How to Build Confidence and Self-Esteem: The Truth About Ego and Entitlement

29:16I still fucking hate him. And so like if I'm willing to do that, then everyone's willing to do that. And everyone gets permission to do that. And so like, but I think judgment is on tilt. Judgment is like fucking, I'm telling you man, like that's all we're doing now. People are just fucking hot taking each other 24 seven, 365, casting judgment at scale. Judgment is on tilt. Judgment is, has momentum. Judgment is the undertone right now. And honestly, I wanna push so against it or calibrate it. You know, like I'm just, I've lost so much momentum in judging somebody you can't imagine in the last five years.

29:53Everybody does it, it's a human trait, but like mine doesn't get going anymore. Like I'm just like, I don't know anything about anybody. That's true. It's hard enough to know ourselves, let alone sucking somebody else. Like to really have a clear view of us who was looking in the fucking mirror back at us, like to really see that shit. I mean, that's hard enough work, let alone somebody else, another entire human being and all of the pressures and all the urges and all the things. And the amount of hypocrisy people spit, like just like, oh fuck that guy, look what he just did. And like literally they did that shit yesterday.

30:27Like I just see it every day, it's crazy. Like I'm just shocked by people's ability to be such insane hypocrites. Well the ego needs to put them in a position where they feel superior. The ego only judges itself in relative position. So no matter what, if someone's uncomfortable with their relative position, they'll have to make a fucking adjustment. We have to fucking redefine ego, because for some reason a lot of alphas like to think ego's decent. Let me just explain this very clear to everybody, straight up from one man's point of view. Ego is insecurity with makeup on. So we need to redefine ego, because when people hear ego, 40 % of it like, yeah, but the fucking ego, like they think there's a lot of good with that.

31:05Do not fucking confuse confidence with ego. Ego is fucking insecurity, it is not confidence. It's fucking insecurity. yeah yeah always because it's always trying to put yourself in as i said not absolute position not where you absolutely know who you are and absolutely know what you're doing and you're not fazed by other people it's all relative it's all based on some fucking delusional wizard of oz you know sorcerer game where you're trying to create some structure and some rule book for life itself in which this person is below you or this person had this advantage or this person had this disadvantage you know playing up your disadvantages is also another game like oh well i'm in the most disenfranchised group of the disenfranchised group of the disenfranchised group so basically i can't lose and you were in this in this enabled group i mean that's something that i get all the time my dad was a successful commodities trader he went insane before on it was ever successful and i never got a dime from him but some people will go look up my father oh he was a commodity straight look at this fucking rich boy of course you created on it and i'm like and that's a way that they can put themselves above me.

32:09I built a huge business for my parents. I fucking took 22 to 34, gave up my entire, this is insane to me in hindsight, gave up my entire best dude years to spend every minute in a liquor store to build a business for my parents, left at 34, had no money, so much so that VaynerMedia started in the conference room of Buddy Media because I had no fucking money to even pay rent and a small percentage of people, anytime I say anything's like, but daddy's liquor store, or you know, and then it manifests, or he was given$4 million. Like I read this shit sometimes and I'm like, and honestly, I mean it, I'm like, fuck man, I feel bad.

32:51Like for that person to like want to say that because it makes them feel better that they're not willing to put in the work or they're unhappy or whatever is going on for them, that makes me feel like, you know, sympathy. I'm happy, like honestly. This is what I'm trying to tell people. This is a good topic. There's a lot of you out there that are happy, that are successful, and one of the things that's happening is you're putting out stuff and you're being crippled a little bit by the comments and you get angry. And we've created this term trolls. I don't look at it as trolls, I really don't.

33:21A lot of my friends back in the day were like, why do you feed trolls? I'm like, because I respect other people's points of view and I wanna learn from conversation. Like everybody now is just like trolls, trolls, trolls, and any negative thing you get, people dismiss as hate, haterade, trolls. I fucking read that shit. I read it because I would never want to become a character driven myself. I need to calibrate it. It definitely doesn't bring me down. I want to understand it. It allows me to adjust and I have to adjust. We all have to adjust. I just think there's a lot of things going on in the system but I really want to get people's minds more quiet because it is just one big game of are you valuing other people's opinions or are you valuing your own process?

