Success Story with Scott D. Clary

Episode: Ryan Serhant - Owning Manhattan | Started on Wall Street's Worst Day, Sold $20B Since
Date: December 15, 2025

Episode Overview

In this candid and energetic conversation, Scott D. Clary interviews top real estate broker, TV personality, entrepreneur, and author Ryan Serhant. Serhant dives deep into his journey from multiple “career deaths” to building a $20B+ real estate empire, discusses the power of chaos for success, and lays out clear, actionable insights on ambition, resilience, personal development, and leadership. The episode’s core is about harnessing adversity, maximizing one’s capacity, taking action, and building future success—regardless of one’s starting point.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Harnessing Chaos & New York’s Energy

• Ryan attributes his drive to his environment in New York, a city of chaos and ambition.
  • “Most people are tornado chasers. You're a tornado creator.” — Ryan Serhant (02:06)
  • Success comes from leaning in to chaos rather than avoiding it.
• The city is described as addicting, built on get-up-and-go energy.
  • “New York City is the loneliest city in the world. The people who say that are the ones who don't understand that the city is built on energy.” — Ryan Serhant (03:28)

2. Resilience and Bouncing Back from Setbacks

• Ryan shares having three “career deaths”: failing the LSAT, being killed off a soap opera, and starting real estate the day Lehman collapsed (04:24).
• His perspective: Nothing is final—setbacks are “speed bumps, not brick walls.”
  • “Any setback is just a speed bump. It is not a brick wall.” — Ryan Serhant (05:57)
  • Encourages always treating adversity as temporary.

3. Expanding Personal Capacity

• Ryan identifies “capacity” as a superpower: the ability to handle many projects without losing focus (07:05).
  • “I have found greater success in your ability to create more capacities.” — Ryan Serhant (08:00)
• Describes “milking” every opportunity to the fullest, turning TV exposure into multiple ventures (08:32).

4. Action Over Inaction: Hard Work Over Luck

• Advocates relentless effort as the driver for success—work begets luck, not the other way around.
  • “Hard work beats luck when luck doesn't work hard. If you take care of the work, the work will just take care of you.” — Ryan Serhant (13:28)
• Action is the antidote to anxiety or low moods.
  • “Worry comes just from inaction… contentment comes from taking action.” — Ryan Serhant (14:00)

5. Letting Go to Scale Up

• A major transition for Serhant: learning to delegate and hire better talent.
  • “You had to learn that, though.” — Interviewer/Co-host (16:18)
  • Shares examples of key hires (CTO, capital-side executive) who took responsibilities off his plate, allowing him to grow (16:27).
  • “I get to learn now. I go into some of my meetings... and I learn. It's a wild transition in my career.” — Ryan Serhant (18:04)

6. Working for Your Future Self

• Ryan works for the man he wants to be two years from now.
  • “Who am I really working for? It's for me, but not me today... two years from today, that is a future Ryan that is really, really, really hoping that Ryan today shows up and works his ass off.” — Ryan Serhant (21:31)
• Planning and daily actions are guided by future ambitions rather than current comfort.

7. Privilege, Representation & Impact

• Ryan addresses the structural challenges facing many aspiring entrepreneurs, especially from underserved communities.
  • “The housing market isn't broken, it's rigged... set up to work against everybody, against all millennial and Gen Z buyers, against black and brown people in the United States.” — Ryan Serhant (23:45)
• He defends reality TV’s ability to expand representation and show underserved viewers new possibilities.
  • “You have no understanding the effect that these goofy TV shows have on underserved communities to let them know what's possible in their own lives.” — Ryan Serhant (25:57)
  • Cites having a diverse cast as purposeful to inspire broader audiences (27:06).

8. Ownership, Mindset & Skill Development

• Encourages a mindset of ownership and skill acquisition—even suggesting reclaiming just 30 minutes of daily screen time for learning (29:49).
• Advocates for “learning budgets” at his company and supports personal growth for team members beyond core job skills (30:03).

9. The Thousand Minute Rule: Valuing & Structuring Time

• Ryan’s productivity strategy: break the day into a thousand productive minutes.
  • “I created the thousand minute rule because I have no boss... So I gotta break it out.” — Ryan Serhant (30:54)
  • Treat each day’s time as currency. Don’t let a single bad event “spend” your entire day’s worth of minutes (32:59).
  • Uses calendar notes as a self-therapy tool: write anxieties 30 days out to see how time heals setbacks (34:08).

