- [Man] Can you sign my,--
- Yes, hold on, I promise I will get to every single person.
You'll send me an email, DRock, no?
All right, good, I'm just gonna put this here,
nobody break my wine, it's a nice gift.
All right, you'll take this picture
and you'll email Gary@VaynerMedia
and then you'll put French subtitles in the title,
subject line, and I'll get it organized.
- All right, no problem.
- How is everybody, good?
- [All] Yeah!
- Let's do it.
- [Man] How was the food?
- Food was fuckin' ridiculously good.
(group laughter) And I'm a snobby,
- [Man] How was the wine though?
- The wine was really good too, I'm a snobby New Yorker
and that was really good. - Yeah.
- Really good, has anybody ever eaten here?
- Yeah.
- [Gary] It's fancy though, right?
You're a fancy dude huh?
- No, I live here.
- Just kidding, awesome.
- [Man] It takes four months before you can eat.
- All right here's my concept for this
so I can get through this, let's just first do selfies
and sign books, and then we can do questions,
because otherwise people would have to wait
like four, five hours, and I've done this before.
So let's first do the photos and things
of that nature and then I'll try to answer questions
if I can after.
(upbeat music)
Real pleasure.
- [Man 2] Who is the best NBA player ever?
- [Gary] Who is the best NBA player ever?
- [Man 2] Yeah. - Patrick Ewing.
You're not recording.
(all laughing) Best NBA player
is Patrick Ewing, 'cause I'm a Knicks fan,
and that's who I say.
Real pleasure man, thanks for coming.
- [Man 3] Something to tell to businesspeople?
- Reverse engineer yourself, don't try to be somebody else,
not for your parents, not for me, not for him, for yourself.
- [Man 3] Thanks Gary. - You got it.
Where were you before?
- In Curacao, in the Caribbean.
My dad lives there, but I want to sell stuff
and make money, but my market lives in the U.S.
- [Gary] Okay.
- [Man 4] How can I do that best?
- [Gary] Well what do you want to sell?
- [Man] T-shirts, and it's gonna be fishing T-shirts,
and so it needs to be higher performance,
and they're not gonna find 'em here, only in the U.S.
- [Gary] Okay, so why can't you set up,--
- [Man 4] 'Cause I don't have a friend or a cousin
or brother in the U.S. that can hold 1,000 T-shirts
in his room for me, - [Gary] You shouldn't do that,
you should sell them on spec.
- [Man 5] You're the one who made me shift
towards gratitude in my business.
- Funny thing happens when you make that move.
- [Man 5] True right?
- All these things are switches, everybody wants
these little things, they're binary,
you're either on or you're off. There is no half-pregnant.
- [Man 5] The process. - It's a process.
- [Man 6] So my question is actually this, I have an idea
and I'm really into it, I really want to work for it.
But my question is, the only thing that I'm missing
is actually a good financial base,
I know how to get it, but how can I work it
in that way that I still have something to say
in my own idea, the best possible way?
- Well if you don't have the money,
and if you raise the money, you don't have the say,
then you have to wait until you have
the money to have the say. - [Man 6] That's the best
and only way. - It's the only way,
if you want to have say, unless you decide this idea
is worth you learning from.
The biggest problem everybody here is gonna make
is they think their current idea is the end-all, be-all,
a lot of your businesses and ideas are stepping stones.
so maybe it's better for you to not have say,
learn what's good, learn what's bad, you're a young man.
- [Man 6] I'll tell you what, - You know what's great
about being a businessman, is you don't retire at 31
like an athlete, you play forever.
So instead of waiting until you make the money
to have control, maybe it's better to not have control,
you learn, it sucks 'cause you don't have control,
but you learn, maybe you'll make some money
and then you can take the money and go do your next thing.
You're always gonna have ideas, this isn't your first idea.
- [Man 6] That's true. - Got it?
Don't fall in love with an idea.
- [Man 6] Okay exactly.
Thank you man. - You're welcome.
- [Man 7] I want to say to you that if today I stand there,
it's because of one guy, who is behind you,
who gut trusted what you said,
that you have to cut friends from your inner circle
to succeed, - Yes, yes.
- And today I know that I'll achieve greatness
because I will show him that you have not
to cut friends to make it. - I love it man,
well good, like too many people try to make a narrative.
The only narrative that works is your true narrative.
