The Diary of a CEOHow I Raised $700 Million: Charity: Water Founder: Scott Harrison | E153
EVERY SPOKEN WORD
140 min read · 27,725 words- 0:00 – 1:21
Intro
- SHScott Harrison
I'm emotionally bankrupt, I'm morally bankrupt, and this is not how I'd want it to end. The founder and CEO of charity: water- Making a difference all over the world.
- SBSteven Bartlett
A New York Times bestseller.
- SHScott Harrison
He's a certifiable badass and his name is- Scott Harrison.
- SBSteven Bartlett
The lifestyle of a promoter is one where you get lots of attention.
- SHScott Harrison
The fun I had for 10 years in nightlife was a lot of cocaine, MDMA, 40 to 60 cigarettes a day fun. Oof. I realized, what if I did die? What would I have to show for life? So that started a process. 10% of the world is drinking dirty water. And I realized, so many of my friends didn't trust charities. Where does the money really go? So I had a very simple idea, promise the public that 100% of anything they would ever give to charity: water would go directly to help people get clean water. You know, nobody thought this business model was a good idea, and I was hitting a point where I realized, maybe they're right. We're about to go out and build 100 wells, and we're about to miss payroll. There's no miracle that can save us.
- SBSteven Bartlett
So without further ado, I'm Steven Bartlett, and this is The Diary of a CEO: USA Edition. I hope nobody's listening, but if you are, then please keep this to yourself.
- 1:21 – 10:58
Early Years
- SBSteven Bartlett
Scott, four years old. Do you still remember the day your mother collapsed?
- SHScott Harrison
I don't.
- SBSteven Bartlett
You don't?
- SHScott Harrison
I don't.
- SBSteven Bartlett
When I read through your story, that was a pretty significant, um, sorta catalystic moment to-
- SHScott Harrison
1980, right? New Year's Day.
- SBSteven Bartlett
19- 1980?
- SHScott Harrison
Mm-hmm.
- SBSteven Bartlett
Tell me about that day, that week.
- SHScott Harrison
We had just moved into a new house, uh, my dad wanted to get closer to his job. We moved into this house in the dead of winter, and we all started experiencing some health symptoms, um, headaches, and, you know, fatigue. And, you know, nobody really knew what was going on. I think my dad, you know, had a couple people come and just check to make sure that the house was fine, he probably checked the radon or, you know, maybe asbestos, I'm not sure. And then on 19, uh, New Year's Day, 1980, my mom, m- according to her and, and my father walked across the master bedroom, and they collapsed unconscious.
- SBSteven Bartlett
Both of them?
- SHScott Harrison
Uh, she did. And so she was the canary in the coal mine, you know, that then led to, uh, eventually a discovery of a carbon monoxide gas leak in the house. There was a faulty heat exchanger that had been leaking carbon monoxide. Uh, she had been 24/7 in the house unpacking boxes from the move, you know, putting pictures up on the wall. My dad had been working, I'd been at school, so we were, you know, we were spending the evenings in the house, but not 24/7. And blood tests revealed these massive amounts of carbon monoxide in her bloodstream, and that was really the day that everything changed for, for our family. Uh, Mom never recovered from that. You know, my dad and I both did, but her life was irreparably damaged from that point on. Her immune system just kind of fully shut down in its ability to process any chemicals, so anything that was unnatural. Uh, to give you an example, uh, perfume would make her violently ill, if she smelled perfume. Soap would make her sick. Car fumes, like kryptonite, would make her sick. Um, so over the next, you know, period of years, we would come up with hacks for all this stuff. Um, the hack for her living space eventually was a bedroom upstairs in the house, sorry, it was a bathroom upstairs in the house near the be- the bedroom, and the bathroom was washed down with a special soap that didn't smell, it was completely hypoallergenic. The, uh, door, th- the wooden door that had a stain on it was then covered in sheets of aluminum foil to keep that stain smelling. She would sleep on an army cot that my dad had found somewhere that was washed in baking soda more than 10 times so there'd be no odor, and then my mom wore a mask her whole life. So I, you know, rarely saw my mother's face because she was wearing a- an N95 or, or similar version. Now, I see your face.
- SBSteven Bartlett
(laughs)
- SHScott Harrison
There were some people that are like, "I think this woman's just crazy." Right? I mean, there was an element growing up of wondering, of some level of doubt. You know, is this real? Um, you know, the, the massive amounts of carbon monoxide were certainly real and discovered by the doctors in her body, but were all of these symptoms, hypertension, um, m- headaches, you know, a lot of the stuff you couldn't really see. There were things where she would break out in terrible rashes, and that was very real. But I do remember growing up with that, you know, that, that edge of a little bit of doubt sometimes.
- SBSteven Bartlett
Where did that come from, that doubt?
- SHScott Harrison
From others, I think.
- SBSteven Bartlett
Others?
- SHScott Harrison
I mean, nobody knew how to process someone who's allergic to the world. And so among the things that made Mom sick, also radio waves, telephones, and TV. So as a young teenager, you know, I'm thinking Mom is just trying to rain on my parade, you know, we can't have a TV. But I just didn't believe that invisible electromagnetic waves were gonna make her that sick. So I remember one night when she had, you know, gone to bed, I snuck up to the hallway and I took a boom box and I turned the radio on with the sound all the way down and I aimed it through the door, which had tin foil on the inside, right? And-... you know, effectively trying an experiment to say, "Well, if she doesn't know the radio's on, well, she's gonna be fine." And she woke up the next morning very sick.
- SBSteven Bartlett
Really?
- SHScott Harrison
So I remember as a kid, for me, that was, uh, a big defining moment of, you know, Mom's telling the truth. And unfortunately, radio waves affect her and give her symptoms.
- SBSteven Bartlett
How can you develop a relationship with your mother when she's trapped in a, a room alone behind tinfoil and wearing gloves? How do you h- have affection and... ?
- SHScott Harrison
Yeah, well there wasn't a lot of touch, um, 'cause I wasn't, you know, I wasn't really allowed to touch her. I would always be smelling of something from the outside world.
- SBSteven Bartlett
Mm-hmm.
- SHScott Harrison
It was a weird childhood. I was an only child 'cause family planning stopped after the accident, and I just remember b- a lot of, uh, caregiving, helping my mom doing cooking, doing cleaning, uh, helping my dad out with her, and trying to be a cheerful companion. I would try to cheer her up. I would play piano outside her, you know, like I'd play a keyboard outside her, her door.
- SBSteven Bartlett
I had, um, a gentleman sit here the other day that used to coach, uh, Kobe Bryant, and he talked about this concept of having a dark side, and he... his dark side is quite graphic, but he refers to the dark side as a concept where things that happen in our early years end up being both destructive and constructive.
- SHScott Harrison
Mm-hmm.
- SBSteven Bartlett
So, and they... when I sit here with people that are anomalies, you tend to find these stories because... so they had some kind of anomalous up- upbringing which led to them being ano- an anomaly in their early years, for better or for worse. When you reflect on your, shall I call it, dark side-
- SHScott Harrison
Yeah. I think it's anger, and I've been able to make that anger useful (laughs) by, you know, for the last, what, 17 years, you know, fighting against people suffering in needless poverty or, you know, specifically people without access to clean water. But that's probably the darkest side that I have is, you know, I can lose my temper, you know. I can, um, I can get angry, um, quick. I've, I've gotten really good over the years at trying to harness that in, in a really constructive way. The, the, you know, the angst maybe, you know, maybe it's not even as much anger, um, as just the, the discontent with the way things are and, uh, the, the willingness to fight to make them the way they should be.
- SBSteven Bartlett
Is that a discon- content with the external world and the... and your internal world? So, like, your life and th- the w- the situation you find the world in?
