#AskGaryVee Episode 86: Passive Income, Foreign Languages & How to Delegate

“on delegation?” – Denni, you know, I
actually think the best piece of advice that I can give
to delegating is actually going to be very much up in the clouds, and as you know, I like
the clouds and the dirt. DRock, link it up. I think I’m tremendous at delegating and I’ll tell you the number
one rule to delegation, recognizing that 99.9% of things don’t mean shit. If you actually think
it’s not that important, it becomes a hell of a lot easier to let somebody else do it. If you recognize somebody
else’s 7.7 skills is better off because
that job is worth that, versus your 10.0 skills,
it’s humility, my friend. Ego oftentimes is the
issue with delegation. Even though I have a ton of ego, I have a boatload more
humility than you think. – [Voiceover] Tommy asks,
“Gary, isn’t working long hours

“an old school mind set? “Why not focus on building
wealth via passive income?” – You know, Tommy, I think both work. You know, I think that when people say, “Hey, let’s do passive
income,” they go into Spam City, USA oftentimes. You know, I have passive
income when I’m investing in early stage startups
that then go sell for 400X and I didn’t do anything, I made money, shit, I made more money
on my passive income, probably, than my hustle income. They both work but please
make sure that your passive income has practicality to it because all the people who
have tried to create systems and automate their cash,
there’s been a very small percentage of people that have
been able to lay on the beach while they collect money on the internet. A lot of that stuff is
completely ludicrous and I promise you the ones
in the 1% of passive income spent a boatload of
hard work and hard time to get to that evergreen
place up in the sky. And so, you know, I think that there’s an enormous, massive, misunderstanding that there are (scoffs) almost zero people that
have pulled off substantial success without putting
in real time and effort. Now, we all have different
ambitions and goals. Do I think that it’s easier
to create $60,000 a year in passive income on the internet today? I sure do and if that’s where
your goal and ambition is, that’s more practical than millions. Millions of dollars in passive
income on the internet, smoking (beep) weed in
Jamaica while it just keeps coming in is just not
as real as you think, partner. (laughing) You like that one? I’m right, because that’s
what everybody thinks it is and it’s just not real. (beep) Show me, ’cause I’ll show you a billion people that have won through hard work. Show me. Show me this magical person, ’cause I’ll show you
somebody who sells you that dream but isn’t actually doing it. That, I’ll show you. You want me to hire some
models for the afternoon and get a boat and go to
some sunny (beep) place and be like, this is it? I’ll show you that. You want me to show you
the people on Instagram who go take all the money
they own in the world in $100 forms in the bank
and throw it on a bed and take a picture and then
put it back in their bank? I’ll show you that. I’ll show you the front of
this passive income dream of the internet.

“past or present,
embodies hustle for you?” – Wayne Chrebet, 10th
guy on the depth chart when he joined the Jets
in ’95 in practice. Got there because his dad hustled together some VHS tapes, the Jets
sucked, so the coach brought in anybody and his number was retired last year. That is incredible. He looks like me, he’s
a short, white dude. He played through massive concussions. I’ve gotten to know Wayne a
little bit in his post-career. It’s funny, I always felt like
Wayne was a little overrated, ’cause he was the little
white guy and I was like, ahh, that’s racist, or you know,
but his hustle is insanity. And so, I have enormous
amounts of respect for him and he absolutely is the
answer to that question. – [Voiceover] Thomas asks,
“Gary, what value do you find

“in knowing a foreign language?” – Thomas, (speaking in foreign language). You’re laughing at me because
the way I speak Russian is so hardcore English
accent and struggle, but it’s interesting, I failed German and the only reason I
even graduated high school is ’cause my Spanish teacher
is the greatest of all time and she just knew that I had it. And big shout out to Senora Kennedy, the one teacher that
really holds a hardcore place in my heart because
truly, in New Jersey, you have to graduate two years of language and by failing out of German, my freshman and sophomore year, I
needed a miracle to pass Spanish 1 and 2 in my
junior and senior year. And God was very good to
me for giving me a teacher that had a tough reputation
but clearly, she was smart as shit ’cause she
actually knew who I was. She literally called my mom and was like, I’m giving your son a C for charisma, but you need to know, he doesn’t even know how to say “hello” in Spanish. And so, I don’t put a
lot of value on knowing other languages. Maybe that’s ’cause of
my own personal prejudice of being someone who struggled
learning another one, even though I got two from
at least a hearing standpoint and I can communicate. You throw me in Moscow for a month, that Russian you just heard
will get a hell of a lot better as my ear and tongue get adapted to it. I also think technology is now coming where we’re gonna be able to translate, clearly, in a decade, I’ll
be able to go to China and just be like, or like talk into here or just, it’s in it, or
put in the ear pieces. Does anybody not know that we’re gonna put ear pieces in when we
go to foreign countries and we’re just all
gonna talk our languages and everything’s gonna
be translated proper? And so the value I put on it has gone down in value as I recognize
technology’s gonna fix that issue. – [Voiceover] Benjamin asks,
“Gary, I want to start pushing

