The School of Greatness - 595 Gary Vaynerchuk: Insecurity, Fame, and Crushing It in Business

Episode Date: January 29, 2018

NO ENTREPRENEUR CAN BE SUCCESSFUL WITH SOMEONE WHO ISN'T INDEPENDENT As you know, it's important to continually grow (especially if you're an entrepreneur). I'm not excluded from that. Ten years ago I read a book by Gary Vaynerchuk that changed the course of my life. On this episode of the School of Greatness, Gary returns to the show for his third time. He gives me advice for my next ten years but also gives you invaluable advice on so many topics that you won't hear anywhere else. Gary is known for his unapologetic truth-telling attitude. He says a lot of things on social media that people may feel are harsh or extreme. But when we were talking, Gary revealed he actually cares deeply about what people think about him. And that's why he's so committed to serving people with hard-earned business wisdom in the long run. He explains why teenage nerds are winning right now, how hitting the big lists isn't what matters in business, and why you need an independent person in a romantic relationship. If you aren't familiar with Gary, you're missing out. Gary is a serial entrepreneur and the CEO and co-founder of VaynerMedia, a full-service digital agency servicing Fortune 500 clients. Gary rose to prominence in the late 90's after establishing one of the first e-commerce wine sites, WineLibrary, helping his father grow the family business from 4 to 60MM in sales. Gary is also one of the most sought-after public speakers alive today. He is a venture capitalist, 4-time New York Times bestselling author, and an early investor in companies such as Twitter, Tumblr, Venmo, and Uber. You'll learn everything you need to know about how to become the best of the best, on Episode 595. Some questions I ask: How are you affected emotionally when you see yourself aging? (9:32) Did business get better for you when you got married and started having kids? (16:52) When you started having kids did your obsession for business stay the same? (22:31) Why are you doing things you don't like when you have options not to? (24:51) When are the moments that you doubt yourself the most? (26:09) What's your insecurity? (33:45) What do you think you need to take you to the next level? (38:00) What advice would you have for me over the next 10 years? (51:52) In the episode you will learn: The results you should be concentrating on in business (14:02) The biggest challenge Gary's faced since starting Vayner (23:13) Best way to actually build your Instagram following (30:21) Why Gary hates being disliked (34:20) When relationships are really made (42:41) Plus much more...

This is episode number 595 with New York Times bestselling author Gary Vaynerchuk. Welcome to the School of Greatness. My name is Lewis Howes, a former pro athlete turned lifestyle entrepreneur. And each week we bring you an inspiring person or message to help you discover how to unlock your inner greatness. Thanks for spending some time with me today. Now let the class begin. Ralph Waldo Emerson said, to be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you into something else is the greatest accomplishment.

into something else is the greatest accomplishment. Welcome to this special episode and interview with none other than Gary Vaynerchuk. And if you don't know who he is, you're probably not on social media because he is everywhere. He's a serial entrepreneur and the CEO and co-founder of VaynerMedia, a full service digital agency servicing Fortune 500 clients across the company's four locations. He appears with Gwyneth Paltrow, Jessica Alba, and Will.i.am on Apple's first original series, Planet of the Apps. He's also one of the most sought-after public speakers alive today. He's a venture capitalist and four-times New York Times bestselling author and an early

investor in companies such as Twitter, Tumblr, Vimeo, and four times New York Times bestselling author, and an early investor in companies such as Twitter, Tumblr, Vimeo, and Uber. Gary is currently the subject of DailyVee, which is an online documentary series highlighting what it's like to be a CEO and a public figure in today's digital world. He's also the host of Hashtag AskGaryVee, which is a business and advice Q&A show online. And he's got a brand new book out that is literally crushing it, and it is called Crushing It, How Great Entrepreneurs Build Business and Influence and How You Can Too. It is out right now, and I'm actually one of the featured subjects in the book.

So make sure to go get a few copies of the book right now while you're listening to this. And you'll see a full section about me from about 10 years ago meeting Gary, reading his other book, Crush It, and the lessons that I learned and applied from that to how it impacted my business over the last decade. So definitely check that out. Get the book, Crushing It. And what we cover in this one, now Gary talks about a lot of different content, right? He's always out there. He's on a bunch of interviews, speaking on stages.

