Why You Need to 'Go Full Tilt on Your Dream' in Your 20s

0:00Gary Vaynerchuk:When you're a kid, you need to fucking go full tilt on your dream. 18 to 30 is fucking straight high risk, high reward fucking life. You will never have less fucking responsibilities and you will never have more energy and you'll never have, like, you're now grown but you're not fully, like, responsible grown. 20 to 30 is a fucking movie and people are settling and going safe when you should be a psycho. You should go do stand-up comedy. Like, go right now to the fucking, to the cellar and just fucking try, like, this is when you need to be a maniac. and bet the fucking balls on it. And so to me, what would I do?

0:33Gary Vaynerchuk:Get a job that's closest to who you want to be one day and live within the means of that job's pay.

0:39Benji:This is the Gary Vee Audio Experience.

0:43Gary Vaynerchuk:What's good everybody? It's Gary Vee and I'm with New Yorkers Live. So we run a New York City media company.

0:48Benji:Yes. New Yorkers Live, NY Sports. I think definitely I've been consuming it for over 10 years from the early days of IG and Facebook as well. I'd love to ask you some questions that are New York City related. Thrilled. Because our content is all New York City based. We also have the largest sports page on Instagram, NY Sports. Love. Let's do it. Yeah, we cover all sports. Alright, so first question we're gonna ask you. Gary Vee, we're at the Vayner office. You have thousands of people here. You have dozens of offices across the world. Why New York City? Why do you choose to be in New York City?

1:20Gary Vaynerchuk:Oh, this is super fun. Guys, this is not even for the New York City crowd. does anyone have any viable debate that this is not the greatest city in the world? Like the ludicrous concepts of like, oh, it's chill here, it's pretty here. Like this is the greatest city in the actual world. In the actual world, not in America, in the actual fucking world, this is by far the most electric, most merit-based, watch this, kindness if you understood. Like do you know how many drillions, there's fucking eight million people that live on this little island, let alone the amount of people that are here, people will talk about the 5 to 50 to 80 bad things that happen.

2:00Gary Vaynerchuk:What about the trillions of interactions that are happening right now? Do you know how much courtesy and kindness and good behavior I see every day in New York City? People getting up for an old lady in the... This is the greatest fucking city. Guys, even in America, big cities, Chicago, L.A., all these... Has anybody been there at midnight? It's fucking dead. It's over. Have you ever gone outside at 1.30 after doing something in this city? It feels like it's fucking noon. The whole city's alive. They fucking mapped this a long time ago of the city that never sleeps. This is the most competitive, most fucking real authentic, like most challenging yet fucking fulfilling city in the world and there is no distant second.

2:43Gary Vaynerchuk:So that's the answer to your question. I couldn't even comprehend living in here. All my fucking homies that got soft and moved to other places because they wanted to save a little money. Like, you can't save me enough money to leave the fucking grandstand. I'm super happy you're down there getting a tan playing in the minor fucking leagues. It's the greatest fucking city in the world. I hope you're enjoying the podcast right now. Make sure you follow the podcast. That's why I'm interrupting. Let's keep going on this show, but follow the podcast. It'll make my mom super happy.

3:13Benji:What about Miami? A lot of companies are moving to Miami. A lot of friends that I grew up with in New York have moved to Miami.

3:18Gary Vaynerchuk:Listen, I don't judge another man and women's objectives or what makes them happy. But if we're talking about the game of life, you can play in the G League or you can play in the NBA.

3:32Benji:Is Miami the G League?

3:38Gary Vaynerchuk:Yeah, and by the way, that's giving love to Miami. I mean, there's other places like Boston that is like high school basketball.

3:47Benji:Right.

3:48Gary Vaynerchuk:So love to Miami, but like, this is the fucking NBA.

3:50Benji:What about for business opportunities? You've built such a successful career, and a lot of that was HQ'd in New York. Yes. Do you think that young people need to be in New York City to start their careers and take advantage of those opportunities? Or now with everything that we do remote, do people need to come here to build their careers?

4:08Gary Vaynerchuk:I think they need to come here if they want the serendipity of humanity. What does New York offer? The serendipity of humanity, right? Listen, again, with all jokes aside about Miami and Boston, please edit this properly, man. Everyone should live where they want, how they want, what they want. Everyone has different needs, right? Some people need to live by the water. Some people need to hike every day. Some people want to live by their parents. Some people need more backyard for their dog. Everyone needs to decide what they need to decide. There is no should. There is no should. I can have passion at New York's the best of all time, but that works for me.

