“How important is failure? “You hear a bunch of people saying “how important it is to fail. “But is it really?” – Youssef, great question. You know, look, I think
failure has to be quantified. If you fail but you never
can get up from it again, you know, that’s not a good failure. I think failure and adversity are the two things I think about. For me, as an entrepreneur,
and very entrepreneurial, and always in my own
stuff, all the failures along the way, even going
back to the baseball card show when I was thirteen, that I
paid 400 dollars for a table and nobody showed up to
that baseball card show. That was a learning lesson. Those microfailures were
super, super important. I think, you know, it depends
on your stomach, right? Like, if you really fail,
like go out of business, I think people take
one of two ways, right? They’re like, just finished,
and they’re never able to get off the mat, and they
go in a different direction, so to me, I think quantifying
the failure’s important to me. Jack, Suzy? – Well, I’ll give you
one, I blew up a factory the second year I was in business. Sky high, my boss all of
a sudden didn’t know me, I went down to see his boss in New York, which he pointed me to,
and the guy asked me a thousand questions,
using the Socratic method. And instead of me getting fired, which I thought was a high probability, I learned something from it. So, in every one of these
events, you gotta get yourself back on the horse, and how
well you get back on the horse and how well you ride after
getting knocked on your butt is a very big deal. – We tell our kids,
“Fail early and often.” Fail, because then what
happens is, when you do fail, you realize it doesn’t kill you. You go on living, and you realize, “Okay, you know, I can pick myself up, “here’s how I’m gonna reinvent myself, “here’s how I’m gonna talk about it, “I’m gonna own it, I’m
gonna say I got fired “from the Harvard Business Review.” I tell people I got fired from
the Harvard Business Review, and here’s the thing. It gives you heart for people
who have also fallen down, and you actually sort of have a – Empathy. – A totally different
understanding for people who have fallen down. You’ve been there, and you can, it just makes you a better person. You don’t wanna keep failing constantly, but to be scared– – That’s a very bad idea. – No, you don’t wanna fail all the time, but you can’t be too scared of it, because it stops you
from doing big things. – Yeah, you know, it’s funny,
I was just having a meeting with a lot of senior
executives here at VaynerMedia, and I said, “Look, guys. “I don’t need peacetime generals,” right? I need wartime generals,
meaning I need executives, like of course I know
this brand’s going well and this brand’s going well
and this brand’s going well. What are you doing about the client that’s not happy right now? Right? And I think failure
makes people better at that, and so that’s another kind
of thing that I look for in this subject matter. Alright, let’s move on. – [Voiceover] Chris asks,
“Is terminating the bottom

and how do you get off of it? What’s the biggest “but”
you hear from others that’s holding them back?” – Theresa, the amount of
buts that I hear, is actually stunningly overwhelming. I pride myself in not being a but guy, and so, I think that the buts
that I hear are all the time. I didn’t have any money. I didn’t have a chance, I grew
up in a poor neighborhood. I didn’t have a mentor. I didn’t get the lucky break. People are loaded with buts. It’s why the majority of
people fit into the standard of ones life right? Whatever those ambitions
may be, I think that for me, my but is usually– But I love the process, I love the climb. When I don’t achieve the maximum upside in my career, it’s going to
be predicated on the fact that I hedged about loving the process, and so within the context of finances, I didn’t buy the Jets, because, but– You know, is really, that
whole thing is because, oh, I liked the grind too
much, and that didn’t allow me to scale and create the
level of wealth I needed to be able to actually pull it off. That’s my narrative, and so that’s my but, but I love the process. The amount of buts I hear though, are just everything, and really– You know, what but is, is
it’s an excuse, and now look, before I finish
with my rah rah scenario, let’s very much understand