He's got tons of content that you can listen to. So as you know, I always try to get people to share things that they never share anywhere else. And I think we were able to do that today. It's hard to do that with Gary because he talks a lot about everything, but I try to ask the questions that no one's willing to ask. And some of the things we cover are why the teenage nerds are winning right now, in Gary's opinion. Also, why hitting the big lists and getting verified is not what is important online and in business. Also, why having an independent romantic partner is essential for an entrepreneur.

And Gary's take on his romantic relationship and business. And what Gary is actually terrified of the most in his life. And what Gary is actually terrified of the most in his life and the advice Gary gave me about the next 10 years of what I should be doing in my business, kind of taking it full circle from 10 years ago, reading his first book to now what he thinks I should be doing for the next 10 years. I am very excited about this. Again, make sure to screenshot this. Tag me and at Gary Vee on Instagram. screenshot this, tag me and at Gary V on Instagram. And the link is lewishouse.com slash 595. If you want to share the link out and watch the full video interview and all the stuff we talk about at the show notes. Before we dive in, I want to give a shout out to the fan of the week. And this is over on iTunes. We get reviews every single day. If you haven't left a review yet, make sure

to leave one right now for your chance to be shouted out as the fan of the week. This is from Mike 25, who said, anybody not listening to this podcast is crazy. The podcast is easy to listen to and keeps your interest. The interview Lewis has with special guests is both spiritual, informational, and especially motivating. Please consider this podcast. You will not be disappointed. Great job, Lewis. So thank you, Mike25. You are the fan of the week. And again, head over to iTunes or just on your podcast app right now on your phone. You can go there and leave a review for your chance to be shouted out as well. All right, guys, get ready for this one. This is the big one, Gary Vaynerchuk,

the one and only, and I hope you enjoy the episode. Welcome back, everyone, to the School of Greatness podcast. Very excited about our guest today, the legendary Gary Vaynerchuk in the house. Hey, brother. Good to see you, man. Good to see you. As always. I think this is the third time you'll be on the show. Second time brother. Good to see you, man. Good to see you. As always. I think this is the third time you'll be on the show. Second time here. Second time here.

First time I was in my bedroom, I remember because I just remember it. Yeah. I think I've interviewed probably a bunch of times. One time over Skype, you were like in an airport lobby

for like one of your books. You want to hear something funny? I've been thinking about doing some recall content from Crush It for the Crushing It content in February. And I searched content from Crush It for the Crushing It content in February. And I searched on YouTube Crush It and my name in my preview pane.

It's your review. I think I tweeted it to you. You shared out the video. Yeah, yeah, yeah. From Crush It. Your review of Crush It. Eight years ago. Eight years ago.

That's great. Dude, you haven't aged, which is weird. Really? Yeah. I don't know if anybody who's listening to this show right now thinks this is weird the way I do, which is that Lewis is always good looking and all that, but like forget about good looking or like fit, he's got all those things down.

I just mean actually aging. That's good. I've been told I have good skin. I don't know what that means, but. But you also agree with me that you haven't aged that much yet in these eight years. How old are you? 34.

Okay, good. That makes sense because I didn't age too much from 26 to 34 either. And then you started to walk. Then I fell apart. Well, that's when you started investing in yourself and you realized the importance of health. Oh, yes, yes. But, I mean, besides losing fat and starting to get some semblance of a muscle, but, like, gray hair and, like, losing my hair in the back, like just wrinkle, like actual age. How does that affect you emotionally when you see the aging of the hair or the skin

or the wrinkles? Not much actually. You know, it's weird. Like I'm pretty vain and like all that stuff. Like I'm into that. Like I, it should affect me more. Here's the punchline. It's like, the fuck are you going to do about it?

Like, I guess I can debate hair implants, which once in a weird mood, like when I see like an angle from like a Babin video or DRock, like I'm like, oh shit,

my hair's going, like I've got 18 to 36 months before I have to shave my head, like it's just going enough back here. But then I'm always like, or should I like get an afro?

Like should I just get like a huge implant like situation like Matthew McConaughey or whatever, I'm sure he did something. Like, or like Jeremy Piven, like you look at the old, or elon musk like you look at some of that content you're

like there's something elon you didn't just magically grow hair like exactly so i mean so if anybody's listening who does that shit really well i could be sold i could you know looking at nick's hair like i could rock some long ass right right exactly one last rodeo before i'm finished does any of that affect you though in terms of like your confidence in business? No, no, no. Not in, you know, that's what's so great about business. I'm not an Instagram model. I'm not an actor.

