- Don't judge yourself in the daily.
Judge yourself in the yearly.
And slow it down, be patient.
Yeah! - Yeah!
- [Gary] You've got your perspective.
- [Announcer] Gary Vaynerchuk!
- [Gary] I just wanna be happy
(reflective piano music)
I enjoy paying my dues.
I loved when I was 28, on December ninth,
working a register,
because it was busy in the store,
and having my friends from college come to the store
in their BMW, 'cause they worked on Wall Street,
and they're buying a case of wine,
and they're looking dead in my face
and I know what they're thinking,
which is, they just pulled up into my store
in their BMW and I'm the help,
going downstairs to pick up their case of champagne.
I enjoyed those moments,
because I knew exactly how it was gonna play out.
- [Female] I love you, Gary!
- For me, happiness is
being able to do what you want to do at all times.
- [Interviewer] Not conforming or pandering.
- Just being able to do what you want to do!
I mean, that's
(audio distorts)
who wouldn't what that?
And I think that is one of the
great things about entrepreneurship.
The cost of that is,
you're always one second away from dying.
Right?
Entrepreneurship is scary!
One second you're at the top of the world,
next, there is nobody behind you.
You're the last line.
It's like fighting a war.
Just you, you're the last.
This is the castle.
You.
Everybody's been fighting, you.
So that's lonely, that's scary.
But, you get to define it.
You get to tell what everybody's
where they positioned and
how they should
and so, I love that feeling.
I love being in that place.
Loving what you do is so
people hear that,
even when I was a kid,
I was like, ah that's bull
it's very fluffy,
but it's very true!
Being happy in what you do?
And whether that's making $45,000 a year
or $4,000,000 a year,
if you really love it,
and you're really doing what you wanna be doing,
that's a very, very good place to be,
you're just going to be happy.
And I genuinely do think we have
a major branding issue on success.
And I mean across 7.7 billion people.
Every part of the world.
And I'm very passionate about
being one of the voices that tries to redefine it.
Because I'm unbelievably not driven by money.
Unbelievably.
I spent the first 12 years of my life
building a family business
from a 3 to a $60,000,000 business for my parents
and left at 34 years old with nothing to my name.
Then started a company with my brother
who was coming out of college,
and made him a 50-50 partner,
and then he left four years later
and I spent tens of millions of dollars to buy him out.
Money does not drive me.
The game.
(modern pop rock music)
I'm unbelievably in tune with the fact that
it's almost impossible to become a human being,
and I have no interest
for taking that for granted.
(reflective piano music)
I love when analytical people,
when I have a very deeply math kid in front of me
and we're having some sort of debate,
and they're upset about something,
I'm like, you do know the odds of being a human being
are 400 trillion to one, right?
I think that what drives me is
an unbelievably clear perspective
to how lucky we are to have an at bat.
And I'm struggling to dwell on dumb shit.
As long as eight people that I love more than life
are alive that morning,
I'm in good spirits.
I really am.
Yeah.
You know?
I think adversity and humble beginnings
is an incredibly good framework to happiness
if you layer positivity and optimism
around your difficulty.
A lot of times people look at their difficulty
and dwell and go the other way.
So for me,
I'm excited every day,
'cause I get to play.
And yes, I love competing, but
I love competing more than,
I love the game more than the trophy that the game gives me.
And that is also another happy part.
But I have my perspective in check, I really do.
And I don't just say it, I live it.
And what's really fun for me is that,
I'm a little bit older,
when this has all happened,
so I have a lot of people in my life
who've known me long before I ever made
one single piece of content on the internet
in the wine world,
let alone what it's manifested into.
And it's funny,
when once in a blue moon
if some things fester
and there's a little bit of pushback against me,
it's really fun to see
grammar school and high school and college
and early wine people jump in and be like,
this is gonna be fuckin',
you think this is somebody else,
this is who this dude was when nobody was watching.
You know?
I've always been very grateful.
I'm very grateful.
(reflective piano music)
You should always be doing what you want.
- [Female] Even if nobody responds to it
- You don't know yet.
Not at first.
To your point, if you do something for a year and a half
and nobody gives a fuck, now you're delusional.
But, but notice that I'm giving you an answer
based on where you're at now.
If you don't have a podcast yet,
you should start with what you love.
Because the only way you're gonna do something hard enough
is if you love it.
You know?
So you start with something you love,
you do it for a year, you feel it out,
and if you're now into year two
and nobody still is,
now it's, people always
the hardest question to ask is
when should you double down on
staying the course and persevering,
or when should you bail and shut it down?
You never really,
I can never answer that question.