there’s real stuff going on in the world. I mean, you may be born
in a part of the world where there’s a dictator, or communism, or just you know– Do I think that is as easy to be a female entrepreneur in the Middle
East, as it is to be in New York City? No, I do not. Do I think that it’s
harder for somebody that’s born in Mississippi, a non white male, in America, as it is for
somebody that is born in L.A. white male, to succeed? I do, but on the flip
side, let me flip it, I think the hustle and the
grind of coming from the grind has a big advantage. I see a ton of– I think some people– Some people think you’re dead on impact because you’re born a minority or, or in a bad spot, or
to a drug infested home that you’re predisposed to losing. Ironically in my weird twisted
brain, in the game that I play, the hustle game, the real climb, like it’s almost equally
predicated on your spirit and your gusto as it is on your skill set. I think a lot of people
that are born into kush are in a setback situation
because it’s gonna come so easy, and so, I just
think it’s how you optically look at the world, but
I will tell you this, I hate excuses man. I hate them with all my heart. I really take enormous
pride, and I mean it. We just had a hard core, right
guys, we had a hard core meeting, I don’t know
if any of you were here, VaynerMedia meeting on
Friday, where I talked about stuff and I’m always scared
that I don’t know if the team believed me, when I said,
“Hey look, before I start, this is my fault.” But I really mean it. I take pride in taking blame. It’s crazy. You know, it’s funny,
this Jets/Patriot thing. I see all these Pat fans
making fun of me, right, yesterday, and I feel sad
for them that they’ve won four Super Bowls. I like the climb and the grime,
and trying to win it, right, and that’s kind of how I
think about buts, and blames, and excuses. I take pride and I like taking
the blame in front of my whole company and saying
this is my fault, even though I know there’s so many other people that are at fault as well,
I’ll take that on me. So, you know, buts are
bad, but they’re not as obvious as I think that
some people may think. – [Voiceover] Robert asks,
“Is there value in using social

– [Voiceover] Mike asks, I’ve caught a few of your #AskGaryVee shows
and love the content. What are your thoughts on Google+? Why do you continue to use it? – Mike, I think Google+
is a failure for Google. Once again, a big company that is amazing, maybe, actually, my pick
for the best company in tech in the world. But, just doing something
outside of their DNA. They try to copy something. It was ill-fated in my opinion. I still use it because there’s
an audience of mine there. It ties in nicely to the YouTube society. There’s a small niche group of people that I massively respect from Google+ that are early adopters of technology, early Twitter users and they’ve
created a nice community. And much like every social
network besides Twitter, most social networks are not so social. They’re content distribution
portals, unfortunately. And I’ve got some audience there and I will continue to
distribute my content considering that it’s so
native to the YouTube platform where so much of this goes. I mean, obviously people
listening on the podcast know. I was talking to a bunch of people that are listening to the podcast. Hey podcast peeps, you know, that how sometimes they go and run and watch the show. As a matter of fact, one of
our VaynerMedia employees heard me say Asia and something else and thought that I called you Asia because they thought
that I was thinking India and I said Asia and then
I punched them in the face and said, “Do you really
think I wouldn’t know that?” Anyway, so they wanna watch
the video is my point. My big point is, what I think about it is, it’s a loss but it still has value and that’s something that I want everybody to pay attention to. Nothing is ever dead. I talk about email open rates being down but email’s probably at the
top of my marketing strategy. It’s not about 100 or
zero, it’s where is it at this moment. And where Google+ is at this moment is it still merits the
minimal time it takes for me to post a YouTube
video on that platform and occasionally engage
with that community. Something that MySpace
no longer brings to me but did in 2009 and 10
with Wine Library TV. Get it?