I'm not looked at or liked or my, you know, return on investment has nothing to do with my physical appearance. So what's great about being a business person, it's a mind game and an execution game. I also think that's why a lot of entrepreneurs and business people don't maybe take care of themselves as much as they should and things of that nature.

No, I think it's more of just like being a guy or being somebody that's transitioning into their early 40s and you kind of know what the next chapters look like. You know, I think you think about it much more from like, oh, I'm getting older or like mortality. I don't feel less confident because of my physical, because I never also, unlike you, who's like a physical specimen, there was never a time in my life that I ever like looked at my looks or physical status as a self-esteem builder.

Right. You look at results in your business. Yeah. To me, I was cool, even though nobody else thought I was cool, because I made $4,000 selling 8,000 Ken Griffey Jr. rookie cards this weekend in the Phillipsburg Mall. And so for me, it's interesting. I had so much self-esteem around business results when that was not a thing.

Now that's a thing. It's really interesting to get these DMs. I love the 15-year-old guys that slide into my DM and telling me stories of why they look up to me because it really is actually very funny. That's a thing. It's really interesting to get these DMs. I love the 15 year old guys that slide into my DM and telling me stories of like why they look up to me because it really is actually very funny. The entrepreneur is cool now. You know, when you're a 15 year old guy,

you want a girlfriend, you want to be popular. And like I look at their photos and these are not like 15 year old Louis's. These are like some nerdy ass kids but they've got like ridiculously like cool girlfriends. And I'm like, oh, this entrepreneur thing has really hit high school. Like this is real now.

Like, wow. If you're a cryptocurrency millionaire, like, you know, as a kid, like it's really fun for me that the thing I love the most, entrepreneurship, has become cool. I know that somebody who's listening to me who's over 40 and loves entrepreneurship the way I do,

they also know what I'm saying and that anybody under 30 has no idea of how I'm actually describing it, and then there's that middle, 30 to 40, which is in between, but if you're over 40, you know that when you were in high school, being a businessman or woman had zero street cred, zero, 0.00.

Right. Zero. For the kids that are listening, I know there's a lot, like being an awesome vinyl violinist right now that's not going to necessarily crush it in the halls of like draymond high that was equally the same thing that i was going through which was nobody gave up that i was making ten thousand dollars like at a flea market in a weekend that meant zero status like having like a starter jacket or the music you're listening to or the jeans you're wearing or like scoring 13 yeah for the team that night or being

in a band like you know the cliche move like all the guys did like there was 97 or being good at skateboard like there was 9 000 other things and it's crazy to think right because money has always been the cliche thing like you know that has helped helped some people close the gap of coolness. But not in high school. But not in high school, and definitely not in 1990 to 1994. Now if you have 50,000 followers on Instagram in high school, you're like the hottest thing.

Or, I mean, talk about society wrapped up in vanity, like social, if you are a high school guy who's a nerd, but you get a blue check from Instagram, your life changed. Changed. You get any girl you want. The amount of people that send me things like, I will rip my arm off if you can help me get verified on Instagram.

Literally things like, I will sell you my children if you get me verified on, give you my home. It's crazy. And live in a cardboard box. And I'm just like, this is the saddest shit ever. A lot of my content in the last six months has been like, please do not get wrapped up in likes and, you know, your rank in the podcast list or checks.

Like that is such a death game. You will lose that game. You will start pandering to those results versus actual results. By creating a great product consistently. New York Times bestseller list. I don't pander to that. I don't want to hire the companies that get me on the list. I want to sell more books. That's the KPI. Impact more people. That's even the bigger KPI. But look, I mean, the world has always traded on, I mean, do you know how sad at this point I am when I'm on these 30, no, I'm not 30, excuse me,

like top 40 influencers or 50 under 50 now, which is the only thing I can, it's already 42. So I hate it because my feed gets filled up with like congratulations or the other people that are on it trying to get me into a conversation, not because I, kudos to them, because I was the most pumped too

when I was like 10 most important people in the wine business under 40. Like, amazing, I get it. As you get older, you realize how those awards or those just completely arbitrary things of like an editor liked one of your podcasts and decided, and we all get excited. Six best podcasts to listen in 2018.