- SHScott Harrison
I am not naturally reflective. Uh, it was, it was a really difficult journey for me to go back into childhood to write the book and kinda go back into, you know, some really dark years, um, of, of addiction and, and, uh, you know, well, just kind of decadent vice. It wasn't really fun growing up, and, you know, I think now, I'm a parent of, of two kids, and I'm 46 years old, and as I think about the childhood I wanna give my kids, I, I actually think I'm overcompensating for fun. My wife and I were just talking about this the other day. You know, it is all experience, you know. It, it's, "Let's go do roller coasters 50 times."
- 10:58 – 15:22
Attention seeking & becoming a nightclub promoter
- SHScott Harrison
- SBSteven Bartlett
The lifestyle of a promoter, which you went on to become-
- SHScott Harrison
Mm-hmm.
- SBSteven Bartlett
... is one where you get lots of attention from lots of people. You get it from women.
- SHScott Harrison
Mm-hmm.
- SBSteven Bartlett
You also have a ton of power.
- SHScott Harrison
Mm-hmm.
- SBSteven Bartlett
You also have a ton of control.
- SHScott Harrison
Mm-hmm.
- SBSteven Bartlett
My brother, my oldest brother, actually... s- his early story sounds... has shades of, of the experience y- you had in terms of school, and he went on to be a promoter. He actually w- was a bouncer and a promoter even though he is maybe the smart- the smartest academic person I've ever met in my life. He was a bouncer and a promoter in a nightclub and works in nightclubs, and I... when I th- reflected on that, I think... I think much of the reason is because he was seeking attention, and the, the way he felt psychologically in those scenarios was filling some kind of void he had in his childhood. This is an assumption I'm making, but I, I don't know how far off I am.
- SHScott Harrison
Yeah, I mean, if you asked me at 19 what I wanted to do, it was open up for U2 (laughs) .
- SBSteven Bartlett
Yeah.
- SHScott Harrison
I mean, our band was gonna be instantly rich and famous, uh, and I was the band's manager, and I was booking us out, and so I'm sure if I played that out, it would be, "Look at me-
- SBSteven Bartlett
Mm-hmm.
- SHScott Harrison
... on stage. Look at this band-"
- SBSteven Bartlett
Hmm.
- SHScott Harrison
... uh, a way of feeling validated, sure.
- SBSteven Bartlett
When did the band dream...... end. (laughs)
- SHScott Harrison
(laughs) Very quick, very, very soon after. Uh, the, the piece, the, the connective tissue there, which eventually led to, to a ten-year career in nightclubs, in nightlife, was that when our band would play gigs, it was the promoters that were making the money.
- SBSteven Bartlett
Hmm.
- SHScott Harrison
We would bring a lot of people. Our people, our friends would pay the cover to see us, and then the promoter would throw us a hundred bucks at the end of the night and say, "Split this five ways." Right? It wouldn't even pay for gas, let alone a guitar cable-
- SBSteven Bartlett
Yeah.
- SHScott Harrison
... you know, that broke or, you know, an amp that broke. So I befriended one of the promoters that had booked the bands in the immediate aftermath of us breaking up and said, "Take me under your wing and teach me the ropes. Teach me how to be on the other side of the velvet rope, you know, the other side of booking bands." And I jumped into that business at 19 years old. Now, the, the funny thing is I wasn't even allowed to be in clubs.
- SBSteven Bartlett
And you were, by all accounts, really successful at that.
- SHScott Harrison
Yeah, yeah. There were, there were probably eight or ten of us that were at the highest echelon in New York City.
- SBSteven Bartlett
What was it about your character and about you that made you successful at that? Because that is a very specific-
- SHScott Harrison
Yeah.
- SBSteven Bartlett
... set of skills.
- SHScott Harrison
I was cr- I was curating fun. I was creating and curating fun. My first experience in New York City was with, with somebody who was courting our band, and he took me to a club called Club USA. I had never been inside a nightclub in my life, and here I am with, you know, 3,000 people. And this club had a slide-
- SBSteven Bartlett
Huh.
- 15:22 – 21:17
Being deprived of fun led me into drugs and alcohol abuse
- SHScott Harrison
I think so, and I also think now, the kind of fun really matters. So the fun I had for ten years in nightlife was a lot of cocaine fun, a lot of ecstasy, MDMA fun, you know, 40 to 60 cigarettes a day fun, uh, gambling fun, pornography fun, strip club fun. Y- Well, um, um, I'm using fun loosely, so it was a really unhealthy search for fun in those places, which were highly destructive for me.
- SBSteven Bartlett
Give me the symptoms of highly destructive, psychologically, physically.
- SHScott Harrison
It all started with smoking. You know, it was, like, the first cigarette. I did everything to such an extreme, like, everything kind of with reckless abandon, you know? There was really this all-in. I mean, if I'm not gonna be an occasional smoker, I'm gonna smoke two to three packs a day, you know? I'm not gonna be e- occasionally sleeping around. I'm gonna go and try and sleep with, you know, every beautiful girl in New York City. So I was brought up to save myself for marriage.
- SBSteven Bartlett
That's a form-
- SHScott Harrison
So-
- SBSteven Bartlett
... of, like, medication, isn't it, in a strange way?
- SHScott Harrison
Well, or playing things out to their end would be another way of, you know, you can't have this thing, okay? So I was brought up, "You can't have sex, you can't have smoking, you can't have drinking, you can't have drugs." I think a part of me really wanted to make sure that there wasn't happiness at the end of it-
- SBSteven Bartlett
Mm-hmm.
- SHScott Harrison
... and to really play it through to the end. So I, I actually never felt like an addict to any of these things, maybe smoking aside. But I would do cocaine for two or three years, and then kind of get bored with it, and I would do marijuana. Like, "I'm just gonna smoke and get stoned every single day," and then, "No, I didn't find what I was looking for there. Okay, let me try and gamble. Let me go to Vegas. Let me go to Atlantic City. Let me, you know, learn craps, and blackjack, and poker, and... Okay, I didn't find it there. I just kinda, like, broker it." (laughs) Uh, so I think it was this exploration of, you know, I didn't know what I was looking for, I was trying to fill a hole, and I needed to make sure that I left no stone unturned-
- SBSteven Bartlett
(laughs)
- SHScott Harrison
... down that path.
- SBSteven Bartlett
Mm-hmm. Are there days when you look back and go, "That was one of my lowest days," that... I know there's probably a sequence of them.
- SHScott Harrison
Yeah.
- SBSteven Bartlett
I think about my own life, there's a sequence of days I think, "That was a..." But what was the first day where you think, "This, something's gotta change"?
- SHScott Harrison
Yeah, this is towards the end, so maybe I'm 26, a couple years before I got out of the business, and a typical night would look like a fancy dinner at 10 o'clock. We would then go to the club that we were promoting at around 11:45.... we'd stay at the club until 3:00. We'd leave with a group of 20 people maybe, and we'd go to an after-hours, and that might last till 11:00 AM. After-hours is gross. I mean, it's only drugs at after-hours. And I just remember this one day, coming back from after-hours, and I remember looking out the window on Houston Street, and people were on their lunch break.
- SBSteven Bartlett
Ugh.
- SHScott Harrison
You know, the people who'd gotten up in the morning, done yoga, gone to the gym, had a full, like, morning at work, and now they're on their lunch breaks. And here I am taking Ambien to come down. I remember needing to block out the light and taking a comforter that I would duct tape on the window-
- SBSteven Bartlett
(sighs)
- SHScott Harrison
... so that I could simulate darkness, and then I would sleep till 7:00 or 8:00, and then wake up and do it all over again. You know, and I, it's not like I'm a doctor-
- SBSteven Bartlett
Mm-hmm.
- SHScott Harrison
... who works the ER shift. (laughs)
- SBSteven Bartlett
No.
