- [announcer] get up onyour feet, gary vaynerchuk. (cheering and applause) - [man] thank you,you changed my life. - [man 2] i love you, gary. - love you back, thank you.
apple stock price in 1985, thank you. (cheering) - [woman] love you, gary.(cheering and applause) - thank you, vancouver.thank you very much.
thank you, let's do this. i mean look, we couldstay here all day and do that, but i want to bring some value. yeah, so listen i think we'redoing a pretty cool format. we're gonna go 20-20-20. i'm gonna yap here a little bit, then we're gonna do aquick little fireside. then we'll do somequestions with you guys. thank you for the love.
i think that thatmoment in itself is something that i thinkeverybody should think about. a funny thing happenswhen you do the right thing. a funny thinghappens when you over-deliver to the othersand try to take less. a funny thing happenswhen you deploy patience and run a marathon. a funny thing happensand what happens is you start building equity,you start building legacy,
you start building leverage. that reaction i appreciateand i know and have seen it for others. but i know thereason i get that reaction and it's not because of myskill set on a sporting field or how i sing. it comes from thefact that i'm desperately, and i mean desperatelytrying to figure out how to bring value to you.
i've been thinking aboutit a lot which is like hey, why am i playing this patient? why am i not lookingfor anything in return? why do i like it betterif i give you a whole bunch and you never give me anything? and i mean that. and by the way i'm notthis great human being. it's not that i'm thenicest guy in the world. there's something behind it.
i'm a businessman, i havemy own goals and ambitions. so i've been reallytrying to reverse engineer like why is this my state? what makes medifferent in this way? and the otherpeople that i see do it, why do they do it? i think it comesup to this, my friends. i think first and foremost,and this is so important for so many of you tohear and i've been saying it
a bunch and i know there's bythe way a lot of engagement on social so i know a lotof you have context on me. i spend the first13, 14 years of my career building a business andnot worrying about building a personal brand and nothaving a social media account. i was buildingan actual business. i think the real reason i giveaway my content for free, i engage with all of you.i answer, i give love. i think the biggest reasoni do that is 'cause i don't
need your help ormoney to accomplish my goals. i have enough talent tobuild businesses that are not predicated on turningadmiration or attention into short-term dollars. i think this is very importantbecause if this conference is positioned ashow do we build things and have great impact,it starts with only two things. there's only two things. listen, my wholetalk given the framework
that they've created forthis conference is actually very simple.i was thinking about it, i'm like okaylet's make it contextual. let's talk aboutsomething slightly different. it's actually very easy ifyou're sitting in this audience to achieve the ambition of thecontext of this conference, which is to do thingsthat are also then good for humanity.it's actually very, very simple. it's two things.
it's intent and thisis a big one and we don't talk about it enoughin our business world, entrepreneurship,tech, solopreneur, intent. like what areyou actually up to? what are youactually trying to do? is your intent toactually build a great business and give back to the world? or is your intent to disguise that you want to make money
by saying that everytime somebody buys one of your granola bars you donatea granola bar to the hungry? and i'm glad that eightof you laughed over there because i'm goingto tell you something. as somebody who wasthere and saw blake early on when he formedthat toms shoes model and as somebody who's anangel investor in 2013 and '14 and looking atevery single company, i saw an ungodly amountof 23-year-olds claiming to me
that because they'remillennials, this was the best, this was my favorite pitch. because they weremillennials they cared about the world moreand so they both wanted to make money but also theycared more about the world than gen x,which was really cute. then i would lookat their business model and whatever the fuckthey were selling that they were then donating oneto somebody that was so
fucking needy, right? and literally, if you pressedthem on why it was going to this country, ifyou even asked one question why it was goingto this country, you pretty much ended up realizing they justthrew a fucking dart at a map. (audience laughter) then i just want to remindeverybody i'm a businessman. i understand thati put out content,
but i'm a businessman. so it wasn't very difficultfor me to look at the p&l and the projections torealize that they were selling this granola bar, or umbrella,or sneaker for twice the price that it neededto be so they could afford to actually give the sneaker. so what you were doingactually was your intent was to look like a good person but still make as much money.
every dollar that youwould have if you didn't have the bullshit model thatyou were donating something. so what you were werecompletely full of fucking shit. (audience cheers and applause) and i have great news. i searched a lot ofaccounts on my long-ass flight to vancouver last night ofpeople using hashtags here. these are wonderfulpeople that are in the audience using the hashtag and they'regoing to change the world
and bring to humanity. and some of youare full of shit. so if we're goingto accomplish something from this conferencethese two days of inspiration and good stuff, if you're gonnaactually accomplish something when you walk out there andgo back to your normal lives, i promise you step oneof the idea really good part of the strategy needsto be your actual intent.
i want to remindeverybody that it is very okay to be selfish and buildsomething and do it in parallel. you don't need to disguiseyour ambitions and wants and needs with horseshitthat you're going to donate to the rain-fucking-forest. you don't have to do that. you're capable ofboth, and i am that. i live it. i tell you from,i always talk about stuff
that's real to me. i am an assassin, killer, ninja, selfish winner in business and i canseparate that from who i am. i want to remind everybodymy favorite all-time thing of doing good is when somebodycalled me out on twitter for not donating tothings or doing gofundme's on social media.that i was a bad guy. and i literally dm'edthis person and met him
at starbucks where istopped in between that meeting. this is back in 2011. i stopped at my accountant's,picked up my tax, yeah picked up my tax returns. you like this story,this is a good one. this is my favorite but i don'ttell this story very often. but it's good underthe context of this. he said, "garyvee, why don'tyou donate and do good causes? "you're just selfish, youjust care about yourself.
"why don't you do things likeyour friends on social media?" and he mentioned somesocial media influencers. i dm'ed him, i said, "hey fuckface, meet me at starbucks." i went to my accountant's,i picked up my tax returns, i showed up to the starbucks. he walked in, he shitthat i was actually there. and then i showedhim my tax return. then i said to him,"young man here's the difference "between you and i.
"you're still of the age wherepeople trick you easily, "where people usesocial media to pr themselves "and are using causesto build themselves up "that they're good people,and you're confused. "when you do good youstay quiet about that shit." i showed ... (audience applause and cheers) you guys know me,you guys know me. i'm very comfortable to beloud and proud of my vanity
and my kind oflike accomplishments. and i self-promote. but the things that i'mmost proud of you don't know jack shit about, you don't. so i showed him mytax return which you know, shows your donationsand how you actually roll. and he was like,"i'm so confused." and i said, "you're confusedbecause you don't understand "what's actually happening."
that's the pointof this intent talk. nobody in here is trickingthe one percent of winners with their bullshit. so if you want toactually accomplish the thesis of this conference,you need to make sure that your intent is pure. your intent, theway you make your money, the way you make your moneyis something you're proud of. that you're not bottomfeeding, and most of all
if you're going to dogood for the world, just do it. don't use it as your pr engineto make money on the side. intent.(audience cheering and applause) it's true, andi'm sure you've sniffed it out. number two, the onlyother way to do this whole thing is my favorite part. the doing the work. you know, before youcan help the elephants and before you'regoing to help carrots,
you actually have tobe in a position to help. the way you dothat is create the means and the infrastructure to help. whether that is avoice and an audience, whether that'sthe financial means, whether that's therelationships, everybody here, and when i say everybody herei don't mean this conference, i mean the whole fucking game. 99% of people are soquick to get to this thing
that they don'tlay a foundation down. you gottaactually build a business that gives you that air cover. i wanna remind everybodyhere, and it's really fun because i always lovewhen the mix of the crowd is 18 and 88.(audience laughter) because if you're under26 years old, you've not, 27 years old, you've not livedthrough a tough economy yet. it's been all upswingsince you've been in the game.
just has, 2008, '09,like call it what it is, in 2010 it wasalready on it's way up. simple as that. so you're lookingin seven, eight years, really means you're actually 30 and you haven't really played. i look around and i seepeople more my age and older. we've been throughsome shit, couple of cycles. we know what happens.