So many people here fronting as experts or as coaches
and making stuff happen, you're aspiring,
you're through the process, document your best story
that will get people to buy more jewelry than anything
is that you guys come out and say,
we're just starting, we don't know shit,
we just know that we want to put this out in the world.
People will relate to that more
than you saying, we're this, we're that.
Got it? - [Woman] Yes.
- The truth always wins.
- [Women] Okay.
- It might not be winning this moment, this month,
this year, but it always wins at the end.
- I'm a radio host at one
of the national radio studio Brussels.
- Okay.
- And I'm a high school drop out.
- Vlog.
- I quit high school when I was 17.
- Yep.
- Now I'm just chasing my career,
trying to do some shit, you know.
- Yep.
- [Man 9] But I see a lot of kids right now.
- I'm listening to you.
- [Man 9] What you see right now is maybe zero point zero
one percent of people that chase their dreams.
- Right. - What I want to
do is I wanna start like a sort of YouTube show.
- Okay.
- To interviewing like celebrities.
- Okay.
- About following their dreams.
- Okay.
- Inspire a lot of people here, youngsters.
- Okay.
- Like me.
But how do I brand something like this.
I know through YouTube, but how do I
use Twitter, Instagram, Facebook up to its full potential
to just grow it as,
you know what I mean.
- Of course I know.
It's the quality of your content.
- Is it only the content?
- And it's the tactics.
So the tactics are free.
You can by Jab Jab Jab Gray Hook for 12 bucks.
- Okay.
- And fuckin', I told you the tactics.
The number one thing everybody should do here
is not listen to what I'm saying,
they should watch what I do.
You wanna be big on all these platforms,
just look at my behavior.
The problem is everybody wants it to happen too fast.
- Yeah.
- The question isn't how do you do it.
The question that people really mean
is how do I do it faster?
The answer is you don't.
- Yeah.
- Your upside is gonna be predicated
on how good you actually are.
- Okay. - The end.
- Okay.
- Like what do you do, you put it out.
Use hashtags.
You do, everybody does the same shit.
- Yeah well these small things like hashtags and stuff
that I don't know anything about, I'm trying to learn.
- It's called Google.
(group laughter) I'm being serious with you.
- Or a code here right now.
- It's called Google man.
Just go to Google and be like
how do I use hashtags to grow my Instagram?
And there's 4,000 articles.
- Yeah, but the thing is hashtag is just an example for you.
- No, no, no. That's one of the examples.
- Yeah, exactly one of the examples.
- The real question everybody asks is how to do it faster
and the answer is there's no faster.
You'll get there based on your talent.
If you're ridiculously fuckin' hot,
all these fuckin' dudes will follow you.
- You think?
- Sure. Hot chicks win on Instagram.
(group laughter)
If you're ridiculously smart and you're great
and motivational and understand what the fuck you're saying,
all these dudes will watch it.
That's what happens with me.
- Okay. (group laughter)
- Like you've gotta have it.
- The thing is like the only thing that I have,
the only doubt is the States.
I know the mindset of the states
is really different as the mindset here.
People here are afraid to take risks, to go out it.
- YouTube isn't Belgium only.
- [Man 10] True, but-- - But what?
- I wanna try to tackle people from Belgium first.
- [Gary] Great, well then you can't be mad
at Belgium's mindset if you want to sell to Belgium.
- Do you believe that I can change a mindset?
- I believe you can change a mindset
over a course of a lifetime.
But not in two years.
And not in five years -
- [Man 10] Of course, no I have patience.
I have to. - So sure.
But European DNA is structured.
Europe's where it's at.
If you're the greatest of all time.
If you're Mohammad Ali or Martin Luther King,
I think you're gonna change it.
If not you can't. - I believe I can be that.
- Well then do it. - Okay.
- Martin Luther King and Mohammad Ali
didn't come and ask me to do it.
- [Man 11] What are the three most important business
for you to start a business?
- I mean, you have to have skill.
You have to be patient.
You have to have a product that people want.
You have to be good at marketing.
You have to be good at people.
My man, 99% of everybody's businesses here will fail.
We're living in fake entrepreneur land
and everybody thinks it's so easy.
It's hard.
Everybody can be an entrepreneur.
You can have a business.
Can you live on it for the rest of your life?
That's a whole different game.
So I mean the thought of even asking,
like even the question speaks to like raw young, you know?
