20 Minutes of Business Advice for First Time Entrepreneurs

0:00This is the Gary Vee Audio Experience. I think the best thing to do when you're starting a business is two things one work a job for someone that's already in that business because they're gonna pay you to learn even if it's a shitty job even if you're getting very little if you go work for somebody for a year that's in the general idea, do you have your business idea? Not yet. So, I think first to start a business without an idea is crazy. That's like driving with your eyes closed. So, first, try to figure out, but if a lot of you are trying to think about starting a business, I would highly recommend starting with something you like.

0:49So, if you like sneakers, sneaker business. If you like music, music business. If you like cooking, Cooking, like, do, business is hard as shit. Like, don't let entrepreneurs on Instagram confuse you. It's hard. So, if you're gonna do something hard, you might as well like it. If you like it, you might actually do it for 12 hours a day. If you're doing it just for the money, you will quit. So, first do something around something you like and then consider working for somebody for a year while you're building your business at night because you need to learn because you're so young and you don't have experience yet.

1:26Honestly, I want to go into Q &A. Yeah, just because, look, I could talk about a million things. I put out eight billion videos on the internet. You've seen some of them. I'd much rather answer y 'all's question to make this really valuable, so let's go into it. What's your advice to someone who believes they suck and can't do it? I think it's fake. I don't know what else to tell you. Like, I promise you, people have had it way worse than you. I got one. I am on the board of a nonprofit called Charity Water. What we do for a living is we build wells in Africa and parts of Asia so that people can get clean water.

2:11As we sit in this auditorium this morning, There are 800 million people on earth, almost 10 % of earth, 800 million people on earth that can't drink a glass of clean water within 24 hours because the water's that far away from them. What do I do to give someone advice here that's at wit's end and think they can't for them to realize how good they have it? for you to realize how good you have it. The world has so much adversity and I think that people have to choose optimism versus negativity. No matter how, somebody in this room has the most fucked up situation. Somebody. Somebody in this room, if we asked 50 people to analyze everybody's life in here, somebody has it worse.

3:08with their parents, their financial situation, could be something, alcoholic parent, it could have it fucked up. Somebody has it worse. But for that person in this room, there's billions of people that have it worse. You live in America. And to me, that should make people happy, not sad, and make you realize you can. How many people have a phone? Raise your hand. Real talk. How many people have a phone? Every one of those people can. The whole fucking world's in here. How do I combat procrastination? How to combat procrastination? Oh, I got a good one for you, my fucking guy. I got a good one for you.

3:49Bro, procrastination is just an indication that you don't like it. Procrastination, I procrastinate everything I don't like, and I go hard at everything I do like. This goes back to the beginning of the talk. what you're gonna learn in this time in your life at school and at home is getting through shit that you don't like. You're not gonna fix procrastination on your homework if you don't wanna fucking do homework. What you need to do is just learn how to get through it. That grind, like procrastination is just an indicator to what's in your soul. I promise you're not procrastinating on stuff you like.

4:35You understand? My girl said to me the other day, she's like, you can't get up for this stuff, but you get up at 5 a.m. to play basketball because I fucking love basketball. Procrastination is showing you the truth of what's in you. You're not gonna fix procrastination. There's no fixing procrastination. What you can work on is discipline and getting into a mental place where you know you just have to do shit to get to the next place, and that's how you have to just address it. You gotta start practicing being comfortable with not liking shit. It's a mindset thing. Is marketing the most important side of the business?

5:15I would say it's one of the two most important things. Let me explain. I'm really good at marketing. I've done it my whole life. I have one of the biggest marketing companies in the world. Three weeks ago, we met with a company. They wanted to give us millions of dollars due to the marketing. We had a great meeting. When the meeting was over, I called the CEO. And I said, bro, you need to wait a year or two before you hire us because your product sucks. The most important thing in business is marketing is only true if your product is good. If your product is ass, all that marketing does is speed up the process of all of us knowing that it's shit and then you go out of business quicker.

5:57You understand? It's one of the two most important things. Product quality is number one. than getting people to know about it. Marketing is number two. What is your opinion on AI? AI is massive. It's such a big deal. But we shouldn't treat it negatively or overly positive. It will be in the middle like everything else. My man, you know one thing? Right now a lot of people are scared of AI as you probably are aware. I was in a meeting the other day and I educated somebody. By the way, back to my high school career, I don't know who the history teacher is in here, but that was the one class that I was really good at and I was always interested in it and I use it a lot in business now.

