- [Gary] I think I wanna become the nicest man on Earth.
(laughter)
I think that might be,
that's actually where kind of, weirdly,
where I think I'm now interested in going.
("Unstoppable" by This Is Wolff)
- [Man] So, quick fact about CCNY,
90 percent of the students here are immigrants,
and you're speaking to a lot of students.
We kind of wanted to keep it exclusive
within the CCNY community.
- [Gary] The number one thing
that I'm trying to leave here with
is to get a couple of you to get real fucking patient.
'Cause that is the singular advantage.
If you actually don't give a fuck, the way I didn't,
of what people think about you,
all through your 20's, like you just don't care,
like you literally don't, and you just build something
for yourself, you have a much better chance.
So many people here will fail in their entrepreneurial
journeys because they're worried about what people think.
That's just what it is, my man.
That's just what it is.
People are worried about what other people think,
how many followers they have,
how good the business is doing,
what they're doing, where they're going,
what they're wearing.
It doesn't fucking matter.
Every single person wanted to be a rapper.
Right, it was 1994, everybody was gonna,
and I remember thinking, wow how are you gonna be a rapper
if you're not writing?
How are you gonna be a rapper if you're not in the studio?
How are you gonna be a rapper if you're not hustling?
And it's funny, the white boy version of that now is tech.
Everybody thinks they're gonna build Snapchat and Instagram.
And I'm like, how are you gonna do that
when you're at Coachella?
Basically if you're thinking about building a house,
everybody's worried about decorating the fucking room,
and what lighting are you gonna have?
What color is your wallpaper?
And meanwhile, the cement you built your house on is shit.
And it's not gonna matter,
'cause the first time it's gonna rain,
your shit's gonna fall.
Right?
And so everybody's just jumping, everybody's so impatient.
And listen, I get it.
I look around this room and I associate.
I don't look exactly like everybody,
but I came from that same kind of place
of a lot of people, right?
When you have that chip on your shoulder,
the hardest thing to do is patience.
- I've seen the struggle firsthand,
- Sure.
- I had to leave my dad
'cause he wasn't really there for me.
- Understood.
- I've seen struggle in the face,
how do you soften the blow?
- You could dwell on that struggle, which is very real,
or you could change your perspective and be like,
okay, the odds of becoming a human being are
400 trillion to one.
My favorite story of my life is playing checkers
with the founder of Uber, Travis.
We're at this fancy fucking conference in Hawaii,
and we're playing checkers, right,
'cause it's like two in the morning or something.
And we're just playing fucking checkers, right?
(audience laughter)
And I'm in deep shit.
Like it's over, like he's got me,
it's like if you've ever played checkers, I'm finished.
And so I'm like, fuck, man,
I really don't wanna lose this match.
(audience laughter)
And so, I decide to, I think about it for a little bit,
like over a couple moves, and I decide to make pretend
that I made a move that I'm upset about,
hoping that he reacts to it quickly.
So I make this move, and I go, "Fuck!"
And like, try to make pretend that I need to go back,
but like my hand was up already.
So he jumps me, which set up a triple jump for me,
and I won.
That's how I think about your life.
(audience applause)
- I think Gary deserves like a really big round of applause.
(audience applause and cheering)
("White Lines" by K.A.A.N.)
This is ridiculous, this is just one muscle.
Knock you out, DRock.
This one, just this one back here.
- Right, right.
- How are you doing?
- I'm good, I'm good. - I'm glad you're here.
- Likewise, thanks for even having us.
- My pleasure.
Hey everybody, this is Gary Vay-ner-chuk,
and this is episode 252 of
The #AskGaryVee Show.
I think you gotta make your actions back up your ambition.
Like, my process is very simple, which is,
I've talked a big game, I have a lot of wants and dreams,
and my schedule today needs to map my big fucking mouth.
Right?
Like, that's it.
And so, one thing that shocks people when they get closer,
I remember when Tyler first filmed,
when Justin first filmed, Iris, when you get to film,
the biggest thing you're gonna know is like,
wait a minute, it's every second.
It's actually every second.
I think time is the asset, and so,
the one thing I would tell you is,
as you're prospecting, as you're trying to get sales,
you've also gotta deliver on your work.
If you got an agency, like selling's just the beginning.
Selling's set, like,
everybody's so focused on selling,
a lot of people starting these small social media agencies,
just to get clients, they forget
that after you get the clients, you gotta fucking deliver.
Keeping business is what actually builds big businesses,
not getting new business.
- So I guess, maybe the question today is who are you?
And who are you willing to be?
- I love that.
I appreciate it.
- Thank you.
- You guys, keep watching.
You keep asking questions, we'll keep answering them.
("White Lines" by K.A.A.N.)
- Oh, show India.
(cheers)
Yeah, so this is India.
She's still here.
- Hello.
Why don't we go around.