There's too much I need to know
to answer that question.
But in the beginning point,
it's very easy for me to answer.
Do something you fuckin' love
because if you're doing something you think will do well,
you're now already in a place
where it's gonna be hard for you to make the content.
I'm passionate about it,
you have so much other shit.
You're gonna choose what else is better or easier,
you know?
It's hard to get going
around something you don't feel great about,
you're just doing it for what?
For the listens?
For the subscribes?
For what?
I'm so passionately trying to get people
to realize happy is better than money.
I'm passionate about this.
It's a very important conversation,
we have to.
If we wanna really really really change shit,
we have to redefine what success looks like.
It is just not how many subscribers you have,
it is not how much money you make.
It's just not.
And people are pandering to the machines,
the algorithms, the subscriptions,
and ultimately, why?
For the money.
Right?
You're gonna pander for the subscriptions
and for the likes,
'cause that leads to the brand deals,
the money and this is something that
I think we need to talk about.
It's something, we're now mature enough in this ecosystem
that it's time for us to now have
more thoughtful conversations.
We have to start having this conversation.
(light hip hop influenced pop music)
- I know it's all about what you do
after full time work, but
do you feel like
is that too much?
(audio distorts)
Balance between creating content
- Are you able to afford not doing your job?
- Because my side business
- Varied. - And my content
- Can you control your expenses?
- I can.
- I mean, that's, it's a very practical answer.
I get that one would want to
you gotta nail down, it is after your job.
Obviously you'd love to not have to do your job.
You only got two options.
Wait 'til your side hustles get to enough
that you can leave your job,
or, leave your job and live way more humbly
with roommates or back home
or whatever the hell it is.
- Yeah.
- Those are the only two real options.
- So you won't suggest doing three at the same time.
- I think three at the same time is fine.
I don't think you're stretched too thin
or doing too many things.
I think that that's great,
if you can maintain it,
as long as you don't mentally burn out.
- Burn out, yeah. - Yeah.
And even if, by the way,
do three things, burn out, and drop one!
- Drop one. - You know what I mean?
What works today doesn't have to be
what works tomorrow.
- Right.
- This is one big game of self awareness.
It's not how I want it, it's not how you want it.
It's how you need it for yourself.
You just need to keep asking yourself,
what do you need?
And what you need today
is different than what you're gonna need tomorrow,
and it's different than what you needed yesterday.
This is a forever evolving thing.
Evolve to what feels right today,
not what you think it should be.
- Great stuff, Gary.
Thank you.
- Happy to do it.
- So Gary, if there's one thing
you want to tell every creative out there
that's struggling now that's trying to
get up to their career,
what would that one thing be?
- It takes years of great creative work
to get to that place.
Stop judging yourself.
Just 'cause this one video didn't get as many views
or not as many likes,
don't judge yourself in the daily.
Judge yourself in the yearly,
and slow it down.
Be patient.
- Be patient.
I love that, thank you so so much.
(inaudible)
- How do you deal with this sadness?
Just once in your life?
One time?
- I mean, I struggled when I was a kid
because I hated school.
But since I've been a grown up,
not so much.
Not really, and I'll tell you why.
Any time I start getting sad,
I get sad like anybody else,
I immediately put things in perspective.
- [Female] Put things in perspective.
- And here's what I do.
Context.
Just 'cause this business thing,
or just because these people said this thing about me,
what would happen if my mom died today?
- Bye, Gary!
- To the women out there - Bye, guys.
- The women out there, what are you gonna say?
- Listen. - Who are hustling right now.
- Listen, I have so much respect
because you guys deal with so many extra dynamics
that dudes don't.
So I would say, keep persevering,
you've got this.
- Thank you so much, Gary.
- You're welcome, bye bye.
The one that is just really really big for me right now
is how many kids
don't want to do what their parents want them to do,
but aren't willing to pay the sacrifices
to do what they want to do.
- [Woman] But they don't know, Gary
- They do.
- [Woman] They don't know
- They do.
They do.
They don't want to pay the price.
They still want their parents to pay for their rent.
They still want their parents to pay for their Uber.
They still want,
they think that they're in control
of what their parents are willing to.
When you want something from somebody,
you're not in control of what they give.
- [Woman] Yeah.
When you live at home, you live under their rules.
- My big thing that always makes me laugh is
there was this kid the other day
that got really upset with me
and really upset with me during a Q&A,
'cause I wouldn't invest in his company.
And finally I said to him,
it was really actually, a scene,
and I was like, bro, you're asking.
He was mad at me,
I'm like, I'm not asking you for anything!
- [Woman] Mmm.
