- People quit all the time, 'cause
they're doing it for the money.
(emotional piano music)
There's a debate, right now, going on Twitter of like,
how many years do you have to work until..
The hard work until the thing, this guy's like,
"Gary Vee, you said you hustled your face off
"for 10 years," he's like, "I only had to do it
"for two years, I couldn't imagine doing it for 10."
And I'm laughing at him, and another guy jumps in and goes,
"Well, Gary said it best, 'Eat shit for blank years
"and eat caviar for the rest of your life.'"
Like, are you enjoying, is this fun?
I'm sure he's a lovely dude, is this fun?
(they laugh) That you're filming this?
Or are you doing it because you think
it's gonna get you to the next level of success?
Do you love your process?
The gateway to happiness is to love your process,
whatever that may be, whether that creates wealth
or doesn't, if that creates legacy and art or doesn't,
that creates impact on the world or it doesn't.
You're clearly driven, like, you know,
first you wanted to be in the NBA, (laughs)
then you wanted to be in the PBA, then you wanted to act,
like, I think the thing that you need to
understand is that you've got a gear
of motivation that makes you do.
The first two things in sports didn't work out,
the thing that worked out in acting,
it did work out, whatever the definition
of what you're trying to figure out right now,
it may or may not work.
What I'm excited about is the fact that
you've got a gear that makes you want to do.
I think one of the biggest problems right now,
especially for people under 30 who want to be influencers
or entrepreneurs, which is almost everybody,
there's a lot of vanity metrics
that they're trying to achieve to that mean nothing.
"I raised 15 million dollars."
So? You might go out of business.
"I've got a million subscribers."
So?
"I've got 10 million subscribers."
So? I think, right now,
we live in a world that has so much data,
that people are living towards the numbers.
How many likes, how many followers,
how much capital I've raised.
It's a, it becomes a numbers rack race,
and it usually leads to bad behavior,
because when you're chasing a number
that people can see, you often take shortcuts.
For me, the shit is the caviar.
Like, I love the fuckin' process.
I love building.
A very big reason acting probably worked out was
you both thought it could bring you
something you were looking for
from the level of attention and success
and fame and dollars, but you also liked it.
Because otherwise, if you didn't like it,
you would've quit after the third "no" at auditions.
When you do something for money, you quit.
When you do it because you love it, you do it forever.
People win when they're self-aware.
Some wanna make their bed, some don't.
Some have this strength, some have that weakness.
You need to figure out who you are
and you need to execute against that.
You have to love the process, not the stuff
that the process buys you.
- [Woman In Audience] Yeah!
(audience cheers)
- People quit all the time, 'cause
they're doing it for the money.
I think the bigger question is,
"what do you want the money for?"
Is it blocking an insecurity, is it to get the girl,
is it 'cause you're trying to mass as much as you can
'cause you actually don't like working and you wanna live--
The reason so many people fail in life and business is,
their model is, "Let me get the money,
"so then I can enjoy and relax."
They think of it as, like, hoarding it,
and then eating it all over time, it's why retirement,
(mumbles) it's such a bad way to think about it,
because then you're feeling the pressure of, like,
massing, so that you can then enjoy.
I think the bigger question is, like,
what are you up to, why are you doing it, what's up?
I just think a lot of people are trying to achieve success
and use fame or money as makeup for
a situation that they're just not happy about.
You have to figure out how to make
your day-in and day-out happy.
It's all an inside game.
You need to be enjoying the amassing so much,
that you never get to the enjoying part.
Otherwise, you're gonna be impatient,
and trying to be out of it as quickly as possible,
to buy those things, or you're gonna regret it
later in life, right?
I will never retire, 'cause it's not as fun
as working.
Like, it's not as fun.
Like, it's very...
It's not as fun for me to lay on the beach
and play golf all day,
and lay on a yacht in the middle of the Mediterranean
for a hundred days in the summer,
and go to vineyards and go to concerts, and see friends,
that's not as fun
as fuckin' 15 hours of meetings all day.
I don't wanna lay in a swan in a pool.
I don't want to.
That is what people have to figure out.
Whether that's singing, or being a mother,
or teaching a classroom, to me, the game matters.
And by the way, somebody may be looking, being like,
"Gary, looks like shit, four AM, six flights in Asia,
"and I'm sitting here in Ibiza."
And for her or him, that's winning, and that's great.
You've gotta try and figure that out
at all costs, and if you're not happy right now,
you need to do something different.
I just don't understand how...
People think wealth is the gateway to happiness.
The gateway to happiness is to love your process,
whatever that may be, whether that creates wealth
or doesn't, if that creates legacy and art or doesn't,
that creates impact on the world or doesn't,
you've gotta try and figure that out at all costs.
That if you're not happy right now,
you need to do something different.
If you are not happy right now,
you have to break your patterns.
You have to look at life from a different perspective.
You have to find a different angle to look at it from.
Because this shit goes fast if you know it's long.
Figure out what your fucking winning is.
My winning is different than a lot of people's.
I don't get envy, I get excited, I get competitive,
I enjoy it, I enjoy my thing.
What's your thing that makes you the happiest...
- [Man] You just focus there.
- Only there.
(emotional piano music)