– [Voiceover] Clayton wants
to know, “How do you push “your team beyond their best?” – Clayton, great question. Way to start off 2015, good questions. Oh, actually, I picked this one, right? (people laughing) Hit ’em with some Barry Harowitz’. But that was so subconscious, too. It was a great question.
I thought we should do it. I really, really, really
think that the best way to push somebody above their own means is to guilt them into it. And I know that’s a weird kind of answer. But it is my honest belief
that the thing that drive, first of all, everybody is
driven by different things. So, the real answer to your question is to use your hear, right? DRock, zoom in to my ear. Right, you know, the ear
is the key in this scenario because the truth is,
the way to push somebody above their limit is to
actually have individual conversations with them about what is their Holy Grail. What do they wanna accomplish? Like India and I, I have a
good feel of some of India’s long-term career ambitions. That gives me, first of all, her knowing that we’ve even had that
conversation, in and of itself, gives her a little bit more
confidence to work harder. Because she’s tryin’ to get
what she wants out of it, professionally, and
knowing that I’m the person that can most likely make that happen, at least in the context of this world, that just even having the conversation puts her in better spot. But some people are literally
rawly driven by straight cash. Like, truly, you wanna push somebody? You carrot, like, “Hey,
I know you love cash! “I’ll give you 10,000 more if you, like,” You know, and so, you’ve gotta find out what makes people tick. I’m so not motivated by cash, that so many people try
to get me to do things, JV with me, invest in things, do things, speak at things. And they think cash is the way to do it. And, listen, I love the cash, but it’s not my biggest driver. And I make a lot of
decisions based on legacy, long-term impact, on myself by the way. Not like long-term global impact. You know, that’s not how I think. I mean, I think there’s
a byproduct of that but that’s not the
number one thing for me. But, to answer the
question in a general-form, I truly do believe the best
way to get that is to guilt. And what I mean by guilt,
it’s a variation of listening. Which is not only listening,
but delivering in a world where so few people even begin to listen, let alone delivering on that listening. And once you start doing
that, people start realizing, let me tell you what’s
happening at Vayner; it’s not super confusing. I know exactly what’s
goin’ on in this company. It’s starting to get old enough that there’s enough things
happening for enough people that it’s really easy to
point to Phil Toronto, or to somebody else and
be like, “Wait a minute.” Or Steve Unwin, like, you
can start pointing to, “Oh, crap, that person wanted that, “that person’s getting that, “that person’s happy as crap!” I want that, and so, it’s listening and then delivering, which
then creates a scenario where people want to over-deliver because, the only way somebody
will over-deliver for you, ’cause you asked a very selfish question. “How can I get my team
to over-deliver for me?” “For my thing.” It’s very simple. The best way to get them
to over-deliver, John? – [Trouty] I’m Jack,
if that’s a substitute. – No, Jack is not a substitute. I know what you’re thinking. No, that is not a substitute. – Okay, we’re on the hunt. – The only way to get
somebody to over-deliver is to attack their own
selfishness, their’s. You’re selfish ’cause you want more out of your team to help you. Well, the best way to get that to happen is to over-deliver
against their selfishness. I do believe that guilt is a huge driver because, and there’s something that I, I believe in human beings. I mean, some people don’t
have self-awareness, or empathy, or these emotional feelings. So many people, like, it’s amazing to me now living 20 years professionally, like, how many people are not
confused eventually. They may be emotional at
the time you fire them, or not reward them, but
boy, every time I run into somebody four, seven,
nine years down the line; I’ve had a very good
track-record of them saying, “Yeah, I know why you did that.” I mean, like crazy stuff like, “I had a drug problem!” There was, like, you know, stuff! Life, right? So, I would answer your question like I have before on this show. And you haven’t heard me
say it, I’ll say it again. The single best way to win is to give 51% of the relationship. If there was a jury of 500 people, that they would all
agree that you’ve given 51% to the relationship. And you have to be good enough to know what to do with the other 49. So, I would attack their own selfishness. I would make it so good for them, that you’ve guilted them in delivering. And be very prepared in your stomach by making it awesome. And then them under-delivering, still being entitled to
