- If you asked me, what scares me more,
having way too much, or having way too little?
It's having way too much.
(intense music)
- [Interviewer] Who turned you into this guy?
Did something turn you--
- America, and my mother.
You know, I was born in the Soviet Union,
I didn't come up with much.
So, adversity, America, my mom, and my dad,
because when I was 14, and started working
at my dads liquor store for two bucks an hour,
I was so full of shit.
And, he sucked it out of me over 10 years,
'cause he hates lying and bullshit.
And so, he scared me.
I scared to embellish, let alone lie.
I don't get upset when people are like,
"Yo, this guy's full of shit".
Because I'm like, "I understand, I actually had that in me."
But, my dad systematically took it out.
And, I think it comes from lack of entitlement.
- Is entitlement a disease?
- 100.
I'm scared shit-less of properly raising my children
'cause they're gonna have so much.
Listen, straight up, and I know the audience,
I know the culture, I get it.
But, straight up, if you asked me, what scares me more,
having way to much, or having way too little?
It's having way too much.
- [Interviewer] Way too much?
- 100%
Because that person is suicidal and depressed.
- [Interviewer] But, doesn't that fall in line
with abundance?
- Yeah, but people can't, you can't see happiness.
There's so many people I know that make $40,000 a year,
and love life.
And, so many people I know that have 40 million in the bank,
and hate life.
And, everybody's saying like, "cool, I'll take my chances,
I'll be 40 million."
I get it, but guess what?
That's what the 40 million persons saying, too.
Like, "damn, I wish I wasn't born with this trust fund."
People aren't listening.
The reason I talk about materialistic things,
it is the bandaid and the make-up of unhappiness for 95%.
They're trying to impress people they don't even like.
You've seen a bunch of people come through here.
- [Interviewer] Yeah. - Right?
People have come through here when they were
just starting their careers, - [Interviewer] Sure.
Two years later, they popped, they came in here,
you're about to figure out exactly who they are.
Were they the same person they walked in here 19 months ago?
- [Interviewer] Yes, yes.
- Some do, and they leave, and you're like,
"Yo, thank god, that's good people."
- [Interviewer] Yup.
- And, sometimes people come in here and they forgot.
- Have you learned from Hip Hop?
Have you learned anything from sitting down with Nipsey?
- Yeah but, what I learned from Hip Hop, or the culture,
happened a long, long time ago.
It happened in Edison, New Jersey.
But, it really, really happened in Newton, Massachusetts.
I went to Mount Ida College from '94 to '98,
it was, y'know, 96% minorities, it was 95% of them
on financial aid.
I learned a lot because I was deep in it.
I didn't visit my friend in the hood for a day.
For four years, I lived deep in it.
- [Interviewer] Yeah.
- And, that's when I got a sense of it.
And, what it taught me that half decade, was,
"Oh, this is exactly what I'm about."
- Is there anybody in Hip Hop that's not utilizing
this opportunity that they have?
- All of 'em!
- [Interviewer] Really?
- Nobody's squeezing it hard enough.
- [Interviewer] What are they not doing?
- They don't realize how valuable the attention is,
right now, on social media.
They're sitting on their music.
Put your music out!
The internet is where peoples attention is.
You got music?
Post it on instagram right now.
You have nine followers?
Start it.
Everybody thinks you need a million followers.
What if your one follower is you.
It's not about how many, it's who, and what can they do?
If you got Sound Cloud, and Spotify, and Instagram,
and YouTube?
Guys, Tee Grizzley comes out of fucking jail after 5,
4 and a half years.
From being locked up for a half decade,
to putting out one fucking video and a song,
if you've got talent,
this is about talent, - [Interviewer] Sure.
- And all of a sudden, 72 hours later,
21 Savage is DM-ing you.
So, if you've got flames, and you've got bars,
and your fucking so great, put it out.
But, what's happening is, people are insecure.
- [Interviewer] Of course.
- People are overthinking shit.
People are artists, trying to make it perfect.
- [Interviewer] Sure.
- Its ego.
- But also too, I think sometimes it can be that,
the internet and social media can be a curse
because they just come at you,
and they're attacking you daily.
- Yeah, but when you can hear them.
But, when you can hear them, it doesn't matter.
When you get to that place when you can't hear them?
Then, you start making content.
Then, you start living your life for real.
It's just like high school.
Remember in the beginning of the high school,
you were worried about everybody's opinion?
But then, kinda, by senior year, you got your click,
- [Interviewer] Yeah, you're good.
- You didn't give a fuck.
- I'm just trying to get everybody in real life
to get to the place they were in high school,
the last month of high school.
It comes back to self awareness, my guy.
There is no one path, the only path is like,
"Do you know yourself?"
And, more importantly, that voice inside your own head?
A lot of times, people don't understand,
that that was put in your head.
A lot of people, when I'm like,
"Don't listen to anybody but yourself."
I'll get that DM.