- SHScott Harrison
Right? I worked the night shift. I stitched up a bunch of patients. I was really useful. And, you know, I'm going to bed at noon because I've, I've been a, a contributing member to society.
- SBSteven Bartlett
Mm-hmm.
- SHScott Harrison
Like, I had just gotten, I don't know, a thousand people wasted the night before, and then gotten wasted with my 20 friends, and it was a real, it was a real darkness in that.
- SBSteven Bartlett
And the thoughts start to creep in, right, at some point, that... Or, I mean, the, the feeling probably comes first in that case, where you start feeling something psychologically or emotionally-
- SHScott Harrison
Yes. Sadness, I think it's a sadness. I think it's a, an emptiness. And then you mentioned the health problems. So about a year later, uh, half my body goes numb, and I just remember I couldn't feel my hand. I was running it under hot water, and I couldn't feel the hot water.
- SBSteven Bartlett
Right.
- SHScott Harrison
And I'm, like, kind of tapping it. It was this kind of weird paresthesia, a numbness and tingling. So I'm now seeing doctors, and I'm getting MRIs and CT scans. I'm convinced I have a fatal disease. I have a brain tumor, you know? There's just something w- when you... The loss of feeling was really scary. I'm connected to EKGs. None of the tests reveal anything, and that was such a, that was a, a really clear moment for me-
- SBSteven Bartlett
Yeah.
- 21:17 – 29:22
Finding my purpose
- SHScott Harrison
- SBSteven Bartlett
When you, when people face, face, you know, that feeling in their life, and sometimes it's just, it's exactly that. It's a feeling that their job or the path they're on is not fulfilling them deeply, and they almost arrive at this, a crossroads where they realize they've got to make a decision. They don't know what's down there, but they do know that if they go down there, they're gonna have to shed a lot of things.
- SHScott Harrison
Yes.
- SBSteven Bartlett
One of them is their identity, one, and everything that comes with their identity. Did you feel a fear of having to shed pretty much everything you'd built for a decade, friends and, and all of that, to-
- SHScott Harrison
I don't know h- I didn't even know how to do that. I mean, at this point, I just know things need to change. I start reading the Bible again. I start reading this book that my father had given me, which it's interesting. I've tried to read it, you know, years since, and I, it doesn't hit me the same way that it did then.
- SBSteven Bartlett
Interesting.
- SHScott Harrison
Um, the book was about finding God and living a pure life and returning to the innocence of a child. Here is a man's pursuit of righteousness, honor, integrity, peacemaking, innocence, uh, virtue, and I am none of these things. In fact, I am leading people to the opposite of those things. So I think just wha- what was happening here was these extremes, like worlds were colliding, and I realized I didn't need a pivot in my life. A small course correction was not gonna be the answer. I was somehow gonna have to find the 180-degree opposite of everything that I said, thought, and did, and that's what I didn't know how to do.
- SBSteven Bartlett
What was the first step in doing that?
- SHScott Harrison
I came back, and I tried to sleep with my girlfriend less, uh, smoke less, figure out how to, you know, figure out how to get out of that relationship 'cause she didn't love me, and I didn't love her, smoke less, drink less, and knock it off with the drugs. And then I was miserable with my failure in all those things. I'd quit smoking for a week, and then I was back at it.
- SBSteven Bartlett
Mm-hmm.
- SHScott Harrison
You know, or I wouldn't do coke for a couple weeks, and then I was out at the party, and like, some celebrity was there, and offered it to me. It's like, "Well," you know. "I mean, I'm doing coke with so-and-so."
- SBSteven Bartlett
Yeah.
- SHScott Harrison
"Like I c- you know, can't pass up this opportunity." So for me, it was a little bit of a process. The process took, um, about, uh, seven or eight months from the beginning of the health issues to eventually, um, the change.
- SBSteven Bartlett
And that, the first significant step that didn't feel like a pivot, then, was that when you apply, started applying to humanitarian causes and charities and organizations?
- SHScott Harrison
Yeah, well, there was an event at a nightclub, uh, where I'd fired somebody. You know, interestingly, I was actually offered a business interest in a new restaurant. So there was this kind of path that might be a little bit of a pivot out of nightlife into a more reputable restaurant-owner world where we'd be promoting a restaurant which also had a little club upstairs, but... Anyway, what happens, I'm, I'm at a, a club.... uh, that was, that was not one that we worked at, but I knew the owner very well. And I was with the new business partner of the restaurant and I, I actually still remember this, this is so many years ago, but I came out of the bathroom, I remember I was high that night. And I sit down back in a banquette with him and he says, "Hey, this bouncer just tried to shake me down for money." He's like, "You know the owner here, right? You know, that's not cool, bro. You brought me to this club and this guy's trying to hustle me for money and, like, you know, pay, pay me to stay in here or I'm gonna throw you out or..." He, he didn't... I was in the bathroom, so apparently he didn't know he was with me. So I remember, you know, going outside and getting in this bouncer's face and saying like, "You know, you picked on the wrong guy. This is my new partner, so there's like a, there's an element of loyalty and honor-"
- SBSteven Bartlett
Mm.
- SHScott Harrison
"... you know, here for me." And, uh, I remember stepping on the street, it was on 27th Street between 10th and 11th, and I called the owner to, who wasn't there that night, and I left a message, um, about what happened and left the club. And then the next morning, she woke up, got the message, and then she fired this guy, the bouncer. The next night, I'm at the club that I was working at and I remember leaving about 15 minutes early, and then on my way home, I get a text from our doorman saying, "Hey bro, there's like a bouncer that just turned up and he said, you know, you cost him his job and he says he's gonna kill you." Now, you have to understand, in nightlife, like, we get threatened all the time.
- SBSteven Bartlett
Mm-hmm.
- SHScott Harrison
And this would be like death threat number 17. You don't let people in your party, they're embarrassed, you know, there, there's a, there's a lot of animosity towards people working at the high end of nightlife. Um, but this felt not trivial, you know, to be quite honest. And I remember just saying, "Well, um, I'm just gonna..." I remember going to my girlfriend's house that night, not going home, and woke up the next day and said, "I'm just gonna get out of town for a couple weeks," and called my partner and said, "I need a break anyway. You know, you handle the clubs for a couple weeks. I'm gonna, I'm just gonna get out of town for a little bit." I wound up renting, uh, a cobalt blue Ford Mustang, uh, and I think I did a month-long rental 'cause it felt cheap, and wound up just driving north. You know, I was also like kind of just excited to get out of the city and the idea of being alone, a- away from this relationship that wasn't really healthy as well. And I wound up calling this guy on the phone the next day and saying, "Hey man, I'm really sorry. Like, uh, you know, I was a little out of it. Um, what you did wasn't cool, but I- I'll try and get you another job. You know, here's a couple places that are hiring and feel free to use me as a reference." And y- you know, he seemed like he accepted the apology on the phone, so maybe the, maybe there was never any danger, you know, um, I'm not sure. But I was heading north and I was gonna, you know, get out of town for a while, and I remember bringing a Bible and a bottle of Dewar's and a carton of Marlboro Reds.
- SBSteven Bartlett
(laughs)
- SHScott Harrison
So (laughs) I start like-
- SBSteven Bartlett
That's great.
- SHScott Harrison
... reading the Bible while I'm drinking and smoking and I, I wind up going through Connecticut and through Vermont and I wind up in Maine and, you know, a, an inner transformation is really happening the farther I get away from New York City.
- SBSteven Bartlett
Mm.