Like there's a million ways to win.
You're the smartest, you're the hardest working.
You saw white space that nobody else saw.
There's no right answer there's
just a million ways to do it.
You need to figure out what works for you.
- [Man 12] I'm basically being bullshitting
the last two years, and I just wanna know
of some pep talks, some great motivational things
to just get me started tomorrow.
'Cause I just had been not doing anything
that I should have been doing,
'cause I just have so many doubts,
and I just think too much of what other people feel,
will think of my thing.
'Cause I know the thing I wanna do.
I already started my YouTube channel up,
I already know what I have to do,
I know your ethos of document and create,
so I know what I have to do.
- [Gary] You're not there yet.
- Yeah, I'm not there.
- [Gary] You're not there yet.
- I just need that last push--
- You know, you're here because you know I'm right.
- Yeah, of course, yeah.
- I can say it, like maybe tonight's the night
where I'm like, just do it,
fuck them. - Yeah, yeah.
- But the truth is, even if you feel the high from me,
like, if I miraculously came up with an amazing thing
to say to you right now,
the truth is, next Thursday happens and I'm not here.
- I see. - So what I would say is,
the fact that you even know I'm right,
so you have to understand,
the reason people leave negative comments on me,
or they don't like me,
some people here didn't like me at first,
is because I'm not letting you get away with your bullshit.
- Okay. - I'm getting the point of it,
and the people that don't like me
are the ones that wanna pay other people,
or want other people that show them Lamborghinis
or watches, they wanna trick them.
They wanna trick them into feeling good.
There's only work.
There's only not caring about everybody else.
You know what to do, you grew up in a way,
environment, parents, DNA,
that hasn't let you get there yet.
But the fact that you're even here,
and you basically said what you have to do to me.
- Yeah. - I didn't say anything.
- No, I know, yeah.
- It's just a matter of time now.
- Yeah. - What you need to do
is keep pressure on it.
The reason I never change my tune,
is the reason I'm getting so many people
to do things, is 'cause I don't waver.
It's constant offense.
I'm gonna pound you everyday,
everyday, multiple times a day,
with the same fucking thing, it never changes,
it's the same thing.
Luckily for me, there's new platforms,
so it feels like I'm saying something new
'cause shit's changing.
But it's the same thing.
It's the same thing, and you'll just eventually get there.
What you need to do is you need to keep paying attention
to people like me, or others that sound like me,
so that it becomes your norm.
It becomes your oxygen.
There is no other voices,
and eventually, just like when you jumped off
a diving board to a pool,
just like when you kiss somebody for the first time,
just like anything else you ever did in life,
eventually you get there and you do it,
and you never look back. - Okay.
- You understand? - Yeah, okay, thank you.
- So the key is to suffocate yourself
into pressuring yourself to have no other options.
- 'Kay.
- The reason I'm worth listening to,
is 'cause I'll do that for you,
and then you don't need me anymore.
- Okay, thank you.
Thank you very much, yeah. - Yeah.
I don't need to sell you anything.
- No.
Can you do just one? - I don't want you
to stay around.
- I just want one favor from you,
- Yeah? - Can you just scream
in my face, just fucking do it?
- I don't even wanna do that,
'cause--
- Please, I just want that boost
to just do it, yeah. - I'll tell you what.
I'll tell you what. I don't want to,
Cause I don't feel it's right,
you know why? - Why not?
- 'Cause it's tactical.
- But it's just a mental thing, I think.
I just-- - No.
- I just wanna get that trigger. - You want me
to fix the sink? I want you to fix your well.
- [Man 12] Damn.
- You understand? - Yeah.
- You just want me to fix your sink right now.
- Yeah. - I don't want to do that.
You already know the answer.
My screaming in your face will be a fun moment,
- Yeah. - It'll be cool
to think back to. - Yeah.
- It's not what you need right now.
What you need is constant pressure
on any voice that's penetrating you
that isn't allowing you to make that jump.
Whether that's your mom, or older brother,
or your aunt, or your best friend, or you girlfriend,
or your boyfriend, I don't know who the fuck that is,
but you need to eliminate it.
- Okay. - You don't have to cut them
out like that.
When I say cut friendship out,
I mean, I have friends that I don't listen
to a fuckin' word they say.
They're my friends,
but I don't take their words as my gospel.
You know what to do, I heard you.