do you know how excited i amfor the world to collapse soon so i can get rid of somany of you fake fuckers. (audience cheering) do you know how pumped i am? i dream at night, last nighti fell asleep at two o'clock and i go, one day thatkid's gonna have to change his profile frominfluencer to bank teller. can't fucking wait. so, intent,don't be full of shit
cause you're trickingthe 90% that don't matter and you're losingequity with the 10% that do. number two, do. you gotta work, you feel superinspired from this weekend, you can't wait, whathappens next thursday? what happens next month? you have to actually work a lot. you know zero people,zero people that have built something big
that haven't put in aridiculous amount of work, and the bigger it isthe more they worked. so many of you have your mouthway ahead of your actions. really, you'regonna own an island and you fucking goto cochella, fuck you. cause it's the truth. it's the truth andthe reason you say that is cause you, like me,have been through a couple of these cycles.we know exactly what
we're living through. all of my 48-year-old executive employeeswere trillionaires in 2000 cause of the internetand the stock market prices. you know how manypeople here, have a startup, raised money, and have nothad one month in their lives where they were profitable? let me remind all of youstartups that have raised money, it doesn't take a heroto lose money each month. and there's a problem, andi'm coming with you with this,
and this is positive fire.i'm not razzing you, i'm trying to give you lovebecause i know what's happening, i live in that world. vc money is clamping up. vc money is clamping up, so i'msitting here and telling you to do, if you are not makingmoney yet with your business figure out why. change your model. cut your overhead.
shit's coming. practicality is my religion. that's why i pushpatience on so many of you, 'cause it's practical.it is a marathon. unless you dieit's gonna be long. so why are you running so fast,why do you need it so bad? let me tell youwhat really sucks. it really sucks whenyou bought a $20,000 watch and shit hits the fanand you can't sell that
piece of jewelry for$4,000 'cause everybody's trying to get a job. and so everybodyis not investing. let me tell, and by the way,i eat my own dog food. from 20 to 30 i built abusiness to $45 million a year business kicking real profit,and i was paying myself $47,000 a year livingin a one bedroom apartment and driving a jeep grandcherokee, which was nice, but it wasn't a fucking beamer.
and i did that cause i was investing in the business for a foundation. and everybody'strying to make a buck and they're pulling it out. you're making money andyou're buying nice suits. stupid, short term, insecurity. (laughs) (audience applause) people gettingnaked in the front row.
but i mean it, but i mean it. right, like there's thatmeme, you know it's funny, it makes me smile and i hopepeople are getting something out of it. there's thatmeme from jay z on instagram, right, like two pictures ofhim, one with a ton of jewelry and then one nowwith just a black t-shirt, and it shows one, he waslike worth a million dollars, and now, butreally, that's just real. and the thing that idon't like, and i've been
bringing it up here and i'mgonna bring it up again is, people are fronting forpeople that aren't going to be the impact on them. i met with a kid for 20minutes today, loved him, he's got it, but he'sdoing, but, thank you, but he doesn't, buthe's doing something that's gonna hurt him. and i told him, i said,"look, you're doing something "that is not going to win.i would eliminate you
"from considerationto do business with "based on this behavior otherthan i don't think i'm shit "and i shouldn't be judgingpeople, but most of the majority "of my contemporariesare doing that." i'm just confused by thebehavior of the current system because so much of it facade,so much of it is short term, so much of it is fake, and idon't know, i just know how i got here today. i know howi got the luxury
and the enormous, enormous feeling of admiration, and it came from tried and true. and it comes fromtried and true for everybody. and what we do iswe sit around and look at the .000001% of aguy that creates instagram, or a guy that createsfacebook, or elon musk, and we start mappingtowards these anomalies,
yet 99.99999% of peoplethat have been successful, it took them 20, 30, 40 years,tried and true, hard work, and so i try to impose onyou here today, my friends, through sheer will trying toforce it down your throat, that first and foremostyour intent needs to be pure. if you wannabuild a good business and you wannagive back to the world, then that's whatyou actually have to do. you know, you'renot gonna trick, right,
and then, you know,i don't know, i'm just, i'm just very, very,very passionate about this because you're livingthrough the greatest era that human beingshave ever lived through, and i am not confused tothe macro political issues that we're living through.and i understand all the scenarios that we'reliving through across the globe. it's just that humanshave never had it better.
like your life is better than your great,great-grandparents. there's a lot of shit goingon with political presence and things of that nature,yet it's still better than if the black plague wasrunning through us right now. like, we are so fortunate,the fact that you're even at this conference puts you atthis, such a small percentage of people in the world,we have 7.4 billion people in this world, and you haveit so good. i am so grateful.
i am so grateful, right, i amso aware of what's actually happening here, andi don't mean for me. i mean for all of you. and so, i can't wrapmy head around wasting the one at-bat we have,unless somebody here has got some real interestingdata, we don't come back. and you know what,i'm super fucking pumped that i ended upbeing a human being. it's much more funthan being an elephant.
and so if you take intoaccount the ridiculousness and the utterquadruple miracle that it is that you're evensitting here in a human and have all this opportunitythat you were a human during this era, andyou're not willing to deploy the patience, and the workethic, and the tried and true that it takes to live,you know how many people here want to be a millionaire? do you know how rare that is?
have you run the math? you have this enormous audacity,you have this enormous audacity, yet you'renot putting in the work to get you therebecause you think somehow you've been tricked by yourself or somebody else that there's some system, that there'ssome fucking shortcut. there's no fucking shortcut.
you've gotta put in the work. lots of it. and that comes at theexpense of golfing all the time, and that comes atthe expense of going to every god damn event. and it definitelycomes at the expense of watching onemore motivational video, and three more books, andseven more pod, you have to do. doing is the game.
the remote control of society. if you sit in thisroom and you do not know how to make written words,audio sounds, or videos for this device,on the 7 to 10 platforms that dominate it, facebook, youtube,instagram, snapchat, then you areinvisible to society. i'm gonna say it one more time. you know, thefirst 80% of this rant
felt really good forthe 50-year-old plus. the next two minutesare not gonna feel so good. if you live in the world today and you do not, at scale,produce written words, audio sounds or videos forthis device, you do not exist, and you need to wrapyour head around that. so, the theme of this, inactuality, is the following. the answer is self-awareness.
know who you are,know what you do, and then tell it in the way that comes most natural to you. if you're a writer, great. start posting on medium, i've got a greatlittle recommendation that a lot of peoplearen't talking about. if you like to write, write long posts onfacebook and instagram.
get in a company picture, and write a long-ass blog post. how many people here arewriting a blog right now? raise your hands high. tomorrow, write on facebook, in addition to, ormove your blog to facebook. it will change your world. tomorrow. audio, how manypeople here have a podcast?
raise your hands. couple. if you don't like to write, and listen, eventhough i've written four new york timesbestselling books, i can't write for shit. if any of you'vegotten an email from me, can't put twosentences together. god bless ghost writers,i love you stephanie land.
but i can talk. and so, if youdon't want to be on video, 'cause your consciousof that, but you can talk, and you're not a good writer,you need to start a podcast, and you need to putyour content on soundcloud and spotify tomorrow. and, if you'vegot the gift for gab and charisma, andyou like the camera, and it lights youup like it does for me,
then you need tomake videos tomorrow on youtube andfacebook and instagram. if you do notcommunicate that intent, and then when i say go do, you've gotta builda business or content, but it needs to live in here. there is no other world, and it is themodern version of this. affiliate marketing andsearch and all these things,
they don't playthe same way on this, and there's nothing else. i don't even havea computer any more. i've lived the last 18 monthsof my life with only this. i look at laptopslike what is that? the world is shiftingfaster than it ever has before, but the way towin is as old at time. do the right thing, and put in the fuckin' work.
