- I don't think there's anything wrong
with chasing money, I just think that
it's usually the quickest way not to get it.
(calm piano music)
- [Gary] Did you consider not going as rogue
as quitting and going all in?
Did you consider the practicality of
6PM to 3 in the morning?
- [Interviewee] No.
- I'm actually just curious, there's no judgment,
I'm only collecting data because I'm fascinated by
the practicality of it, and the fear that I have
when people make ...
I want everybody to do what you did,
if they can do it.
And my fear is a lot can't and that
there's a more practical way than going
from zero to 100, though some people have to
go zero to 100 because if they're
half pregnant they'll never do it.
It's this completely interesting matrix, right?
- [Man] Gary.
- Please.
- [Man] They can't or they won't?
- There's a lot of things going on.
I think first of all, the reason I push
so much on judgment is the biggest fear
I have is he won't because
when I look at them, it's interesting,
I'm like, "Oh, it's good," because I wonder
how much he's driving, hyping him
to get the team there.
You need optimism and hype to jump.
Guys, kissing a girl or boy,
riding a bike, going in a pool,
I've become fascinated with these three events
as children, because if you really look
at it, it's hype.
I remember hyping buddies in sixth grade be like,
"Dude you can kiss her."
Like hype it.
Or, when looking at friends or the hype I needed,
I was scared shitless to swim or ride a bike,
hype, like taking a jump.
At the same token, sometimes the dude went
in for the kiss and she rejected him
and he was crippled for a decade.
A lot of people will fail in business
and so I'm unbelievably, you 30 years ago,
had no choice, you had to jump.
You do have a choice now, depending on
the business you choose.
If you open a health and wellness,
if you open a gym, you've physically
got to be there.
You can't.
But if you're doing content or information
or you could use content to set up
a grand opening that will win in three years,
it's asked literally just for data of how you got there.
The other thing I'm a very big believer in
is getting people to not feel like
it's a scarlet letter if they lose.
Something nobody talks about at all
is your scenario, you jump,
it fails, you reset and go back,
and get a job in the craft that you had
because of your resume, and you
restart in four years from now.
America's pretty good at looking at losses
in a positive way compared to other parts
of the world where it's like a true
scarlet letter death forever.
But still even here, you know, people
don't know when to go back from their jump
because they don't want the loss on the resume.
They made the big to do, you're doing to do it,
now it doesn't work, and what they do is they
triple down into debt to look good
in front of people.
- [Woman] What if it did and you never
jumped to find out?
- Oh you're preaching.
That I want, you've already done that.
I'm actually talking about the next part,
which is having options to know
that the game is super long.
When you go from ice cold, when you go from
never having a business to having a business,
that's like I'm asking you to right now
qualify for Wimbledon in tennis.
It's a lot harder than people think.
You're grown, you two are grown.
I'm not trying to suppress by the way,
I'm talking about the practicality of options.
I love that we live in a world,
I'm trying to get people to really understand
how to win this.
So much of my success is completely predicated on
not worrying about all my losses.
which means my great losses are things
I passed on.
Maybe I should've done Shark Tank.
Maybe, maybe, maybe not.
I don't think I should've done it.
Not this late in, I think I'll do my own thing.
But, fuck, I mean there's a lot,
I didn't invest in Uber when I could've made $400 million.
That's a loss, but all the things that I've done
are things that I can't see what the outcome is.
Let me tell you how the Uber thing might've
not been a loss.
On black and white paper, if I gave Travis the money
like I always was doing at that time,
I would've made $300, $400 million on paper.
What if I invested in Uber and that led me to
giving a speech in India, based on it,
and I got hit by a bus and died?
I'm so happy right now, how could I possibly ...
You don't know what life's going to bring you.
Life's complicated, and way more matrixed out,
and I'm going to start pushing this,
I said it for the first time really
heavily up there, the ROI,
winning in life is happiness, not money.
What I'm most happy about is
if you just love the process.
Loving the process, like loving the debates
in the kitchen, that's what--
- [Woman] We're good at separating that though.
- That's great, I believe you, your vibes seem good.
I think that's huge.
To me, it's time and talent.
The reason I love hard work is it's controllable.
It's hard for me to be like, "Be more talented."
A lot of politically correct over extreme
European points of view get mad at me:
"Gary, it's unhealthy," "Gary Vee, you can't
go to the grave with all your money," and I'm like,
"Dude I'm not talking about money."
I don't feel like it's work when I love it.
Maybe you don't like your job as much.
- [Woman] Is it wrong to be driven by money?
- I don't think I can judge anything,
I think the question becomes what the next thing is.
To me, what?
- [Woman] (music drowns out speaker)
- Correct, but I also think that people
confuse the vehicle now.
So, I think people don't often get
the right vehicle for the destination.
You're right, it's a vehicle, now my question is
what's your destination?
And if you told me it was down the street,
I'd tell you to fucking walk not
drive a Lamborghini.
So I don't think it's an evil
or it's wrong, I think people are confused to
why they try to amass it, and for what.
How much do you want to make?
It's arbitrary, what's it based on?
We have to unwind what's been pushed
in our heads, you know?
20, 50, 72, 496, what?
To me, my big one, is can I do what
I want to do every day?
I was doing that running the liquor store
and I was making 57,
I was happy as fuck.
I'm no more happy today than I was at 22.
I was pumped, I was on a mission to build
a family business so big so that everybody
on Earth would always say I did the
right thing by my parents in the way
they did to me.
I don't think there's anything wrong with
chasing money, I just think that it's usually
the quickest way not to get it.
I really believe that, I really do.
When I watch people that are driven by money,
I see a lot of unhappiness and failure.
It's very common.
I think the question is why.
What do you need?
And do you have a sense of that?
Because by the way it evolves.
What he needed at 24 is different than what
he needs now, and him, and me,
so it evolves too.
If we did the happy meter here,
it's the people that are,
I promise you it's the people that are
doing what they want to be doing.
To me, I couldn't explain to you enough,
and I have utmost empathy for the cynicism
around this statement, it's unbelievable
how much I don't like money.
I like the game, I love my game.
I love the game of building shit.
It's why building a legacy is the best,
because it's triple compounding valuable, right?
I love the admiration.
I talk a lot about loving Rocky 6,
because he goes back to not having anything.
I talk about it a lot, it's the same reason
I was selling baseball cards on Saturday.
I was selling baseball cards on Twitter on Saturday.
For $50 for a stack of cards.
I love the game of growing, you know?
To me, the best part is the beginning.
I love the thrill of the chase.
I wake up at six o'clock in the morning
and go garage sale-ing because there's
nothing like pulling up, literally to this day
I can't replicate the high of going to
a garage sale, walking into a yard of junk,
and finding something for a dollar,
that I know I can sell on eBay for $17,
is a bigger happiness high than closing
a $6 million account for Vayner,
and it's not even close.
That's what I want for everybody,
because that's how they get the 20.
I believe that, I really do.
So, I think the fear I have with
chasing money is it's short term behavior.
And it leads to a lot of negativity,
even for the people that achieve it.
It's why optimism or offense works,
you know it does.
But I do think you need to be thoughtful
about the chasing the money thing,
it will lead to a loss in the macro,
I believe that.
I could be wrong, but that is my
official point of view, and I've watched it way too much.