- To me, the question is, how do you stand out forever?
There's a level of practicality
that's different for everyone,
predicated on how fancy they wanna be.
How much money do you need to take home,
to pay for your life, that you're so happy about?
Where's your happiness and where is the things you want
that you need money for?
Where's that Mendoza line?
And let me ask you a question,
do you need four sports jackets or three?
Do you need 11 pairs of pants, or seven?
Do you need to go on three vacations or two?
My friend, every dollar you put back into your business
gives you the potential to have
that business be healthier, longterm.
I believe this entire conference,
and this entire space is "broken".
And everything is base on data that isn't actually practical
to the reality of the business.
Most people start businesses to take the money out
to buy themselves things,
which is why they never build long term big businesses.
You have to understand, there's a fundamental reason
I have the career that I have.
The only thing I am is energy for the longterm.
When you can "oversell" your reality,
but then build to the new reality,
that's how you get big.
For VaynerMedia I was able to, over the last five years,
grow us from 22 people to 800 people,
from 3 million to 100 million in revenue,
because I can continue to do my model.
We're gonna make less money this year, at 100 million,
than we made last year at 67.
Net, I don't mean percentage, net.
Historically I've liked to run them
where one year is profitable and the next year is not.
So the growth is there, but the non-profitable
every other year, was predicated on me being able
to invest in people, advertising or resources.
More people, more capabilities.
Because I'm gonna take the whole fucking pie.
99% of the market's short-term,
and the 1% that isn't and has the talent, wins every time.
Which makes no sense, because unless you're gonna die,
you should only play long term.
If you're gonna live to be in 2020,
you might as well play to be in 2020.
The disproportionate reason that most people in this room
will not win, is actually not the hard work,
which is what I'm gonna talk about,
probably for the next 45 minutes,
it's your lack of patience.
Today with all the things that have happened to me.
I get emails on Facebook,
from friends I went to high school with,
often starting with, "Gary you're so lucky."
I reply to every single one of them, all of them,
with the reply of an opening line, first,
"Jan, great to see you again.
"You look great, kid's super cute.
"P.S. I am super not lucky."
" Let me remind you, Rick,
"remember when we graduated college?
"And you went to the Jersey Shore every weekend
"and hooked up with chicks and drank beer, I worked."
When I was 22 to 28, I was making $35,000 to $55,000 a year,
but I had no expenses, I didn't go on vacations,
I didn't buy fancy things, so I saved my money.
I saved my money, I saved my money.
I had hundreds of thousands of dollars.
I didn't have millions,
I had hundreds of thousands of dollars,
'cause I didn't spend anything.
And then I started making $100,000 a year
and $150,000 a year, and by the time I was 33/34,
when I had that opportunity,
I'd still not bought a home, I was still in an apartment.
I was 33 years old and I was renting.
And because I was saving cash to go on the offense.
And I knew something would happen one day, and it did.
And so when I had a chance to invest in those companies,
I put hundreds of thousands of dollars, not millions.
But, those hundreds made millions, made tens of millions.
And so that's it, nothing crazy.
I didn't have any crazy, crazy advantage.
There's a lot of people that make $55,000 a year,
when they're 23, the problem is they go to Coachella.
And they wanna buy a watch and they wanna buy a BMW.
And I didn't.
So I ate shit for 13 years,
and then I had moment, and I struck.
I already won, I figured myself out,
I know what makes me happy.
Nothing in the world makes me happier than being able,
and by the way, this is for everybody.
Everybody is the happiest,
when they get to do what they wanna be doing.
When you get to do what you wanna do, you've won.
That is the seductive nature of entrepreneurship,
because you have control.
There's no boss, but the company can become your boss.
The over-extending yourself and paying for your lifestyle
can become your boss.
Not paying attention to what makes you happy anymore
can become your boss.
And that's why I try to stay grounded in that stuff.
I am stunningly the most rational
and the most practical of all.
Yet I don't seem it.
The only way to stand out, in my opinion,
is to stand out for the longterm.
You could do a lot of things to stand out for the next week.
You can use shock movement, you can growth hack,
you can buy follow, all the dumb shit
that everybody's doing to win for a week or a month,
maybe even a year.
To me the question is, how do you stand out forever?
(melancholic music)