Ina Garten
New York Times bestselling author, and James Beard and Emmy Award-winning host of Barefoot Contessa and Be My Guest.
“I don't like being the head of a company that's doing things. I like doing things.”
Pivot (Kara Swisher & Scott Galloway) · Tech Strategy & Big Tech · September 2026
Context
Kara Swisher had just asked Garten about moving away from traditional TV and publishing to go independent. Garten answered by repeating a friend's observation that she keeps starting businesses and shutting them down instead of growing one, and this is her explanation of why. It reframes a pattern most people would read as restlessness as a plain preference about how she wants to spend her days.
Transcript
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…and publishing going independent. I've talked a lot about how great the move has been for me. I've been doing it for a dozen years and how I think more people should do it. But it also seems like people close to you have been pushing you to do this for years. So talk a little bit about this shift.
You know, somebody asked me recently, actually, I thought it was really interesting. They said most people start a business and they grow it and they grow it and they grow it and they grow it. And she said, what you do is you start a business, you shut it down, you start another business, you shut that one down and you start a third business. I don't like being the head of a company that's doing things. I like doing things. And so I think that was a really interesting view of what I do. I just, I find I have like a 20-year attention span and I like to do something until I know how to do it. I've done it and it's time to challenge myself. Again, and then I'll take it to the next level or in a different direction, but still in the same genre of food and connecting with people. And that's basically what I've done for…
there a moment? I always have these moments. That happens to me. When I stopped doing my conference after 20 years, which was really successful, when it was very successful, I was like, we're done. I don't know why. I just woke up one morning and thought, oh, that's it.
Because you know how to do it.
Yeah, exactly. Yeah.
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