34:04And just the validation from others is a no-win game. And I don't know what happened. I mean, I know what happened. Parenting and circumstance and environment. In hindsight, my ability to navigate high school without peer pressure, which is what I did, straight up. Like, it's been fun for my high school friends to be hitting me up on Facebook and stuff of that nature. They're just like, yeah, you really did do that shit. Like, I just didn't give a fuck. I was selling baseball cards, and my sophomore year, you said something in the gym you're like I was into magic so into it and then you're like and then I gave it up and literally where my brain was I'm like yeah because you're a good looking dude and you got to high school I'm not getting fucking bitches if I play magic no I Gary let me tell you how it actually went to happen I was playing I had my little magic circle out in California I used to play at this fucking Johnny's Pizza and there was this one fucking kid who would just always beat me take my cards whatever I would battle him I would sweat and we'd listen to Rolling Stones and I'd usually lose but nonetheless I was fucking feverish about it.

35:00I was in it from the drop. And then when my parents were like, hey, we're moving to Texas. So it's like, no, we can't. Nobody plays magic there in Texas. Like my circle. I was like eighth grade. And I was wrecked. This nerd Aubrey is my favorite. I was fucking wrecked. Because then there wasn't like internet. There wasn't like an app that I could go like. It was over. Find the Magic the Gathering circle near you. Or some fucking Tinder for Magic the Gathering player. No, there was nobody. And I got to fucking wrestling high school. Dude, I went to college and lost every friend I had. Like we didn't have phones.

35:29Like you didn't talk, like it was over. Like these kids don't get it. Like it was over. Yeah. And that's when, so I didn't have, there's no players. No players. So what happened? And then, Yeah, I leaned into basketball, leaned into the girls also did for sure come. But nonetheless, I probably would have stayed contiguous. I didn't give up baseball cards for girls cause I was quiet. I was like this. And like, and to that point, it's really funny though. I gotta be honest with you. there's something happening with me in the last three to four weeks where I'm starting to get ambitious.

36:05I am starting to see the fruits of my labor. I am starting to see young alpha dudes start to throw around words like gratitude and empathy and kindness and it's really starting to really make me feel good and it's like really fucking with me. It really is exciting and I do think much like there's a real interesting reason that I gravitate towards you. You have some strong points of view that are not fully accepted. You, Ferris, others, and I don't consume a lot of content, so I'm gonna tread lightly here because since I don't really, it's very top of line, right? But like everything's cool in moderation as a simplification of me.

36:45I think you're talking about things that are gonna really show that you're historically correct and I think you're gonna help people. You're giving people permission and as somebody who was super affected also by his mother on the Nancy Reagan kick and has never fucking done a single drug in his life, never done anything, anything, I'm inspired by it. I mean it. Well, thank you, brother. I mean it because I'm seeing you do shit, again, you know, because I don't really consume, I'm very funny in my process, but I know you're up to something that is a different thing. It's a different category of things.

37:21One thing you've touched on in the past that has hit my radar, I think I'm talking about parenting and insecurity and truths that people are uncomfortable with. I think America's unbelievably uncomfortable with sex and drugs, and I know that you're playing a little bit in that space. And I'm really - That sounds really fun, but it's a little less fun. It's less fun, it is less fun. You're doing it from a far more thoughtful, really, really thoughtful mental place, in my opinion. Yeah, from a soulful place. And what we're talking about is psychedelics and open relationship, right? And I think you're creating safeness.

38:02That's what I think you're doing. And that's what I'm trying to do. I think we have an entire generation of people that are trying to be successful, and I have enormous ambition to redefine it. I just really want people to be happy. It's so much more fun to be happy. It's so fun to be happy. It's super fun to be happy, bro. And I don't mean pretending to be happy. And I don't mean what everybody's doing, which is spending all their time to appear happy. And so I'm really in it right now. I'm in a zone. And you know what, one of the keys that I find to happiness is when, happiness lives in the moment in the moment you're in and really happiness is acceptance of the moment you're in and like whatever process that might be and just recognizing that and whenever you're doing something for some other reason and projecting it's harder to be happy there's a good example of this this morning this morning i'm taking a fucking selfie in the sun i don't do that often but i was like ah nice sun it's an important day i'm gonna take a fucking selfie and there is the butterfly that came well i don't get a lot of butterflies in my backyard this butterfly comes wafting by me and I was like oh sweet I can get a selfie with a butterfly right and and so I spend this time moving myself around and there's this magical moment where there's this butterfly fluttering around me the sun was just shining I could have just breathed and enjoy myself but instead I'm fucking chasing this butterfly around with my fucking selfie camera and then I wake up and go that was really stupid or was it no I felt like it was I could have enjoyed the butterfly I'll be honest with you what you just said is something I'm thinking a lot about which is, we're, not that we're, and you didn't demonize it, but society's starting to demonize, like live in the moment, right?

