Success is 49% Talent and 51% Work Ethic

0:00Impact is very simple and this is why I think I can be the greatest entrepreneur of this generation. I don't think anybody wants to give more than me. I'm not playing for money as much as my contemporaries. I'm playing for legacy. My North Star is admiration and legacy. This is the Gary Vee Audio Experience. Okay, so I'm going to ask you, my first question is obviously from where I am in my life. I'm a mom with two small kids. what would you say the one thing that your mom did for you that every mom should be doing for their small kid? She listened. Okay, listened. I think the number one mistake that is happening in modern day parenting is a mix of two things.

0:44It's imposing the parent's ambition on the kid without actually watching the kid. and it's allowing other people's opinions to dictate their parenting. Got it. So it's their own selfish want. Me, cliche, I want my kids to be an entrepreneur without watching that they have none of those tendencies. Or number two, me, because I was so parented well by my parents, listening to them of what I should be doing. Or the worst of the worst, which is people are just letting their friends dictate. Like it just, it's crazy for me to watch. It's, what an incredible important role it is for everybody in the world when they're a parent.

1:33The impact is enormous. Well, right, especially at a young age, right? Then your peers become very much involved and become your influence. But, you know, I've seen a lot of different videos with your parents and obviously you're in the wine business and you always, like you just said, but obviously you wanted to go into the wine business at some point? Was it because your parents kind of pushed you that way and then you kind of realized you wanted to pivot? I think there's a really interesting thing that I've been thinking a lot about based on this question around nudging versus cramming. So my parents were the initial nudge and it actually, in my opinion, was a remarkable nudge because it was based on something I believe in.

2:10My parents looked me dead in the face around 13, 14 and said, you're an atrocious student. Let me rephrase, my mom did. My mom does the talking. you're a terrible student. That means on your 14th birthday that's coming up you will be working in the liquor store. In dad's store. From now on, no more baseball card shows. No more friends. Every weekend you will be going with dad to the liquor store every Thanksgiving vacation, every Christmas, and every single day of your eighth grade. This was my eighth grade. Of your summer, you will be working. Because if you're not gonna be a good student that means you're gonna be a worker.

2:48and I am struggling right this second to fully, fully know what I thought. I was devastated about the baseball card shows and I kind of negotiated very quickly. I'm like, I gotta do some. So I got that in, thank God. I wasn't devastated about playing. I was kind of like, okay. And pretty quickly by the fifth or sixth day weekend that I went to work, I kind of liked it. Even though I was doing terrible shit. Bagging ice. It was boring. It was boring. It was two bucks an hour. and I was making real money as a kid at baseball cards. So that was, they nudged. And that nudge turned out okay. So, I mean, you could also say they forced it.

3:28I don't know. They nudged. They pushed me in that direction and it worked out. But I also watched them push my brother in that direction and he didn't want to work at A &P and then at the wine store and they didn't force it. They adjusted. So besides the baseball cards, Did you ever think like you now I feel well everyone now you've become like the Oprah of entrepreneurs, right? Like you you've kind of like transcend any group at age. Everyone seems to like when I told people I'm doing this podcast, people are more excited about you than like I could have said any other person in the world. Right.

4:05First of all, did you ever think that you'd have such an impact? No. OK. And that's a good point. That's a good answer. Yeah, it's just the truth. I didn't, if you asked me four years ago or six years ago, I would say yes. If you asked me in the way I think you asked me, which is at my youth, I thought it was a businessman. Right, right, right. And so a businessman doesn't get the luxury to actually have such an impact on humanity. But what's the one thing about you that you think is the reason why it resonates and impacts so many people? Like your style, obviously, but. Well, you know, I actually would, this is something I'm really thinking a lot about.

4:41I'm pretty convinced at this point that my style is slowing up the process. Really? Yes. Why? There's an enormous amount of percentage of people that don't like me at first. But you grow on people. Fair. Right. But if I was a hair, maybe 15 to 30%, a little less, I think I would be much further along. Much further, I mean. Now, that being said, I also think that that would then have a cap because it wouldn't be my authentic self. So I think maybe today I would be further along, but at 63 I think I will be like. Well, that's crazy to me because I think that, well, I think everyone would say that you're just, you're growing exponentially fast.