10. Phases of Life, Saying Yes, and Learning to Say No

• Early in careers: say “yes and” to opportunities to discover what sticks.
  • “At the beginning of my career, your number one job is to say yes and... do that so much that you get to a point where you can start to say no, but.” — Ryan Serhant (34:51)
• The ability to move from saying yes (grind/hustle) to saying no (focus) defines long-term success.

11. Personal P&L and Work-Life Integration

• Advises everyone to know their personal profit & loss: what does your life cost? (39:27)
• Argues against rigid work/life separation: “Work, life, balance doesn't work if you try to keep it as work over here and life over here. You just have life.” (40:03)

12. Habits of Ultra-Successful People and Their Relationship with Time

• The wealthy have much more “white space” (free time) on their calendars for focus (41:14).
• The most successful see money as a tool, not a resource (43:29).
  • “It's just a tool. Like a hammer... once you learn how to use the tools, you can build real big and real fast.” — Ryan Serhant (43:47)

13. Looking Forward: The Future Ryan & Lasting Lessons

• Ryan envisions building a globally recognized company with more personal “blank space” (44:05).
• If he could pass one lesson on: follow the golden rule—treat others as you want to be treated (44:52).

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On adversity:

  “Any setback is just a speed bump. It is not a brick wall.” — Ryan Serhant (05:57)

• On hard work vs. luck:

  “Hard work beats luck when luck doesn't work hard. If you take care of the work, the work just takes care of you.” — Ryan Serhant (13:28)

• On representation:

  “You have no understanding the effect that these goofy TV shows have on underserved communities to let them know what's possible in their own lives.” — Ryan Serhant (25:57)

• On future-focused action:

  “Who am I really working for? It’s for me, but not me today... [it’s] two years from today, that is a future Ryan that is really... hoping that Ryan today shows up and works his ass off.” — Ryan Serhant (21:31)

• On the value of time:

  “Every day you wake up with your own thousand dollars in your bank of time.” — Ryan Serhant (31:37)

• On delegation and learning from others:

  “You are like a type A personality. And obviously now you've scaled, but it was probably very hard to give up some control at the beginning... You just know when you have the right guy in the right seat within 48 hours.” — Ryan Serhant (16:18, 16:27)

• On life integration:

  “Work, life, balance doesn't work if you try to keep it as work over here and life over here. You just have life.” — Ryan Serhant (40:03)

• On money:

  “It's just a tool. Like a hammer... once you learn how to use the tools, you can build real big and real fast.” — Ryan Serhant (43:47)

• On the golden rule:

  “We would be in a much, much, much greater place if we understood that every action you take against or with another person is also going to be against or with you... we just build something much better for the very short period of time we have on this.” — Ryan Serhant (44:52)

Important Timestamps

| Segment | Time | |-------------------------------------------------------|-----------| | Ryan’s environment, “tornado creator” comment | 00:00–02:06| | Chaos and New York’s energy | 03:17–04:24| | Setbacks as speed bumps, not brick walls | 04:50–05:57| | Expanding capacity, milking opportunities | 07:05–10:28| | Action vs. inaction, hard work beats luck | 13:17–14:00| | Letting go and hiring to scale | 16:16–18:38| | Working for future self, not present self | 21:22–23:10| | Representation and impact of reality TV | 25:52–28:08| | The thousand minute rule for productivity | 30:36–34:08| | Phases of life: saying yes, then learning to say no | 34:51–36:12| | Personal P&L, integration of work and life | 39:27–41:02| | Calendar habits of the ultra-successful | 41:14–42:17| | Money as a tool, future vision | 43:29–44:05| | One lesson for the next generation (the golden rule) | 44:52–end |

Recap: For Listeners Who Missed It

Ryan Serhant’s path wasn’t easy—multiple failures, a rough start in real estate, and plenty of chaos. He credits his rise to not just surviving, but creating chaos and using setbacks as “speed bumps.” He believes in expanding one’s capacity, working for the person you want to become, and taking relentless action. Serhant stresses the value of learning to delegate, viewing money as a tool, respecting personal time, and integrating work and life rather than separating them.

Above all, he champions the power of representation, both to encourage aspiring professionals from all backgrounds and to show what’s possible. His final lesson: follow the golden rule and build a better world for the short time you’re on it.

Find Ryan:

• Owning Manhattan on Netflix
• @RyanSerhant everywhere online

Final Word:

“We just build something much better for the very short period of time we have on this.” — Ryan Serhant (44:52)