think they did deliver. And then you being disappointed. “You listened to the Gary Vee Show, “and he told you, and he so great.” Yeah, at least you think
so thank you very much. “And you did it.” And then all four of
these people who you gave $10,000 raises to yesterday, a month later are doing
the same crap they did, and it didn’t motivate them at all. Or you gave them four weeks
off instead of one week off, and they’re still just as crappy. Or you, like, got them a
babysitter, and you pay for it, and they still aren’t. Gratitude and all these
wonderful human characteristics are not guaranteed. But the best way for you to have it happen is to consistently keep trying
to do it for that person. And then, look, I just had a meeting with all these characters, right? But the rest of the team, and I was like, “Look, you may not win on this team.” Like, 2015, I wanna take
it up another notch. And the consolation
prize is you get to work for one of the best
companies in the world. But, like, you just might not
be able to be on this team. You’ve gotta be upfront,
you’ve gotta be fair. You gotta know when you’re
setting up people for victory; and when not, you gotta do that. And then you get to
judge, not before hand. Way too many of you are
making a mistake yourself. You didn’t train, you didn’t
put the person in a position to succeed, you’re not
communicating properly on what you expect. You’re not shooting it straight, you’re scared to hurt feelings. You’re too much of a dick. It could be a million different reasons why it’s not happening, but
it is always going to be the greatest form meritocracy
that you can create. And that starts with your ear and it finishes, in my
opinion, on a second-step move of you actually delivering on that. Call people’s bluffs. I live life on calling people’s bluffs. “Oh, you’ll really crush it
if you have another person?” “Here.” Now, you have to be good enough, back to that 49%, to afford
to give somebody that person. You may not have that situation. But you might have to make a decision. One of the quickest
ways I grew Wine Library was by making 30,000 dollars a
year for five years in a row. Because it took all those monies. And I called people’s bluffs. And when they let me down, do
you think it hurt my feelings that I wasn’t making 45 instead of 30? It sure did, but did I have
my eye on the big prize? Sure did! Now I get paid double that
salary to speak for one hour because I bet long-term,
because I was 23 years old! Right, you gotta know where you’re at. If you’re 83 and you’re watching the show, first of all, big ups, ol’ dog. And second of all, second of all, you know, maybe you don’t
need to play the long-game and invest as much. Maybe it’s time to cash out. I have these weird feelings that in my 80s I’m gonna be rogue as crap, and just take! Because I just gave for so long. I don’t know, you’ve heard
me say that’s my concern. But I can tell you this. (sighing) Most of the reasons, let me phrase. If they work for you, all of the reasons that they’re not over-delivering
against their best, all of those reasons are your fault. – [Voiceover] Harold asks,
“Will you force your children

– [Voiceover] Roommate Harmony asks, “Hey Gary, do you think
it’s necessary to have an outgoing personality to
be a successful entrepreneur?” – Roommate Harmony, this
is a tremendous question. I think there’s never been less important to be extroverted to be a
successful entrepreneur. Oh, I don’t know. Just look at every successful entrepreneur that everybody talks about. Like Zucks and Ev
Williams and Kevin Systrom and David Karp. You know, Facebook, Twitter,
Tumblr, and Instagram. I mean, Ben Silbermann, Pinterest. I mean… It’s actually the glory days
of the introvert entrepreneur. Because of technology, because
of sitting behind the screen, because it doesn’t all
happen face to face anymore, it’s never been a better time to do that. And that’s, not by the
way, always been the way. There’s way to win at, you know, it’s about betting on strengths. I do things based on my strengths. I’m an entrepreneur that is extroverted and I surround myself with people and I do that kind of stuff. I put myself out there. Introverted entrepreneurs
need to not fake the funk. Like, it’d be stupid for
me to sit behind a computer all day, every day and then that was just the way I rolled. Mistake, leaving the magic on the table. Equally, someone who is awkward and is like, yeah my
startup is, thank you. Yeah, my startup is really, like that guy or gal is
probably not the kind of person that wants to kind of
bet on their personality and they need to sit down all day and focus and so I think
it’s betting on strengths. – [Voiceover] Daniel
asks, “Numbers of monthly

– [Voiceover] Pressian asks,
“How exactly did your mother instill that self-confidence in you?” – And finally, Pressian, thank you so much for
