don't know. I'd gotten this conversation with this woman about
moving to Florida. She's also a refugee from New York,
and I said, I moved down here because no one
is going to say to me anything about having an
American flag. And she goes, oh, that's not true. She goes,
(27:54):
in my community, people will say something to you if
you don't have an American flag, okay, And it's like,
how have we ever weaponized the American flag.
Speaker 5 (28:03):
I don't think that's true if you don't have an America.
Speaker 2 (28:05):
I mean, like my communities, you know, mix some people
have it, some people don't.
Speaker 3 (28:08):
It's not like come on, you know.
Speaker 4 (28:10):
But I just I found that comment to be I
just I literally, I don't do a talk to the hand.
But I just got up and walked out. And my wife,
God God bless her, was still talking to the woman
like playing you know, Jewish geography for ten minutes, and
she said, why did you walk out? And I say,
because I don't engage with morons. I just don't. Somebody
makes a comment that's that vapid. I'm just walking out
(28:32):
the door. I'm listening to that saying, so.
Speaker 2 (28:35):
You have a red, white and blue golf bag. You
are on TV a lot, you say really smart things.
Do you think that you've made it?
Speaker 4 (28:45):
You know that's you were kind enough to send me
that question in advance. I think that I am on
my second career. My first career was four decades long.
I started at graduating from college in nineteen eighty three,
and I retired from the firm that I started with
(29:07):
in twenty twenty. So I think there was a lot
of milestones in my life that would have checked the
box of having made it. I think the most important
thing to me retiring and trying to do something else
was I worked really hard in my career to be
relevant outside of the world that I was in, so
(29:30):
I worked at a big accounting firm and I was
a partner, and I ran businesses there and I did
a whole bunch of different things. But all the while
I tried to be relevant in the real world, because
a lot of people who work for companies become very
relevant in the company with then when they move on,
they're irrelevant. Maybe it goes back to being noticed in
the streets. But I did a lot of public speaking.
I did a lot of things that just kept me relevant.
(29:52):
So the answer to your question is yes, I feel
like I've made it because I accomplished the goal of
being relevant and having marketable skills outside of what I
did that that, you know, paid my salary and created
wealth for me and my family for the four decades
in which I was there. So I think the answer
is yes. And it's also I've been able to pursue
(30:15):
things that I'm passionate about. I once was worried because
I was doing TV, and this is a phenomenon that
only people who do TV truly appreciate. You get bumped
from a show which happened you know, you know when
you get bumped at three o'clock in the morning, you
know that's annoying. When you get bumped in the green room,
(30:36):
it's really really annoying.
Speaker 5 (30:38):
Okay, just means you're already in the studio, you.
Speaker 4 (30:40):
Already and you got makeup on, and they come to
you and sorry, you know, rand Paul going long, So
you got to shut up and not come on the air.
But then you get ghosted by producers because it just happens.
It just happens, okay, And you can get very self
conscious when that happens. So I turned to a friend
I'm on who's a longtime TV person not on Fox,
(31:04):
and I asked her about it, and I said, I
really wonder if I'm like a narcissist and like I'm
addicted to being on television, and now that they're ghosting me,
like I like, you know, my narcissism becoming more obvious.
And she said no, she said, it's not narcissism with you.
You actually have this innate desire to share knowledge with people,
(31:26):
and when you don't have the ability to share knowledge
with people, it frustrates you because you have this knowledge
that you want to share. And my mother was a
New York City public school teacher, so it's probably genetic,
like she was a knowledge share But like so that
to me is the thing that I actually in retirement
and get to take my accumulated knowledge and share it
(31:50):
with people. That to me shows not it's not a
matter of making it. It's not a success check the
box thing, but it's I'm passionate about it and it
allows me to do it. So I only get frustrated,
like when I get bumped, not just I'm not going
to be on TV. That means I actually don't have
to shower, which is cool, but it's that I missed
(32:10):
an opportunity because there was something that I wanted to
tell people and I don't have the ability to tell me.
That's why I do podcasts and other stuff, because I
just have this desire to share things that I've learned
and perspective with people, hopefully for their benefit.
Speaker 3 (32:25):
Well we're all the better for it.
Speaker 2 (32:27):
So end here with your best tip for my listeners
on how they can improve their lives.
Speaker 4 (32:34):
I'm going to go to what I just said, which
is I think the biggest tragedy in people's lives is
they never pursued things that they were passionate about. And
there's a variety of reasons why people don't. They don't
have the resources to do it, they're a spouse, partner, whatever,
doesn't support it. But if there's something you're truly passionate about,
whether it's a hobby or a line of work, I'd
(32:57):
rather see my kids make less money doing something that
they truly love to do, then make more money being miserable.
And to me, that's my best advice for people young
and old. Find things that you're passionate about, and don't
do things in life purely for obligation. Religion is the
(33:19):
best example. Like I have a friend who grew up very,
very religious and now is Jewish Orthodox, not ultra Orthodox,
but you know, modern observant Orthodox. And he will text
me on Shabbat and I'm like, dude, it's Shabbat. He
goes and Israel, but you're in the Five Towns. But
(33:45):
you know, And we had that conversation, like religion has
become obligatory to him and it's something that he's not.
He's passionate about Israel. Okay, he's a Zionist, but religion
is not as But do things out of passion, don't
do things out of abel.
Speaker 2 (34:01):
Follow your passion. Thank you so much, Mitch, is really
great to having you on. Thanks for coming on anytime.
Speaker 4 (34:07):
It was my pleasure.
Speaker 1 (34:08):
Thanks so much for joining us on the Carol Marcowitz Show.
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Host
Karol Markowicz
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