Why don't you tell me who you are, where you're from,
and just one or two sentences of what you do,
and then we'll go back around and maybe do a little Q&A,
shoot the shit a little bit.
First and foremost, thank you so much
for being a part of this.
This is something that has been really exciting for us.
Something I hear a lot from Vayner employers
we're at 700-plus people is like,
"Well, it's different,
"or it's not like it was, or this that or we used to."
And I'm like, "Yeah".
I don't know.
- [Man 2] It's just okay.
- Of course.
I'm still me.
I'm still me at 41,
I'm just different than I was at 32, and at 26.
It's the intent in the heart and the passion
that has to be the same,
but how it manifests looks different.
The big thing is,
so I would tell you the number one thing bro,
is that you and your brother have to
have a lot of communication.
Do you feel aligned with him?
- [Man 2] Oh yeah. - That's great.
- [Man 2] He's probably my best friend.
He was my best man at my wedding.
- Great, so let's start there.
You need to have a really hardcore,
like crying-type conversation of the blueprint of
how you guys don't let this business break you up.
And here is how I would attack it:
You guys need to have a conversation around talent.
You need to agree,
which could get real ugly so stick with me here,
on who's more talented right now.
I promise you
you'll be able to keep everything the way you want
if you and your brother are aligned.
Everything stems from the top and then it just comes down to
how much you guys care about it,
and you care about it, obviously.
But you can't be crippled.
Everybody here is judging themselves.
We're just doing the best we can.
I get so sad when somebody's like,
this place changed,
and they're saying it in a bad way.
It breaks my heart,
but I know I'm doing everything I can
to not make it feel worse.
Of course it's changed.
Everything's changed.
The world changes.
Everything's always changing.
Thank you, guys.
(indistinct speech)
Awesome, I'll come and see you.
I'll come and see you in the next couple of weeks,
or you'll come here if it works, we'll figure it out.
- [Woman] Okay.
- But I'm looking forward to catching up.
If this wasn't a contentious meeting,
I'd be willing to be late, but I need to run.
Awesome. Thank you for being sympathetic.
I'll catch up with you soon, okay?
- [Woman] Yeah, of course, thanks a lot.
- Thank you.
("White Lines" by K.A.A.N.)
Hey, Jeff, we're gonna have to do this call tomorrow
just 'cause I have to be upstairs
for Boston Consulting talk in two minutes.
I'm just gonna hear what Joe's gonna say right now
about what Dan wants.
I just texted him, we're all gonna get together
but we should be in good shape.
(crowd cheering)
Thank you, man.
Thank you.
So, growing up in the liquor business I've always learned
that it's super hard to compete with alcohol,
so everybody back there do your thing.
You're not hurting feelings.
People are just not practitioners.
This room is filled with people
who have a whole lot of things to say about stuff,
but have never actually done it.
There's a lot of opinions here
on buying Snapchat filters in the open market place.
There's a lot of opinions here.
You feel like that?
It's true.
And I say it because I do it in every other thing
that I don't know what the fuck I'm talking about.
I've got opinions on everything.
But what's been fascinating is that people got opinions
of what's actually happening but they're not practitioners.
We have a massive disconnect between
headline-reading and practitionership
in the modern day of running businesses and marketing.
And that is an enormous arbitrage of opportunity,
and it's also the preview to a whole lot of carnage.
And so I don't know,
I think, I, as someone who is most comfortable in chaos,
think this is gonna be the best.
I desperately want Wall Street to melt.
I'm so tired of all these peace-time generals,
these CEOs that have been navigating
the last seven years of good times.
I think we need a massive correction, I would prefer it.
And in that correction there will be enormous opportunity
because the biggest brands in the world,
overhead and infrastructure,
is based on a world that doesn't exist anymore.
I think way too many people here debate
and have a romantic point of view
of how they want the world to be.
I just react to the way the world is actually acting.
Who am I to judge?
I was told as a kid,
playing video games was a waste of time.
I'm watching kids making $15 million a year play eSports.
(audience laughter)
Shit changes. Right?
And so, I think that,
I'm not sure
but what I will say is this,
the only great arbitrage to the internet itself,
that is even out there is VR.
But as I was talking to somebody earlier,
I believe that consumer VR is quite far away.
To me, I react to reality.
Nobody here knows somebody
that's spending three hours a day on VR.
Everybody here is spending seven hours a day on their phone.
Thank you, guys.
(audience applause)
That was fun.
- That was good?
- That went well.
- That was good?
- Yeah.
Should I go?
Time to go?
Awesome.
I think I want to become the nicest man on earth.
(laughter)
I think that might be,
that's actually kind of wierdly where I think I'm now
interested in going.
("White Lines" by K.A.A.N.)
Midnight.
Just finished up with the team, DRock.
Here you go, selfie video.
You feel better now?
- Love it.
- Thank you.
("White Lines" by K.A.A.N.)