asking this question, ’cause I always love
to brag about my mama. She she instilled so much self-confidence in me because of a couple things. One, I probably had some
level of it in my own DNA, but she brainwashed me. My mom made me think that
the things that I was doing that many parents, on the negative side, put down their kids for, what the far majority of
parents would consider mundane, like getting a good haircut or, like, running quickly to pick up the ball, like it was so athletic, stuff that none of you would ever think is the kind of thing that you
would compliment your child for, the kind of things I compliment Misha for, which is the greatest
twirl I’ve ever seen ever, is what she did for me, and you know what? You start believing it. I can tell you this, and I’m positive of this, I know that the peeps in this room think more highly of themselves today than before they started jamming with me. The reason this company is so special, one of the funniest things
that happens in this company, is when somebody comes
in new that’s senior and they are completely flabbergasted by the confidence of the
youngsters in this room. And I bet you, as they’re all
thinking about it right now, and obviously Staphon and India
are here a little bit less, and DRock a little bit in the middle, and Alex a little less,
and Steve a lot more, I know that that’s what I do, maybe not to the extreme
level that my mom did for me, obviously it was very focused, one child. We have many children in the house, but I would even say that many of you have started to feel that way, because the truth is, my friends, positive energy is a good thing. I don’t know what else to tell you. And when it comes from a pure place, it’s double good. And so she just focused on it. It’s in her and the way that
it’s in me, we’re similar, and she just kept pounding
me and making me feel like the ordinary was something
that was extraordinary, until I finally believed it so much that that’s what I feel
about myself all the time. And if you don’t have good
empathy and self-awareness, it can go into a very dangerous place, but if you know how to balance it, and my mom balanced it by
punching me in my mouth with her raw hand, not kidding, when I
would do something wrong, so she’s got a little old-school
Eastern European in her, and that’s how she did it, with an enormous balance of just good stuff, man,
really good parenting. Really, really, really good parenting.

– [Voiceover] Elliott asks,
” How would you recommend “looking for a co-founder?” – Elliott, I think the best
way to look to a co-founder, look for a co-founder, excuse me, is to first understand
how honest and self-aware are you with yourself. The number one thing that you
want to find in a co-founder, in my opinion, is somebody
who checks the boxes and has strengths in a
space where you don’t. Does she provide the black
and white to your gray? Does he provide the magic to your very kind of straightforward? Is he the salesman? Does she love HR where you don’t want to deal with any of the people? You need to yin and yang. I think it’s very important. I’m a big believer in
doubling down on strengths, but I do think from a
co-founder standpoint you want to get the check
boxes of the core things that drive a business and so I think you’re looking for that counterpart. The biggest reason so many of you are going to struggle with this is you’re not willing to
be honest with yourself. You think you have magic
and you’re a good salesman. Yeah, you think you can get by
with your accounting skills. You think because it
hurts your feelings to not bet on your weaknesses. I’m a big believer in my weaknesses. I would actually say, I
don’t think I’ve said this very publicly, I’ve alluded to it. I say that I suck crap at 99% of things. I would actually, this is a new thought maybe because India is here
looking for more content. Show India, I think she deserves it. – Hello. – You know, I think that my weaknesses are as big, if not a bigger
factor in my success. It’s my willingness to
accept my weaknesses. It’s my proudness of my weaknesses that has allowed me to win. Are you willing to go there? Way too many of you don’t want to accept your weak points, you’re
struggling with it. As a matter of fact, I’m going right into the Question of the Day. I want you to list on Thanksgiving the weaknesses you have
that you’re thankful for. That’s how important this is. Let’s move on. – Dear Gary, My name’s Tim

– We’ve had a couple
opportunities to talk before. I do the sales and marketing for the Lancaster Hummus Company. My question today is what
was the biggest decision you made in your life that made you as successful as you are today? I’ve watched a lot of your
keynotes. I’ve watched a lot of your different rants
and ways and everything and interviews, but I
