- Days you just fuckin' feel it
and often times when I'm rushed in a quick moment,
and a short Q&A or a fireside chat,
I come out guns a-blazing.
There's just something about
Baron Davis' All-Star Weekend kinda moment
that brought out a real passion in my stomach.
And this was the result.
- [Announcers] Gary V!
(applauding)
- [Gary] Where do you want me?
- Sit right there.
Sit right there, sit right there.
Too many mics, too many mics.
How you feelin'?
- I'm feelin' tremendous.
If you told me that I was gonna have Gunna
introduce me on stage, I was gonna feel really
good about,
what's up, Mitt?
- Wow we have Gary V here,
for those in the room, the small amount who don't know
who this man is,
which would be a small amount,
Gary Vaynerchuk is an entreprenuer,
a leader,
a creator of brand,
a father, and a husband
and just a great guy.
What, for the five
in two minutes, tell 'em who you are.
- I'm an entrepreneur.
I was born in Belarus in the former Soviet Union,
came to the States,
lived in a studio apartment in Queens
with seven family members.
I came from shit, from the gutter, right?
I was also a D and F student,
so in the '80s and '90s,
education was the only way out.
Entrepreneurship wasn't this thing that is now
that we give a fuck about.
And so, basically, for the first 17 years of my life,
I was told that I was losing, that I wasn't good,
and you know,
between DNA and more importantly,
a all-time mother and father,
I was in my own head.
I thought I was good.
I was making two, three thousand dollars a weekend
selling baseball cards when I was 13.
So I was struggling to understand
why I was gonna be a fuckin' loser.
(audience laughs)
- Right?
Preach.
- It just made no sense, right?
Teachers were like, you're gonna suck,
I'm like, I make more money than you, dick!
(audience laughs)
So,
you know, entrepreneurship wasn't that thing
that it is today.
I was grinding.
My dad at that point saved all his money,
bought a liquor store,
made the American Dream for our family,
I went into that business,
and over the first 12 years of my career
from 22 to 34, I built my dad's business for him.
Had no equity in it,
built my dad's business from a three to a
60 million dollar business,
and then I left,
and started VaynerMedia.
In between, after being right about e-comm
about email and Google,
I wasn't gonna let it pass me by
and when I saw the next big thing,
that ended up being social media.
So, I was an early investor in Twitter
and Facebook and Tumblr.
So,
I'm rich.
(audience laughs)
- Had to have that part, he's rich.
- He's rich.
But,
can I work for you?
I'm trying to work for this guy.
But talk about, you know, like,
when you were running your dad's business.
- Yeah.
- Right?
And knowing that you're an entrepreneur,
and you're not running it for yourself.
- Yeah.
- What are the tools that you learned
to be able to even catch a wave,
or to leave something that you grew
into a $60 million dollar business.
- It's interesting to hear Chris up here,
talking about people thinking that they
can be athletes or be better at basketball than him.
That's what I feel is happening with entrepreneurship
right now, right?
Everybody's got Entrepreneur in their Instagram profile.
But there's a big fuckin' difference between
being a successful entrepreneur,
and being one.
- Amen.
(audience applauds)
- I see a lot of people who think they can play
- A lot of people didn't want to clap
(laughs)
like, I got that on my profile too.
(audience laughs)
- So,
for me,
for me it was the work, right?
I see my man Dunk here,
he's putting in the work,
he's a youngster, he makes
look old, right?
People,
there's a few that are coming up that actually
want the work.
The way I thought about it was
I gave up all my 20's.
Right?
Your actions have to match your ambitions.
Right?
People are talking a lot of shit,
but not putting in the work.
Here's my life.
From 22 to 30, I lived in New Jersey.
I worked 15 hours a day, Monday through Saturday,
I got rest on Sunday and saw my family.
I never went out.
I didn't buy dumb shit to make me look cool to girls,
and I fuckin' put in work and I got skills
and I put them to use in my 30's,
and now I'm 42, young as fuck,
I'm gonna buy the Jets, win seven Super Bowls
and call it a day!
(audience cheers, applause)
But the reason, and by the way,
I don't think it's cool that I gave up all my 20's,
contrary, I'm sad, I get it.
I gave 'em up though because
I didn't want to be a hypocrite.
I have big ambitions, I want it.
And I thought that was a time when I would have the
most flexibility to put in all the work.
- But I mean, that's entrepreneurship, right?
- That's anything great!
- You're gonna lose out.
You're gonna miss something, right?
But, you have to work, you know,
you have to have a vision.
- To that point,
at the cross-section that we are here,
there's nobody that makes it into the league
without sacrificing things.
And I think successful entrepreneurs
is the league.
There's nobody who's hit it,
who did it, who got lucky.
People love lucky.
People love excuses.
You're in control of your shit.
The internet's changed everything.
Every excuse coming out of your mouth,
the answer is, And?
Because the internet has changed everything.