- oh, we're gonna goright up to the front. - i want to get real close. - all right. shit, look at this.thank you. - you're welcome. - thank you, brother. - how incredible is this guy? (audience cheers) holy fuck. - i'm only incrediblebecause i'm saying the thing that so many of you think, butyou do things to cover it up.
you know yourbuddy's full of shit. i just tell my buddy,you're full of shit, and then they havea decision to make, and so many of thosebuddies are like you know what? i am, and i can deploythis charisma and gift for gab if i just swallow itfor three or four years, i can actually be big,bigger than i would have been by selling thisshort-term bullshit, and feel good about myself.
i'm not doing this'cause this makes me feel good and i'm like ah, ha. i'm doing this 'causei want you to feel good. i feel good. - all right, so when i wasin new york and we connected, you talked about, youknow, business man gary and then like batman gary.- right. - right, and i absolutelyloved this idea, this concept. so, just for a second i wantto talk to business man gary.
when you're looking atinvesting in a company, like investing in abusiness that's up and coming, what are some of the keythings that you look for? what's like really important? - only two thingsi give a shit about. one, do i believein your thesis? if you walk in andsay i'm building a website that reallydoes well on a laptop and sells ice cream in alaska,
i'm like oh, that'sa shit thesis, i'm out. right? so, i have tobelieve in your thesis. i believe that meditationover the next decade is gonna be the bigconsumer space, right? i feel like, thanks mom. but what you and i know is that physical healthhas been a 30, 40 year trend, it is time to talkabout the mental part.
it's the whole game,it's all i've got. by the way, if youdissect me, i'm so basic. it's just eq, it'sjust very basic things, it's self-esteem,it's insecurity, right? it's very simple,what i actually talk about. i update it by thecurrent state of the world, but the thesis isas simple as it gets. so, what you and i know is that i believe everysingle person here
will be spendingmeaningful money on meditation, whether going to meditationstudios, 'cause it's trendy. whether gettingan app so they sleep. but it's gonna be great.i'm really excited. i really, i'mexcited to be like 70, 80 and see the full cycle of it, 'cause it's gonna help so many, so many people here would benefit frommental games, right?
so if you come inand have a meditation, if you came in and said i wantto start the clothing brand, like, remember tap out for ufc? i want to start the clothingbrand for the meditation space, which seems ridiculous, 'cause the meditation spacein itself isn't fully baked, and you want to be the clothing, which has nothing to do with it, you know, what is itgonna be, a headband?
i'd still be interested, i'd be interested, becausei believe it's gonna happen. then comma, andequally as important, probably slightlymore important to me, is do i believe in her? can she do it? can she, when shit is tough, thirteen months inand money's bleeding, and she has tofire her best friend,
and she's not doingwell, and it's lonely, and she knows that her parentstold her to go to harvard, but she did this, andnow she's on the brink, does she have thestomach to get through it? the biggest issueright now, in 2017, is entrepreneurshiphas become so popular that characterslike me take selfies that everybody thinksthey have to be one, but it takes acertain kind of makeup,
and everybody's about toget punched in the mouth, and most of them are gonna fold like a bunch of fuckin' losers. - all right,that's some real talk. that's some real talk,we'll take it. - so when i invest,i'm like okay. if she walked in and i believed in themeditation app she's building, and i really liked her,i would say okay,
shit's gonna hit the fan, probably beforemeditation gets big, but there's somethingabout her that makes me think that when thatshit hits the fan, she's gonna turn itinto a cupcake company and we're stillgonna make money. that's what i'm looking for. i'll fuckin'sell hot dogs tomorrow if nobody wants tobuy social media content.
i'm just tellingyou guys the truth, that's what i would, i mean, better thangoing out of business. love it when people are like we're gonna go out of business. i'm like, you're abullshit entrepreneur. like, you didn'teven try for a second. the second adversity came youfolded like a cheap chair. loser.(audience laughter)
- so let's talk about that. let's talk aboutadversity, 'cause i think, i think this is something that--- i love it. - all entrepreneurscan relate to. and i mean, yeah, so howdo you deal with adversity? 'cause it's gonna happen.- happily. - yeah. (laughs) just the one word answer. i love it.
- definitely not complain. i love when people compain, like somebody walked inmy office the other day, she's raised $100 million, her company's huge. she sits and complains. i'm like, my friend. i'm like, you've raised $100 million, you've paid yourself a nicesalary for the last six years,
you've lived on your own terms, you've been on thecover of magazines, i'm struggling tocry for you right now. like, you madeyour bed, lay in it. so, i deal withadversity happily. i know exactly what to do. meaning, you cut your expenses and you maximize your profits. and if you were smart,you knew it was coming
and you're not too over bloatedin one way or the other. i'm definitely not at thereliance of somebody else. so, no vc's, or i've neverraised money for my businesses. i make money, i don't give piecesaway of my company for money. thank you.(audience applause) and so, i don't know,i just like it. i think battlescars are attractive. - like it. in terms oflike building batman
building this like personal,building this like personal brand thatyou have that you put out, which is why a lot, you know,a lot of us are here today. i'm curious, you talkabout document don't create. - yes - how important is it tohave something to create on? because i think,what you talk about is you talk about alot of these millennials and a lot of theseyounger people who are trying to
take the selfies andbuild an online profile, but they don't havesomething to actually document. so what does thatlook like in your business? - by the way, it'snot just millennials, there's plenty of 40, 50-, 60-, 70-, 80-year-old non-executors, too. the reason i came upwith document over create is for people that don'thave something big already. like you shoulddocument your journey.
the firstepisode should be like, "hey, it's me, rick." yeah, so, i kinda realized lastnight that i'm full of shit. and, you know, my t-shirtcompany isn't fucking nike. you know, and so i'm justgonna talk about my journey. and i'm gonna go to the gasstation and fill up my car. i mean like you...(audience laughter) i think the only thingthat really sells is truth. and people alwaysemail me when i say that
they're like look atthis guy they were a scumbag i'm like yes, thatperson eventually goes to jail. people are justlooking, i don't, dude i'm struggling out here. i'm not joking,i'm struggling out here. like, really we're at a placenow where kids think it's cool if somebody goes andtakes money out of a bank and puts it on their fuckingbed, and takes a picture of it? like what the fuckis the matter with you?
it's gonna be bad andit's gonna be fucking good. - alright, so i wannaback the train up a little bit because meditationis something that i think is reallyimportant, that mindfulness in the workspaceas entrepreneurs. we had moment out herewhich is like a tech company here in vancouverthat represents meditation andmeditation in the workplace. and i think it'sreally important.
how do you integratethat with your employees and with your team, i'm reallycurious as to like how do you build that within likethe corporate infrastructure? - meditation?- just mindfulness in general, or if you haven't done it yet, do you see it becoming a partof all work environments? - i'm a funny entrepreneur. i'm a bigger fan ofcapitalism than communism. and so, i tend to like reallylet my people do their thing.
you know, i don'tlike doing things, you know, i think of myselfas the federal government, and i think of my businessleaders as like the states using theamerican system, right? so i don't actually manage,push down a lot of things into my companybecause you know, i think companies getvery politically correct and of the moment.i don't wanna like, now everybody has to meditate,i've meditated once.
because iinvested in the company. and i fucking hated it. doesn't mean that idon't think it's gonna be huge. you know, i justdon't wanna do it! so, that's the truthlike, listen i feel good like maybe if my mental statuschanges, maybe i'll be like, oh maybe that canhelp, i don't know right now, i'm actuallyscared to meditate, bro. i'm so happy i'm like,that meditation shit
better not fuck me up. i think companies do politically correctthings and look stupid. i love when bigcompanies thought by putting a foosball tableand giving free cereal out that that made them like google. i'm not a big fan of tactics,i'm a big fan of religion. here's my religion: i givea shit about my employees. i don't need to give them afoosball table, i don't know,
if rick wants to go onvacation eight times a year, we have unlimitedvacation policy, unlimited. now, if you takeeight weeks of vacation, and you're not dismantling it the rest of the year,you're fired. but, unlimited. i don't think millennialslike work-life balance. i have nothing but22-year-olds who are like "i want more money, dick,"i'm like okay.
i'm like work, you know, likeyou know i love, you know like so i think people impose toomuch stuff, it's all tactics. it's what i talkedabout with you guys. the majority of people herethat are solving the world are in tactics not religion.they don't mean it. they're posturing,companies do that. they come up with happyhours and foosball tables, and free cereal to makepretend they give a shit. so, i talk aboutmy truths, you know
we'll bring in somebodymaybe speak about meditation but they can or can'ti don't judge on that. i wanna reverse engineerevery person one by one. i'm not imposingmy will on them. kid walked in theother day he goes, "gary, i'm gonna be theceo of this company." i'm like, bro, goodnow here's the problem, you've alreadywasted too much time. so, you know, whatever.