want to know what is your honest opinion on the biggest thing that you did that made you as
successful as you are today. Thanks Gary, and I look
forward to your answer. – Thanks brother. Man, I’m so pissed that
technology wasn’t around. I would have been able to… Is this was around when I
was around, we would have been able to play me
as a 14 year old asking some entrepreneur that
question on YouTube. So pissed, anyway! You know, I’m glad you
asked this question because I now can really, like, I
was going there in my mind. I know what the answer is,
it’s a weird answer actually. I think the biggest
decision I ever made was in fourth grade when I
got an F on a science test in Mr. Mulnar’s class, and I decided literally after, you know, first I hid the, I had to
get it signed by my mom. I don’t know if they still do
that when you get bad grades, like this was some 80’s stuff. But, yeah they’re doing it? I had to get it signed
and I was not interested in being punished, so I
didn’t bring it to her. Then I put it under my bed and
then it sat there for 2 days but then my, I was still
young, my conscience still had too much power
and like, I got scared and told my mom about it. By the way, three years
later I was flushing every report card directly down the toilet. You can evolve quickly. When you make the mental
decision that I made, no joke I literally
remember sitting in my room and having a weird, weird
kind of like crying, debating, like moment in fourth grade in my small bedroom deciding screw school, I’m a business
man, and I’m going to eat the pain of being punished
every four times a year during the school year,
being viewed upon as a loser or a kid that doesn’t have
a shot by all of society because I see something different. I have enough self awareness of who I am, I’m going to win and
literally, and this is weird as I’m a fourth grader and
you know you’re young… how old are you in the fourth grade? 9, 10, you know, and I’m literally
deciding that I’m willing to eat it for the next 8
years maybe even 12 years of my life where, that was
just a hardcore decision. And it’s not that I didn’t care,
like I went to every class. I just decided to hone in on my skills. That I would learn more
about selling baseball cards that later, at 14, became I would learn more about selling wine, I honed in. And so, it was the first
time, my man, that I made a decision that I was going
to fight society’s optics and deliver on what I thought
I was, and that’s what I did. – [Voiceover] Rollinson asks,
“Is paid promotion for jabs

– [Voiceover] Vernon
asks, “What’s one question “you ask in interviews?” – Vernon, I really like this question. I’m really excited to take a stab at it. I don’t do it every time. I’m not one of these guys who’s like, this is my go-to question, like “When you were 13 and you
went through a forest, and you pick–” I don’t have any of these weird things, but I do always, especially
I think if there’s a lot of momentum in the interview, I love to ask people to tell me, at this moment in time, what they see the professional career becoming. I wanna get into the psychology of what their ambition is and I pretty much spend most of the interview trying to get somebody comfortable enough to tell me the truth to that question. Because I don’t care if
you want to be the CEO of VaynerMedia. If you wanna just be, move a couple levels up and have great work-life balance. I
don’t care if you even want to come here and
work for me for two years, suck out my IP and then
go start your own agency. I don’t care what your agenda is, I just wanna know what it is so
I can help us get there. Because the truth is,
I wanna keep people in my ecosystem forever and the best way to do that is to deliver
to them what they want. And so the quicker I can
get into that insight, are you work-life balance,
are you money hungry, are you title hungry, are you entrepreneur and just coming in here for learnings. I don’t care, I just need to know. The quicker I know and the
quicker it’s the truth, the quicker we can do
things forever together. And so that is usually the essence of the interview question for me. Can I tap through, can I
feel that I’m getting there? Because that gives me a blueprint, a map. Not only that, I have the
self-awareness, and I try to talk to them about this,
that that will change. You know, being a 24 year old dude, 26 year old female, it’s gonna change. You’re gonna fall in love,
your life’s gonna change. Are you gonna start a family? When you make a little bit more money it becomes less interesting. There’s so many different
things that are going on in one’s life. When you make a little money it becomes way more interesting. You get the bug, the blood’s in the water. I don’t care, I just need
the communication funnel and I want it to start from day one, five minutes in to getting
to know each other.