39:50There's this photo that went viral as fuck like four years ago with the Pope and everyone's taking a photo and there's that like 88 year old lady and she's just looking at it and everyone's like trying to make it to be this great thing and I was like, she didn't have a fucking phone. Like, why are we making letters on a, like if I send you a really nice three sentence text tomorrow like how much I enjoyed today, right? Which now I'm not gonna do because I've said it out loud. But like, why does putting it on a piece of paper and sending as a note, because what? Because it made it seem like I put an extra two minutes into it?

40:25Like we're starting to do things where I think it's awesome that you chased around the butterfly. I think it's funny. I think it's funny and interesting. And like, I don't know, like I don't wanna fucking stand there and just take in the butterfly. I think it's fun to chase it with the camera. That was just fun from a game standpoint. Butterflies fucking move quick. Like that shit was hard. So I don't know, again this goes to the currents that we live in society where right now everyone's like just take it in. I don't know, I wish I had photos of me at baseball card shows. Do you know how fucking pissed I am?

40:58Let me say this right now. Do you know how sad I am that I don't have photos from 1989 to 1992 at the 87 different baseball card shows that I have, because I'd like to see them. I'd like to see them. So like cool, I'm glad that everybody's demonizing selfie sticks and all this shit, but I promise you, in 39 years, while you were making fun of those people, they're gonna be thrilled to look at it, and their kids are gonna be very thrilled to look at it. And I'm super sad, because I don't have jack shit of my childhood. Like my throwback Thursday game is whack as fuck, because I got nothing. Because us rushing, we didn't really take photos.

41:31And so like, you know, like again, there is a yin and a yang to everything, and we should be the judge and jury of it. And back to your point, if it was cool for two minutes to chase it with a selfie, cool, and then if you're like, fuck it, I'm an idiot, let me take this in, cool. And like, that's you and that's it, but everybody's taking everybody else's, like I'm watching people like, like see one piece of content and be like, yeah, that's what I'm doing now. I'm gonna sell my phone and write letters. I'm like, and they do it to me in the other way, right? like Gary's right, I'm gonna do this.

42:03No, I'm putting out my perspective, filter that through you, take the good that works for you from that, leave the shit that you don't like. Most people aren't as competitive as I am. What's that fucking hockey thing called again? Sauce. Dude, I'm still kind of in it. Like I wanna go back and play sauce again. Like, you know, not everybody's that, that's why I love this. I love competing and business for me is competing and I wasn't built enough to be in the league And by the way, all those years where I was sad that I wasn't an athlete, now I'm the happiest that I'm an entrepreneur, not an athlete.

42:36Now that I'm really in the game and the world, I feel bad for these athletes. You're super competitive, that is your high, that is what gets you excited. And when you're a rock star, Mick Jagger's still doing it, but Kobe's not playing what he was meant to do. He's a child still. And look where he's going, to the business world to get that fucking feeling. so I don't know I don't know I think I think what you're saying is a really good point though because there's a way that you can put a hierarchy of value value in your life and valuable situations right and saying that if you're taking a selfie that is of no value because you should be taking the present moment which is instead it's still a judgment it's still you putting a hierarchy together instead of just going out even further and bursting out of that and being like there's no judgment for any of this shit as long as you're not hurting anybody your secret thought in my mind that I'm desperately hopeful will happen.

43:30This is a very weird thing I'm about to say, I've never shared this. There's a very big part of me and a conversation I consistently have with myself that secretly, though I won't force it, this is where I really know how to play with myself. I secretly hope I wake up one day and don't want to buy the Jets anymore and don't wanna work the way I wanna work and wanna do something else completely left field and I can't wait to wake up, look in the camera and be like, I'm out, and leave, and not give a fuck what anybody says. Oh, he figured out that he couldn't do it, so he did this. Or, see, see, you can't work like Gary Vee.

44:04He got burned out. Like, don't give a fuck. If I genuinely in my soul feel it, I can't wait to go build fucking sandcastles in Peru for the rest of my life. And that's an empowering, you see where I'm going? It's so fucking empowering, man, because we get trapped by the identity that we've formerly created. Tom Bellew said it, he pegged it for me. in a podcast, on my podcast, he flipped it on me. He goes, you know what your superpower is? I'm like, what? He's like, you don't judge yourself. I'm like, fuck, you're right. And that's what that was. This is why I'm so hot in this judgment thing. The great blessing of my life is that I don't judge myself.