That's why I'm not gonna give it to you.
I heard you, - Yeah.
- I know you're ready. - Yeah.
- You know what you are?
(tapping) Just a matter of time.
- [Man 13] How, how do you meet investors?
- How do you meet investors? - Yes.
- You go to angellist.com, you get a list of all the people,
and you message them.
And 99% of them will say no, and four,
four of them will say yes.
And you'll learn from those experiences.
- [Man 13] Thank you so much.
- You just keep asking.
- We have a platform.
It's like the mini Google of online shopping.
- Okay.
So Google makes money when you buy something,
they get a commission, but they don't share it.
You understand it, but, in Belgium, people don't get it,
in Europe, no one gets it.
So, when you log onto this, you register,
you just buy our shit, then you get a commission.
But we share the commission with users.
- Yeah, but Google brings them value otherwise.
- Yes, but, - Google does other things
besides just sell them things.
- Of course, but our problem is that people don't understand
that they can get a percentage back of their--
- Earnings, of their buying, - their earnings,
so how do we promote, how do we market the platform?
- You get in front of them.
- But,-- - But how do you do that, right?
- So now we start with influencers?
- Yep, that's good. - And then we make
a personal landing page, - Yep.
- They put it in their instagram bio,
- That's a good start.
- We make a picture, from that, they say,--
- That's a good start.
- Then, the force of the influencers,
they get 10 Euro as a bonus, - I get it.
- It's all great, but how should we do it,
- At scale? - How do we sell our story?
Because no one gets it, that's the problem, man.
- You should make a video and explain it.
- But we already tried it, and, in Belgium,
if I ask here, maybe, how often
did people know that Google earn via commission?
- Well Google earns commission through,
what are you talking about, Google Shopping?
- Also yeah, but what we do is, so you log in,
you go to your Amazon, you buy, and then you get
a percentage back. - I know what he's doing,
okay. - But here in Belgium
and in Europe it's,
- Who in the U.S. is doing it successfully?
- The platform that we built, no one.
- Think about that for a minute.
- You have cash backs. - Think about that
for a minute, give that thought.
You know what I mean?
To me, incentivize back,-- - I am the marketer, so,
- Respect. - We are the agency,
- I get it, they're the client.
- And he drove me with the cab on his cost,
just to ask you his question.
- The problem is, when you do incentivized,
commission-based affiliate cash back buying,
it's never worked, 'cause it's not enough
of a value prop to them,
they can get that from American Express.
It's just not a valuable enough product.
The reason I asked you who in the U.S. does it,
you're blaming it on Belgium, how about the U.S.?
The most progressive market in the world,
where is it happening, China, the most progressive,
the model doesn't work. - Your advice to your
21-year-old self is, date more chicks,
have more fun, how do you balance it with hustle?
- I didn't balance it, I worked every minute.
- How would you balance it though?
- In hindsight? - Yes.
- How would you do it? - Maybe one,
maybe two weekends a year, it wouldn't be that much.
I'm pretty happy with the way it is.
Look, people's mouths are way ahead and ambitions
are way ahead of their actions, everybody is talking shit,
but people aren't putting in the work.
By the way, by the way-- - But if that's your goal,
- Exactly, do you know how great it is to make
$100,000 a year and be happy and go on vacation
and love your life, it's great, everybody now thinks
they have to build Facebook, it's stupid.
- Exactly.
- You just need to know yourself,
you don't need to be me, - I'm getting started
at 28-- - You could start at 58.
- And building million dollar businesses?
- Of course, Kentucky Fried Chicken,
the guy was 75 years old when he started.
Do whatever the fuck you want, I dunno,
what do you wanna do?
- [Man 14] I, I, like you, like you.
- You're not sure?
You wanna be like me, then you need to start
putting in work
and start selling stuff, you know, like, you should--
- And how, how do you do that?
- Well I, the way I did it at your age
was I didn't give a shit about school, I got bad grades,
I spent all my time on building a business
I didn't go out with my friends,
I didn't play video games, I didn't hook up with girls,
I fucking worked.
- [Man 14] But that, what do you mean by building a business?
- My plan back then was everybody was collecting
baseball cards and comic books,
so I was buying baseball cards and comic books
and selling it back to them.
- Okay, that's work.
- [Man 15] Hm-mm, should be fine now.