5:25I am. And you've become like a household name. When really, besides like Elon Musk in the entrepreneur space, I don't really know many other people that would actually have that, you're synonymous with that word. You know? Yeah, I mean look, there's others that obviously have it. I think as it skews younger, I'm in a real spot. I've gotten to the point subconsciously when I walk by young males anywhere publicly, I'm now surprised they don't know who I am. That's right. Which is crazy because three years ago I was stunned anyone did. So that's clearly happened. And women, by the way, too. Plenty of women.

6:00By the way, plenty of women, plenty of 60-year-old men. But if you're talking 17 to 26-year-old dude walks by me in the airport, I'm like looking at him like, bro, what the fuck? You don't know who I am? That demo, for sure. Look, there's a lot of entrepreneurs that I still think, if you look at Google search queries, are further ahead than me. I think I might have the most momentum, right? You know, Mark Cuban's ahead of me. Like there's, because of Shark Tank, you know, all the sharks have the potential. Mine is impactful, I think. Well, impact, impact is very simple. and this is why I think I can be the greatest entrepreneur of this generation, I don't think anybody wants to give more than me.

6:44Well, that's the thing. That was my next thing. I'm not playing for money as much as my contemporaries. I'm playing for legacy and admiration. My North Star is admiration and legacy and trying to buy the New York Jets. That's a very important kind of like sentence because I really don't give a fuck if I buy the Jets. I just like playing so much that the game of trying to is fun as shit. Right, so that's your goal. That's the goal. That's like a business goal. I'd really like that to happen. But like, okay, besides the style, then what do you think that's one quality about you that has that type of influence and impact?

7:23My intent is to give. Where I'm starting to realize with me is like, oh, right. I don't have anywhere close to as much money as I could. And that's because I actually don't value that part. and that's where I always have to really know somebody to know where they sit on the curve of only about the money, not about money at all or somewhere in between like me. I just used to think I was 50-50. I'm starting to realize maybe I'm even 20 to the degree. And honestly, I think that could change. There is a concern in my own mind that somewhere in my 70s or 60s I may get resentful that I gave so much and I didn't get mine that I may change my behavior.

8:03I'm hoping not but I'm being really transparent here. It runs through my mind. I'm leaving an uncomfortable amount of money on the table my whole life. I built a business for my dad and left with nothing. I started with a company with my brother and gave him 50-50. He left early on and I bought a mat. I don't have anywhere close to the wealth that I could and then I don't monetize my audience the way everybody else does. I continue, I'm building a machine not for the business for the long term. So right now, if you're a really thoughtful money person, you shit on me if you knew everything about me.

8:41I just think it actually works out. See, when you said that, I didn't even realize that about you. I thought that you would be a master at monetizing. I mean, not just 25 minutes, but... I think I am. I just think I'm losing 31 to nothing in the first quarter. But it's a long game, right? It is. I mean, you're young still. I believe that to be true. Now, were you always like a forward thinker? Yes. I'm thinking like, because you predict things. Like I saw on a bunch of things I watched about you on, like Larry King, God knows how many years ago that was. You predicted things that actually do happen.

9:16Like you were just all, but seriously, a lot of people, that doesn't happen. You know, it's funny. I don't, I see patterns much earlier than most and I'm willing to have conviction to say it out loud. and I understand human beings and so I understand what they're gonna do. Yeah, you understand human nature. I understand human nature. Right, so you should have been a psychologist also. I am a psychologist. Every day you are. If one of my two kids is a very renowned psychologist, I'd be like, knew it. You know, if they decide to go the other way, fuck on track. Look, you know, growing up, one of my two children, you know, looking at the level of success, the cliche thing kids do is they run away from it.

9:56Right. They don't wanna be, I wouldn't wanna be compared to, you know, who wants to be Michael Jordan's fucking son playing basketball, right? Who wants to be Wayne Gretzky? And, you know, like, I like to be all time and, like, I would have empathy for my children being like, yeah, I don't need a world of everyone comparing me to what he is. But no one knows who they are. Like, you've done an amazing job at having no, there's such a disconnect between your family and you. I mean, honestly, like, I haven't found one, I mean, if I went and searched, but I would think that you were a single dude just running around New York.