44:39I hold myself accountable. Like, it doesn't mean you go and be reckless. I'm not delusional when I fuck up and I suck. It's just that I just don't overjudge it. Everyone's tearing themselves down. The fuck are you doing that for? everybody else is doing it for you stop beating yourself up like what yeah it's like we have this idea of what we should be what we're supposed to already be look at whoever the fuck you are right now whoever you are today is tomorrow's idiot like tomorrow you're gonna look back at yourself of yesterday last week last year and be like oh yeah i was still just figuring it out and you're always gonna be in that fucking position forever and parents if you're listening right now because you know that to be true stop being a dick because you know that you're 57 and you don't have anything figured out, the fuck are you pressuring your 19 year old to figure it out?

45:25Can we just fucking eliminate that? Like honestly, maybe we can do it right here. You'll get a lot of listens to this if this is the true moment in society where we eliminate figuring it out. There is no fucking figuring it out. There is no out. It doesn't end. The fuck are you talking about? What, getting a job in an accounting firm when you're 23 you figured it the fuck out? Getting married at 29 you figured it out? What the fuck are we talking about here? There is no figuring it out. It's an endless, infinite loop of figuring. And so if you're a 57-year-old and forcing your 22-year-old to figure it out because you want to look good to your friends that your child figured it out, not you want your kid to...

46:01Ah, the secret. The ego gets activated again because you can shit on those other parents whose kids... You should know better. You love your child, you should tell them to never figure it the fuck out. Just live. And you know what? Can we take another turn? Yeah. Another big thing that is through... Because it's funny where my body just went with that. Like all this talk leads to me getting hot on people not buying things. Like I feel people are unbelievably good at trapping themselves in unhappiness because of things they buy based on a lot of things we just talked about. Like I don't know, like I don't want people to buy the kind of homes and cars they're buying that puts them into a place where they have to then take a job or stay at a job they don't want to.

46:47I'm really hot on this right now. I really, really, really, really want people to stop buying homes or homes they can't afford. Like one of the funniest moves, because I've said it once and I got inundated, and I did it, and I see everybody doing it. Almost everybody on their first home buy something that completely stretches the living shit out of them. Like to the bear. And then meanwhile, there's like usually five rooms in that thing that they don't even use. Like I wish that there could be a new rule. Somebody a little bit more in the trenches in home buying. Can somebody create a rule that like leave 35 % like whatever it is, like go 35 % down so you're not so stretched.

47:28Because what happens is the next day, everyone celebrates you, you have a new home, you're all set, you're now fucking golden handcuffed like a motherfucker. Like nothing can happen to you financially or you can't make your mortgage payments and live the same lifestyle that you like. and and if you tried to make a switch and go to your passion go to something that you really wanted to do build fucking sandcastles in peru guess what well that means that you have to get rid of your house really quick or change this all this momentum all of this debt all of this accumulation all this depreciation is actually going to restrict your freedom and freedom it has to be one of the highest things that we can put number one number one right i think purebred entrepreneurs love freedom number i love freedom number one when people say to me what is success and that gets asked a lot.

48:14I always say the same thing pretty consistently for a long time. Being able to wake up and do whatever the fuck I want, whenever I want, the end. That to me is number, freedom is number one, two, three, four, five, maybe this is the first time I've ever made this connection. Maybe it's because I was born in not a very free place that subconsciously wired some way into me. That, I mean, freedom, bro. By the way, that's why candor and transparency are at my core, that's freedom too. That is 100 % free to imagine. Imagine if you were trying to hold some shit secret. Like I just published a newsletter and it was called Five Uncomfortable Truths.

48:50And it was the middle of the night and I was like, you know what? There's some shit that people don't know about me. And then so I just fucking put that out. Here we go. Ha, isn't that nice? And everybody, feel free to tell the truth. It's okay. And if you don't like me because of my truths, oh yeah, one of my truths is, is that I've been addicted to sleeping medication for the last year and I run a fucking human optimization company. That's tough. It's tough to admit that, you know? But it's the fucking. Do you know how many people you just helped with that? Dude, that's incredible. Dude, I'm really proud of you, bro.

49:19Well, thanks, brother. It takes an enormous amount of strength to do something like that. But it's so liberating. That's the thing. It's Eminem's last scene in the movie, bro. This has been figured out a long time ago. It was called Eight Mile, the movie. Go watch it. It's a rap battle. That is life itself. You're up against it. First move, shit on yourself in perpetuity that nothing else is left to anybody else. You've now won. Because when he makes that transition to, but there's something I know about you, Clarence, that's how I live life. When people judge me, I'm like, what's going on in your life?