like you're not gonnabe the ceo of this company when you took 4.3 weeks vacationlast year, and you're 23. you need to work 19hours a day and learn. - yep, it's amazing. - here's what's fun- okay, keep going - you know what's fun about it? it doesn't matterwhat i'm saying up here. like, all i'm repeatingis what the market's doing. right, this isn't my opinion,
it doesn't matter thati'm saying it in a funny way, sitting a funny way. this is what themarket does, i'm just saying it's not me, this iswhat the market does. like, that's whatpeople don't understand i have no opinions, i'mjust observing the market and just reiterating it. that's why it's fun,i don't take it personal, like, i don't care for the threepeople that are gonna tweet
here, after this conference,tons of good and there'll bethree people like i don't like garyhis ego's too much. i'm like i don't care'cause they're gonna be right or i'm gonna be right.maybe they're right. maybe my ego's too much and myhead will explode next week. i have a funnyfeeling i'm gonna fucking win. (audience cheers) and by the way
we all have it, right?like we all still have our chips and fun,i'm really enjoying this planet of the apps thing. re/code wrote an article thatsaid, planet of the apps coming with gwyneth paltrow, celebrity mentors gwyneth paltrow will.i.am, jessica alba, and others. and i was so pumped.
like, i love adversity,my man, nobody in this room you could be tied with me,but nobody in here loves more, losing, adversity, difficulty.i'm a wartime general. i hate this peacetime,these good times, meh. this shit that'sabout to come, carnage. oh god, i'm ready,i'm so ready man. - because you've built yourbusiness out of that adversity. - guys, do you know what i did? do i have toremind the eight of you
that knew me seven years ago? i was at the height, i wasone of the 50 most followed people on twitter whenthere was no other networks. i had just invested infacebook, twitter, and tumblr, i was the guy, i washanging out with mark zuckerberg every week thathe was in new york, i had all therelationships, i was this genius predictor ofwhere the world's going, and i started an agency.
this is not my words,these are my actions! who gives a shit what i'msaying, watch what i'm doing. at the height ofmy career to be fancy, i went and decidedto do client services and eat shit and have clients. 'cause i wanted to built amarketing machine for the future i decided, letme take a step back and build somethingfor ten years, eat shit make lots less money,have lots less fun
not cash in on allthese great things i did, let me build a foundationfor, you know, 50 to 90. so, like, i don't know,like i know i talk a lot but i promise you, i'm doingway more than i'm talking. - how do you, it's interesting'cause watching your journey it's almost likeyou have this cognition of what's coming. how have you developed that? 'cause i thinkthat for a lot of us
it's challengingto see what's coming. how do you cultivate that?i think it's so important it's such an important skill. - i got a goodanswer for you, i lack ego. let me explain what i meanby that, i know that's funny. but i'll tell youhow it happened. and what i mean by that. i was one of the first top 50followed people on twitter. ego, kept a lot of thosepeople staying on twitter
when other things emerged. they didn't wantinstagram to happen. do you know howmany people in here loved affiliate marketingweb 2002? ego kept themout of social media. ego, do you understand? i know that i ain't shit. that the market isthe king and the queen and i respond to it.
so the reasoni'm good like that, is when new shit emerges and then i go taste,and i make judgment calls. one thing a lot of you know is i talk aboutconsumer vr being farther away than a lot of people think, why? because two and a halfyears ago i jumped into vr, when i tasted it'sbeginning, and i used it, and then i watched it andnow i'm using my experience.
which is what i loveabout 40-,50-,60-,70-, 80-year olds, we've seen it. you haven't 27-year-old pat,you haven't seen it yet. you will, so i saw itand i'm like wait a minute this is internet1990 the technology's here but the consumer behavior's not. there's not a personin this audience that knows somebody thatspends two hours a day consistently living in vr.
so, you know, that to meis what's really exciting. other than peoplethat are in the industry. and so, you know,normal people don't. and so we're stilla further way away. and so i taste things andthen i make judgment calls and that's why, and itcomes from lack of ego. it doesn't matter thatyou won the last thing, there's a new thing here. didn't matter that i won email,
email wasn't gonnastay at 90% open rates. it didn't matterthan i won google adwords. google adwords weren't gonnastay at five cents a click and be the only thing. and so i just lack, i just don'tread my own press clippings i just think i'm asgood as my last at-bat. i think i'm super fancy now and that if i makeseven bad decisions nobody's gonnagive a fuck and say
i told you so he was a huckster. by the way, that's how the market does it. - i'm curious, i wanna shiftgears a little bit. you're talkingabout virtual reality. i'm a huge nerd with ai--- okay. - and i'm curioushow you think ai, we already have a&i here, how do you thinkai is going to shape
and shift technology in ourcommunities and everything? - it's real. i call it third and half base. anything that aiand machines can do to get us to third anda half base will be done, and then we'regonna take it home. anything that's beingdone now by humans that computers cando will be eaten up, and let me justremind all of you.
that's a lot. driving cars andall sorts of shit that we didn'tthink about 10 years ago, so i'm a big fan. every singlecustomer service job that is in thebusiness of emailing back customer serviceanswers is out of business. over the nextthree, seven, nine, 12 years, i'm a huge fan.
i'm also veryfascinated by voice. i'm obsessed withalexa and google home. listen, we careabout time and convenience and that's it. that's it. if i can just bebrushing my teeth, remember something, it's quicker for me to say, "hey googlehome," or "hey alexa,
"remind me to buy tomatoes," than to grab myphone and type it. just faster. speed. speed wins everything. speed wins everything, speed is absolutely one of my two orthree religions in business. speed. fast. everybody's too precious,
you're overthinkingyour content. you're overthinkingyour decisions. you're better off doing 16times of being right three times than not doing anything at all. you're pondering. you lack the confidence because you'reworried about what people say. i like losing. that's why this is all so easy.
i don't give afuck if you said i lost. - [man] woo!- it's true. it's an important thing, bro. - [man] fuck yeah! - i love your beard.- [man] thanks. - beard dude there isreacting to the right thing, and i'll tell you why. by not worrying aboutwhat other people think, it allows you to do things.
by doing things, you either win or you learn from your loss, and it creates speed. it's the absolutemental difference between the peoplethat are executing winning versus the people that aren't. it's the fear of others. i don't want to lose, but i'm definitelymore disappointed
than your opinion inyour blog post about my loss. - i got one lastquestion for you. - cool. - when we chatted last, you said that your daughter has the edge. she's got theentrepreneurial spark. - no, she hascharisma and storytelling. i don't know if she hasthe entrepreneurial spark.
maybe her environmentof being rich as fuck is not gonna let her be that.(audience laughter) i'm serious. look, she maylook at what daddy did and she's gonna look at thatmountain and say, "fuck that, "i'm gonna giveall his money away "to people less privileged," and i will supportthe shit out of that. i don't want her to be me,
i want her to be her and whatever she does, i'm behind herone billion percent. and i can tell you, and i'm happy 'causeshe's gonna watch this one day when she's doing it. she will win because she's got the empathy and the charisma, so whether she'sraising funds for the needy
or she's trying toclimb daddy's mountain and say, "fuck you, daddy,i'm doing it bigger." she will win 'cause she's got it and it's gonna be cool to see. it'll be a fun experiment. maybe i was mebecause i had nothing and when i wanted toys, we didn't havethe money for that, so i had to go sell,
shoveling people'ssnow and lemonade, and that's what did it. maybe 'cause she has everything and has alreadydone things in her life that i didn't dountil three years ago and she had to be onthat private plane with me 'cause we had to goand things like that. maybe she won'thave that hunger. what she'll have,
i have gratitude and empathy. maybe she's gonna have guilt that she had it so crazy good, and thatmanifests in giving back. i don't mind. if she wants topaint with tomatoes, great. i just want her to befully pure in what loves, the way i am. then, it has afunny way working out
'cause i'm gonna remindeverybody one more time. being an entrepreneurwas not cool when i was growing up. it was just theonly thing i knew. - amazing. well, we're gonna open it up to q&a.- let's do it. - i'm gonna jet out the stage. i'm gonna leave them for you.
i'm just gonna remind everybody that there are1,350 people in here that wanna ask questions, so try and keepyour questions brief because there's ashit ton of people that wanna ask questions. we're gonna have mic runners. i'm gonna leavethe stage with you, with these monsters,
so good luck.- let's clap it up. - thank you.(audience applause) - [gary] i'm not incontrol of the questions, people with the mics are. let's do it, who's got it? go ahead, grabsomeone. you're in. i'm not picking. - [man 2] i got a question, but before i go into it,
i just wanna take a minuteand pay tribute to you, gary, because i think that10 to 50 years from now, you're gonna go down in history as one of the greatestentrepreneurs in the world like walt disney, thomas edison. give it up for gary. - i really think you're right. no ego. - [man 2] my question is,
i run a video marketing company, and in a lot of your keynotes, i watch allyour keynotes online, you talk about the importanceof redefining an industry. what would you recommend for someone likeme in that industry as a way thatwe can redefine it? - do you wanna redefine it? - [man 2] yes.- why?