- SHScott Harrison
Like, the farther north I go, the farther into kind of, you know, deserted beauty, the less I wanted to go back to New York. And it just kinda hits me, I don't ever need to go back. What if I never went back? What would I do? And, you know, call this a God-given idea or, or whatever, I got this idea to... That I... So when I, when I grew up in the church, this, there was this idea of a Biblical tithe where like 10% of your money goes to the church or to the poor and then you get to keep 90%. Well, I got this idea to tithe my time. What if I gave one year of the 10 years that I've selfishly wasted back in service to God and, and the poor, uh, or people who, who needed m- help? Could I be useful? That was really the question. And putting action to that, I remember being in a dial-up internet café with a bunch of old Dell computers in Greenville, Maine, on Moosehead Lake, I'm staying in a little motel, and I started to fill out the applications for the famous humanitarian aid organizations I'd heard of, Save the Children, Doctors Without Borders, Red Cross, uh, World Vision. And I commit in my mind that I'm not gonna go back to New York and I'm going to actually change my life and I'm gonna give a year back. I don't go back to New York.
- 29:22 – 35:41
Leaving my life and vice behind
- SHScott Harrison
While I'm wait-
- SBSteven Bartlett
It's-
- SHScott Harrison
Oh, go ahead.
- SBSteven Bartlett
I was gonna say, it's just so... I find it really interesting that the further away you got from New York, the more... Because people can relate to that in their lives in so many ways. If you've ever taken a month off from a job-
- SHScott Harrison
Yes.
- SBSteven Bartlett
... and you can finally feel it once you've s- stepped away from the thing.
- SHScott Harrison
And said another way, the further I got away from this destructive environment for me, you know, the, the more clarity I think I got.
- SBSteven Bartlett
Mm-hmm.
- SHScott Harrison
Um, so I wound up, uh, going... Bypassing New York, I went to the south of France. A buddy had a house in the mountains, in the remote Pyrenees Mountains, and I go there, there was no internet, so I had to come down. There was no phone and no internet, so I had to come down into the town on a bike just to, you know, check messages. But I go there and it's, it's time alone, it's solace, it's time for prayer, it's time for reading. You know, it's this kind of, this cleansing reset. You know, there's no drugs. Um, I was probably smoking a little bit, but you know, n- no, no gambling, no porno, like, just it's kind of a reset moment. And-What happens is, one by one, the denials from all these organizations come in. So 10 organizations reject my volunteer application, which makes sense because they're not looking for nightclub promoters, you know?
- SBSteven Bartlett
Yeah.
- SHScott Harrison
Uh, in the same way that, uh, you know, maybe a-
- SBSteven Bartlett
Mm-hmm.
- SHScott Harrison
... th- this is not, uh, hey, we're, you know, Doctors Without Borders looking for a reformed high-end nightclub promoter to go to Sudan. (laughs)
- SBSteven Bartlett
Maybe they should've been-
- SHScott Harrison
(laughs)
- SBSteven Bartlett
... (laughs) in hindsight.
- SHScott Harrison
Well, so one day, I remember I'm driving my bike. It's probably, you know, five miles, you know, down from this house through the little town, and, uh, there's a small patch of cellphone reception where I would stop and check messages. And as I'm actually on the bike riding through this area, the phone rings, and it's a group that hadn't rejected me, and they said, "Hey, we're, we're called Mercy Ships. We saw your application. Our ship right now, our hospital ship is in Bremerhaven, Germany. We haven't agreed to accept you, but we will meet you. So can you be in Germany and meet us?" And I'm like, "Well, I'm in France. I'll get right there." And I got there maybe 18 hours later and convinced these people, these doctors that I was not going to throw any wild parties on their hospital ship, I was not going to corrupt any of the young nurses, that I really was-
- SBSteven Bartlett
Mm. (laughs)
- SHScott Harrison
... reformed, uh, and wanted to change my life. And, uh, the, the position I had applied for was photojournalist on this ship. Now, I hadn't mentioned this, but I'd gone to New York University part-time when I was working at the clubs just to get a degree for my dad.
- SBSteven Bartlett
Right.
- SHScott Harrison
Terrible student, C-minus, didn't even see the degree for 10 years. They just mailed it directly to him 'cause he'd saved up for his only child to go to college, and I felt like I owed that to him. But I'd gotten a communications degree there because it was the easiest thing. You know, I was a pretty good writer, and I was a hobby photographer. So I dust off this degree that I've never used with Nightlife, and I say, "I actually have a comms degree from a, a decent university, and I can do this job." I also said to them, "I have 15,000 people on my club email list, so I have a built-in audience to be able to share the stories of the amazing redemptive humanitarian work I'm sure you're doing." So maybe, maybe to said it another way-
- SBSteven Bartlett
Mm.
- SHScott Harrison
... lemme promote something different.
- SBSteven Bartlett
Yeah.
- SHScott Harrison
Lemme promote you and the unbelievable medical work that you're gonna be doing, and I have a bunch of people that I could already promote to you.
- SBSteven Bartlett
Tell me about that emotional journey you went on from there. So you, you get on this ship. It goes off to Liberia?
- SHScott Harrison
Yeah, it goes to Benin, West Africa, and then Liberia. Well, this happens very quickly. So I go back to France. I pack up. And three weeks later, I'm on this hospital ship. And the night before I joined the ship, I had this, this moment of clar- so this is a 522-foot ocean liner, so huge cruise liner that had been gutted and turned into a state-of-the-art hospital. And this organization, for 25 years, had sailed up and down the coast of Africa bringing volunteer doctors, surgeons, and nurses on their vacation time to provide free medical services. So the, the ship would pull into a port, and then, you know, work there for a year, and then sail off to the next place. So I have this moment of clarity that I really am going to need to quit all the vices before I join this group of Christian doctors and humanitarian on a ship. And there was something, you know, symbolic about the gangway, right? Like, I'm gonna walk up the gangway of this ship. They're gonna lift the gangway. I'm kind of trapped on it with 350 other volunteers, and then I'm gonna sail away to a new continent and a new life. I better not bring any of that stuff with me.
- SBSteven Bartlett
Mm.
- SHScott Harrison
So very intentionally, the night before I got on the ship, I remember smoking 60 cigarettes. Smoked three packs, my last three packs of cigarettes. I remember getting hammered, drinking eight or nine beers. And just knowing that I would have to go, you know, cold turkey or all in to allow this new life to develop. And, you know, that was a clarifying moment. I'd, I drink a little bit now years later, but I've never had another cigarette. I've never had a drag or a, you know, 17 years now.
- SBSteven Bartlett
Mm.
- 35:41 – 41:58
Humanitarian work in Africa and its impact on me
- SBSteven Bartlett
I was reading through the book about what you saw when you arrived in, in Africa-
- SHScott Harrison
Yeah, oh my gosh. Yeah.
- SBSteven Bartlett
... the horrific things. There's actually a photo in here, I believe of s-
- SHScott Harrison
So let me set the scene. So the ship is pulling into the port. A small advance team for the previous three months had posted flyers throughout the country advertising the coming of the hospital ship.
- SBSteven Bartlett
Mm-hmm.
- SHScott Harrison
And we have 1,500 available surgery slots to hand out, so we're gonna make 1,500 sick people healthy. Those are the surgery slots we have. So I'm so excited, right? This is, like, my new life. I've got two Nikon D1X cameras. Uh, and I learn that the name for what, the first event is the patient screening. It's the big triage moment.And the veterans on the ship called it "the screaming." "Oh, we're, we're headed to the patient screening," you know, which should have sounded ominous.
- SBSteven Bartlett
Yeah.
- SHScott Harrison
So I remember thinking, you know, looking at these flyers which are advertising facial tumors, cleft lips, cleft palates, cleft faces, flesh-eating disease, like, people with parts of their face completely missing, holes that you can look through to the back of their throats, uh, burns. Uh, many people had been burned during the war by rebel soldiers who would pour oil on their bodies to disfigure them. I remember thinking, like, "Are there 1,500 people that are gonna turn up with these conditions?" Like, "Really?" So we get in a Land Rover, a convoy of Land Rovers, at 5:30 in the morning. This is my third day in Africa, so, like, the ship comes in, everybody gets ready, "Let's go." I learn the government has given us the football stadium in the center of the city to do the, the screening-
- SBSteven Bartlett
Hmm.