49:54The reason I don't judge anybody is I don't want people to do that to me. That's the real game. That's the 1 % game. When people spit hate, I'm like, but what's going on in your life? What are you up to? And the reason I called my brand Empathy and the reason some of my friends have helped me through this feedback, why I realize a lot of times it's actually sympathy, not empathy, and I'm trying to learn all these things. My mom has a Russian saying, and basically it translates to everybody's got some shit in their chicken head. Russia was fucked up. But I believe in that, and I think the fact that you can do that, what you understand is a lot of things, but one of them is, I said it earlier, everybody sucks at a lot of things.

50:41No doubt man. Who's this fucking perfect person? And it's just about embracing that. Embrace the fact that you suck and enjoy the suck. Let me tell you something that I think you and I represent and we're not all the way there yet but I have a real interesting observation. I believe that everybody thinks things are super fucked up and I think this is the beginning of an incredible century of human behavior. I believe what we're living through right now that when we look back at this video and we're like fuck we were so young fuck we looked good and we're gonna watch this exact video in 60 years and we're gonna be like, fuck, this was right.

51:12I'm so positive about what I'm about to say. This level of lack of privacy, some people like you and I are starting to understand it so well that we're leaning in in the other direction. There's always a reaction and a counter reaction. I believe that everybody's about to figure out that there's nowhere to hide, which is gonna lead for everybody being more transparent, which is gonna lead to people realizing they can't hide, which is gonna eliminate so much of the hypocrisy. And once everybody understands that the skeletons in their closet are actually gonna be exposed anyway, we're gonna start transforming into a lot of the radical, what people think, when you say your stuff, like open relationships, I laugh, I'm like that's gonna be the norm in 100 years because the shadows were what enabled.

52:01Yeah, the ability to hold privacy, to keep secrecy, to not get caught. That allows these games to exist. Systematic racism is going to have a problem. All of these things. It's like all of these things. So I don't know. I'm pretty thankful and I've never been more optimistic in the future. I mean that. I mean this is very healthy. I really do. I think it's funny too, people who are super paranoid and they put little tape over their computer and stuff like that because they're worried that somehow fucking the forces that be are going to catch them jerking off. Okay. if fucking Apple wants to come out with a video of me jerking off, congratulations.

52:40Congratulations, Apple. You win. I jerk off. That would be the best thing that ever happened to your brand. Apple leaks fucking Aubrey Marcus webcam jerk off videos. You hope that happens. That's exactly right. And that's where this is all going to go. Like I keep telling everybody, like I took a lot of heat the last three or four years. There's a lot of content of me out there asked as this started bubbling up, Gary, what about privacy? I'm like, nobody gives a fuck. And the whole room would gasp. I'm like, that's not me, that's not my opinion. I'm telling you based on your actions. Fuck Facebook, post it on Instagram.

53:14Like what are we doing out here? What are we doing out here? You know what I mean? Like people talk. You know all your friends that were gonna move to Canada when Bush got reelected or when Obama got reelected or the ones that are saying it now when Trump gets reelected? Where are all those fuckers? None of people, I mean I know thousands of people that told me that, both parties. That's why I used all the presidents. They're not in Toronto. They're still right the fuck here. So, you know, you know how many people tweet all sorts of things and then are living a complete, like, let's get a little bit more thoughtful out here.

53:48Yeah, yeah, and just fucking recognize the human nature of just figure, everybody always in the process of figuring it out. You could have had a period after the word nature there. That's it. Humans, humans. That's why I'm a good marketer. I understand people, right? And the reason I'm happy is I'm so grateful as somebody who's really good at it that I didn't manipulate it for bad, I'm trying to manipulate it for good. You know what I mean? And when you manipulate for good, you're not even manipulating, you're just exposing and you're allowing for different conversations. Let me say this, because you have a very thoughtful audience, we have a good crew of peeps in here.

54:18This is real, what I'm about to say. We have to rally around this. If you're in a good place, we have to start sharing more of it. Everybody's spitting hate and everyone's accepting that. Then you have people that are spitting positivity and people are shitting on those people. Like I get shit on, like it's, I'm watching, this is amazing. We have to make positivity louder, but positivity has to be grounded in practicality. The reason I think my voice can be unique at times is because positivity often becomes delusional. Well, it becomes, you become the one who is positive. And when you become the one who is positive, when you have those negative thoughts bubbling up from the shadows, you better stuff those motherfuckers away in a drawer somewhere because you're the one who's positive all the time like share your whole fucking journey and if you're mostly positive fucking great and if you're mostly negative don't blame it on other people just say hey i'm in a fucking tough spot world but i'm figuring it out and i appreciate all of you positive motherfuckers too that's another thing everybody thinks everything that we share is the final score when you're sharing that you're struggling at night i view that as the other team just went on an 11-0 run yep but it's still a second quarter and I know you called a time out and the home crowd booed you but the true fans didn't go pay attention this is such a good analogy go pay attention to this go to a basketball game watch the home team go on a terrible run and pay attention to who boos and who cheers very interesting insight and that's what happens when you sent that email there were people that booed and then there were the real fans that cheered and that's how I see it and so why is everything that's happening in your life the definitive end score?