- [man 2] because it's boring. - i think that there'sa couple things here. redefining it is funfor a lot of reasons, mainly because you have theaudacity to have legacy, right? that's fun. it tends to make long-termmoney versus short-term money 'cause if you're right, the video trendsare obvious, right? there's 360, it's out there.
it hasn't clicked theway people thought it would, but it's stillgot a long way to go. all the action isgonna be in vr in 20 years. you're young. i would commit mywhole world to vr video, wait 'til it becomes a reality, eat the shit over thenext seven to 12 years because it's not gonna be there and you're gonna be selling it,
but nobody's gonna want it. do whatever you have to do, sell hotdogs andcupcakes to get there. then when the market's there, you were a pioneer. guys, nobody wanted social media when i was talking about it. i just knew it was gonna happen and i was willing to eat shitfor a decade to get there,
so that's what i would do. cool. who's next? howmany mics are there? go ahead. is there one in the middle? why don't you go to the middle? two? got it, okay. hey. - [man 3] hi, how are you?- super.
- [man 3] hi,how's it going, gary? thanks for the keynote,great information as always. - thank you. - [man 3] i watchedyour hamburg keynote, which was just about a week ago, and you talked about, much like whatyou're saying today, how we've beenthrough a cruel period for the pastseven or eight years,
and it's gonna come,the time's gonna come. - i've been talkingabout this for six months now because i feel it. by the way, it stillcould be two years away. it just doesn't feellike it's gonna 10 years away. - [man 3] exactly, andi'm totally on board with that. my question is, for a motivational,inspiration blog which is what i have right now,
which is my startup, we have an ever-growingsocial media presence. we're past that infancy stage and we'restarting to really grow, and we doubled down onsocial media marketing. we're putting outfacebook ads at scale, instagram, same thing. we're puttingout stories, content and i've been doing it all day.
my question is, forsomeone that has doubled down on social media marketing, when that time comes, whether it's today,tomorrow, two years, given the landscapeof the market right now, how would you prepare interms of a contingency plan? - i would do moresocial media marketing when shit hits the fan. - [man 3] awesome.- because that's what
you learned from thefirst internet bubble. everybody sawthe internet bubble, but it crashed and then people walkedaway from the internet, but consumersstill were using it. just 'cause the stockmarket's gonna collapse and then everybody'sgonna react to that and the economicmeltdown will happen, doesn't mean people stopusing instagram and facebook.
the real question is,are you making money and can you afford tooperate during a shit time? because let mepromise you what goes away when shit time comes. shout-outs. coconut companies disappear, so they don'thave money to give you the fit person $1,000to post on your instagram, so the money goes away.
can you make moneywhen the money goes away? 'cause there's still money, it's just leftfor the a-players. - [man 3] cool, awesome. thanks, i agreewith that so much and you just totally reaffirmed social media marketing for me, so thank you.- you got it, bro. yo.- [man 4] yo, hey, hey.
so you've alludedto a healthy body and a healthy mind, butyou've also said that you were open toped use, for, you know, performance enhancing. have you ever used nootropics?i wonder if you are on any of that kind of stuffto get through those long 18 hour days? - right, i have noidea what you just said. - [man 4] well, you wereon joe rogan
and you mentioned-- - oh, so that i know,and joe rogan, i don't know whatnootronics is, so i've neverused. - [man 4]nootropics, modafinil,perazitam, any of the things the bulletproof guy talks about taking, to get through those long days. - no, so, realquick just hold the mic, because i want to jam on this. so, it's really funny,how many people here are first
generation immigrants? raise your hands. so, i don't know if youguys have these same things, i grew up in a russianfamily where, if you had a fever, you had to go to sleep. like, that wasthe answer to fix it. so, it's really funny. my parents, or wife, orsister, if they were here right now, they'd be laughing. i actually get knockedout if i take a single
tylenol. - [man 4] okay. - so, what i was sayingto rogan is i'm fascinated in that all, as i've gotten,now that i'm in the gym all the time, i'm fascinatedthat in 50 year, or 20 years, people will saythat steroids wasn't as bad as it was positioned, right? the way marijuana oralcohol, but i'm undereducated. i've never, i don'teven take supplements. because, i alwaysthink the people selling it
don't fully know.and i'm like, fuck it, like i'm not taking it.so, i haven't. i don't know ifthat's right or wrong. - [man 4] it's a dirty secret of silicon valley thatthey all use piracetam. - well, you know what'sreally interesting about that? in these comments onall these videos i put up, everyone's like,this guy's on coke, right? - [man 4] no,i'm not saying you are,
i just wanted to knowwhat your thoughts are. - no, my thoughts are,i don't really judge people for doing shit, right? i don't think that's my place. i don't do anything, but i don't knowif that's right or wrong. - [man 4] do you knowanyone who does it? have you beenaround it in that world? (audience laughter)not coke.
- oh, i know a lotof people that do coke. i know way more people thatdo coke than do steroids, bro. i don't,listen i think, listen. bro, we're living ina school system that is pushing medicinedown kids throats. of course they'regonna be 23 and do shit. they were taughtthat they were too "add" and had to go onfucking medicine, because big pharma figured out their way in.
fuck that. i aint takingshit ever mother fucker. (audience laughter and applause) and so, you haveparents that lack self esteem 'cause they worryabout what the other parents say about their kidsthat get d's and f's, and they put theirfucking kids on medicine, you fucking loser parents. one man's point of view.
i gotta go with themic, where's the mics? somebody talk with a mic. mics, you gotta makedecisions here, let's go. - [woman] hi.- hi. - [woman] hi, gary i love you.- i love you, too. - [woman] what is onething that you believe to be true thatmost people think is crazy? - oh, that's a good question. what do... one more time?
- [woman] what's one thingthat you believe to be true that mostpeople think is crazy? - most of it. that's a really good question. you know, usually cananswer these pretty quickly, i don't know, i think that, so i think thetruth is undefeated. like, i actually believe thatit all works out in the end. i think people arevery cynical
and think that a lot of peopleget away with things. but, i think thatpeople don't understand, like, the macro of things. they might've gottenaway with the way you judge, which is theymade a million bucks. but, i know theydon't sleep at night, and their lives suck. so, i would say thati blindly am optimistic, and i believe thatthe market is the market,
and the truth is thetruth, and so i believe in that andi think most people don't. questions? mics, only, where are the mics? - [allie] hi gary. - hi, - [allie] down here,straight ahead. straight ahead. - i see you now. - [allie] okay, hi gary i allie davis,
lovely to meet you.- nice to meet you. - [allie] i wantedto speak to you particularlyabout family business. - okay. - [allie] we've gotan interesting and unconventionaldynamic evolving. - [allie]i'm the 50-year-old, and i've only justgotten into digital. - yes.
- [allie] we took our son,who's 13 out of school because...- 1,3? thirteen? - [allie] 13.- keep going. - [allie] we took himout of school 'cause we don't believe in the system,and we're educating in alternative ways.- okay. - [allie] he's startingto get involved in the business doing thedigital stuff, which this 50-year-old struggles with.