4:43Gary Vaynerchuk:That being said, if you're a youngster, like I see a lot of youngsters in my DMs right now talking about like fuck man, I'm starting to get tired of this remote work thing. Like they're in Bergen County, New Jersey right there, which I love, I'm a Jersey boy so I love Jersey the best. But like the difference is when you're in the office in New York and it's 6.45 and you go outside, like the day begins. 6.45 in the suburbs, remote work, like you're drinking a soda and watching Netflix. Like you know.

5:11Benji:It's a different life.

5:13Gary Vaynerchuk:And so there's the serendipity of humanity, the experiences, the fucking culture, the vibe, the living. So no, I don't think they have to. But I think for many of us who are extroverts, who love people, who love chance, who love stumbling on something new, or are curious, are hungry, of course it's better to be here physically.

5:38Benji:So for those youngins, because you have a lot of youngins in your DMs, we have a lot of young 'uns that follow the New Yorker's page. What advice do you have for someone that's trying to make it for themselves? We have high schoolers that follow us that don't want to go to college. I speak to high schoolers that don't want to go to college. You've been talking about this for a long time, about people that maybe college isn't for everyone. If someone's planning to skip college and they're getting into the business world, what advice do you have for them on navigating that?

6:04Gary Vaynerchuk:So college, I think, for someone who's creative or entrepreneurial, if you're going to college and you're collecting debt, because mom and dad are not supporting that, you've got to really think twice because you're putting yourself in a very tough hole and you're going into an institution that doesn't really map to your skill set. It's just real talk. Obviously, lawyer, doctor, there's so many things that should go to those infrastructures, especially if mommy and dad, I mean, by the way, if mom and dad are paying, you should all go. It's a vacation. Go do keg stands and hook up and it's the best.

6:33But, you know,

6:34Gary Vaynerchuk:what I would say to them is try to get close to the sun. Meaning, if you want to be in the music industry, go be a fucking intern or fucking admin for an executive that you admire. Like a lot of people will pick five or$10 ,000 more in salary and be like low man on a totem pole around an industry they don't care about. Like if you're a Knicks fan and you want to be in the sports business, like go be the assistant of the assistant at the garden to Leon Rose because that's what you want to do yet they'll go and work at VaynerMedia for 5 ,000 more. What the fuck does that have to do with your dream?

7:05Gary Vaynerchuk:When you're a kid, you need to fucking go full tilt on your dream. 20 to 30, 18 to 30, is fucking straight high risk, high reward fucking life. You will never have less fucking responsibilities and you will never have more energy and you'll never have, you're now grown but you're not fully responsible grown. 20 to 30 is a fucking movie and people are settling and going safe when you should be a psycho. You should go do stand-up comedy. Like go right now to the fucking, to the cellar and just fucking try, like this is when you need to be a maniac and bet the fucking balls on it. And so like to me, what would I do?

7:42Gary Vaynerchuk:Get a job that's closest to who you want to be one day and live within the means of that job's pay.

7:50Benji:And that might. And then you'll learn from someone who's, yeah.

7:53Gary Vaynerchuk:If you get lucky and you have like a real homie that she or he's like really looking out for you if you're like the admin's admin, well then you'll go to the moon. But even if they're not, you're gonna fucking learn. even if they're a jerk you're gonna fucking learn that that's a real fucking education yeah and again my big thing is in your 20s like there's 22 year olds that are watching right now if i'm like yo go live with three of your buddies in a shithole they're like yeah fucking gonna do keg stands of like bush light like you can eat fucking bojangles and drink natty light when you're fucking 23 i promise you can't do that when you're older you know and so like i don't know like Like, fucking go hard.

8:29Gary Vaynerchuk:And now with this shit and social, what the fuck are you doing right now? Like, this wasn't real 40 years ago. So I want people to go ham 18 to 30 and just fucking don't live life with regret. Like, whatever you want to be, be that. But you're gonna have to eat shit. The biggest thing that people understand is you have to eat shit if you want something really phenomenal. Or mommy and daddy are gonna subsidize you. But I would tell you that if mom and dad want to pay for your dreams, you should tell them no. So they have no control. So you're a man and woman on your own two feet. and you need to fucking do it yourself.