- And that's a
when you're asking for something,
you don't have the leverage!
- [Woman] Period.
- Period!
You don't wanna go to college?
You don't have to go to college!
You don't want to be a doctor?
You don't have to be a doctor!
Right?
But, that also means that if that's what your parents want,
and that's what they're willing to pay for,
you can't be like,
hey Mom,
you know how you were gonna give me $80,000
to go be a doctor?
That's what you want?
Well, I don't want that,
I want to be a painter!
So give me that $80,000.
That's not how it works!
You have to leave that on that table.
That money, that infrastructure
comes with that ambition.
If you want that safety and that money,
well that means you're gonna be a lawyer.
If you wanna be a fuckin' motorcycle racer,
that means you're gonna
live in a studio apartment with 19 friends.
People ask the dumbest shit!
This kid the other day is like,
'Gary V, but how do you do this in the Bay Area?
'It's so expensive!'
I'm like, 'you move, dick!'
You don't live in the Bay Area!
- [Woman] You have a choice.
- People are like, 'Gary, what the fuck?
'You're trying to pay $14 an hour?
'How do you survive in New York City?'
I'm like, you live in Queens.
And you take, you can do anything!
- [Woman] You have options.
- People aren't willing to sacrifice
for what they want.
They, this is why I jump on,
they don't know.
They know.
People don't want to deal with the truth.
You know, there's two things I do,
I keep it basic, and I go right at it.
(crowd cheering, applauding)
Happy to be here.
Thank you for having me.
Yes, sir.
- [Audience Member] My question actually isn't for me,
it's for my son, he's 10.
- Okay.
- [Audience Member] Giovanni.
- Giovanni.
- [Audience Member] He wants to be a Twitch streamer.
- Sounds right.
- [Audience Member] He struggles with confidence.
So I'm wondering if you could give him a few words
of what he can do, what type of action he can take
to build his confidence?
- Giovanni, I think the question
and I see we're recording this.
Look, when your 10 years old,
confidence is a very funny thing.
You're still forming as a human.
But the reality is, is if you're Twitching,
and you're over-responding to
how many subscribers you have,
or what your friends in school are saying,
you're not going to be able to be successful.
And so you're lucky, Giovanni,
to be able to start this process now,
not when you're 45 years old.
The quicker you get comfortable
with judgment of others,
the more likely you'll be successful, long term.
The way to get your confidence up
is to start enjoying the push back.
Is to start enjoying people say that you can't.
Is to start enjoying the judgment of others
who don't understand.
If you're not comfortable in your own framework,
you'll never succeed.
(reflective piano music)
(applauding)
Love you guys.
I gotta catch my flight but I love you.
Thank you for coming.
- [Man] Love you, Gary!
- Love you back, thank you.
Thank you.
Love it.
(laughs)
- Great energy in there!
- [Gary] Yeah it was.
- [Woman] Really good.
- Thank you.
Good to see you. - See you in Sydney.
- Can't wait.
Thank you so much.
- [Woman] Do you need water?
- [Gary] No thank you.
Bye, guys.
Bye bye, thank you.
(motivational music)
Dude I'm so fired up about this.
- [Woman] It's so nice!
- You know what this is?
- [Woman] A Jets sweater!
- Do you know what it is?
This is a replication of the single thing
that I value the most in the entire universe.
- [Woman] What?
- When I was seven years old,
and we moved to New Jersey,
and I became a Jets fan,
my friends had jerseys.
And I came home one day and I said,
'Mom, everybody has a jersey, I want one.'
And we couldn't afford to buy a $20 jersey.
So a week later, my mom knitted me one.
This is the exact thing she knitted,
this is exactly what it looks like.
With my name on the back.
And the reason I do '5'
is 'cause 5 was my favorite number
even as that little of a kid.
And that's what this is,
this is exact
- [Woman] I knew that part, but I didn't know
the part about the replica of the sweater.
- [Man] So cool.
- [Woman] That's so thoughtful.
- I can't wait to wear this.
Can't wait.
Hope it's super cold in New York next week.
(laughs)
(motivational music)
Too much overthinking in the system.
That was the theme of the keynote.
Great trip in KL.
Malaysia, I love you.
Singapore, thank you for your time.
D-Rock, thank you for your support.
Leave a comment, subscribe.
Or D-Rock will cry.
Steve, you gonna leave a comment
on this vlog?
Oh, I don't mean on camera,
I mean in the comments section on YouTube.
(laughs)
(motivational music)
(laughs)
- [D-Rock] Bro, a sneaker tour coming up.
(laughs)
(motivational music)