– [Voiceover] Danny asks, “In the past, “what was your equivalent of that “one almond moment from episode 46? “What did you potentially miss out on?” – Danny, I want everybody
in the VaynerNation to go to their copy of
Crush It!, my first book if you’ve got it, and I
want you to go to the first 20 or 30 pages where I do acknowledgments. You will notice that I
acknowledge every one of my family members and then a random name. That random name is Travis Kalanik. Travis is the co-founder and
CEO of a company called Uber that is rumored today to be raising at a $40 billion valuation. When they were raising money
at a $4 million valuation, I passed even though
Travis is one of my boys and I think is one of the best
entrepreneurs in the world. I, at that moment, just
bought a new apartment that liquidated me at
a very aggressive level and I wasn’t so sure
about the idea of Uber that early on, but not that
I didn’t like that idea. I just didn’t think that
Garret, the co-founder of Stumble Upon and then Uber
who came up with the idea, and Travis, I didn’t
think they were actually going to do it. I thought they were going
to hire somebody else and as somebody who went
through, and you’ve heard me talk about in this past
my failures where I put other CEOs in place and I don’t drive it, if it was them driving
it, I would have got in. Hopefully, maybe, maybe
not, but not once but twice because Travis and I are
such boys that I pass on investing in Uber at the angel round. Now, I later invested in
them and I’m going to do quite well, but the valuation
differences are substantial and that $25,000 investment
that I probably would have made, because those were the size
of the checks that I made, right now would be worth
in the ballpark of, if at this $40 billion
valuation, I don’t know what the dilution was or the
prorata, but you can very comfortably say that
you’re looking at somebody who missed an almond by passing in a world where I was
writing $25,000 checks to a lot of dumb crap, let alone the guy, the only guy that I gave
a shout out to in my book in 2009, two years before Uber came out. That $25,000 investment is probably worth in the ballpark between
$75 and $200 million. That’s one big (bleep) almond. Do you know, and I sit
here in front of you with ambitions to buy the New York Jets and no question if I
made that one decision, that one simple decision
that was right there for the taking for me, I would be dramatically further along to my goal right this minute than I actually am. Remember I told you
yesterday that I can take 8,000 punches in the face? That’s 25,000 punches in
the face in one punch. That’s what you have to do
when you’re playing the game. That’s where you have to understand when you’re an entrepreneur. Those misses are going
to come in my career. That’s as big of an almond as I know.

– [Voiceover] Iwona asks,
“How many punches in the face and failures can an ordinary person handle before achieving success?” – Iwona, the right word in that
question is ordinary person. What was it, an ordinary person? Yeah, and I think that’s the interesting part of your question. Which is this whole
notion that pisses me off that I don’t believe that the far majority of people right now who claim that they’re entrepreneurs are entrepreneurs. You know, I don’t get to claim that I’m an NFL quarterback,
and then I just am one, and that’s what’s happening, right? A lot of people that
don’t have the skills, you put that word ordinary
in for a very specific reason and it’s the reason I want to rant on this which is the ordinary person a.k.a. the person that’s not
meant to run a business can probably only handle one punch, right? I mean like, that’s just
what it comes down to. You know what my answer is, unlimited. You could punch me in the face 8000 times. I’m here to get punched, right? Like, you know I really do think of it like a UFC or a boxer. Have you ever watched
a UFC or boxing match, and literally watched
and thought to yourself holy crap, if I took one of those punches I’d be in a coma for the rest of my life. They’re meant to be in the octagon, I am not. On the flip side, you show me a world where all 420 of these wonderful and amazing people quit VaynerMedia, and I know exactly what
to do the next day. That’s how I roll. Those are the punches I can handle. Top 10 clients quit, cool. Can’t ship to a state at
Wine Library anymore, cool. I can handle unlimited punches because I’m pure-bred 100% entrepreneur. And so for me, to a person
that is a wannabe-preneur, who first punch in’s like eh,
I’m going to go get a job. From there, everybody fits
somewhere in between that. And that’s your answer. – [Voiceover] N asks, “Any
tips on how to get a mentor?”