You want to be a part of that. You want awareness. Here's what I would say. We've overcorrected a lot of people into caring about that more than the actual results. And so we care more about the facade than we care more about like, look how nice my room,

like this, we're in a beautiful room right now, right? You've really done a nice job with this. I like how you put like the more important people on their own wall over here. Well, they were just bigger photos. No, no, no, you made them bigger. I know you. But here's what's interesting to me.

What's interesting is if the concrete and steel under this building is shit, well, this whole thing falls. It didn't matter that you put some like tree. How pretty it is, yeah. Exactly. And I think right now, too many entrepreneurs and personalities and 98% of the people that are listening to this podcast right now are caring about the decorations and the curtains and the painting in the room,

not the steel and the concrete holding up the room. And I think that that's an important conversation to be had. I think a lot of what makes me happy and has worked for me has been the steel and the concrete. When you were in high school, college, and in your 20s, and you were dating. Yes. I don't think you ever talked about this. It just came up for me now. Yeah. Were you driven by dating a lot of girls?

Or were you trying to, like, impress them through the business you were building in the wine space? And did business get better for you when you got married and started having kids? Or did it hurt you? You know, did it help? That's a great question. I was so one-track minded in my 20s, from 15 to 25, 15 to 27. From 15 to 27, in 12 prime years where a boy, then a young man cares about dating and hooking up and having a girlfriend, the level of me giving a about that was stunningly low.

Really? Did you have a bunch of girlfriends or no? In high school, not at all. In college, I had girlfriends, but from like my junior year of college until I got married I pretty much always had a girlfriend except when we would break up and I would have a couple of months in between but it was literally like because I almost weirdly thought I had to when because look I mean you'd like to have a companion fine but like my business was more important than my girlfriend by a magnitude of a thousand to one in those four relationships I had, five relationships I had

in between my first serious girlfriend in college and marrying my wife. My wife is such an enabler of my entrepreneurship. She wants you to go out and do what you want, right? She came in eyes wide open and is so independent and wants to run the household and the kids the way she wants to she wants to be her business dictator and ceo of our home life that she likes that we're in

a divide and conquer dynamic like lizzie's aspiration is not to co-parent she doesn't want my two cents she'll take it once in while, but she wants me supporting her on her vision and execution. And I have empathy for that because that's what I want on what I do for a living. And so we're a good pair. I think if you have somebody, no entrepreneur can be successful with somebody who is not independent. None. There's no entrepreneur. That's right. No Sally, entrepreneur. That's right. No Sally, if her husband Rick is not independent and can't

keep himself busy and isn't about his life, she can't do what she needs to do because he's going to be pulling her at all times and making her feel guilty for taking that extra business trip, for looking at the phone during dinner. You need, if you're a true-bred

entrepreneur, an obsessed entrepreneur, and what I mean by that is, I believe, I know your audience, I know mine, I believe 87% of the people listening right now are in it for the money. They're in it for the short term, get the money,

go on the nice vacations, right? Buy the nice car. If you're part of the 13% that I'm a part of, which is you would die tomorrow if somebody said you couldn't play. I would much rather make $100,000 a year, and I proved this.

This is what I did in my, from 22 to 34, I made 150, 130, 67, $49,000 a year building my dad's business for him. I never got upset that I had no equity. I don't have resentment that I left that business at 34 with nothing. Even when people say to me, don't listen to Gary, his daddy put him on or gave him the business. When I know the true story is I didn't get anything. I just built a monster business for my dad in my best years of my youth and then left and started over. Right? I mean,

VaynerMedia started with me getting a client to pay because I had no money to pay me and AJ or anybody else. I had no money. Yeah, and I was there in the beginning. I went to your first office when it was four of you and a ping pong table. That's right. And you crushed me in ping pong. I was pissed.

Lewis is awfully good at sports. It really makes me upset. Yeah, when you're a lonely kid your whole life and you have all day to just hit a ball against the wall. And you're shaped like an Adonis. Yeah, that part too. Anyway, nonetheless, for the 13% who are listening, they get it, which is like, look, no question.