8:58Benji:Let me ask you about AI, because you've been so early to so many trends. Everyone wants to know how AI will impact their lives. People have positive and negative feelings towards it. Our content is all about New York City. So I want to ask you, New York City specific, how do you think AI will change New York City? What jobs do you think will be most impacted by AI in New York City? Where do you think the most opportunities will be when it comes to AI in New York City? Anywhere you want to take, what will AI do to New York City?

9:26Gary Vaynerchuk:AI is gonna change the world you guys all know that there's going to be job recorrection because of it AI in New York City will take people's jobs that don't think they're just they're taking orders from someone hey design this in Adobe you're in trouble if you're a designer in New York and you just take direction from someone well you're in trouble right I told Train you gotta learn how to do views if you're doing something that AI can do without you that's a problem So the thinking, the creativity, the strategy, people need to focus on that. What it won't take for a while is the electrician's job, the waiter, the sommelier, like the physical stuff, which New York has a ton of.

10:07Gary Vaynerchuk:So look, I think the blue collar worker is good. It's the white collar worker. It's somebody making a buck 80 who thinks they're an analyst that Chachi B.D. can do.

10:18Benji:Right?

10:18Gary Vaynerchuk:So we all have to be on call. This is how it works. Like shit changes. Like I have one of the biggest marketing agencies in the world. AI is gonna change my world. I'm bullish AI because I believe in technology and I believe in people, but it's gonna affect my world. And if I'm not careful, I'm gonna get cooked. And so I just think this is a mindset. How it's gonna affect New York, it's gonna affect New York the way it's gonna affect everybody else in the world. This technology is profound. It's gonna matter. Everybody has to figure it out. And my big thing on this one, I'm just trying to bring value right now to the New Yorkers, but anybody who stumbles on this, this is a tidal wave.

10:51Gary Vaynerchuk:You have two choices, head in sand, pray that it doesn't kill you, or grab a surfboard and ride the fuck out of it, I highly recommend you do the latter. What does that mean? Go start doing research, figure it out. Don't demonize AI because you're scared of what's gonna do to you because it's gonna do it to you anyway. It's like being a sports fan. When we boo the heat or the pacers, it doesn't stop them from scoring. In fact, if you're a psycho like me, hate comments make me better. You know what I mean? And so we can't boo AI. It's not gonna stop it. Johnny, Johnny who's watching right now from the Bronx.

11:26Gary Vaynerchuk:You being like this AI shit is bullshit. It's not gonna stop AI. Right, right. What it's gonna do is mean that Johnny who said, fuck it, Gary Vee said AI is important, let me put three hours and research it. That might change Johnny's life. Having a beer with your two buddies and being like, yeah, AI sucks, right, John? Yeah, AI sucks, okay. And that's what you said about the computer, that's what people said about the internet, that's what people said about the mobile device. Like, it's coming and you need to be ready for it. I want to ask you about content creators.

11:54Benji:We work with a lot of content creators, a lot of content creators work with the page. Which content creators most influence you in New York City and which content creators are you, that you want to put anyone on, just anyone that you've been watching or anyone that comes onto your feed that you want to shout out?

12:11Gary Vaynerchuk:So one thing I hate to do is bullshit. So there's nothing right now that's like oh my God. I will say that the food crew, big shout out to all the food critics, I think they do a really good job. New York's so insane with food. so I give a lot of shout out to them. I actually just was at Swish Breaks in Midtown. Big shout out to them. They're doing live shopping. I'm obsessed with live shopping. You probably see. You need to figure out how to sell fucking Big Apple T-shirts. I don't give a fuck. Figure it out. Here's what I would say. Big shout out to everyone who makes content. There's a lot of New Yorkers that do this who are doing shit that they fucking love painting.

12:43Gary Vaynerchuk:They love street interviews. They love fashion. They love the Knicks. They do it because they like it not because they think they're going to get money from it or get famous from it or get views from it. They make the content they think that they want to make. They know those other things might happen but it's authentic as fuck to them. They're the ones that I can, in my feed I'm like, okay that kid's got something and so that's what I look for.

13:09Benji:Are there anything, you've been in New York City for decades. Is there anything about old school New York that you miss?

13:15Gary Vaynerchuk:I hate that shit by the way. Like I hate when people, kids, I hate when they do to you like,