which is gonna be amazing. You’re gonna be busy as crap, and you’re gonna run out of this time, you’re only 21 once. – [Voiceover] Tiger
asks, “If your dad Sasha “would of ended up in construction, “how do you think it would
have affected your life “without Wine Library?” – Tiger, great question, and by the way, this is a big shout out episode 40 for everybody who’s asking for
a little bit more condensed, we’re keeping it tight on the four oh. I wish I said to the 21 year
old self to drink more 40s. That would have tied in the. Anyway, Tiger, you know what? I think about this a lot. And I’m gonna, I promised myself, and you guys have heard
me talk about this, to be honest on this show, and this is tough for me to say. There is a big part of me that
thinks I’d be more successful if I didn’t go into the family business. I wouldn’t have had the head start that many people can say
I had, and I respect that, but my intuition tells
me that I would have been even a little more hustler, right? Maybe, maybe to a bad degree. But I could see myself, my intuition, and I’ve thought about
this a lot by the way, is that I would have head out west during the internet boom, I probably would have had a company worth $800 million going public in 1999,
that would have went to $1 in stock value, but I
would have learned things in that that might’ve
made me bet even harder on Facebook and Twitter
and Uber than I did, and so, you know, my intuition, maybe cause I have ego,
maybe because I have bravado, is if my dad didn’t have
an amazing set up for me to go in to, if I didn’t
fall in love with the family business and
want to be a part of it, and don’t forget, I was
making a lot of money selling baseball cards. I could’ve went down that route. There’s just, I feel
like I would’ve really found my way, and I feel that my dad taught me honor and a
lot of conservativeness that has helped me not
veer off or have losses, but I think sucked out
a little bit of my speed and aggressiveness, and that
may sound weird to you guys, but I do believe that, and I do wonder if man, I might have been
more financially along. However, and let me put
this stake in the ground, it’s the best thing that
ever happened to me, because forget about the monies, those 10 years specifically
when I was full time of spending that many hours with my dad, when I’m on my last breath,
when I’m laying there and I’m dying, there’s
no question in my mind that those will be one of
the two or three things, obviously all the things I’ve
about to have with my kids, probably a selfish thing about how many Superbowls I won, but like, you know, those, that, those 10 years with my dad will definitely 100% be one
of the final five thoughts as I die, and to me that is an incredible accomplishment and
something I’m grateful for, and very thankful for. My friends, thank you for
watching episode four oh.

I work on new business and all things. I’m an account director here. I’ve been here, I don’t
know, about eight months now. Feels like a year almost. I’m really excited for my Vaynerversary. (laughter) So I wanted to ask you a question which I think is going to help some of the entrepreneur viewers but also just the future
leaders of VaynerMedia. When you’re transitioning
from that doer to a leader knowing what your priorities are and where to put your
focus, so that it counts. – Yeah. – Can you talk a little bit about that? – Yeah I can. And you know this is
something that I have a lot. And to put a little more
color for everybody listening, at Vayner and a lot of other
places you get into a place where you, I think you said it right, you’re in execution mode and then all of a sudden you’re managing a team. And those are two very different things. And it’s the thing that I most fear in the organization, period, end of story. Because you have incredible
executors who yearn for the financial upside and the title to then lead a team and boy are those two very, very, very, very,
very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very
different skill sets. And so I think the biggest
thing people struggle with, there are so many things people struggle with with the transition. Number one, the thing I hate
more than anything in the world which is micromanagment. I wanna kick micromanagment in the face. I hate it. And, you know, it’s something I just despise and it’s a major struggle
because if you are a great executor you know how to cross those T’s and dot those I’s. And you know, when you see the person on your team whose not
as strong at executing you can’t help it, it
goes against the grain. So that’s number one thing. Facing yourself in the
mirror and understanding, and I’ve talked to you about this, and I’ve talked to so many leaders in this company about this. This is where people get pissed at me. Most things don’t matter. And that’s a very tough mental transition to somebody that manages a team. The other thing that a lot of
people will struggle with, and I talk about this quite a bit in this organization as well, is when you’re a leader you have to be the bigger man and woman
