GaryVee: From Earning $2 an Hour to Running a $350M Digital Empire | E77
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What drives Gary Vee's entrepreneurial spirit?
entrepreneurship was my life. Me getting in front of a camera at 30 years old, me taking my life savings and investing it in Facebook and Twitter, me buying Bitcoin in 2014, 15. The reason I've been able to do so much and put myself out there is the amount of people that have listened to my content for 15 years started and then stopped within a week because somebody said they're ugly or they're stupid. High school is over. Getting made fun of cannot stop you from building your life
So how do you create a tougher, maybe a thicker skin? The real answer is... This is going to be such a special episode. So first of all, Gary, the fact that you let us into your home and just seeing this, feeling this, we are live in VaynerMedia with the one and only Gary. Thank you for having me.
I'm so happy to be a part of this.
For those who lived under the rock, which I have until about 2016, we talked about it. If you haven't heard of Gary, serial entrepreneur, I think, is an understatement for this guy. He is all over so many ventures. He has, what, 44 million followers? I don't know. Incredible. He is an author. He is a podcaster. He's invested in Facebook, Tumblr, like Snap, Twitter, Venmo, et cetera. Gary, we chatted a little bit before we started. You were an entrepreneur from day one, basically. But I want to take you back in time. So this is going to be all about your career and how you got to where you are. And you, a small kid, immigrant family. Yes. Why?
How did Gary Vee's early life shape his career?
It's almost like the reverse. It's funny when you just said why, the answer that bounced in my head is why not? Meaning I had no choice. I cannot explain in any other way than I'm about to why entrepreneurship was my life. Me gravitating towards entrepreneurship when I was six with lemonade or when it would snow instead of, you know, I would play a little bit, but if there was two snow days in a row, it was impossible that I was sledding, snowball fighting, playing football in the snow and making a snowman. One of those two days, I was ringing doorbells, shoveling snow. washing cars, trading cards, and everything I've done in my career, the only way I can explain it is, if I was to ask everybody on the other camera right now, why do you breathe oxygen? Why do you guys breathe oxygen?
It's just an instinct.
And not every entrepreneur is a terrible student. But I was. And I think there isn't reason. I believe that I was willing to die on the hill of entrepreneurship.
Wow.
I could not... think about anything else, and I was willing to face the ramifications, which at that time meant that I would be grounded multiple times a year by my mother. This is real, and by the way, I used to get very aggressive anxiety come report card number one time because I knew I was walking into a firing squad. I was going to be punted. This is like clockwork. I would be punished three times a year, because my mom kind of let me go for the summer. Three times a year, I would be grounded for two weeks with no television, no video games, and no friends. And it was devastating. And yet, even with that, I was not willing to get C's, which in hindsight, I feel I was very capable of doing.
because I needed every minute to study my baseball cards, to sell my baseball cards, to sell pencils, to sell gum, to think of a business idea, to make a movie, to make a song, to sell. I was creative to sell it. Me and my buddies, let's make a rap song in 86 when it was hot. Why did I do that? So we could sell the tapes. It was business.
Do you think your dad's entrepreneurship was part of it?
I think from a genetic standpoint, but to be honest, my father worked every minute. I never saw my father. It wasn't like my father was at dinner, you know, like how some entrepreneurial parents are like teaching their kids. Like I am with my son specifically. I didn't have those kind of talks with my dad.
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Chapters
7 chapters
1
What drives Gary Vee's entrepreneurial spirit?
0:29–2:24
2
How did Gary Vee's early life shape his career?
2:24–5:33
3
Why doesn't building wealth guarantee happiness?
5:33–14:51
4
How did Gary Vee transform his family's liquor business?
14:51–20:38
5
What inspired Gary Vee to embrace the internet?
20:38–36:31
6
Why is personal branding critical for career success?
36:31–36:33
7
How can you build resilience against online negativity?
36:33–45:32
Speakers
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