- [allie] now, so,he's interested in it, he's getting involved,he's only 13. so, we've got thisunconventional family business thing evolving witha 13-year-old, and a 50-year-old, and what'smost important to me is my family.- of course. - [allie] so for you,who's been involved in a family business,for many years, what's the most important thingfor me to know and do,
as a parent of a 13-year-old,who's already wanted to be involved in business? - that's a great question,thank you for asking it. hold the mic for a second'cause there might be a follow up. so, i got involved inmy dad's business in a very serious way at 14,probably not as serious as this sounds, because i onlyworked every weekend and summer vacation,there's a chance he could be
involved day-to-day.- [allie] he is. - there's one thing my dadand i did, that in hindsight i can't believe mostfamily businesses don't, my dad and i loved eachother more than the business by one quarter of athousandth of an inch. so, your answer's very simple, no matter what, nomatter how big it gets, you just need toactually back up your words, if you actually justlove your family more,
then it should be very easy. - [allie] it will be easy,because you're right, i'm dedicated to my business,but i'm devoted to my family, they'll always have the edge. - now, i'll saythis and i love this, it gets hard,because what happens is people don't realize,it's not about the money after a while. it's about respect.
and that gets blurred. like, me and my dad,both sort of stunningly don't give a shit about money. but, respect, andhonor, and who did it, those things can get blendedand that's where it gets hard. so, keep an eye out forthat, because that bleeds more into family,'cause people think it's a money thing/family thing,it's not, the money's completelynot the factor.
it's the way you guys interact. and by the way, yourrelationship with your son, will never be thesame, you know that right? - [allie] yeah. - when you go intobusiness with somebody, it changes everything forever. you'll have adifferent relationship. and by the way,my dad and my brother, both my partnersin my two businesses,
we havephenomenal relationships, and i would neverdo anything different. but, it is different. and it's gonna change. and, so you need tobe prepared for that. - [allie] thank you,and i see it changing already,and him being the leader, because he looksover my shoulder when i'm watching some of yourvideos, and this whole
digital thing, 'causei'm from a conventional business background,has been quite scary for me. and, one day he lookedover my shoulder while i was diddling about, ohgod, (mic cuts out) and he says,gary vaynerchuk would say, just fucking do it. - i love it. amazing. next question, yep.
- [elijah] hey gary.- hey. - [elijah] my nameis elijah, i too, ate shit. so, we've got that in common.- i love it. - i read a story about youwhen you were young. one of the first, kind of,engagements you had with ricky henderson.(gary laughs) and, how you kind ofdescribed it as you changed from being a fan to being a fanatic. - [elijah] i wonderedif you could
kind of describe that,as well as like, what does it translateon a day-to-day basis, with what you're doing today?- got it. so, you've got mecompletely pegged. it's one of the signaturemoments of my career. i went to my firstbaseball game in 1985, ricky henderson was anoutfielder for the yankees, he was coming off thefield and he winks at me. now, important part,the crowd's big,
like watch this, 40 peoplethink i just winked at them. so, i'm hoping he winked at me, but, i'm not completely sure. here's what happened, basically,for the next seven years, i bought all his baseballcards, it was the t-shirt that i bought. i talked about him,i became his biggest advocate. in the same way as megrowing up listening to richard pryor, andchris rock, and eddy murphy, has clearly affected theway i communicate on stage,
i do believe that somewhere,and when i wrote that article, that you're referring to,it was when i realized, holy shit, the wayi'm treating social media, is probably because ... all i'm trying to do atthis point, besides operate, when i do the garyvee thing,i'm trying to figure out why i did it, how i got there,and then i'm trying to tell you, so youcan do it too, right? so, i'm reallygetting in myself, really.
like, i'm starting tohit up high school friends, junior high friends,grammar school friends, lately, on social and try to ask themif they remember anything. like, i'm really tryingto bring out more stuff. you don't need to hearthe same shit over and over. i'm trying to bring value. yeah, there's a big reasoni'm liking everybody's comments, and replying anddm'ing you randomly. i think it's impactful.i think it feels nice,
if randy "the machoman" savage in 1992, liked one of my tweets i wouldhave lost my fucking mind. - [elijah] oh, yeah.- oh, yeah. - [elijah] a follow up to that, or just expanding on that, what did, i know youdescribed it, i don't know if there's a difference in canada,what's the greatest arbitrage in social mediatoday, and i'll let you go. - oh, it's the same in canada.
facebook ads,instagram influencers, there's nothing close. you should spendall your money on it, if you're marketing, toanybody under the age of 65. like 50 to 80-year-old canadadata on facebook is crushing. like, you can reachmost 72-year-old canadians, on facebook. at the cheapest price. it's not that you'regoing to reach all of them.
not all of themare on there, but if you actually want to get tothe most, at the best price, it's called facebook. - cool, who do we have? awesome, let's do it. - [man 5] yo, what's good homie? so my question is,how do you know when your ego's in theway of things your doing? - i'm not sure, likefor every individual person.
i would say that, i would say that ifyou're allowing your ego to get ahead ofyour humility and self-awareness it'sclearly going to be in the way. i think you need to pullvery hard from both sides. they both matter tremendously. and it's just, youcan't believe how truthful it feels in my heart and stomach when i say, i aint shit.
and i agree withthe kid that says i'm gonna be one of the greats. i just believe inboth of them, i just do. i just do. i also think that ifyou're one of the great entrepreneurs ofa generation doesn't necessarily meanyou're so special. it means you weregood at that craft. what i'm trying to dois be a little bit special.
nobody goes tosomebody's funeral 'cause they made $40 billion. they go to the funeral because that person didsomething that made them feel like they shouldhave went to the funeral. so i'm trying to do both. and so i would say, that ego getsahead of a lot of people. but i think it's really hardto analyze that from afar.
here's what i would say, if you aren't 100% happy, something's wrong sostart auditing everything. yo. - [man 6] hey gary, first of all i just wanted to say,when i first heard you, man, i thought youwere a snake oil salesman. - i get it. - [man 6] and i'm so glad
i didn't give up on listeningto you because you're... - why didn't you? - [man 6] you know itwas when you started talking fromthe heart that really it, something aboutit touched me and i just really appreciatedwhat you were saying. - so wait in thesame video, you're like fuck this guy he's a snake oilsalesman and wait a minute. - [man 6] you know what?
the first videoi stopped watching and then somebodyi know posted a link and i followed that one through and loved what yousaid on that one and since then i've justgone down the rabbit hole. - let me talkabout that for a second. - [man 6] yeah. - that's whati mean by the truth. it doesn't hurt meif people think that
because i knowmy personality and it makes sense to me whysomebody would think that. it also doesn'tbother me because i know how it's gonna end up. go ahead.- [man 6] i'm not even sure why i startedthat way other than just to tell you how muchi appreciate what you're doing. - i appreciate it man. - [man 6] i'm working onan idea right now.
- actually watch this,how many people in this audiencestarted off not liking me? stand up, i wanteverybody to see it. let me tell you what that is. that is either very quickconsumption where they just caught one soundbite where i was being my ego self, and/or,they didn't want to face their truthand i was suffocating them. - [man 6] so i guess i'm asking
you this question cause i know you get a lot ofideas come your way. - by the way i'm never doingthat again, that fucking hurt. - [man 6] yeah sorry, buddy. (audience laughter)- it still hurts. - [man 6] i didn't meanto hurt you. - still hurts, jesus. - [man 6] everybody in hereloves you now though. - i get it.go ahead.
- [man 6] all right so,i'm looking for a way touse fitness tracking to create monetaryopportunities for people. - [man 6] like to raise money with your running, your walking, your cycling though pledging. - interesting.- [man 6] i'm just curious if you've seen anythingcome across your desk like that or if you've?
- sure. i've seen a ton ofthings that are, do this action and that actionwill create the funding. - [man 6] right, i'm looking forthe unknown unknown. like what should i belooking at to figure out where i need togo with this thing? like i'm prettyearly in my hustle on this. - first and foremostyou should get very serious about b-to-b not b-to-c.- [man 6] all right.
- so big companies liketo support shit like that 'cause it makes them look good. - [man 6] yeah.- right? most people don't give a fuck. right?- [man 6] yeah. - like i mean, butthere's one place i would look. go reverse engineerand study everything about what charity: water did when they did donateyour birthday, right?
they found somethingthere technology-wise and theme-wise, right? so i would say two things,case study on charity: waterdonating your birthday. know everything about thepsychology of why that worked. and number tworealize that the only way you're gonna getpast the first inning is get corporations tosubsidize the donations, 'cause most people won't do it.