10:27I get it. Like you actually have kids and a family. So being so public, like your entire world is like It was a decision we made. Videotaped. Yeah, except my personal life. Like nothing. Nothing. But don't people see you like walking around the streets with your kids and they take pictures? My kids think I'm massively famous. There's not a single time that we go out that somebody doesn't stop us. Right, and yet I never see those pictures. Yeah, we've chosen not to do that part. You know, like I don't want to compound it. I really do think everybody will know me and I do think the fact that I don't share that part subconsciously, a lot of people see me with my kids, my wife or what have you, and don't bother because they realize that I didn't open that up.

11:07Other people are putting their children in every single thing and then they're gonna roll up. You've given the public the permission to engage. People do it because they get, I don't speak for everybody, but a lot of people do it because it gets more likes, which is fucking devastating to me. I agree, that's what people do. I'm devastated by that. And so, you know, a lot of people tell me a lot of things and then, you know, throw judgment at me and then I'm watching them whore out their children for social media likes and I say to myself, in my mind, because I never put people on blast one-on-one, publicly, I generically put things on blast, but I will never put anybody on blast one-on-one.

11:42I'm too empathetic and I don't know everything, but when somebody casts judgment on me, like literally a friend, an acquaintance, a stranger, will cast judgment over a drink, a dinner, walking in the airport and I sit there and think, especially if it's a friend or acquaintance, and I know that they do what they do with their children, I laugh inside my head. I'm like, you're telling me I curse too much. You're putting your children in a curious position. Right. At your own self-interest. It's amazing, your perspective. I think it's because it's a little bit, it's so unique to what the masses are, and that's why people gravitate to it so much.

12:16I watched this, another thing. It lacks fear. I'm not worried about fear. I'm going through one right now on LinkedIn. I have a thing that is a program to join our team and I want you to make stuff to join the team. Here comes the elitist creative community saying, fuck you Gary Vee, spec work, you're better than this. You're making fucking, you should pay people, what the fuck? And I'm like, I don't believe that. I do shit for free all the time. Like this. I speak for free even though I get paid$150 ,000 because I strategically believe that attention in that audience was worth it for me. This is America.

12:49I'm not imposing people to make me free videos. We're trying to, I pay plenty of people to make. It's not that it's my only thesis. I just wanna grow a little bit and hedge my bet. We've picked a lot of wrong people. I'd like to see people make something for me. I don't feel that it's exploitation. Nobody's requiring them to. If they are so great and get paid, they don't need to. But for a lot of us, we're not as entitled as those people that are casting judgment and had mommy and daddy's money to go to the right school and things of that nature and you need to kick your fucking foot through the door and the way you do that is by fucking doing something for free.

13:25Absolutely. You like that one? No, but it's true though. It is true and I'm sorry we're hurting your market value but this is called supply and demand. And I'm sure you get offers probably by the thousand a day for people that work for you for free. Thousands. Thousands, I'm sure. Thousands. And even that's a competitive market. I'll be honest with you. I think people that are mad that there's spec work going on now are gonna be really mad in a decade when people pay people to work for them. Wait till that can opens. Wait till people understand what's really going on. It's just supply and demand.

13:56It is supply and demand. It scares the fuck out of me that I can have an entire Team Gary in 20 years I'm predicting that is paying me to be there. Whether I can get there emotionally, that is already the next step. You know, I'm able to do, I believe in show me your work. Others clearly with the comments said no. The next one's an interesting one, but I think it's gonna happen. Whether I decide to do that or not, I don't know. I lean towards no as I sit here today, my POV may evolve. It's a much better use of money than going to art school. Oh, I agree. But then you don't believe in mentors. So these people are all wanting to be mentors.

14:37No, I don't believe in mentors to me, and I believe there's some other people out there that only learn by listening and watching and doing. By the way, I wish I believed in mentors. Let me phrase, I wish my brain worked in a way that could learn from a mentor. Right, or I thought, well I have something that I thought was very clever, which was that mentors are from what happened already. That's why I don't value them as much as most people. And you're so much about the future. Or the current. Or the current, right. And so, you're right. And then I think most things are commoditized. Like, they're gonna, like, I'm at the, you know, first of all, I had it intuitively because I learned it from, listen, one thing that I underestimate is I was a true businessman from the age of six years old.