56:03It's a process. Some chapters are good. If I was, like I would have wished I could have watched my content from when I was in school. Those were dark times for me. I hated school, bro. I hated the fuck out of school. Like the anxiety I had every fucking two months that I had to be punished, because my mom would ground me back to, this is where she did it great. I think one of the reasons I'm happy is my mom made me accountable for the ramifications even if it wasn't like I was in school. Even though she knew that wasn't gonna dictate my life, she punished me and I fucked with me. Who likes being punished?

56:41Getting Nintendo taken away for two weeks fucking blows when you're 14. Wow, that's deep. I would've fucked with me bad. Dude, especially when you're just getting your Tecmo game going. I was just getting good at Tecmo Bowl and then three weeks off the grid and I come back and everyone's fucking schooling me Bo Jackson style. I'm like fuck mom, see? You know like, so I don't know. I think that's right. I think people lack perspective. You know one of the things that absolutely I've been sharing that has really been valuable is when I meet 57 year old homies and I keep reminding them like, you do know that you're gonna live for another 40 years.

57:15And like, why are you wrapping shit up? Oh because your grandfather did. And that's what you saw. Conditioning. Correct. news alert, it's not 1973 anymore. Right? Like I'm sitting here, I'm 43 and I'm like fuck man. Yes, I know, and everybody loves, you could get hit by a bus. I'm like cool, and then I won't care. But if not, like if I'm going for another 55, if I'm going for another 65 with modern medicine, like late second quarter. You're just getting started. I can handle 11.01. Just getting started, baby. But it's real. It is. It's real and like I really want that. You know how many people think they're fucked up if they don't have shit figured out at 30?

57:56Like really fucked up. It's too late. It's too late. I ruined it. I went left when I should have gone right and here I am and it's all fucked. I should have taken that job. My friend from Michigan State took that job and he's got a nice house in the suburbs. I fucked up. I thought I was going to be a rock star. I'm like, dude, you haven't even started. You haven't even started. Yes, sir. You know? What didn't we get to in your paper? We didn't get to anything on my paper. but I got Twitter questions and shit. All right, let's do it. So one thing we want to talk about is the force that is the Chinese market and how you view that.

58:31You were just talking today. I don't know. Is that public information about K-Swiss? Yeah. Oh yeah. So K-Swiss just got bought up by a Chinese conglomerate as you were mentioning. It's a force. China won. Let me just save everybody time. China won and now it just plays out. I believe that. China will be the biggest empire in the world and that fucks with Americans because it fucked with people in the UK when it was happening to them and I'm sure the Romans weren't pumped either and Genghis Khan's crew was pissed too. Yep, you know, in the many things that we're living through, we're living through clearly the early stages of the transition of America losing its grasp as the number one alpha in the world.

59:14China's bought up all the infrastructure around Africa already and Africa's not even happening for another 30 years. Like China won. That's a hell of a perspective. So all right, so how do people, how do people, companies, other people, how do we leverage this opportunity? How do we like, you know, what do we do? Start figuring fucking China out. Figure out how they do business, what their culture's about, how you can do business there, how you can do business with them in other places and also figure out that like plenty of people have won in the last 200 years that didn't live in America. Like the richest man in the world was from Mexico a couple years ago, right?

59:51Like, and what does that even mean, right? Like this is back to like, you're gonna be quite easily happy, like, but there's a sense of like, fuck, we're not gonna be number one, fuck. First of all, it's back to we. You're not America. You just happen to live in it. So yeah, but listen, I spent a lot of time, We're opening up an office in Singapore, and that is kind of this summer. And so I'm going to be spending a lot of time there. I am highly interested in doing business and learning the culture and foods and trends. I think it's exciting. I agree. Everything's an opportunity. That has nothing to do with me.