- [Gary] You know, you're doing exactly like, oh fuck, guys,
if you think I did well (laughing) now,
if I grew up in the era, that you're growing up in,
this shit would have been over a long time ago.
(group laughter)
If I had eBay and Shopify and Google
and fucking the internet, I didn't have shit,
there was no computers.
Fucking went to the store, or bought shit. Love it.
Bought shit, went to the flea market on Saturday
and sold it like, shit like, you guys have it so good,
so easy.
- [Man 16] You should come to--
- You have it so good, so easy,
that it tricks you that it's easy.
- [Man 15] That's the problem.
- It's so good and so easy, that you're getting tricked--
- [Man 15] Mhmmm. - that it's easy, it's not easy.
- [Woman 2] What do your wife do to make you possible
to do what you do?
- She supports me unconditionally
at her own expense.
- [Woman 2] Yeah, because my husband is the better
entrepreneur of the two of us, - Yes.
- [Woman 2] And I want to support him all the way,
but what do I have to do to make him--
- You have to become independent and selfless.
- [Woman 2] Okay. - But that's very hard.
- Yeah.
- That's easy for me to say to you.
- Yeah.
- It's hard to actually do it. - [Woman 2] Mhmmm.
- You know, my wife is a special person.
You know, it's, she's a special person.
- [Woman 2] Yeah. - You know what I mean?
- To be in a place where - [Woman 2] I do.
- Where she supports the insanity, that I execute.
- [Woman 2] Yeah.
- That takes enormous confidence.
It takes enormous, enormous humility,
selfishness and, and, and...
it takes a lot of independence.
She doesn't need me at all - [Woman 2] Okay.
- for her happiness. - [Woman 2] Yeah, yeah.
- That's hard when you're sharing a life with somebody.
- [Woman 2] Yeah.
- So, and what that does is it guilts me
into spending more time, you know, it's,
- [Woman 2] Mhmmm..
- You give you get, right? - [Woman 2] Yeah.
- I'm almost graduating as an electrical engineer this year
and I realized I actually hate it.
- Yes. (laughs)
- It's very common. - Yes.
- So I actually want to get into the cosmetic industry.
- Awesome.
- And developing products - Yes.
- And making - Amazing.
- But it's more in the chemical engineering--
- Yes.
- industry, so now I'm wondering what should I do
to emerge that industry?
- I would email every single Head of R&D
of every cosmetic business in the world
- Yes.
- and tell them your story.
- Alright, and see what they answer and--
- If you email 1700 people on Linkedin
and tell them your story, (laughs)
- all you need is one to say,-- - One to say yes.
- "You know what, I like the way you emailed me."
- Okay.
- You understand? - Yes, I do.
- It's practical. - Yeah.
- You know what's the problem?
Everybody's debating. - Yeah.
- People don't understand there's value in doing.
You can change two years later.
- Yeah, I did.
- There's no losing.
- [Gary] Every, yeah, now...
The only form of losing is sitting and debating.
- Yeah, yeah.
- [Gary] It means you're not doing anything.
- Sure.
Yeah, just working--
- [Gary] What do you like?
- I do like repairing, - Good, good.
- like trains, for example. - Good. (crowd laughing)
- Okay, thank you, man.
- You got it. (group laughter)
- Thank you so much. - You're welcome.
- [Man 16] How do you choose, if you have different
passions, you're always saying--
- You pick one.
- [Man 16] Only one? - Right.
- Focus in on one, not ten? - Yes.
You can focus on ten. It's hard.
- [Man 16] Okay.
- You might be talented enough.
(group laughter)
- [Gary] I don't know.
- Okay, but you say focus on one,
- [Gary] It's only, it's only doing.
Doing is the, I got it, doing is the,
doing is the only thing.
- [Man 17] The cover, the cover.
- Cover. - [Man 17] Yeah.
- [Gary] Doing is the only thing.
It's the only thing that matters.
It's the only, like, everybody's pondering.
By the way, guys, you've been living
under very good economic times.
The economy's been good over the last seven to ten years,
like six, seven, eight years.
What do you think's going to happen to all your businesses,
when the economy goes bad?
And there's no funding, and there's no customers?
Go ask all the retailers what happened to their business
here, after the bombing at your airport?
Like, what do you think, like, you guys have had it good.
You're young, you haven't had it bad.
Everybody's pondering and creating CEO
in their Instagram title.