15:18It's all I did. I sold, I bought, I traded, I made signs. By the fucking time I even went into my dad's store, I fucking wish I was making content at 14. When I tell you that the videos of my audacity of what I was going to do in my dad's liquor store, like the level of shitting on my dad, and it wasn't shitting on my dad, but like that's wrong, that's wrong, that's wrong, that's wrong, as a 14 year old and then now you know being able to look at it 30 years later I was right they weren't guesses and then I say to myself my god I learned natural talent DNA right and I learned a lot from 6 to 14 who the fuck's even doing that people are going like people don't learn until they're like 22 is their first day but how do you even teach that like you said yourself you had a natural gift a natural talent you can only get people I can be a much better singer but I'm not gonna be you know, Rihanna.

16:13Like, so you can teach it, but yes, talent is part of the equation. I mean, how much do you think is work ethic and discipline versus this pure talent? I think work ethic and discipline is 51 % of the equation. And that talent's 49%. I think, I just see too much talent wasted daily. You have to do. This is something I've been talking a lot about. You have to make, you have to practice. You have to, like, watching athletes especially, Actually it's very obvious. There are two people and one's so much more talent. It's not even close, but they're jerking off. They're not putting in the work. And slowly but surely, the tortoise catches up and passes the hair.

16:55Because why is less about actually the physical talent. It's all the stuff they're doing off the field. It's all the mentality stuff that actually undermines their whole career. You think that the mentality, I thought that actually helps their whole career. Is their mental strength, the mental discipline to work it, yeah. It's the better athlete, it's the better entrepreneur, it's the better executive at skill. Absolutely. That their mindset of like work ethic and just like mindset undermines them and they lose. Speaking of mine, what do you think of these masterminds that all these people on social media are just making, they're doing, they're charging 100 ,000, 50 ,000.

17:32It's not my favorite model. Right, and then they're taking a lot of people who are putting all their money and investment into these masterminds. in a very historic, listen, I could tomorrow start a mastermind and probably make$100 million. I really believe that. That's how you can make all the money that you think you're losing or leaving on the table. It's not my favorite model because I don't think it's, I don't think, you know, I just think there's too, honestly, it's just supply and demand. It's no different than what I talked about video creators. I believe there's too much good information for free on the internet.

18:04Google. Google. Listen, I'll be honest with you, that's a very big agenda of mine to not force people to buy into bad masterminds. Right. Well, and also like all these great internet marketers who, you know, put themselves on a platform where they're teaching people these things, but they're charging people all their money. And so like - I'm not a fan. There's a lot of bad behavior going on. I'm sure there are people out there who charge people. Yeah, like 50 or$100 ,000. I had some guy yesterday tell me he spends$175 ,000 a year on these masterminds from the same people that you and I, I'm sure the ones that I'm thinking of that you know, right?

18:42Yeah, I'm not a fan. It's a, and, and by the way, what I was about to say, I'm sure there's somebody who's just starting out who's, she's got a$1 ,500 a month or a year mastermind and I'm sure it's our Y positive. But as you go up the scale, I'm talking, yeah, I'm talking to, you know, I think, I think people are doing that. It'd be the reason I built a$100 million one. It because people would want to say they're in it. because I'm a brand. Well, yeah, well also. It's the same reason people wear$80, it's the Gary V's, it's the Nike, it's just, you know, whatever, like it's how we express, an entrepreneur would be expressing themselves by being a part of it.

19:15Right, and all these people who listen. It's why I like doing sneakers and wines, I apologize. No, please. Because I also want to build businesses, but I want it to be there in case you drink wine, in case you wear sneakers, and you are grateful for the free, you can do it. But you are building a business. VaynerMedia, VaynerSports. But I mean, my closest to having anything with my audience is actual physical product that I feel they can, if they live that life, could do versus me holding back my best content to charge you. What everyone's doing is they're putting out their worst content to then make you pay for their best content.

19:55That's right. And I'm putting out my best content and it's better than everybody else's content. It is, because it's now, it is actually. so that's what's happening can I ask you one more question I know you have to like jump now I can't even remember the question go ahead start it down what was I gonna say I was just gonna say it and now I can't remember what it is so go somewhere else and then maybe they'll come back to you that's what I always do when I forget something yeah I was gonna say something what's the one thing that you think that everybody no matter what the business is that they're in should be doing right now producing content at scale producing exactly I mean it's just this is what's so fun to be one of my favorite things that are going on now that I have so much scale on Instagram is when people leave a comment and they think they're trolling me and it's the biggest compliment.