- SHScott Harrison
... inside the, the football arena. Put on my hospital scrubs, jump in a convoy of Land Rovers, we snake through the city, we get to the stadium, and there's more than 5,000 sick people standing in the parking lot waiting for us to open the doors. I'll never forget that moment, uh, realizing, "Wow, we're gonna send 3,000 sick people home with no help, with no hope." And I later learned many of those people had walked for more than a month from neighboring countries. The word had spread to Sierra Leone, to Guinea, to Cote d'Ivoire. Many of them had brought their children on a month-long journey just in the hopes of their child seeing a doctor, but we didn't have enough doctors. We didn't have enough available slots. So then the doors open, and, you know, everybody tries to... Th- there's a whole crew that's trying to put everybody into this line that just kinda snakes back and forth and back and forth, and the first child that... So my job is gonna be to photograph all 1,500 people up close for the medical library, and the first child I see is this 14-year-old boy, and he's suffocating to death with a volleyball-sized tumor, this pink-red tumor that is occupying his entire mouth, and he's having a hard time breathing. He's terrified, you know? I just remember the fear in his eyes. I'm terrified, you know? I remember just weeping. I'd never seen suffering like this before, and I remember kind of just shutting down and going in the corner of the stadium, and one of the doctors came over and said, you know, "Hey, you're the photojournalist guy, right?" Like, he said, "You gotta get back in there." Like, "Basically do your job. You're gonna see way worse than this, so kinda toughen up, kid."
- SBSteven Bartlett
Mm-hmm.
- SHScott Harrison
And then he said, "Focus on the hope," you know? "Focus on the 1,500 people like this child that we're gonna be able to help," and that was two days of really grueling... Every single person you see is sick. Leprosy, clap- you know, some of the conditions that I, that I mentioned, sick and scared, and couple days later, I got to scrub up again and document this eight-and-a-half-hour surgery when Alfred, the first child that I'd met, had his tumor removed by this remarkable man, uh, named Dr. Gary Parker, and couple weeks later, I got to see Alfred go back to his village. I asked whether I could drive him home.
- SBSteven Bartlett
Mm.
- SHScott Harrison
In my mind, I knew there was gonna be a party. I knew that when the village had sent this... Th- they'd written this boy off. They had sent him to the witch doctor who, you know, cast spells and s- spread chicken blood on his tumor. I mean, none of this worked, so he had literally been written off for dead, and I wanted to see what it was like, like when he came back to the village without his tumor, healthy. So I remember driving him, uh, it was a few hours, and just the whole community kind of coming out-
- SBSteven Bartlett
Really?
- SHScott Harrison
... and looking at him and touching his face and, and seeing, you know, celebrating, you know, a child that they thought was lost who, who was found, who was healed, and then over the next year, I was able to witness 1,500 of those transformations.
- SBSteven Bartlett
Wow. How did-
- SHScott Harrison
Now, I'm blasting my club list-
- SBSteven Bartlett
Oh, right, emails.
- SHScott Harrison
... the whole time. So that was fun because I- in, in a very short turn, people were getting emails from me inviting them to the opening of the Prada megastore or Cosmopolitan's, you know, fashion week party, and now they're getting pictures of 14-year-olds with facial tumors and pictures of the operating procedure and then pictures of, of post-op.
- SBSteven Bartlett
And what are you asking them for?
- SHScott Harrison
I'm just sharing my experience.
- SBSteven Bartlett
Oh, really? You... Okay.
- SHScott Harrison
And I'm, I'm promoting the work of the doctors, like, "Guys, this is amazing. These doctors are here. We're changing people's lives."
- 41:58 – 48:01
How did it feel helping people & starting your own charity?
- SHScott Harrison
- SBSteven Bartlett
So when you drive that kid home, and you see the reaction-
- SHScott Harrison
Yeah.
- SBSteven Bartlett
... or even when you see the before and after, how did that con- feel in comparison to the best n- club night you ever threw?
- SHScott Harrison
So much better. So much better, and, and, and healthy and redemptive and positive and life-giving. Uh, it was joy. What I didn't realize until later was my envi- for me to kind of step into this new life or into this new calling, or, or, or to find the 180, my environment also needed to drastically change. I was never gonna be able-...to change my life working at the clubs four nights a week, surrounded by sex, and drugs, and alcohol. But my environment changed, and here I am (laughs) with a bunch of, like, you know, Christian humanitarian doctors who are the most sacrificial people that I've ever met in my lives. You know, smoking is not cool on a hospital ship, right?
- SBSteven Bartlett
Mm-hmm.
- SHScott Harrison
Drinking is not cool. Ga- there's no casino. (laughs)
- SBSteven Bartlett
(laughs)
- SHScott Harrison
Nobody's playing, you know, blackjack. I mean, this is, this is so missional and so purposeful. And I, I loved the new environment. I couldn't get enough of it. I never wanted to leave.
- SBSteven Bartlett
You were already-
- SHScott Harrison
It was home. It felt like coming back home.
- SBSteven Bartlett
This leads you ultimately to discovering that there's a, a real issue out in Africa with water.
- SHScott Harrison
Yeah.
- SBSteven Bartlett
And I... That, that quote, "You've got to be kidding me they drink this," feels like quite an, um, a powerful quote in hindsight when I look at the work you've done from then on. Tell me about that moment where you said those words.
- SHScott Harrison
Maybe first, just the doctor throughline. Um, when I was a kid, I wanted to be a doctor.
- SBSteven Bartlett
Right.
- SHScott Harrison
To s- to cure mom and sick people like hers. And I didn't do anything doctor-like for 10 years in clubs.
- SBSteven Bartlett
Hmm.
- SHScott Harrison
Doctors don't come to nightclubs and buy bottles of Cristal. (laughs)
- SBSteven Bartlett
Mm-hmm.
- SHScott Harrison
So I didn't know many doctors. But now I'm with a bunch of doctors. And there was one doctor, this guy, Dr. Gary Parker, who had been there 21 years and I made him a mentor. I wanted to spend as much time as possible. He was one of the reasons why I went back for the second year, because he had dedicated 21 years of his life to this work. And I'm like, "Well, I have at least another year," right? "Let me, let me just not end with this year-long tithe when the year was finished. Let me go back for a second tour." In the second tour, I felt like I really understood the medical world, and I still had to take all the pictures of the surgeries and the before and afters, but I wanted to get off of the ship and understand more of the context of how people were living in Liberia. And this was a post-war country, 14 years of brutal civil war led by Charles Taylor had torn aw- torn apart the country. There was no electricity, no running water, no sewage system, and no mail system. So just imagine, like, shambles, like everything broke down in a decade and a half of war. I mean, look how much destruction is happening just in the short time, you know, the, what we're seeing now in-
- SBSteven Bartlett
Mm-hmm.
- SHScott Harrison
... um, in the Ukraine. 15 years of war. Tour the partner. So that was the backdrop of which our doctors came in. At the time, there was one physician for every 50,000 Liberians. Okay?
- SBSteven Bartlett
Wow.
- SHScott Harrison
Our ratio here in America is one for 300. So every 300 Americans is a doctor. One for 50,000. There were two surgeons apparently in the country, but nowhere for them to operate.
- SBSteven Bartlett
Mm-hmm.
- SHScott Harrison
No hospitals that were working. As I got into the rural areas, I saw the water that people were drinking, and there were swamps, or ponds, you know, or sometimes like a muddy river, you know, running near these villages or in the center of these villages. And I remember seeing kids come, and filling up their buckets, and drinking unthinkable water. And I was like, "Wait, people drink this?" To contrast that, and I think why this resonated so deeply, I used to sell Voss water-
- SBSteven Bartlett
Hmm.