- [man 6] right on,thanks a lot gary. - cool, you got it. (audience applause)can i go late? can i go late? i can go late a little bit. yeah? yeah, cool. hey.- [laura] hello. - hello, hey. - [laura] what's up?- all good.
- [laura] okay,i'm gonna come up closer just cause i want tospeak to you face-to-face. - [laura] first of alli gotta say this feels likebeing at a wax museum when you see thosefamous people in person. yeah, except you're muchbetter looking in person. i thought youwere calling me waxy. okay.- [laura] my name is laura. just to give you alittle bit of context
before i ask myquestion, what really resonated with me a lot about your life is that i'm a firstgeneration immigrant. and when you saidthat you couldn't afford a jets jerseyand that's your dream to own new york jets. for example,myself, i never owned a single brand namehandbag in my life. - right.- [laura] up until last year
when i got to manage the number one topvolume handbags floor in one of the top departmentstores in north america. - that's awesome. - [laura] so from there,currently aside from managing the handbagsfloor at a department store, because we are a publiccompany i can't share that. when i get off my work iwork for the vr association 'cause you touch alot on virtual reality.
so i spend about15 to 20 hours a week unpaid marketing work,doing marketing work for vr association andi just recently got a job, another job, my third job,at a vr company. and i kind of want to see, my job, my goal is to connect retailexperiences with virtual reality and for you before,within your lifetime for myself tocome up with a solution
that you don'thave to go into a store-- - okay.- [laura] to shop for clothing, and my question for you is, so i come from a familybackground, as an immigrant, where it's beentough financially. and i'm at a placewhere i'm making my own money but my parentshave a lot of debt. so for me to start myown business my family thinks that it's very selfish.
- okay- [laura] i get it. i went through thetraditional route where i went to a crediblepost secondary school. i paid, well myparents paid $25,000 a year on top of mybrothers tuition, which was another $30,000 a year. that's reality. - so what's the punchline? - [laura] i'm just saying,
is it selfish for me,for example... - do your parents want you toget a job and pay them back? let me understandwhat you're saying. - [laura] i'm just thinking, i take that as myown burden as well and do you think thatthat's something that my parents should deal with? - [gary] well did you guysdiscuss it before it happened? - no, but it's just.
- are you asking me if youshould pay your parents back? - [laura] yeah.- yes. - [laura] well in thelong run yes, but it's just.- yes. but if you decide to take,do i think you should get a job andpay them off slowly while theinterest compounds versus taking the risk tobuild something big? - well in terms of short run,
for example mymom works right now. she's like 55 years old,57 years old. she makes $10 anhour and every now and then i'm trying tomake my own money and trying to build moneyto start my own business. where every nowand then she'll ask me, hey can youpitch in for my rent? and i've been payingfor her rent and it's hard. - look, i'm not here togive people family advice
'cause it's hard.- [laura] right. - i think you need to,so we can move on here, i think you need toanswer one question. what's gonna make youfeel good about yourself? that's what you should do. if it feels better, to me thisshould not be very difficult. you should pick andchoose different moments when you feel like youwant to pitch in on rent, pitch in on rent.
when you feellike, fuck that i want to save so i cando my thing, do that. - [laura] okay.- awesome. - [laura] i just haveone more question. - no way, not withthat fucking long question. - [simsai] hey gary,simsai here. i just want to say thatunlike half the room here i fell in lovewith you when i read crush it! many years ago.
- thank you.- [simsai] totally connected. before i ask myquestion i want to thank you for liking my bret hartcomment on youtube at 2 a.m. yesterday. (gary laughs) my question is, you alwaystalk about the long game. - [simsai] and it's worked for me. - go figure. - [simsai] i did 11 years of paycheck to paycheckand my 12th year
i became a great success. - good. - [simsai] unfortunately, a lot of my clients, family and friendsin the same space are struggling andthey have the same hopes and dreams that i do.- okay - [simsai] and many of us, a lot are talking aboutdepression and suicide earlier. - [simsai] andi struggled with it.
it almost cost me my marriage. - yes.- [simsai] and what can you tell to others because you are theinfluencer of influencers, what would you say to this room? because i have alot of friends here who struggle with it orhave struggled in the past. - listen man, everybody'sstruggling with something. my mom loves to tellthe story about her dad, who i met buti don't remember because
he died when i waslike two and a half. that he'd,basically the russian term would say likeeverybody's got their problems in their rooster hen. like basicallyeverybody's got shit. what i would say is this, you know this isthe reason i don't like fake entrepreneurship. because i think itleads to people feeling down
on themselves in a gamethat they were forced into by the narrative whenthey weren't cut out for it. so what i would sayis like, most people get depressedbecause they're worried about externalfactors not internal factors. and i don't know alot about psychiatry and all that stuff butpeople need an outlet to get their poisonout of their stomach. so the only tangible thingi feel comfortable saying is,
if you're struggling,you need to communicate that to somebodywho isn't one of your three closestfamily members 'cause you're just puttingyour baggage on them. that i believe in. and so they needto find that outlet. - [simsai] all right, thank you.- you got it. - we staying here,where we going? thanks brother,nice shirt by the way.
purewow's acompany i invested in. i'm giving ryan a shout-out. he's very happyright now watching this. - [woman 2] hi gary.- hey. - [woman 2] so yousaid earlier that the truth is what sells. - [woman 2] my question is,is there such thing as being too honest? - no.- [woman 2] okay well.
- [woman 2] i know youdon't like hypotheticals. - is it a hypotheticalor are you disguising? - [woman 2] so i'm going to go. i have a background andi've been an entrepreneur since i was 19. i've worked formyself since i was 19. but my background is in theadult entertainment industry. - in the what? - [woman 2] adult entertainment.
- adult, porn? - [woman 2] no. - i'm sorry,adult entertainment. - [woman 2] dancing and escorting. - respect. - [woman 2] and then inow own an online virtual assistant serviceto high-end escorts where we do, orbasically female ceos as i communicate with them.- okay.
- [woman 2] but my concernis i'm making the transition into a more public,i have an alias there and my real name, blah-blah-blah,everything's legit. my concern is you knowyou say the truth sells. i'm concerned aboutbeing really honest. but what happenswhen i work with clients? i'm transitioning into coaching. - [woman 2] workingwith women and people.
when i share my storythey have breakthroughs. but my question ismore in social media. where is the agreementreality in the marketplace and the trend forthat type of truth? yeah so look,i think that it's crazy. there are people thatwill judge you and that won't. i just think you justgot to roll with your truth. it would be insane,if you were pitching me a business right now,that wouldn't even run
through my mind as a negative. and somebody sittingnext to me would think that's the worse thingthat they've ever heard and never want to talk to you. you're going to have toplay out and let the chips fall where they are, right? meaning you don'teven need that on your head and on your chest worryingabout people finding out. it's just better for you to ownit than to let somebody else
own it above you. - [woman 2] thanks.- you're welcome. let's do it. you're about to, i think. - [braxton] okay, braxton.- braxton. - [braxton] yeah, soi'm starting an energy drink with a strongpoint of differentiation. i'm just sort of, it'sgot a dilemma if i should develop the brand asitself or if it should have
a strong personalitybehind it, like with your brand, for example. you're inextricablefrom your brand. not least of whichyour name is in it. but when i think of your brand,vaynermedia, i think of you. right?- i'm listening. - [braxton] same withsteve jobs with apple. whereas if you've gotlike google you don't think of larry page or sergei brin.
i'm curious ifyou have a preference? - notice how both work. - [braxton] yeah, but i'mwondering if you would think that one or the otherwould be better if it was different than how itis and what your general explication on that would be. - nope, so both work. both have worked forever. there's plentyof quadrillionaires
that you've neverheard of and you don't associate them with. i think your biggerdilemma is you're going into the beverage industry. i'm not, meaning youknow how hard that is, right? - [braxton] iwill i guess, yeah. - well let megive you a preview. you're going upagainst the biggest companies in the world who basicallyhave the best model down
which is they pressureany retailer when any drink gets any leverageto kick them out or then they don'tsubsidize the trade dollars. they've basically, it's reallyone of the most gangster businesses in the world. - [braxton] i seewith like richard branson, they did thatwith his virgin cola. - yeah, and i feel like hehad a better start than you. - [braxton] it's possible.