“people to make the same decision I made “by leaving a very secure
job to pursue their dream. “My question is, will my
employee retention rate drop? “Since you started building
up your personal brand, “has your employee
retention rate dropped?” – Benjamin, the thing you
need to understand is that intent trumps everything. And so I think one amazing
thing in this company that I’m extremely proud
of is I truly believe that these people that
work at VaynerMedia really recognize that I want to win but not at their expense. I want to buy the Jets, not at
the expense of my employees, with my employees and I equally
want what’s best for them. Of course, you know,
looking at these three, and things are running through my mind and, obviously, I know them
all at different levels, but you know, there’s
narratives in my mind that I can play out right
now that leads to a world of them not being here. And that makes me sad and I really don’t want that. And from an ego standpoint,
I truly believe that I can bring them so much
value over the long haul that makes it interesting
for them to stay. But I think it’s massively
important that they always, deep down, feel as though I want them to have what they want, even though, optically,
it doesn’t benefit me. And I would say 40% of
VaynerMedia believes that. And that may surprise you as a low number, but I hope you understand
the level of cynicism that is instilled in us as human beings to not believe everything I just said. And so I’m massively proud of the 40% and I’m really pumped
that I think that 40% was actually 12% only 12 to 18 months ago and so I’m building momentum, right? Look, I think if you’re
scared to lose somebody who believes in their heart that they have the skill set to go and do it, you’re making a huge
mistake and I actually think you build retention by
showing them the reverse. It’s a reverse psychology
game that is not a tactic because if you don’t actually believe it, that reverse psychology
will come across as bullshit and you’ll lose it. I don’t do it because I want
to reverse psychology India, I do it because I believe it. And then they have to believe
and evolve in their place. You know, I believe that
the evolution of people not being here is gonna
have a lot more to do with things in life, they
fall in love and get married, and have to move ’cause
their spouse really needs to do this and they have
the empathy and being the bigger man or woman
in the relationship to go let their spouse do that, unfortunately, maybe something tragic. I actually think that when you’re pure, when you want to win but
you want to win with, not, you know, on the
back of, people start sticking around because the truth is, if somebody works at a
job, in a lot of ways, they weren’t thinking
purely, I’m gonna put this on my back to begin with, right? And you, and I don’t know your age, is there a picture, or
is this a written word? – [India] Oh, this is written. – You know, I don’t know
your age, but again, if you’re over 30, you were
sold on a world where it wasn’t, I’m gonna go do my own thing, right? So now that we live in
that world, I actually feel that the kids that are going
to work for companies now in lieu of entrepreneurship
are truly not entrepreneurs. Back into that big argument of
entrepreneur-like tendencies and entrepreneurship,
I’ll tell you right now, show me a 23-year-old
that wants to work here and I’ll show you somebody
who is, got entrepreneurial tendencies but isn’t pure entrepreneur. So I just think doing
the right thing is always the right thing and I think
empowering your people to follow their dreams if
they have one, if they think they’re good enough, if
they are willing to deal with the stress and all the
dog shit that comes along with having all the
pressure on your shoulder, then, you know, you empower
them and root for them and try to be part of that narrative. But if they have tendencies, what you’re doing is
actually building a deeper relationship with that person, and actually, my belief
is that percentage, you’re creating longer term. I mean, the stickiness of this company is pretty intense,
given the agency world’s a tough place for stickiness
and so I’m very proud of that and you know what I spew. Great last question. Question of the day,