6:41Let me give you all a history lesson. Right now everyone's scared of AI and saying how bad it is and how it's gonna ruin the world. When electricity was invented, electricity, almost 80 % of the people's opinion on electricity was that it had demons inside of it and they did not bring electricity into their home. they continued to use candles because they thought it was bad. Let me give you a lesson that I want you to take with your whole life. Remember this, this will help you. Humans, humans, always pick the negative when new shit comes up. That is where the actual opportunity is. You understand?

7:27Humans, and for the rest of your life, all of you, good news, you were born at the right time. Y 'all are gonna live to like 120. So you're gonna live for a while. God willing. Remember this for the next 100 years of your life. Especially if you're an entrepreneur or business person. Humans, when new big technologies come, will always look at the negative. That is where the opportunity is. I think AI is gonna change the world in a significant way. You know how they talk about AI taking people's jobs away? The tractor. The farm tractor. when it was invented, 80 % of the people on earth worked on farms.

8:10It didn't put everybody out of business. It allowed humans to do bigger and more important things. AI is gonna allow, there are kids in this room, my guy, who are gonna change the world because of AI, because they were born at the right time as AI was building. AI is gonna allow us to be better, to be bigger, to do more things and I'm excited about it but it's got a long way to go and there's gonna be a lot of confusion along the way but keep digging into it. There's a lot of opportunity there. Yo everybody thank you so much just jumping in real quick in the middle of this podcast. Thank you so much for listening to this episode.

8:47It would mean the world to me if you could leave a review for this episode and I'm gonna get you back to your pod right now because you don't need me talking about that but I realize I'm lagging on getting the support of my podcast listeners so reviewing this episode and overall would mean the world to me. Five star, four star, three star, fuck it, two star, one star, honest feedback's fine. All right, back to the show. How do you deal with burnout? It's a really good question. So, you know, it's really funny you asked me that. Besides health, besides health, do you know what the number one thing I wished for every kid in this room right now?

9:26The ability to not give a shit about what anybody else in the room thinks of them. So, the way I deal with burnout is by realizing that whatever I'm struggling with, that anybody else's opinion on it doesn't matter. I think a lot of you would be very surprised how much of your anxiety or burnout comes because it's grounded in you worrying about what other people are going to think about the thing. Whether that's your teacher, whether that's your parents' or, worst of all, whether it's your classmates' judgment on you. So the way I deal with burnout or when I'm struggling is to take a step back and recalibrate my perspective on the situation, right?

10:16I'll give you an example of something I really struggle with. I struggle when my company has to fire someone. To me, it's out of all the things I do for a living, the idea that I have to fire someone crushes me because I'm sad. I know that they're gonna have to deal with it, right? And sometimes that can overwhelm me when it's at scale, but I have to take a step back and realize that it's my ego talking because the person on the other side is capable of getting another job. Maybe they're gonna get a way better job. Maybe they're gonna get paid more. And so I think just taking a moment, and I'm not worried about what people think about my firing.

10:55That's what makes it palpable for me. so the way I deal with burnout is perspective and understanding, I play a trick in my mind it might work for you which is I'm the only person that lives on earth and thus nobody else can say anything about it and I just gotta keep moving forward and so I keep things very simple. I think gratitude really helps me a lot. When I'm really struggling I just think about the fact that my family is okay and that whatever I'm dealing with right now if that was okay but my family was sick or hurt or worst of all died what would that mean and then all of a sudden the thing I'm worried about gets really small and so I use gratitude and perspective which is why I don't sit in burnout or negativity or anxiety very long I'm a human it pops up but I have coping mechanisms to attack it and it's based on gratitude and perspective if you had a business that failed what would you do so that doesn't demotivate you?

11:55Honestly, I'll tell you, this may really help you. I've seen it help a lot of people. Business is sports. Business is UFC. I've had so many businesses fail, brother. My man, I've had so many businesses fail. Do you know that 90, 95 % of businesses fail? So to me, it's like, I'm a little bit of a sicko when it comes to this like I enjoy the loss Like you've got to get to a place where you enjoy the losing like it's okay And again notice what I just told her earlier If you don't worry about what your homies think about your loss, but then all of a sudden you're moving What is more important in business finance and logistics or psychology and marketing?

12:42I mean similar to that young dude right there when we talked about the product and the marketing the answer is both but if I had to answer you and you said no, you've got to pick one I literally think the psychology. Anybody in this room that is interested in psychology and all that stuff, I could not, I get a sense that that's where you're at, I could not push you more to go into that field. It is very valuable as technology, back to my man talking about AI, as technology keeps getting bigger the emotional intelligence and psychology will become more valuable. and so if that comes natural to you or you're interested in it, I would highly recommend pursuing it.