in every situation. And a lot of times people,
especially when they make that first transition, and it’s the first time
that they’re the leader, they look at it wrongfully
because of society, as I’m the boss and they
try to impose their will instead of what I think
the real skill set is. Which is become a full time listener, a full time empowerer,
a full time eat crap and have humility and
empathy and self awareness. So you go from, what I
believe is I.Q to E. Q. and a lot of people can’t
make that transition. I think the reason this
organization has grown so much is that’s all I focus on
when that transition happens. And don’t try to put pressure on people for new business and client services and all the normal things
one has to worry about. Now I’m the leader, now this
client has to respect me. I need to make Steve happy. I don’t care about that. I can take care of that
at the highest levels. It’s about really empowering
people to become leaders. And leaders, you know I love this. This is obviously a subject matter I love. We talked about it even
in yesterday’s episode. It takes so much more motherly, historically, stereotypically
motherly skills to be a leader and I
think people are confused. I think by default people
think it’s fatherly stuff and I think it’s motherly stuff. It’s emotional skills that allow somebody to make that transition. And really one of the biggest factors in this whole thing is self esteem. If you’re not able to believe in yourself nobody else is gonna believe in you. So I think one of the things is, look I got fortunate, I
got a mother that instilled so much self esteem in me that I’m still trying to get some of it out of me so that I don’t come across
as an egotistical crap head. But I think a lot of
people don’t have that. A lot of people in my family
don’t have that, and I see it and one of the weird
little tidbits that I think can make this episode valuable is if you get into a leadership spot and if your self aware enough to know that your mom or dad put you
down your whole life, or society did, or you
grew up as a minority, or whatever took self
esteem out of your body. Or if you never instilled
in the first place. I think you need to find
an outlet to create it. I think you need to find
an outlet to create it. I think one of the things I
focus on here is I instill it. You know, I instill it. I do talk 90% of the
time about the positives. I just can’t help it. I’m optimistic and I just see it. I see the good, it’s what I do. There’s always bad, but I
think you need to seek it out. And it might come in the form
of extracurricular activities. You might be a great soccer
player, or an improv actor. Or maybe the person you date, maybe you look for somebody
who, instills that. I think that’s a very
attractive characteristic. I can tell you the reason
I married Lizzie so quickly was ’cause she was my mom. And so I like coming home
and having a cheerleader. Like, you’re great. I love that. I want that. And so, I think those are
the things that come to mind. – Thanks Gary.

“What do you is a bigger
obstacle to success, “a lack of time or a lack of capital?” – Roberto, this is a tremendous question. I think the biggest obstacle to success is a lack of optimism. That question in itself
is the problem, my friend. Right? You’re looking at two things
that are both negatives, and guess what? Both of ’em are obstacles. When I started winelibrary.com, transformation for my business, I had time, I worked my
face off every minute, but we didn’t have a whole lot
of money in our profit center so it took more time, right? It’s just the way it is. Today, I have more money,
but boy, don’t I have time. But neither, ever, ever, will be an excuse for me. And so, just to drill
this through the throat of the VaynerNation, that’s
right, I went that graphic, don’t smile DRock,
here’s the bottom line: I refuse to allow you to get
an answer to that question because both of them are firmly square in the excuse column, and I
have no patience for that. There will always be problems. Let’s talk about a million other things that are a way to stop success. The health and well-being
of your family members so it takes your mind away from execution. The country you live in’s government and political concepts in these moments, a la, startups in China that I’ve invested in that got traction, but then people that were
wired in to the government decided to not allow it to happen and then the start up disappeared. Not as easy to be an entrepreneur there, it’s still a communist country. Sorry, it just is. And so all these things
can be problems, right? There’s a competitor
with a billion dollars who’s also skilled and
punches you in the mouth and knocks you out in
the first round, right? The world changing. I mean, there’s just a
million obstacles, right? The media, one bad coverage of you. A moment in time. You know what I think about a lot? You know what I think about a lot? Let’s get really real here,
this is why we did this show. I always, I’m a human being, and I always think about a moment in time. What if I just say the wrong