- SHScott Harrison
... for $10 a bottle in the clubs to people who would just order $100 of water to let it sit there, just in case anybody needed to hydrate, but really they were drinking champagne or vodka instead. You know, as I started to explore this, m- the water, uh, issue in the country, I learned two things. Half the country was drinking dirty, contaminated water every day, and half the disease in the country was because people were drinking-
- SBSteven Bartlett
(laughs)
- 48:01 – 56:40
Promoting clean water for the whole world
- SHScott Harrison
- SBSteven Bartlett
Very simple commission.
- SHScott Harrison
Well, it was simple. I mean-
- SBSteven Bartlett
I mean, the words-
- SHScott Harrison
... simple mission-
- SBSteven Bartlett
... it was, it was simple. (laughs)
- SHScott Harrison
... bring clean water to everybody on the planet.
- SBSteven Bartlett
It's a few words, but it's a big... I mean, it's an impossible challenge, right? It's, it's tr- a tremendous, tremendous challenge. And, uh, you know, you said it's simple, but I'm sure there's lots of people who have been given similar kind of flippant mandates from people in their lives, "Go and fix that. Why don't you go and fix that?" And 99.9% of them will never attempt to, to fix that. Which makes me answer the que- ask the question, why did you believe that you could do that?
- SHScott Harrison
So I saw the small impact that I had made promoting the work of Mercy Ships.
- SBSteven Bartlett
Mm-hmm.
- SHScott Harrison
In between the two missions, there was a little gap in between year one and year two, and I came back to New York City with my photos. I got a gallery donated in Chelsea. I printed 108 of my photos, and I invited all my nightclub friends to come in and see the work that these doctors were doing, and I raised about $100,000 for their work through that show.
- SBSteven Bartlett
Hm.
- SHScott Harrison
I remember people, callous people, that, you know, would come to the nightclub, you know, who were just kind of, mm, didn't seem like they would care about anything, standing in front of some of my images weeping-
- SBSteven Bartlett
Right.
- SHScott Harrison
... as they read the caption, as they learned, you know, hey, this is someone just my age born in a different environment, you know, with- with a terrible affliction, but no doctor to go to. So I had a little bit of, like, wow, that, you know, success. And- and, you know, while my email list shrunk a little bit with some unsubscribes-
- SBSteven Bartlett
Mm-hmm.
- SHScott Harrison
... at the beginning, it actually began to grow as people would forward it to their friends and, like, "Oh my gosh, there's, like, this guy that he's, like, I used to do coke with this guy, and he's, like, on this hospital ship in Liberia. I've never even heard of Liberia." And, like, "Look at these photos. I mean, look at these doctors. Like, blind people are-
- SBSteven Bartlett
Mm.
- SHScott Harrison
... are seeing and, you know, uh, faces are being fixed." And, you know, we'd find a 65-year-old woman in a village with a cleft lip. Food and water had spilled out of her mouth her entire life, and we provided a $280 surgery, and she could speak, and she could eat, and had her dignity and her life back. So, you know, this stuff was like, it was- it was, um, it was inspiring people, the work of the doctors, and I was the promoter. So instead of promoting the DJ and the thousand-dollar bottles of Cristal and the, you know, celebrities that were gonna be in the club that night, the special guests, I was promoting something very different. And I saw that that was working and that that skill that I had, you know, potentially learned over 10 years or misused for 10 years promoting something, you know, certainly less redemptive-
- SBSteven Bartlett
Yeah.
- SHScott Harrison
... or purposeful could actually be translated and used to promote the work of Mercy Ships. The next step was I thought it would be possible to promote clean water for humans. So, and- and- and, in effect, in an even more simple way, I mean, it's- it's what do you do? We bring clean water to people around the world. Everybody should have clean water to drink. I thought it was a really promotable cause.
- SBSteven Bartlett
And what is, what was your business model though in terms of-
- SHScott Harrison
Yeah.
- SBSteven Bartlett
... the model? So how are you gonna-
- SHScott Harrison
(laughs)
- SBSteven Bartlett
... bring water to all of these people?
- SHScott Harrison
Well, at this moment, I'm broke. Uh, I am back from Africa. I have no savings. I've given everything that I had to Mercy Ships and the people I'd met. So I crash with my old club partner who lets me sleep on his closet floor for free rent, and I had the idea, bring clean water to everybody on the planet, and I had the benefit of not having any institutional charitable knowledge outside of my experience with Mercy Ships. And I just was talking to people that worked at MTV or at fashion magazines or at Sephora and/or at the local bank, and I realized so many of my friends didn't trust charities.
- SBSteven Bartlett
Mm-hmm.
- SHScott Harrison
They did not trust the system. Almost all of their problems had to do with money. Where does the money really go?
- SBSteven Bartlett
Mm-hmm.
- 56:40 – 1:05:15
What struggles did the charity face?
- SBSteven Bartlett
Was there a time in that- that early startup phase where you genuinely considered that you might fail?
- SHScott Harrison
Every day.
- SBSteven Bartlett
Really?
- SHScott Harrison
Absolutely every day, especially with this business model. If I couldn't raise the overhead, it- it didn't matter how successful w- we were with the- the public funding.
- SBSteven Bartlett
Hmm.
- SHScott Harrison
Uh, so every day.
- SBSteven Bartlett
And in terms of difficulties with business, with people, with, you know, everything else, what was, what was the most painful time of that early years, the most painful day, event that you went through?
- SHScott Harrison
Yeah. Well, the- the charity started off very quickly and people loved the 100% model. Um, it just began to build a lot of momentum. We raised $2 million in the first year through a flurry of activities, gallery shows and events and people doing concerts for us and people giving online, and we were selling a $20 bottle of water, you know, just as a symbolic gesture where all $20 would go, and people would buy cases of the water. So it was just- it was a year of a lot of success. And then in the second year, um, we were on track to raise $6 million, but always a struggle for the overhead, always a struggle to, you know, find a donor to pay for employee number two or to pay for the next month's office rent. I mean, we were in a really crappy office, like, covered in grease floors. It was an old printing press. So I was doing all that work, trying to convince people to help me build the actual organization because the 100% model was so resonant. We got to a point, uh, about a year and a half in where we had almost a million dollars in the water bank account, about to go out and build a hundred wells and we were about to miss payroll. And we had nine people at the time. And I remember just thinking... And- and by the way, people had been warning me that this model would fail. You know, nobody thought this business model was a good idea. Right? I mean, effectively, you can't use any of the money you raised from the public to actually run the company, to run the organization. But I just had such faith in it, and I had tapped out all the people that I knew for the overhead, and I was hitting a point where I realized, maybe they're right.
- SBSteven Bartlett
Mm-hmm.
- SHScott Harrison
You know, maybe this is a really dumb business model. So I start calling lawyers about shutting down the charity. It's a year and a half in. Even though we've raised, you know, millions of dollars. I remember praying, you know, with very little faith. And, you know, I- and I didn't start a religious charity, so I was still kind of animated by my personal faith and, um, you know, a belief in- in prayer, but I remember, like, praying for a miracle, but I'm like, "There's no miracle that can save us at this moment." And the advice I was getting was to borrow from the million dollars in the water account to make payroll. So that was the kind of conventional wisdom. "Hey, write yourself an IOU." You know, you're not bankrupt if you have a million dollars. But for me, if we borrowed one penny, one dollar, one pound from that bank account, and we used it on anything overhead-related, our integrity would be forever compromised. You know, in such an extreme way, I'm like, "There's a crack at the foundation. I would never even wanna build on top of that. I'd much rather shut it down and have my integrity." And at that moment, uh, I'd written a cold email to a British, uh, internet entrepreneur, um, a- actually about something completely different, not even about funding, about, uh, trying to get exposure on his social media network. Uh, it was called Bebo at the time. And, uh, he-
- SBSteven Bartlett
Everyone knows Bebo that listens to this.