We haven't calibrated how big it is.
There's no middle man, there's no system,
they're no old White dude stopping you.
Go do your thing.
This internet thing is real as fuck,
and so for me, I just think it's the
greatest time to be alive.
And if you're not winning during this era,
of internet at scale, and fuckin' nine straight years
of economic growth, then you suck!
- That's real talk.
Shit.
(crosstalk)
This is how we doin' it.
- This is real game.
- I mean, 'cause look,
how many people under 30?
Raise your hands.
- Damn.
- So one of the things I hate
is that people shit on millennials,
they're the same,
everybody's the same, you knew lazy people,
you knew hard working people.
Millennials have so many advantages,
under 30 has so many advantages.
Actually the only disadvantage I think they have,
is they haven't been punched in the mouth yet.
Right?
They haven't lived through 2008,
or 2001.
There's a lot of people in here
over 40, who are rich on paper,
or had made it in 2001, 2006,
and then the economy got fucked, right?
It's real cool when you're an Instagram influencer,
and making $100,000 dollars in sponsorship deals,
until the world melts,
and those brands aren't paying.
So, my big fear right now is
be smart, be thoughtful,
build something that you can control.
Everybody crying about Instagram and Facebook's algorithm,
it was free!
You built on it for free!
- That's right.
- So they changed it because the attention
of that user is everything.
It's what matters.
And so they're gonna do what's right for them.
If you're crying that your organic reach dropped,
then fuckin' work!
Start a fuckin' podcast,
fuckin' start a newsletter,
do something instead of crying that you got
7,000 likes instead of 11,000, you fuckin' loser.
(audience laughs, claps)
It's true!
I mean, it's true!
It was free!
People are like, oh my shit's fucked up now,
I don't have as much engagement,
I'm like, it was free!
- Right.
- Let me switch gears.
- Go ahead.
(audience laughs)
- Someone's hurt right now.
Some of y'all here hurt!
What's Gary V
- By the way, real quick, James,
I know a lot of people here don't know me.
I'm not trying to hurt or be funny,
I'm trying to help you.
Never be at the mercy of something
you don't control!
- That's right. - Right.
(applauding)
- That's real talk!
(applauding)
- If there was one thing that you can say
that you want to see happen over the next five years,
for yourself or for your business,
also from an impact standpoint,
what your business has the capabilities of doing.
Where do you see that, what is that?
- One thing,
what are you doing in sports?
Like why are you here?
- I'm here 'cause all of culture
is here this weekend, right?
L.A. NBA All-Star is like,
I don't work on weekends.
I don't miss family time on weekends
'cause I work so hard,
but this was just can't miss.
Obviously, VaynerSports,
my brother AJ and I have started a
sports representation business.
We think we're gonna disrupt it,
I can go into that.
But I'm here because culture is here.
'Cause Chris's point is right,
the NBA has done it so right
because the faces are seen,
because they're not
baseball, Bam made a lot of money for the owners
in the short term, but in the long term,
the three best players in baseball
can walk down this street right now naked
and nobody would give a fuck.
(laughs)
That's bad.
That plays out.
- I mean, baseball players, they pretty in shape, dude.
I don't think
(audience laughs)
- I see what you're saying.
Like, physically.
I get it. - All-Star Weekend
- I get it, I get it.
But, you know,
to answer your question,
my number one objective right now in general
is to make good traits alpha.
So, what I'm real passionate about right now
is making empathy and gratitude and kindness
cool as fuck.
- [Female Audience Member] You know what?
Shit.
- Speak on that.
- You like that?
- That's the black term for like,
go ahead and preach. - I know what it is.
(audience laughs, applauds)
I know what it was.
So,
I know exactly what it was.
And I wanted her to expand on it,
because to her point,
that's the most important thing right now.
We have a very interesting time.
Chris mentioned it.
And this is what's going on in my life, right?
Athletes want to be rappers,
rappers want to be athletes,
and now everybody wants to be an entrepreneur.
Right?
By the way, let me give you a headline.
This is only gonna last five to seven years,
'cause when shit melts and everybody has to get a job,
they're gonna say fuck that entrepreneur shit.
So, it's got a moment.
They'll come back in 40 years
but this is the moment.
And while I'm sitting where I'm sitting
in that moment,
I'm gonna try to do some good with it.
And here's what's good,
doing the right thing is always the right thing.
There's a lot of people that don't understand
how business really works.
Have leverage, you want to have leverage?
Give more than you take.
That's how you win. - Wow.
- And these are just truths.
- Yeah. - And then it
manifests in business.
I'm leaving real fuckin' economics
on the table every year
because I'm gaining points.
Leverage, leverage, leverage.
Get smart about who you're doing that with,
and you can build something very meaningful.
- Ladies and gentlemen!
(audience applauding)
- Gary V!
Gary V
(audience applauding)
- [Gary] Have a good weekend.