(group laughter)
- Like, like, wait till shit is hard.
Wait 'til shit is hard and there's no money.
You're gonna go get a job.
So, while it's good right now,
it's a really bad strategy to just debate,
because by the time you figure it out,
the market's gonna suck
and there's gonna be no customers to be had
and it doesn't matter that you figured it out.
- [Man 17] So currently, I'm, I'm discussing
with a startup to help them with their growth.
- Okay.
- [Man 17] We set some-- - Sorry, man.
- [Man 17] Yeah, some really good growth goals.
- Yep.
- [Man 17] So they really want some leads,
some conversions, it's really clear to them.
- Okay.
- [Man 17] But I'm really scared
that I can't experiment,
because I would like to do content marketing,
experiment with things, like Musical.ly.
- Yep.
- [Man 17] Because it's really each group is--
- Pictures.
- [Man 17] between 12 and 16,
- Fine.
- [Man 17] but the group goals are too tight.
- So don't do it.
- [Man 17] But I have to earn some money.
- So go find somebody else to do something with.
- [Man 17] Okay, and would you discuss--
- Or tell them the truth.
- [Man 17] Yeah, would you discuss with them?
- The one thing I would never do in life
is do something that is already a losing proposition
before you started. - [Man 17] Yeah.
- That's what you're coming to me?
- [Man 17] Yeah, I told them you have the brand,
and you have like, leads and the sales marketing.
- Yeah, I understand what you're saying.
- [Man 17] And they were like, okay, but--
- You want, you want to do branding
and they want to do conversion?
You wanna do a mix of branding and conversion?
- Yeah, yeah. - Picture?
- Yeah, video picture.
- Yep.
- [Man 17] But what if you do
only the leads and the conversions,
you don't have a brand.
- That's right.
So, you either tell them - [Man 17] Yeah.
I told them and they were like,
"Yeah, we can build a brand
"while doing the leads and the conversions,"
and I told them--
- Sounds, sounds like you need to find somebody else
to do business with.
- [Man 17] Okay.
- What, are these the only fucking people in the world
you can do business with?
- [Man 17] No, no, no, no.
- Well so, go find fucking people to do business with.
- [Man 17] Alright, okay.
- [Gary] You either compromise, or you don't.
- [Man 17] Yeah.
- I've won on not compromising,
'cause I'm good enough.
My man, you're walking into dog shit.
- [Man 17] Okay.
- You're walking into a straight loss.
- [Man 17] Okay. - Get the fuck outta there.
- [Man 17] Get another, another startup to help?
- Yeah.
- I just need three words for there being a good CEO.
- Okay. - And I wanted to take--
- You got it.
- Give me three words.
- You
work
for them.
(group laughter)
- Sure. - [Gary] That's leadership.
- Yeah, I know.
- [Gary] Everybody wants to be the CEO and they think
that people work for them.
A CEO works for the people.
- Yeah, I know, it's true.
- [Gary] That's got people confused.
- Really?
- Yes, all the pressure's on you.
It's your fault, it's on you.
- Do you believe in what you do?
Like 100%?
- 100%.
- Okay, I really wanted to-- - Like 100%.
- Nice man, I really appreciate it.
- Awesome.
- [Man 18] Should I built my business on the side.
or take a gap year and try to launch it.
- Both work.
- [Man 18] Both? - Both work.
- [Man 18] Which one is best?
- I don't know you well enough, you know.
You know what I mean? - [Man 18] Yeah.
- They both work. - [Man 18] Yes.
- Which one do you wanna do?
- [Man 18] I would like to try to take a gap year--
- So take a gap year.
- [Man 18] I'm scared. - Well that's why you're asking.
- [Man 18] Yes.
Which one would you do?
- I wouldn't take either.
- [Man 18] What would you do then?
- I can't answer that for you.
Fear is holding you back, you know what you wanna do.
The only reason you're not doing it
is 'cause you're scared of doing
what you actually wanna do.
Right? - [Man 18] Yes, yes.
- Are you scared to do it,
'cause your parents won't like it?
- [Man 18] No, my parents actually support me.
- Okay, so what are you scared of? Failing?
- [Man 18] Not failing but
still being at the same place,
when my friends are at the next level.
- Huge mistake.
You don't want the same thing your friends want.
- [Man 18] No.
- So why the fuck do you care what they have?
Number one mistake so many people make
is they care about what other people have.