- but you know what'sawesome about the market? you might be that one, but i think beforeyou worry about should i build my personalbrand and coinciding with that, you need to realizeyou're going into a gunfight with a pebble. - [braxton] i'll aim well. - and that's right, so youshould be spending zero time on that which clearly hasbeen historically played out
that both work,and you should do you. and you need tofigure out how you're going to distribute and makethis product profitably in a world where you're goingup against very difficult political infrastructure. - [braxton] cool, thanks. (audince applause) - [mary] hello gary.- hello. - [mary] hello, i'm mary,i'm really glad to meet you
and i'm reallynervous right now. - don't worry,i'm super far away. - [mary] now thatthey're all looking at me. i'm a marketing consultant and i help clothing stores. - [mary] so clothing retailersand i'm going to ask a selfish question.- they normally are. - [mary] do you haveany ideas or tactics on how i could reach themand give them value?
- so reach them and givethem value so they hire you? - [mary] eventually yeah. - do you know the names of thepeople that would hire you? - [mary] yeah. - great, so i would followthem on every social network. figure out what they careabout outside of their job and then i would talk tothem on social networks around their interests,not their job. don't talk to meabout social media,
talk to me aboutthe jets and bret hart and you'll get to me quicker. - [mary] all right,thank you very much. - you're welcome. by the way, that tactic i justsaid, everybody should do. anybody that you're tryingto sell to you need to follow on every single platform. know who they are, and thenexploit that to get their money. - [beard dude] hey gary.- hey man.
- [beard dude] beard dude. - beard dude, i'mglad you came out. - [beard dude] thanks,so my question is the reason i love you is becauseyou talk about eating shit. - [beard dude] and it'sthe hardest thing to do. - that's why so few people win. - [beard dude] exactly,and you talk about the joy, you love failing. you love losing and that's amentality that's so important.
so i was wondering ifyou could just spend a little more time talking tous about what it takes to re-engineer our neuralrelationship to pain and losing? - i don't know,i think that's a really interesting question.i don't know how to create that. i don't know whyany time i watch a sport that i root for theunderdog, every time. i make fun of allmy friends who are fans of the best teamsbecause i'm like really?
you need to jump on a bandwagon to feelbetter about yourself? like, you're reallywrapping your self-esteem up into a team thatyou didn't care about but they just won andyou bought their t-shirt? you're the ultimate loser. so i don't know why i do that. i don't know how that happened. i do believe someof that is upbringing.
i do think that's theunderdog entrepreneur, immigrant thing. i do think that's there. i definitely am notthe person that knows how to engineer that, but ido think that i'm adding to the conversation. there's not a lot ofpeople out there right now that look like methat are talking about the love of losing.
then if you captureadmiration maybe then they think that's good. i'm very driven bysteve jobs' narrative. i just want everybody to know. him becoming the famousperson of silicon valley when i was reallydeeply in it and the narrative that he wastough on his employees and treated them like shit. i watched smart, nice kidsstart treating their employees
like shit because theylooked up to steve jobs and they thought thatwas the right thing to do. the reason i'm talkingabout all these true things is i hope there's a15-year-old girl that's looking up to me on theinternet right now and she tries to treat peoplebetter because she thinks i'm cool and that's my system. so i don't know how to do it, but if i'm actuallygoing to be influential
and if i have a bigresponsibility with all the attention that i have right now,i think just in the fact that i'm talking aboutit has already impacted others to think about it. thanks man. - you're kicking me off, huh?can i get one more in? - one more.- alright, cool. - [man 7] hi, i'm-- - you know i'm going toget more than one, right?
- [man 7](laughing) i was able to. i am very thankful tobe able to speak with you and thank you for being here. i got this ticket because, i'm going to ask you a question that in a sec,but i have to thank you because two years ago,i was paralyzed and i couldn't walk. (gary sighs) i am actually stillwalking with a brace.
no, it's (laughing)... i've been training martialarts for 21 years of my life and to have lost everythingand my ability to walk. man, there was threepeople who helped me, my family, close friendsand your videos, man. - thank you, man. - [man 7] yeah, fuck. and (clears throart) itwas a video actually you were talking about, you know, whatare you 20, 30-years-old,
like what are you going to dowith the rest of your life? you still havetime, do something and honestly, itwas so motivating. so thank you man. - thank you man,means a lot to me. - [man 7] thank you,my question is, is now i started acompany for self-defense because there was alot of sexual assaults that was happening inand around ubc and sfu
and i was tired of people being avictim like i was, i guess. - [man 7] and i wanted todo something about it. so, i made thisself-defense company and i have a great deal ofstudents and one of things, one of the challengesthat i face all of the time with some of thesestudents is anxiety and how i can help them-- - yeah.
- [man 7] see thatthey are, you know, they can do more than they think and that they'restronger than they know. how would you, hiringsomeone who is new, say, and you see thatthey have this talent and potential, howwould you articulate or explain to them-- - you know how i'd do it.i'm doing it. i'd put pressureon the true answers.
i'd ask them why, didtheir mom fuck them up? i'm being serious. insecurity is the seedthat creates all these issues. - [man 7] absolutely. - and so i'm tryingto figure out why they didn't build self esteem, who didn't build self esteem. and the reason i bringup mom, is like, jesus, it's such a bigpercentage of it.
mom or dad, is like 80% of it. it's just, youknow, i do this a lot. listen, my dad, listen,i don't talk a lot about this, that's what happened to my dad. my dad, i am soimpressed by him. the way my grandmotherparented my dad, it's unacceptable. that's theonly word i can think of and not only that,they did it and then, you know i have a lotof empathy for my grandma.
they did it in the worst placein the world, soviet russia. so, i'm fascinated by itbecause i had the reverse. i'm so perfectly parented bymy mother, i'm unstoppable. so, i look at that andi'm like, how, like, i feel, i, i feel guilty that i'mso emotionally grounded and strong, that'swhy i'm giving it to you. what do youthinks happening up here? i feel guilty that i haveit so good mentally.
there's nothing anybodycan do to my mental state. it's insane. i am so weird, guys. nothing hits, it's like i'm numb and so i go right to the core. i do it when i see it sometimes. i'm like, hey,you are unbelievable and you thinkyou're shit, that's bad. we need to talk about this,
tell me everythingabout your childhood. (laughs) like, youknow, and i just go there and you know sometimesyou get a little break, but what's really fun isthey start thinking about it and it changes behavior. i get an emailevery day that says that they disconnectedfrom somebody in their inner circleand for the last six months, they're breathing for thefirst time in their lives.
it is not easy tobreak up with your brother. it is not easy tobreak up with your spouse. it is not easy tobreak up with your father, but that'sactually the binary move, if they're thepoison of your life. and we don't talkabout that, none of us, but it's the truthand we all know it. so, a, if that's yourreality, you need to think, 'cause guess what you haveone life and you don't want
to be 73 whenyour parent passes away and finally start breathing. b, if that is not your life, you need to drive home right now and kiss yourparents in the face. so that's what i do. - [man 7] thank you, man. thank you, man, thank you. - alright.- alright, one more.
- i got to rope you off.- one more, one more. - i got to rope you off, man.- one more, one more. - i got to rope you off.- no, no, no, no, don't. - i got to rope you off.- no, no. - i got to rope you off.- okay, fine. - these people got to go.- thank you. - they got to go, givehim a round of applause. stand up, stand up. (audience applause)stand up.
- thank you - got the selfies,oh my god, the selfies. holy smokes. it's like the bomb rush. okay, hold on, hold on, beforelike sheer chaos ensues. before sheer chaos, oh my god. we got something for you though. - [gary] thank you.boom, there we go. - [gary] alright.
- we're going to havetime, don't worry, don't worry. - bye guys. - alright, i gotsomething for you. - i got somethingfor you, hold on. remember those nicekicks that you liked? - ew, these are fucking fly. - so that's from 604,i know how much you love kicks. - from 604, a local company. - got them done up for you,
a limited editionfrom a local artist. - fucking rad, thanks so much. - awesome, thanks brother.thank you. - thank you guysfor your attention. ("space" by jura kez)