1:00:31This isn't the time of war anymore. When Genghis Khan was fucking rising, that was a little scary. Because he was fucking you up, literally. Literally. China winning, it's okay, everybody. It's okay. It's okay. They win the business game. You're okay. That's right. They're not gonna come fucking beat down your house. I'll tell you where they have a one. I'll tell you what America's greatest weapon is and has been and greatest asset. Hollywood. Hollywood is America's greatest ammo. The culture of America is still the culture of America. And most people listening right now, if you for some reason didn't like the last five minutes, here's something you can latch on to.

1:01:09You will probably live all the way through your life with brand America and the American cultural impact as the core ecosystem. You know, the hip hop artists from the dirty south of Atlanta become way more global stars, but we're already seeing it change a little bit, right? Like, look at America. Bad Bunny and Becky G and K-pop stars, right? Like, you know, and like, when did you, like none of us grew up with K-pop, Korean pop stars making 14 year old blonde girls in Chicago scream, right? So like pay attention, shit's happening. But the American brand is a fucking beast. Like a beast. Yeah, you see that when you travel abroad.

1:01:53100%. No matter what they think about politics or business or whatever else, like the culture, the movies, the music. But China's done shit. They're innovating on AI, they're doing shit. They're building fucking like transportation hubs through their entire country. They've invested in Africans and the resources there. They're like building great companies. Like they're doing shit. Because they have a form of dictatorship and capitalism that allows you to get shit done. China runs its country much more similar to the way you and I run our companies than America. You don't micromanage anything except when you have something that you need to get done.

1:02:31Right. That's what I do. I don't micromanage shit. but then if I have an agenda, then it gets done and it gets done fast and that's why China's getting a lot of things done. That's really fucking interesting man. That's a cool perspective. Thank you. All right, Nick Perna 13, how do you deal with distancing friends that slow down your future goals? First, by making sure that I'm not being an audacious dick. That's number one, really, I mean it. Like all of a sudden you decided you're gonna be successful and your homies aren't good enough for you, like don't be a dick, number one. Number two, by trying to over-communicate, if these are true friends, over-communicate the path that you're on and try to get them motivated and excited to be on it with you.

1:03:12Number three, after you did number one and two heavily, because these are friends now, number three is just limiting the interaction. Maybe going from hanging out every second and every day to hanging out three times a week. Limiting things that you feel are actually detrimental to you. rather than that hard cut that we think we have to do. Yeah, everyone's like, oh my friend smokes too much weed all day and he's fucking losing, he's not going anywhere. Now I just started watching this content, I'm fucking fired up and I'm gonna be a fucking winner. Like, you're out, Dominic. Yo, Dominic's been your boy for fucking 20 years.

1:03:44Don't be a dick. Like first, like first, I mean, but we're all laughing because we actually know this is happening. You know, so like, and it's funny, as the person that sometimes is making the content, that's making that happen, I don't want that. I want this, this is the process. First, look at yourself. Are you full of shit? Second, try to put your people on with you. Let's do this together, let's go. Try to hype them up. Then third, if that doesn't work and you're actually genuinely feeling it and saying like, I'm ready, I feel like I'm getting sucked into that negativity or passiveness and I wanna go on a different path, you can go do that, but you can still have that relationship.

1:04:21Yeah, yeah. And I'm just gonna add on this, because it's important. I believe it's even more of a conversation with your family. There's a lot of people right now really struggling with their transition because they have a negative mother or father. And it's a force in their life that is really fucking them up. And I don't think you need to cut out, Dad, but maybe you don't have to answer every one of his calls where you know the call is going to be negative.

1:04:51Yep. Just limit it. Just limit it. Instead of those hard cuts. that black and white, that binary thing, good for computer code, kind of shitty for life. Kind of shitty for life to have to have that binary philosophy. The person who's most in control, and I know I've used this analogy, but most in control of drinking isn't the one who can't be around to drink, never step into a bar, never have a taste, because if they do, they're going to end up in a fucking back alley with a needle in their arm and seven hookers. If you're that mentality, you're not really over being an alcoholic. If you can have a drink and be moderate, you're really more in control.

1:05:25And if you can be around Dominic the weed smoker and have a good time every once in a while, you're better off. Or if you can take that energy to something else. Like, you know, if you can deploy that energy to something else, there's also that part of the equation. But I agree with you. Last question. At Issy Calbra asks, what is the legacy that you want to leave behind? That I gave more than I took. It's very clear to me. I'm very passionate about this. I wanna guilt the world to come to my funeral. I do. It's very ludicrous. I'm telling you right now, I think about the attendance of my funeral often.