thing at the wrong time? Right? What if I call out China for
being a communist country in an episode while I’m on a rant, and somebody who’s watching
doesn’t like the way that tastes and that takes away a business opportunity for me in China in seven years? Even though I’m not trying to zing, it’s just things that I saw. What if, you know, what if what if I look down on my phone while I’m driving even though
I’ve really not done that, and I hit somebody and I kill them? And that becomes the story, and then like forget about the story, about what you think about me, I will never recover from that because I killed somebody because
I needed to check a Tweet. These are moments in time. So there are so many things that can keep you from
being successful, right? The people that you invested in having something bad happen to them so it slows you down. My friends, there are a
million reasons why not, but there’s one great reason why, which is, you just gotta persevere, no matter what it is. It’s just the way it is. It’s hard being an entrepreneur. It’s hard building a business. Everybody thinks it’s so easy, that there’s an entitlement. There’s a disaster, zinging China? Here comes my U.S. zing right now: there is an insane generation
of 18 to 25 year olds that think they’re entitled
to having a business because they saw the
social networking movie and everybody’s decided
that if you’re a kid and you know what tech is. Because you used Instagram early on, you’re entitled to
actually build a business. Building a business is hard. And you know what makes it really hard? Everything that happens
every day of every moment. So, you can pick time, you can pick money as the one or two things
that you think stop you from winning your game, but the truth is, there’s a million reasons. 99% of businesses go out
of business for a reason. And that reason is, it’s hard. And so, if you’re watching this show, I’ve got a sense of who you are, and you need to start
creating layers and layers and layers of skin to
be able to get through. Because the glamour of
being an entrepreneur, the goodness, you know you get
very confused by my optimism. Because it’s my optimism, I can’t help it, it’s just how I roll. It’s probably one of
the variable 1% reasons why I’m successful. But please, don’t get it twisted. This is hard. Every day is hard. And if you don’t have the
stomach to weather the storm, you will not be successful. And by the way, let me throw you a real weird curveball, and that’s okay. People have to look
themselves in the mirror and understand if they’re
number two, three, four, five, six, seven in an organization, That has differences
of being a number one, but maybe that’s where
your skill set sits. Maybe that’s how you make
your fortunes and happiness and all the things that
you’re looking for, and so. That question got me
goin’ a little bit, Steve. Because it’s under the context of excuses. And I will never make an excuse. Everything that’s a problem with me, everything I don’t achieve, everything that’s a
problem at VaynerMedia, and everything is my fault. And I succumb to that, and I respect that. And I actually think that’s
the way it should be. And so, um, no excuses my friends.

– [Voiceover] Aimee asks, “A
professor once said to me, “it’s better to be a big
fish in a small pond, “do you agree?” – Aimee, this, you know,
I’m gonna be very upfront on this question, this is a
good way to bang out the show. That sounds like a loser professor to me. It’s small time thinking. I don’t subscribe to it. There’s a lot of
practicality in it, right? It’s a lot easier to be the
most successful business man in St. Louis, Missouri, than
it is to be in the world, right, so I understand the thesis. But honestly, that to
me is very conservative, not in my DNA thinking. That could be great
advice for a lot of people who are delirious and think
they’re better than they are, though I love to drive through self esteem and optimism, and I
think early in your life, you should absolutely
shoot for the highest stars that you can. I think as life moves on, and time moves on you need
to become more practical. You’ve got bills, and kids,
and all those kinds of things, but to start off one’s
career in the first 20 years, call to your 40, to be in that thinking, I think that limits. There have been so many people who’ve hedged and settled in their lives, and honestly, I’m not the
kind of character that’s going to play in that kind of sphere. I’m going in a different direction. It’s what comes natural to me, but it’s also because I
think I can be the biggest and the baddest in any game I play, It’s just how I’m wired. I think this comes down to it’s probably very good advice to some, and it’s probably
atrocious advice to others, and this is why I continue
to say if I could inject anything into anybody, it
would be self-awareness because it would help
you answer this question because for a lot of people,
it’s probably really solid advice from me, and from
many of you watching this, it’s crap advice. All right, now I can wrap up the show.