- SHScott Harrison
So he writes me back and says, "Man, I love this idea. Like, what a, what a cool idea, getting everybody clean water. Checked out your website. You know, really good design and branding, but it's a bad time for me to help." So I don't think anything of it. I was just happy that, you know, somebody responded to a cold email.Well, around this time of near insolvency, or bankruptcy, at least on the overhead account, um, he writes me and he says, "Hey, I'm gonna be in town. Um, I'd love to meet you and learn a little more about what you're doing." He comes in. I remember I pull out my laptop, I take him through 100 photos and my whole story. He's working in this, you know, we're in this crappy office. There's nine other people, there's a couple volunteers around. And I remember just thinking, "Boy, this is the worst pitch I've done." He is not into it. He's not really laughing at the jokes. He's just... doesn't seem very compelled by this. He leaves and, you know, says, "Well, you know, give me your bank account details and, you know, I'll see how I can help." And, uh, two days later, it's around midnight. Again, I'm- I'm m- almost to this point just relinquished to the fact that I'm over. I'm gonna shut down the charity. Maybe I'll try with a different business model, or maybe I'll just try with the traditional business model. And, uh, I get an email from him, and he says, "Hey, it was great meeting you. Um, I just wired a million dollars into your overhead account." And we went from bankrupt to 13 months of funding.
- SBSteven Bartlett
Mm.
- SHScott Harrison
He said, "I believe in your idea. You just need more time." And that was $700 million ago. And this year we'll raise over $130 million.
- SBSteven Bartlett
And that entrepreneur was Michael Birch.
- SHScott Harrison
That was Michael Birch.
- SBSteven Bartlett
He's a f-
- SHScott Harrison
He was-
- SBSteven Bartlett
... mutual friend of us here. (laughs)
- SHScott Harrison
He was a mutual friend-
- SBSteven Bartlett
Yeah. (laughs)
- SHScott Harrison
... and- and- and an amazing guy, um, and really, you know, saved the organization, um, and I think even more, you know, Michael and I have- have been... become really good friends over the years, and even more than the money was that somebody believed in me. He believed that I could do it with the right amount of time. We never looked back. Uh, today there are 131 unbelievably, um, accomplished entrepreneurs and business leaders who pay all the overhead, 20 of them in the UK. Um, you know, it's the founders of Spotify and Shopify and WordPress and LinkedIn and, you know, eh, u- unbelievable group of- of, uh, really a lot of tech entrepreneurs who love paying for the software engineers and the UI/UX designers and the actual core b- organization of Charity: Water so that now millions and millions of people around the world are donating and have the purest way to give, knowing that 100% of the money goes. But that was really a key moment of it was almost all over, but, you know, if I were to go back and the money was not gonna come in, I still would shut down the charity. I wouldn't have borrowed.
- SBSteven Bartlett
Really? It was that important for you to-
- SHScott Harrison
It was that important to keep good on that promise.
- SBSteven Bartlett
It's funny, 'cause that defining promise is definitely really one of the fundamental things that has made tra- Charity: Water so successful in- in a landscape of charities where trust, as you- you identified very early on, is a central issue with people giving their money. And hindsight's a wonderful thing, but it's definitely proven you right to hold to your integrity there.
- SHScott Harrison
Yeah.
- SBSteven Bartlett
How many people have you now reached? I read it was like 15 million people provided-
- SHScott Harrison
Yeah, we just crossed 15 million people, uh, in the- the last few weeks of the year, uh, in December, uh, in our 15th year, so we closed our 15th year, we got to the 15 million person milestone. Um, you know, it's 1/50 of the 771 million people who need our help. So as- as we record this, 10% of the world is drinking dirty water. It's crazy. 10% of the world, one outta 10 people, 771 million humans, and we've helped 15 million of them. So we're at the very beginning of this journey. So we're in year 16, and, y- you know, really, t- to- to quote my- my friend Daniel at Spotify who uses this a lot, like, "It really feels like we are in the second inning of impact, the second inning of the movement, the second inning of raising the capital." We need to go faster and accelerate. Last year we helped two million people get water. So it's over 5,000 people every day. So we're at kind of peak velocity over the 15-year journey and in a time where I think we can really exponentially scale.
- 1:05:15 – 1:07:11
Work-life balance
- SBSteven Bartlett
As an entrepreneur, would you describe yourself as obsessed? 'Cause you- you said earlier about your father.
- SHScott Harrison
Huh. No.
- SBSteven Bartlett
You n- no?
- SHScott Harrison
No. Driven.
- SBSteven Bartlett
Mm-hmm.
- SHScott Harrison
Committed. Not obsessed.
- SBSteven Bartlett
What's your work/life balance like, if that's even a thing you- you sort of espouse, you sign up to?
- SHScott Harrison
Yeah, I- yeah, I don't love the balance idea. I think there are seasons when there's an emphasis. Um, the year before COVID I did 90 flights and 100 speeches. Um, then I dropped to, you know, very little, and, you know, w- the Zooms-
- SBSteven Bartlett
Mm-hmm.
- SHScott Harrison
... with the rest of the world, and I spent an extraordinarily... more time with my kids, you know, during COVID. So I think there- there are different seasons of life when something different is required of me to move the mission forward.
- SBSteven Bartlett
Mm-hmm.
- SHScott Harrison
I mean, I, in- in some ways I feel really lucky to have put in the 100-hour weeks, 'cause there really were 100-weeks in the beginning, and everybody knows that. You are just... When you're trying to birth something, you know, whether it's a company or a- a nonprofit or a, you know, a for good company, there's an extraordinary amount of work that is required in those early days and years, because you really could kind of die at any moment-
- SBSteven Bartlett
Mm-hmm.
- SHScott Harrison
... like, you know, the- the thing could die. Um, you could go bankrupt. Like, y- you're only as good-
- SBSteven Bartlett
Mm-hmm.
- SHScott Harrison
... as your last sale or your last donor, you know, that believes in you. So I'm lucky that I got that-... really hard work in early and built the organization to, you know, now there's, there's 2,000 people around the world that are working on charity: water projects every day. You know, there's a hundred people, uh, here in the States and in London, you know, who are working on the, you know, the fundraising and the campaigns and, um, and, and managing all these, these water projects. So, I work differently, but less. You know, I'm, I'm really present with my kids. I take my s- kids to school every morning when I'm home and I pick them up from school.
- 1:07:11 – 1:13:14
The importance of giving and service
- SHScott Harrison
- SBSteven Bartlett
Having tasted a lot of ingredients of life, what do you think is the, the recipe for, in your view, for yourself, 'cause I guess that's the only perspective you can talk from, but for yourself for a fulfilled life, having-
- SHScott Harrison
Yeah.
- SBSteven Bartlett
... been in the clubs and this, the planes and the private jets and-
- SHScott Harrison
Yup.
- SBSteven Bartlett
... what would you now say is the r- it recipe for a fulfilled life?
- SHScott Harrison
Service.
- SBSteven Bartlett
You think that's central to-
- SHScott Harrison
Yeah.
- SBSteven Bartlett
... a fulfilled life?
- SHScott Harrison
Service, um, generosity. You know, it's the only game in town. I mean, there's so many people that I've seen... You know, I've, I've gotten to spend... I've been to 70 countries now. I've been to the continent of Africa more than 55 times. I have seen some of the most marginalized, um, suffering, people living in, uh, in, in conditions that, that are shocking. I've been with moms that have lost seven kids to diarrhea and waterborne diseases. Um, I've, I've seen horrible, horrible things around the world. And then I've been with, you know, dozens and dozens of billionaires, and I've seen the top echelon of private planes and 40 cars and $70 million houses and, um... I'll tell you that, you know, the houses and the cars and the watches and the planes and the, you know, the out-market capping, you know, your competitors, it is not where purpose lies. Um, it's really in service and asking how... For me, how can I use my time and my talent and my, my resources, my money, in the service of others? How can I look around and see who is needlessly suffering in my local community, in the global community, and how can I contribute to stop that suffering? And it's kind of a never-ending work. You know, there's no finish line to that. There is no, you know, "Well, I'm trying to get to the unicorn billion-dollar valuation," and then, you know... Th- th- this is a life of service or a life trained, uh, or k- or kinda pointed at being useful.