I don't give a fuck what anybody has.
If I have more, if I have less, it doesn't matter.
I worry about myself.
The fact that you're worrying about
other people's accomplishments is already a losing formula.
You need to get rid of that first,
then you can focus on yourself. - [Man 18] Thank you.
- You understand? - [Man 18] Yes, I do.
- You just have to talk these things through
and then when you get to the right answer,
you answer to which I love. - [Man 18] Yes.
- So the fact that you care that one year later,
you do your thing, which you love
that you decided what you wanna do,
but you weren't successful,
your friend got a job and now he's got
a little bit more money,
but that bothers you.
I pulled a $45 million business in four years
and was still paying myself $40,000.
No fancy car, no fucking watch, no fucking bling bling,
because I knew what I was doing it for.
I believed fully, she's still here, in what I was doing.
Right, you're worried about way too many short term goals,
when you have, when your mouth says
that you want big time goals.
- [Man 18] Yeah.
- [Man 19] I launched my company last summer in Belfast.
We have now 1,000 paying customers
and shipping 2,000 devices next month.
And we have two options to choose from.
Option One is that we grow to--
- Let's keep moving pictures.
- [Man 19] 10,000 customers in two years
and break even with the funding we have.
Or, do we start up another funding rounds,
and we know there's interest from investment firms.
- [Gary] I would take the money.
- [Man 20] (laughs) Of course. - [Man 19] Yeah?
- I'll tell you why. Thank you, my friend.
Because I think the money's gonna dry up.
- [Man 19] Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- And so, I think if you feel like you're getting money
at the value that you feel good about, I would take it.
- [Man 19] Yeah?
- [Man 21] Another photo, another photo.
- And I know that you hear me say a lot,
don't take the money if you can do it.
The only thing I would say is
if you've got funding interest
and you're getting the money at the terms
that you want, well then take it.
- [Man 19] Yeah, yeah.
So, you would say better grow faster.
- [Man 22] Photos, you want photos?
- If you're capable.
- [Man 23] I started a business with my father
like six months ago in Persian Rugs.
- [Gary] Okay.
- But it's difficult for us
to really find the right consumers.
- [Gary] Pictures.
Big try. Thank you, man.
- [Man 23] We think they are like 40 plus,
their age about 40 plus.
We have social media but it's very hard
for us to target them.
Which kind of content do you prefer us
to use in social media?
- Facebook.
- What kind of content should we use on social media?
- Pictures and videos of your products.
- Yeah, but I mean in what way because we make pictures.
- I don't know.
I don't know your business well enough to know exactly.
But the creative is the variable of success.
So, the bottom line is that I don't really have a read
on exactly what you're doing with your biz.
A lot of people I can give advice to 'cause of the general.
Yours is very specific, so, I don't know.
What I know is, clearly, what you're doing isn't working.
- [Man 23] Yeah but social media ads
would you prefer?
- Facebook.
'Cause you can target 40 years and older,
and $100,000 income and higher.
Are you targeting like that?
- Yes. - And so, it's not converting?
- Not really, but I really have to work on my content.
- How much are you spending?
- About like 20 euros a day.
- 20 euros a day? - [Man 23] Yes.
- Well, that's a very small number.
You're not sure if it's working or not.
How many days have you done it?
- Like a month.
- Yeah, you haven't even started.
- So I'm under her and I'm working under her
and I'm building a business, but I'm finding a hard time
keeping my attitude up when I'm controlling people
because I lose my attitude
when I lose control over the situation.
- Okay. - How do I handle that?
- I mean, I'm not sure.
I don't know you well enough
but if you're managing people,
composure is the only thing that matters.
Being the bigger woman in every situation
is the only thing that matters.
- So, when I lose control, how do I--
- Well, why are losing control?
What's bothering you so much?
- Because I'll lose control of their situation,
it's something I can not have control over.
- You shouldn't be a manager until you figure out
how to fix that inside of you.
So, whether that's therapy, or reading,
or meditation, or rethinking the situation.
If you're too emotional when you lose control,
you'll never manage.
- Then how do I keep my attitude up?
- By reframing your brain to valuing what matters.
- Okay.
- 99% of things don't matter. - Right.
- And if you're getting upset, that means
you think everything matters.
I'm never upset.
- How do I keep my head cool, then?