“when you were 25, how
did you overcome fear “of not doing as much or
not having it as hard?” – TJ, this is a great question. In life, there’s certain
things that you can control and other things that you can’t. One of the things that
really stand out to me is how much I, this is something I’ve rarely shared. I think I’ve shared it once or twice, Stunwin, keep me honest here. I’d be curious if you know. I think I’ve talked
about it once or twice. I often, when I was 18 years old, would call my mom while I was in college and cry, literally cry, like a baby, get that emotional about the fear that, at that point, I thought I was going into the family business, right? I was in a crap college. I was all in. I was going home every weekend working, and I had a huge fear
that I was never gonna get the credit I deserved as being, this is, ya know, the confidence inside, by going into my dad’s business because everybody would always
say that Sasha gave it to me, that my par–
look there’s even in Crush It!, there’s even negative
reviews on Amazon of like, “Oh yeah, but his dad gave him “a 3 million dollar liquor store.” Now, you know, as, I underestimated people’s knowledge that a three million
dollar revenue liquor store is not a three million dollar grant, and things of that nature, and then obviously my skills. I said recently in an episode, a lot of you caught it and tweeted it, “The truth is undefeated.” If I was gonna be a great businessman, I would get the credit that
I desperately, clearly wanted at that age and still at this point do ’cause the narrative does matter to me, not just the dollar results. And so, it’s interesting, this question really struck a chord because I remember not
only having that feeling, but I had a separate feeling which is the answer to your question. The answer to your
question is very simple. One, I knew that I would never have it as tough as my parents, so what I did was I had to execute against that privilege. Executing against your privilege is the only thing that you can do. I remember two things
that stand out for me. One, growing that family business. I wanted to pay back my
parents as quickly as possible. I, the greatest two
feelings I have in my body as an entrepreneur, answer this question. One, the fact that me and
my parents walk around and all feel like we’ve
given to each other. I paid back, right? I built such a big business
that it helped them as much as it helped
me getting that at bat. And number two, the day my
dad a couple of years ago maybe 18 months ago, said to me that I work harder than him, and that was a good feeling. That was something I wanted because that was another way
to pay back my privilege. The fact that my dad sacrificed
his entire life working to set up the foundation
where our family is going is something that I wanted to
pay back by doing the same. Now look, to pay that
back, I also want to have a better work life balance, to
spend more time with my kids, something he wasn’t able to do. So there’s other things
besides just working hard, but the fact of the matter
is the only thing you can do is to execute against your privilege. – [Voiceover] Joy asks,
“What social media techniques

So I have a job that I absolutely love, I actually work for ReMax of New Jersey. You spoke for us pretty much
right before I got hired so I just missed you. I love my job. I love what I do. I do social media and graphic design. I work with SEO company.
We develop content and of course I want to get
into doing my own thing, doing my own blog, starting my own hustle, and I have this, and I know it
stems from a fear of failure, but I have this really hard time. I get like crippled when
it comes to like executing, and I know you’re probably
just gonna be like just do it, (beep) them,
go for it, do your thing– – You know me so well. – I just need to hear it like, I need you you to look me in my face
and tell me what I should do. – Do you want it? – Yes, I do. – And so literally you’re
just scared to fail? – Er. – I mean, if you want to go
deep with me, I’ll go deep. Who are you scared to fail in front of? Is it your mom? Is it your
best friend? Is it your sister? That’s the only thing
that holds people back. Something happened to me,
like everybody thinks like oh I’m so nice, look at
what I’m doing right now. Truth is, I don’t give a shit
about anybody else’s opinion so rawly that I’m never scared because if I fail and people
are like, “See hahaha.” It doesn’t even register. In the same way, when people are like, “You changed my life, you’re the best,” I’m able to be grounded,
because it also doesn’t. You know, I’m kind of in
that middle zone, right, like not too high, not too
low, which would confuse people based on my energy but I
equally care about every comment in the YouTube section of this
episode, I’m gonna read ’em but if somebody says, “You
blow and this format stinks,” and, “You should let DRock
edit,” that’s gonna be okay. And so, if you wanna get deep with me, I know for a fact, ’cause
you’ve already given it to me that it’s the fear of failure, now the question becomes to whom. And what I would do is, and
you don’t have to share that with the whole world, I’d go
talk to that person up front. The best practical advice I’ve
ever given in this scenario, and it works over and over is you go and you sit down with
dad and say, or Johnny, or your boyfriend, or your
sister, or your girlfriend, I don’t care who it is right. You sit down, you look
’em in the face and say, “I’m about to do this and the only reason “I haven’t done it for the last year “is I don’t want to let you down, “because entrepreneurship is a crapshoot, “and I’m not sure if I’m gonna win, “but long term I’m gonna win, “and I just need to make
sure if I fail on this step, “that your response to me doesn’t crush me “to never let me have a second at bat.” ‘Cause that’s what it is. – Okay.
– Right? – Yes.
– That’s it.