- SBSteven Bartlett
Mm-hmm.
- SHScott Harrison
And loving others doesn't... There's no, there's no end point, there's no finish line. There's always gonna be someone who could use your help. And I've found the more you give, and let's just say, you know, some people don't have money to give, they could have time to give or they could have mentorship to give, the more you give, the more you give.
- SBSteven Bartlett
Mm-hmm.
- SHScott Harrison
It's like this muscle. You know, you need to use it. Like, if you exercise the generosity muscle, instead of saying no, you know, to all the incoming requests, the most generous people I know, they love giving to 50 or 60 different causes a year. They're not saying, "Oh, I just get hit up all the time." They love being useful and, and, you know, it's a, it's a privilege for them to be asked for money for a noble cause, because they get to contribute.
- SBSteven Bartlett
Interesting reframing but a very significant one.
- SHScott Harrison
(laughs) So, I hate the, I hate the word giving back that we use a lot here in the States, and, um, you know, "Oh, my company gives back," right? You hear about these-
- SBSteven Bartlett
Mm-hmm.
- SHScott Harrison
... giving back programs. Well, it almost implies that we have-
- SBSteven Bartlett
Yeah.
- SHScott Harrison
... you know, pillaged and plundered to such extent, let's throw some scraps to the poor.
- SBSteven Bartlett
Yeah.
- SHScott Harrison
Let's throw a few scraps back, right? So we feel better about ourselves. So I encourage companies, just drop the back language. Just giving. Let's build a culture of giving in our families. Let's build a, a culture of giving in our companies. Giving not 'cause we've taken, giving because we can give, because it's a joy to give. It's a blessing to be able to give.
- SBSteven Bartlett
People listening to this now, how can they, if they're driving up and down the country, washing their dishes, whatever, how can they support what is a very, very worthy cause like charity: water?
- SHScott Harrison
We have an amazing community, uh, of, of people who show up every month, giving a little bit, whatever they can for clean water. It's called The Spring. Uh, UK is our big- is our second-biggest market to the US, but we now have people in 150 countries. We have people in Africa that give a little bit every single month for, for clean water. Um, it costs about 30 pounds or $40 to get one person clean water, so there's a lot of people that just do that every month. And they don't get music or movies or, you know, hour, m- next-hour shipping from Amazon, you know, for more stuff. But 100% of whatever they, they give every month goes directly to help people get clean water, and we're really good at proving where that money goes and sharing stories of, of impact. So, um, people can learn more at charitywater.org or just thespring.com.
- SBSteven Bartlett
And you- I guess you're always looking forward for individuals that are also willing to join the, the, um-
- SHScott Harrison
Yeah, the, the, the well members, of course. I mean, if, uh, there, there may be some entrepreneurs who love building, you know, businesses or organizations. So, those 131 families are the lifeblood, uh, of the organization, and we're always looking to, to grow that really incredible group, um, that then allows millions of people to give in a, in a transparent and, um, uh, effective way.
- SBSteven Bartlett
Scott, the work you do is... I mean, I don't really know the words to describe it. I sometimes think of, like, nice adjec- adjectives and stuff, but it's like r- a really deeply profoundly inspiring journey, story, book, cause, um, and future that you're creating, and it's really made me question a lot of things about myself. I'm in that phase of my life now where I'm also asking myself serious questions about that part of me, the purposeful service part of me. And so meeting you today feels like it was meant to be in many respects. Reading the book felt like it was meant to be. But, um, I'm sure the conversation we'll have will continue off podcast.
- SHScott Harrison
You have to come with me.Come with me on a trip.
- SBSteven Bartlett
I'd love to.
- 1:13:14 – 1:16:51
Our last guest's question
- SBSteven Bartlett
to, we do have a closing tradition on this podcast.
- SHScott Harrison
Okay.
- SBSteven Bartlett
Which is the last guest writes a question for the next guest. The question was, when was the last time you got badly rejected?
- SHScott Harrison
I won't use the donor's name, but, um, it was, it was definitely, you know, someone who just kind of pretended to be really interested and, you know, felt like was really stringing me along, and then just, I don't know, inexplicably never gave, never engaged, and felt like a huge waste of time.
- SBSteven Bartlett
And you committed a lot, a lot of time and energy.
- SHScott Harrison
I did commit a lot of time and energy and, and was really, you know, maybe expectancy. And it was just, uh, it was a big disappointment. It normally doesn't happen. I mean, I'm, I'm, uh, we're, we're really blessed by, you know, being surrounded with s- with an amazing group of people and an amazing community. Um, I just had, I just had, maybe to end on a more positive note, I had a, a situation (laughs) with a very, very accomplished, uh, on- internet entrepreneur, uh, recently, and I asked him for a very, very large sum of money, and we caught up afterwards, after he'd had time to consider it with his wife, and he said, "Why'd you ask for so little?" And then he gave four times more.
- SBSteven Bartlett
Wow. Swings and roundabouts.
- SHScott Harrison
"Why did you ask for so little?" So I, I was like, wow. My mind like absolutely expanded and am I asking for too little? Am I, think 15 years in, $700 million raised, you know, like a global movement, am I thinking too small?
- SBSteven Bartlett
Mm.
- SHScott Harrison
There's more? There's more generosity? There's more goodwill out there?
- SBSteven Bartlett
And what if-
- SHScott Harrison
So I focus on that-
- SBSteven Bartlett
Yeah.
- SHScott Harrison
... not the rejections. It's very easy for me to kind of, you know, brush that off-
- SBSteven Bartlett
Mm.
- SHScott Harrison
... and, and, a- and just not carry that around and find the, the generosity and really let that fuel me. So that's been fueling me now for weeks, it's like, okay, maybe I really need to go for it.
- SBSteven Bartlett
Scott, thank you. Uh, oh, just a, an amazing conversation and one that's gonna stay with me for some time. I can feel that certainly, so, um, and your book, if nobody's... I mean, there's two things. There was a couple of catalysts that really brought me to you. I said to you earlier, my manager had seen you speak and-
- SHScott Harrison
Mm.
- SBSteven Bartlett
... insisted that we, we had this conversation and that I read your book. Then I saw that famous video, which anyone can watch, which kind of summarizes your story in about 20-odd minutes.
- SHScott Harrison
Yeah.
- SBSteven Bartlett
Which has done some 25 million views on YouTube. That, that had me completely. Scott, thank you.
- SHScott Harrison
Thanks for having me. (instrumental music)
- SBSteven Bartlett
I had a few words to say about one of my sponsors on this podcast. My girlfriend came upstairs yesterday when I was having a shower, and she said to me that she tried the Huel protein shake, which lives on my fridge over there, and she said it's amazing. Low calories, you get your 20-odd grams of protein, you get your 26 vitamins and minerals, and it's nutritionally complete. In the protein space, there's lots of things, but it's hard to find something that is nice, especially when consumed just with water, and that is nutritionally complete. The salted caramel one, if you put some ice cubes in it and you put it in a blender and you try it, is as good as pretty much any milkshake on the market, just mixed with water. It's been a game changer for me because I'm trying to drop my calorie intake and I'm trying to be a little bit more healthy with my diet, so this is where Huel fits in my life. Thank you, Huel, for making a product that I actually like. (instrumental music)
Episode duration: 1:16:51
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