I think a lot of people are like, bullshit if they don't know me. But if you know me, make $14 million a year, right? And not be able to play anymore, passive income. Make $200,000 a year and get able to play, I'm not even close. It's $200,000 in play. I'll suffocate. I'll suffocate. I'm like a fish out of water if I'm not building a business. Every moment of my life since 1987 has been unbelievably passionately 98% of my human energy against the notion of either my family or building the business

that's in my hands at the time. Baseball cards, liquor store, my personal brand, VaynerMedia, the investments I've made, selling a book. I'm always in project mode operating. From the day I started working, I've been running a company. Becoming Gary Vee and all that stuff,

there's never been a day where Gary Vee has been my business. Every day since May of 1998, I've been running Wine Library or VaynerMedia, all of them. becoming Gary Vee and all that stuff, there's never been a day where Gary Vee has been my business. Every day since May of 1998, I've been running Wine Library or VaynerMedia, all of them, every single day in continuum. So yeah, I mean, to me, if you're that, if you're one of those 13%, for all the 13% that are listening,

if you're still not married, or by the way, if you're married, you may want to consider divorce. I'm being really serious here because you're not doing yourself a favor and you're not doing your partner a favor. If you are not blindly supported, you will suffocate and die.

It will not work. It just will not work. It's the same reason I give kids advice to tell their parents to go for themselves when they want to tell them what to do in their 20s. Not because I'm like rogue or I'm trying to be popular or create a viral piece of content.

It's because when they're 47, they're going to hate their parents. And so if you're doing what your parents want you to do because you love them, you're just appeasing the short term because you're going to end up having no relationship. When you started having kids, did the obsession for business stay the same?

No. Or did it increase? Probably. Or did it increase? Probably. Or did it go down? It definitely didn't go down. Yeah. So the obsession has stayed the same since you were, whatever, 12, 13, 15, to getting married, to having kids. It stayed the same?

Or has it gotten stronger? I think the greatest way to be selfless is to be selfish. I mean, I just don't care about political correctness on, like, what I'm supposed to be doing. I don't know what political correctness on like what I'm supposed to be doing. I don't know what else to tell you. Like I know who I am and I know how I can bring the most value to the 12 people I care the most about. And that means me being day in and day out, second and second happy. And that comes in the form of caring about my craft. Yeah. Yeah. What's been the biggest challenge for you since starting Vayner and just the transition out of Wine Library?

What's been the biggest thing you've had to overcome? It's been pretty damn good. I think, look, I think VaynerMedia and VaynerX, the holding company that owns PureWow and VaynerMedia and the other things I'm about to do, has been a pretty good run. I think the one thing that sucks is having clients. When I ran my dad's business, I was the boss.

People were trying to sell wine to me to sell to other people. Thus, I had the leverage in the B2B environment. VaynerM business, I was the boss. People were trying to sell wine to me to sell to other people. Thus, I had the leverage in the B2B environment. VaynerMedia, I'm the reverse. Chase is my client. Budweiser is my client. I'm on their time. And I'm fancy now.

Like I shouldn't be in a place in my career at 42 with my net worth and like all this stuff where I'm at, where I'm like at the begging call and like have to be late for something that I don't want to be late for because a client's yelling at me about being mad about something. But I chose the profession I'm at where I'm like at the begging call and like have to be late for something that I don't want to be late for because a client's yelling at me about being mad about something.

But I chose the profession and I have the humility in the prime of my career to be in it. So the biggest challenge is like, I'm over myself and I have the humility to run a client service business. I'd be lying if I didn't say like, when I'm dealing with something like that, I'm like, what the fuck?

I'm like making fun of myself to myself. I'm like, you, like the fact like, when I have the anxiety that like that, I'm like, what the fuck? I'm making fun of myself to myself. I'm like, you, the fact when I have the anxiety that I have to call a client tomorrow for them to yell at me and say I suck shit when they're an idiot and I'm gonna be the greatest of all time, that's a little weird.

You have that conversation with yourself of like, why am I sad? What am I doing here? When I can make more money just being Gary V than I can running VaynerX and I'm dealing with seven meetings in a row where people are complaining about other people within the building

and I'm playing guidance counselor, I like that because I want to make people's lives better within my company. But there are days, and I eat shit for a living, but there are days where I'm like, why am I doing this when I have a million options not to?