13:23Should we spend our youth on hustle mindset to be happy? I think it depends on the person's circumstance. To your point, do I think hustle mindset? First of all, I think the word has been weaponized. Let me retweak it. Do I believe that hard work is an important variable? I do but for someone here who decides to, what I said, go to TJ Maxx, sell stuff, flip. I like going to a garage sale and buying something and flipping it on eBay the way most people like skiing or going to a movie or going to a concert. So do I think that will work for 12 to 28 % of this audience? I do. I also think for another 50%, making that extra$100 or$200 might actually really help their financial circumstance for their family or them.

14:12To your point, the thing that is always lost in the hustle mindset conversation is some people actually enjoy the game of it, right? So to your point, do I want anybody to work, I'll give you an example. I have unlimited people that I'm aware of that work 40 hours a week who are desperately burnt out because they hate their job. To me, would I rather them work 70 hours a week on something they love? Yes, I would rather have that because I think you have to fight for joy. but to your point, which is why it was such a great question, I think for everyone here, it needs to be about self-awareness.

14:50If they wake up and dread going out and flipping, well, that was not the point of that idea. And so I think you've articulated it right. And then back to spending on your youth, to your point, I think people should do whatever makes them happy. And if you're in a luxurious position where you can enjoy the youth and not have to do that, then I would take it. no different than when I answered the Ivy League question. For a lot of kids, they should really not go to college. Getting$80 ,000 in debt for a piece of paper that does nothing for them when they're older is a bad move. On the flip side, for many kids, it is the starting point to what is remarkable.

15:28So what's really challenging is self-awareness is a challenging game for anyone at any age. But to your point, no, I don't think anything is one size fits all, but I think for a lot of people in here, It will really work. And for other people, I think they should try. I think it's worth trying. But to your point, if they feel like, oh, this is not for me, this feels icky, I hate this, then they should not do that. What if the fact that other people have it worse doesn't motivate me? So you're saying, hey, Gar, that part where you said, hey, you've got it better than others, that's not working for you because hearing about other people suffering actually just makes it feel worse.

16:07Did I hear that right? It's a great call-out. Just like Sam, I think what's so important about what I'm talking about here, and this is probably gonna be, let's bring this up to the macro. When I think about things that I've observed or I've lived or I've watched in others, to your point and to Sam's point, which is why this is becoming such, this is why I want to do predominantly Q &A. We're getting to some real fruitful stuff here. To your point, brother, just because for me and many other people, perspective of how the world is and being grateful for what you have versus being upset for what you don't have, just because that works for some of us, to your point, brother, it does not work for everyone.

16:47And so I don't view that as bottling up my emotions or what I'm upset about. I view that as perspective. I view that as quantifying the reality of the journey of life. For many people, therapy is exactly the answer. For other people, eating right and exercising is the answer. for other people meditating is the answer for a lot of people and this is gonna be a big one for all of you to hear who they surround themselves with from their friends and family is a huge answer to get into a better place to your point there's not one way to get there it just happened to be the one that i chose to speak about earlier i've tried tiktok shop but it didn't work for me what else can i try yeah i mean i think look like anything in life not anything is going to work right away, right?

17:37Just like I'm sure the first time, like think about the things that you do well. The first time that you did them, you might have not done them well, right? So just because what you sold the first couple times you did it didn't do well doesn't mean that the next thing you won't sell as well. What TikTok will tell you, what we see is finding something unique. One of the reasons I like people selling stuff around the house is it's unique. It's not something they bought at a flea market or things of that nature The other thing you could start doing and I don't know how much money you would have to do this But over to over time buying unique things in China and shipping it in is a real play But the number one thing that they say works is under$30 and you can't find it on Amazon Under$30 and not easily found on Amazon tend to over index on tick-tock shop.

18:31How did you make your first? $100 ,000. How did I make my first$100 ,000? Nothing too clever. I just worked at a liquor store and saved money and saved money and saved money. I worked in a liquor store until I was 34 years old. You know, this is why I'm sure for the people here that have consumed my content, I'm always saying patience, patience, patience. At this age, people want to be successful at 18, at 22, at 25, at 27. Life is long. And so, there's no real cool way I made mine. I stocked shelves and helped people pick out wine and saved my money. My friends, you want a good life? You want to be happy?

19:11Forget about being an entrepreneur. Forget about everything. If you want to be happy, actually happy, let me promise you one thing. The second you realize in your beautiful heads that you are in control of everything, regardless of what you look like, where you came from, and what's going on in the world. The second you actually believe that shit is the second your whole life changes. And so what do I say to you? Go out and get it. Thank you.