They'll be like, "Yo, I love that, my problem is,
I'm telling myself I suck."
And then, I have to DM them like, "Yo, you didn't.
Like, that isn't you.
That's your mom or dad that put that in your head.
And, now you believe it and you think it's your own voice."
Nobody starts off thinking they suck.
Here's the problem, and I'm not trying to be mean,
I'm trying to make you happy and win,
most of the people listening right now
don't have the talent.
- [Interviewer] And that's the truth, and that's okay.
- And, that is okay.
- [Interviewer] It's okay.
- By the way, some of the cats in this room probably,
when you guys were seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven,
might have thought you wanted to be the artist, but--
- I wanted to be a singer, but I can't sing.
- They thought, "I wanna rap, I wanted to sing,
I wanted to dance." - Right? Right?
And, what I would say is, "kudos to you."
To be like, you understood that you weren't gonna be,
y'know, Queen Latifah, so you had to fucking--
- [Interviewer] Brutally honest with yourself.
- That's it.
You know what I love?
I love perspective.
If you're listening to this right now,
it means you have the ability to listen to this right now.
Which means, you live in America,
it means you have some sort of device that allows you
to listen to this.
I just don't think people understand how lucky they have it.
No matter how shitty they think they have it.
- [Interviewer] Gary, I read somewhere that millennials
don't want to be told what to do,
but they all need to be told what to do.
- Listen, I'm so tired of old people judging millennials
when they're the ones who fucking raised these millennials.
Why won't we talk about the parents
that raised the millennials--
- [Interviewer] Starts at home, doesn't it?
- That created the entitlement,
who didn't want their kids ever crying,
who wanted their kids to be in games
where eighth place trophies happen.
And then, #2, like, here's my thing,
it doesn't matter what that report says.
I know a ton of millennials that bleed out of their eyes
19 hours a day, and want it.
It's funny, we've gotten real politically correct
about not being prejudiced about skin color,
or male, or female, right?
But, we're shitting on millennials as a whole,
and I think it's totally unacceptable.
And, I want to remind everybody, just because you put
"entrepreneur" in your Instagram title...
(laughter)
- Right?
And, you went and printed eight T-shirts
that came up with some word that is now your brand,
doesn't mean you're a successful entrepreneur.
I could put "basketball player" in my fucking bio,
I play ball.
Guess what?
I don't get paid.
- [Interviewer] (laughing) Right, right, right.
- There's a big difference between being an entrepreneur,
and being a successful entrepreneur.
I believe in optimism, right?
But, if you don't back your optimism, or manifestation
with fucking work and smarts?
Like, nobody you know, nobody you know ever made it
without putting in the work.
From 15 to 30, I didn't go anyway on the weekends,
no where.
Who did that?
Who worked 18 hours a day, for fucking 15 years like I did?
Who left college on Friday afternoon
to take a bullshit Amtrak down, and not even the Acela,
stop in every which way on the East Coast,
and then get into Jersey, Wood Bridge train station,
and then drive to the liquor store, work two hours,
then go home, sleep for six,
and then work all day Sunday, and then wake up,
all day Saturday, for 13 hours in that liquor store,
then wake-up Sunday, right?
And, go back to Boston, to go back to school.
So, don't "oh, Gary" me, you don't know me.
- [Interviewer] Sure.
- I fucking worked every minute of my life.
- How do you find your balance?
From work, and life, I guess?
- I love them both so much.
Y'know, like, I love 'em both so much.
I do what I need to do.
So, I think people are just letting other peoples opinions,
so like, work-life balance, real easy.
I do what I want.
And, as long as the five to nine people
I give a fuck abut the most are cool with it, then I'm good.
I'm not a motivational speaker that wants you to pay me
$5,000 to be your coach.
I don't want your money, I don't want anything.
- [Interviewer] Shots fired?
- Super shots fired.
(imitation shooting noises)
- Super shots fired.
When people say they want to change your life,
but real quick, give me $6,000 to do it?
You're not changing shit.
I'm chasing admiration, my guy.
- [Interviewer] That's right.
- You know what admiration feels like?
Like, if anybody's got it out there,
if you have it from one person, your little niece,
y'know like, - [Interviewer] It's amazing.
- Admiration, like, do you know what I felt like,
coming in here today?
- [Interviewer] So good.
- Taking picture with her in the front, like,
that's nice.
- [Interviewer] Yeah, man.
- I knew how to make money, I know how to make money.
I don't need the people watching me on the 'Gram
or YouTube, or my podcast to give me their money.
I've always known how to do that.
I want your fucking admiration.
- My guy, Gary Vee, you're my guy, my guy.
- I appreciate it, my guy.
You're my guy too, my guy.
- My guy, you are my guy, my guy.
- Thank you, my man.
Thank you so much for having me.
- I'm serious, my guy.
- [Gary] I appreciate it.
- You are my guy, my guy.
- I appreciate that.
(intense slow music)