– [Voiceover] Ivan says,
“Take us back to the day “when you said yes to Jerome Jarre. “What was it that made you
believe in him and his idea? “Thanks.” – Ivan, great question,
for the ones out there that don’t know, Jerome
Jarre, a very famous Viner, Snapchatter, Instagramer, and I started an agency called GrapeStory, a sister agency that VaynerMedia, all those characters. Last May where we
represent the best talent in the emerging content
platforms to do branded content and things of that nature. Jerome beat me in rock paper scissors in Toronto and what he won on stage, Jerome raised his hand and said, I was doing Q and A, “Can I go up there and play
you rock paper scissors, “if I beat you can I have
coffee with you in New York?” I said yes, I got him up
there and I was hell bent on beating him and if I
won, I swear my children, I would have never met with him. So just amazing how life really is. He wins, pissed me off, and, you know, three months later, I look at my calendar, I’m
like what’s my next meeting? It’s like 10:30 at night on a Tuesday, I’m dead, just want to go home. I’m like, what’s my next meeting? Jerome Jarre, I’m like what is this? I click it, I don’t even know the name, I click into it for the details, that’s how my calendar kind of I do, and I’m like, “Oh, this guy.” I literally thought, I was
like how do I get there and spend four minutes in this meeting and get out of there and go to sleep because I have a 5:30 flight, which was like a 3:45 wake up
call the next day I remember, and Jerome started talking. He’s like, “Look there’s a
platform Vine, I’ve gone all in. “I’m an entrepreneur. “I grew up in France. “I went to China. “I learned how to speak English
by listening to Crush It! “on audio.” Which played to my ego, so
that made me sit there longer and then he just kept talking and basically it was deja vu. It felt like I was having a conversation 2006 except Jerome was
me and I was Eric Kastner my lead developer that I’ve
given a lot of shout out too. @Kastner, give him a little love here. I was pitching Kastner in 2006, should I start a record label? I didn’t even know about
agents and things like that, I remember saying, should I start… I remember the moment in his office, “Should I start a record label “to represent these new
YouTube stars like me?” I should have and, but I let it go and Jerome was talking, I’m like this is the
same moment over again and so, the energy, my gut feel,
the fact that I believed in what he was talking about, he wanted to do a festival,
we turned it into an agency because that’s what I knew about and so that’s what it was. It was the content, the
context, and the intuition and when I have that CCI concoction, I always go with it. – [Voiceover] Jim asks,
“What’s your opinion

is confidence, skill, and luck?” – Simon, the truth is, you know, and some people don’t like to hear this. Sometimes they say I’m lucky and people get really pissed. A bunch of you will put
in the comments right now. But the truth is, I am a lucky guy. Like, I was born in the Soviet Union. I could’ve been my dad who
was born 20 years earlier in the Soviet Union and
wouldn’t have come to America until my 23rd, 24th, 25th birthday which would’ve put me
far behind the eight ball for what I’m accomplishing. So the fact that I was
born in the Soviet Union during the Cold War
and happened to be born during a time where Israel and America teamed up to make a trade with Russia for wheat. I was traded for wheat
that allowed me to get out through political asylum in the late 70’s and come to America and
live the American dream has a level of luck, right? And so, luck is part of the equation. Now, do I think I’m lucky? I do not think I’m lucky because the confidence
which is great parenting, by the way, maybe a little
luck in that, one could debate, and definitely just kind
of the overall skills and the hustle which is DNA. I don’t know if you can be
taught to work your face off. So, I think it’s just a mixture. I always talk about a great wine. Show Steve, he loves wine. – I love wine. – I always think a great
wine is never 100% Cabernet, never 100% Merlot. A nice little Meritage, a blend. And I think to answer your question, I think it’s a blend of all of the above. Some people, look, I think I make my luck. People are like, oh you’re so lucky that you got into Twitter and Facebook. I don’t feel super, trying to figure out
how I’m getting healthy? That dude. I love his raw, like, he just… – He doesn’t care. – He really’s like the only
person that doesn’t care, that’s what I told him to do. I think it’s a blend of all of the above and I think that that is
something that people need to recognize, feel comfortable with, bet on your strengths, and execute. – [Voiceover] Nick asks, “Do you
think that Facebook is still effective even though it’s pay
to play model and throttling?”