- I don't know, there might be something
deeper inside of you in the way that you were raised
or the way you're wired, you need to figure that out.
For now, I would tell you
if that's where you're coming with your question,
and that's your thing,
you need to take a big step backwards
and not want to manage. - Okay.
- The only people I let manage are the coolest,
calmest, most grounded.
- So, I just have to be calm.
- Yes, but that's, yeah, great, that's not so easy.
I've said that to a million people.
You're not gonna be calm.
You need to take a big step backwards
and figure out why you're not calm.
Well look, first of all, good news, you're in Italy,
which is an amazing country.
- Yeah.
- You know, you've gotta take a step back
and be honest with yourself.
If you're struggling in your business,
it means you're lying to yourself.
- Okay.
- And so, either your product isn't as good as you think,
you're overpriced, it's not as good as you think it is.
You gotta go and ask customers that said yes and no,
and ask them what they think.
Same advice I just gave to that young man.
The customer's right, not a marketing genius,
not the people that created it.
Ask the customers, the ones that said yes,
and the ones that said no, and take your emotion
out of the equation, and then see what the truth is.
Watch what I do, so listen, do shit.
- [Man 24] Just starting doing shit.
Like, when I thought of the 60 Second Club,
I did it an hour later.
And I have a big audience, I have a lot to lose.
- [Man 24] Mhmmm. - Right? I have a lot to lose.
And then, again, I just said it,
well it's been fuckin' three months, I switched back.
I'm not scared to change.
- [Man 24] Just do shit. - Do shit.
I knew that I was a businessman.
You guys, most of you didn't see this,
that big man that I hugged out, I was the wine guy.
- [Man 25] Yeah. - I was the wine guy.
So I started makin' business videos,
and everybody's comment were, stick to wine,
do what you do, what the fuck do you know about business?
I'd already built the business,
people didn't even know me for that.
Just do shit.
I decided I'm gonna start a beanie company,
I may or may not, but I'm tryin' to do it.
Right?
Remember the honey comp, where's the honey company?
Remember, for some of you that watch #AskGaryVee.
- [Man 26] VaynerToys. - There is no honey company.
VaynerToys failed. Like, there's no honey company.
I didn't get to it.
I tried to, I got a lot of samples, I got a lot of data.
I'm just doing all the time.
We're ideating every day, making shit on the spot.
- [Man 26] Playing around, testing.
- Play doing, doing, doing, doing, doing.
If one out of 30 things succeeds,
it's better than all of the things
that you guys haven't started.
- One, the biggest value you can just share with my viewers.
- Well, what kind of viewers are they?
Youngsters?
- Youngsters like me, people wanting to start a business,
people who need personal development.
- You know, it's patience. It's fuckin' patience.
- Patience, okay. - It's patience.
Like, all of you want it too fast.
I'm 41 years old, and I feel like I'm seven.
(group laughter)
When I was 15, or 17, or 22, I thought 41-year-olds
were so fuckin' old, they felt so old.
I wish all of you 13, 16, 19, and 24-year-olds
could feel how young I am in my soul right now.
It would change everything you do.
You would become dramatically more patient,
which would mean that you would make a lot more
of the successes that you want to happen.
Most of you will lose because you're
trying to take shortcuts.
The problem is, right now, everybody's building apps,
and they're not building businesses.
- Yeah, that's true.
- [Gary] I know.
Like, you know what I mean? - Yeah.
- [Gary] That is what you need to think about.
- Thank you.
- [Gary] It's the business of apps,
not apps that are businesses.
Everybody's thinkin' about apps.
Your app might be right, do you have a sustainable business?
The economics of the scale of what you're building
is very difficult.
- One thing you would have done different in VaynerMedia?
(clicks tongue)
Zero. (group laughter)
- [Man 27] No regrets. - [Gary] No regrets. None.
I appreciate you asking that.
What value in the world does it have to look backwards
in a world where you're gonna make a ton more mistakes?
Do you know what I mean?
Reconciling mistakes you've made in the past
in a world where you're gonna be making a bunch more,
seems like a waste of energy to me.
You know?
You learn from your mistakes,
but who knows if I didn't do that.
Everything's wired together.
If I didn't make that mistake,
but would of that lead me to that meeting,
which became my ultimate upside?
You can't unwind them.
Everybody wants to unwind shit to tactics.
That's why I stay so macro, got it?
("Working Together" by Jura Kez)