1:06:05I do, I think it's the great scorecard. I think in sports, I've used a ton of analogies. I think everything could, the Mets were playing game six of the World Series in 1986 in their home stadium and the scoreboard said congratulations Boston Red Sox 1986 champions because they were down three to one I think the score was they were down two runs and there was two outs and nobody on in the bottom of the ninth in game six of the World Series and Boston was up three two and they won that World Series if you're 74 years old listening right now and you're a fuck up through and through all the way, I think you can be the 86 Mets.

1:06:49I really believe that. I really think that's cool. Yes, I'm optimistic. It's also real. It's true. And so I think the final score is when you die. And I think the scoreboard is how many people show up to your fucking funeral. That is my perspective on life. And so my legacy will be, will Nick Dio, who spent meaningful time with me at some point in our lives, hopefully forever, but if he goes on, will he feel so compelled when he's in Arizona doing whatever he's doing with his life that when he hears the news, will he be so compelled? Nick, how old are you? 18. So I'm 14, 15 years. So will 86 year old Nick Dio in Arizona doing his thing when he hears the news that 101 year old Gary has gone, seven times Super Bowl champion owner, Gary Vaynerchuk has passed, you know, will he feel compelled?

1:07:42Will he feel it in his gut that he has to go? To that funeral is something I think about a lot because it takes a lot to do that, right? There's a big difference between posting a photo on whatever the Instagram is or the hologram he makes or the fucking VR world we live in. Very different than, because he hurt his hip because he works out a lot and now he's degenerate hip and fucking 86 in Arizona and flying fucking sucks or whatever the fuck we do now, time machine shit, or whatever the fuck's going on, will he put in the effort to go to the funeral? I think the level of value that I need to bring NickDio86 is a lot, a lot more than people think to get him to get up and get on that plane or whatever, and that's what I'm trying to do.

1:08:27Well, you're gonna have to scatter your ashes over that Jet Stadium, because there's gonna be a lot of people coming to that funeral, brother. I really hope so, and honestly, one of the things, to wrap it up, I also think that we need more people with ambitions like that. Like people hear that sometimes and I'll take like a razz and they're like, you are so full of yourself. I'm like, are you listening to what I'm saying? I'm saying that I wanna impact people in a positive enough, like it's, we need to have, I think people need to have bigger ambitions on impact. Yep. Selflessness, you know? Humility, these are things that need to be attractive.

1:09:01I think the biggest winners I know are humble. I mean that, truly humble. When nobody's paying attention, you know? How do they, like, bro, I don't have a lot of friends because I'm busy and I want to spend time with my family. Do you know how much I, do you understand why I even interact with you? It's how you interact with somebody when we walk into a gym to play basketball. Like, that's what, people are gonna be nice to me, especially now. Like, I watch everybody. I'm collecting data 24-7. How are people interacting with other people? Who are they in their fucking soul? Are you smiling at a stranger when you're, do you know my favorite thing to do in life?

1:09:36If I did the other day, it just really hit me. Like, God, I love this. God, I love my fucking parents and DNA and circumstance. You know how fun it is to walk in an airport and look at somebody and just smile dead in their face and get them to smile at you back? It's nice. It's nice. I like that shit, man. Positivity's underrated. Underrated. No doubt. And there's always that opportunity to do it. When I told that kid who was riding that BMX bike and cruising through, and he was kind of ripping through my lawn and stuff. I took note. I was like, you're the best. When I went to that and I was like, man.

1:10:10My dad would have punched that kid in the face. My dad would have ran down, would have stick and punched. I mean it. Like, that's so rad that you did it. So what did you say? No, I just gave him a compliment. I was like, man, you're a pretty sick BMX rider, kid. I didn't say kid. I said, dude. What did he say? Thanks, bro. Exactly. But he was like stoked. And I was actually appreciative that he had the courage to do that shit in my yard. As I was shooting hoops, I got fucking tats. I had my shirt off. I'm fucking shooting hoops. and he was just fucking ripping it. And I was like, good for you, man.

1:10:40And for that kid that's listening right now, if you also would've got punched directly in the face, both are right. No, I mean it. It's the point, to wrap up this whole conversation, like that's what's so interesting about life. It is not binary in that way, right? Like it would be super acceptable and understanding to many listening right now, if somebody rolls into their yard and doing that shit with a bike and tearing up their shit that if the person with tats and fucking diesel comes out and fucking creates some warfare, like people understand that too. And like, and for that kid, that's right too.

1:11:15Like, like it's all right. Yeah. It's all fucking right. Just a choice. Yep. Just a choice. Thank you, brother. Thank you, bro. I appreciate my man. Let's have fun tonight. Can't wait. Let's do it. Thanks everybody. Peace.