20:39Gary, you say the same shit. It's my single favorite moment in my career right now. How many people do you? I'm like, yes I do. But that's good, that's because it's - And what makes me talented is I say it in 1800 trillion different ways. And I will always say it in the newest places to say it and it will be contextual to TikTok and LinkedIn just like it was for Twitter and Instagram and I'll eventually catch you at the moment that you're ready to hear me. Exactly. After you go to all the other shortcuts and all the other things that you don't want to be doing my way, slow, shitty, right, kind, good, giving.

21:23When you hate that because you want fast, quick, a lot and you go through it all and none of it works or my favorite one when it worked and then it collapsed. My best people consuming my content for me are the ones who actually had success for a minute in the other way and it all came down. Right. Exactly. And then they realized why and they come. Not the ones that don't have success fast. They're also good. They believe in my way. Right, right, right. They didn't get success. The one that's most interesting to me is she fucking did it. She made a ton of money in 18 months. It all went away. I'm curious because you're such a motivating, such a motivator.

22:05What's the percentage? I know you probably don't know this, but the percentage of people who actually implement and execute on what you say. Well, to what I really am saying currently, almost no one. I'm telling everybody to produce 100 pieces of content a day. Yeah, I mean that would be. I'm not sure if there's anyone doing it. Well, how would someone actually do that much? 60 tweets. A day? Yeah, write 60 things. Everyone has thought, talk about everything and anything. Like you can do it. It can actually happen. Right, I understand that. You know what I mean? Yeah. Like if you get in, this is why document over create was my big breakthrough in that one sit down with that kid.

22:44It helped so many people. I'm not asking you to create a hundred things. I'm asking you to make a hundred things. That can be, if you go all the way religiously there, when we leave here, not only do we take a selfie together, but you take a photo of that and you say, this is Gary's view. Why doesn't he wanna buy the Knicks? And it's like question, you know? You're just making all of a sudden because you put, why doesn't he wanna buy a Knicks? Somebody sees Knicks and engages with you and they become aware, people don't get how it actually works. It actually, everything's a conduit kind of. And then if you can afford it, you start building out the thesis.

23:19You record and you post produce at scale. And you produce for TikTok and YouTube and Facebook and Twitter and Instagram and your podcast and you know, that's how. It's a lot. It's a lot. But to remind everybody before everybody goes exactly where I know they're going, I was doing it at scale in 2006 to 2011 by myself while running a liquor business. I was doing, that's why I have so many tweets and it's all documented. Go back to what I was doing on Twitter in 2006, 7, 8. It's all there. It's all there. I know. Because you're gonna say it's DRock and it's the team and it's this and that and I'm like cool.

23:58That's now. That's what you can get to if you do it right. A decade later. That's amazing. So I just believe in bringing value to the audience is the biggest leverage point. Is there any other companies, I know you're, I'm trying to wrap it up. It's okay. Is there anything besides, I know TikTok's another one, another thing that you see that people should be kind of keeping their eye on? No, TikTok and LinkedIn are more than enough. I've been very loud about this the last hundred days. Like, back to why I love this question, before we get to the next one, good news, we have two right now. We really didn't have that many a couple months ago.

24:32Like a year ago I wasn't that excited about much. It was like more Instagram. LinkedIn and TikTok have opened up for everybody, in a real way. TikTok is kind of like, isn't it very, and maybe this is just me, and my, because I'm an old woman, kid, but like, isn't it kind of like a young person thing? You mean like Facebook was? Well, yeah, but besides making videos, what else can you do? I'm not going to start singing a song. Well, maybe I should. Why don't you just put out the content that you'd put out on Instagram? See, what people understand is platforms evolved. If this interview was happening in 2011, you would say, but Gary, isn't Instagram for photographers who are taking nice photos?

25:11It wasn't kids yet. Instagram did not start as kids. Instagram started as photographers. This episode is brought to you by Accenture. When your advertising operations fall out of sync, everything else follows. Spotify and Accenture are working together to reinvent the rhythm of ad sales, using automation, analytics, and smarter workflows to simplify campaign delivery and access better data across the business. The result? Less time spent on operations, more time connecting brands with the moments and fandoms that matter most. Learn more at Accenture.com slash Spotify. This episode is brought to you by Google Chrome.