So then you start asking yourself. So why are you doing it? Because I think I'm holding my breath for the bigger win. I think that I'm going to build the greatest communications holding company of all time. I think I'm going to then buy brands. And I think I'm going to run them through this machine, this Death Star. And I think I'm going to buy vans for $874 million one day when it's on the downside because right now it's not. It's in the prime spot.

But again, when it's on the downside in seven years where none of the kids care or people care, I'm going to buy it and I'm going to flip it for $4 billion. And it's going to be because I ate shit for 20 years. My plan is to build a platform that is there for me to help Pencils of Promise, something we're both passionate about, help Crohn's disease with AJ, help what takes my parents' lives. If you decide to run for governor of California in 30 years, help that. Whatever I'm passionate about. And also sell sneakers and hats and hoodies and books. And I needed to build this machine for myself for the rest of my life. And so I'm willing to eat shit right now to build it

because it will make the 50 next years really exciting. One of the moments that you doubt yourself the most, because I know you're extremely confident in yourself, but are there moments, what are they, and how do you get through it when you have that doubt in anything you're doing? One of the weird things I do is I'm in a funny place now where I'm not putting myself in a place where I doubt myself. And so I always wonder is that like not challenging myself or is that like staying in my lane?

But like I will tell you like the only thing I think about being – like when you ask me like what's scary, here's reading in public is scary. Terrifying. Because I can't read. Yeah. Even like the last time I did the Ask Gary Vee book, like for the audio book. You just kind of riffed. You know what's funny, I always do that. Because I get bored.

Because that's why I got Fs. So I'm like I don't want to read my own. Like you know I'm like this. I know what's in here. Like you know. That's why people buy the book and the audio book because they're like basically not even the same. It was fun actually for me because I'm like

oh I'm a better reader than, you know I think I've been forced to read so much over the last 10 years as we became a computer-based, email-based, text-based world. But if you were like,

hey, read my notes here right now to the podcast, I'd be like, you could literally ask me to get naked. I'd be like, all right, okay. But if you said read this

right now verbatim, I'm like, ugh, because I don't like that. But man, then it's things like throw me in a pit of snakes. I'm like, I don't want that. Right man, then it's things like throw me in a pit of snakes. I'm like, I don't want that.

Like jump off this building. F*** that. But there's nothing in business that makes you doubt yourself. Is there a situation that you could see? Like you've spoken in front of 50,000 people. That's not scary. At this point in my career, I've been in the room with everybody. And that means I have not been in a room with a ton of people.

All the big leaders, every billionaire, every CEO. That's right, that's right. I'm of the cloth. I belong. You're confident too, yeah. I'll be very frank with you, I think I'm better. I think when it's all said and done, I win this generation. I think Elon and Zucks and the Uber guys,

I think a ton of people make more money. I'm convinced now that nobody will make more money, nobody will make more money and help people make more money than me in this generation. I will win. In that game, yeah. In the game that I like. Yes. Which is winning personally and winning helping other people

I don't think I'm going to be touched. I think I will be the guy. I think they will go back and be like look, here were the people that were entrepreneurs during a time when entrepreneurship was cool and here are all the different things. Elon invented the craziest shit. And Mark Zuckerberg created the greatest, and Bezos created the best companies and made the most money.

And then Gary did the best job of making the most money and he bought the Jets and that became symbolic. But he also created millions of 100,000 heirs and millionaires. That's what Crush It's about. And that's what Crushing It's about. I think that's really cool. I spend an enormous amount of time

trying to make my audience awesome out of the selfishness of the legacy, not to get them into a top of the funnel to buy my book or my sneaker. I ask for it, but I have zero vulnerability or expectation. Listen, you have a great business on Round Your Brand. A lot of other people do. I think that's great and think it's cool.

I just like that I make my economics in other places, but I'm paying the price. I'm eating the shit. One could argue what's better, but I absolutely think I'm going to win the game as made most because it's keeping score. I mean, it's part of the equation. But I'm not driven by that. I'm driven by, look, dude, you are crushing it.

You are winning. You're doing so many great things. Do you know amazing? Like when I read, because, you know, Stephanie Land, my ghostwriter, interviewed you for it. And then I'm going through it. Just reading your story about the book Crush It. And then, of course, course I remember getting picked up and going to the Cost Plus and all that.

I picked you up in a beater car, and I had no money. But it's fun, right? First of all, one thing I know is everybody's got it in them. It's not like I'm manufacturing. You were doing the LinkedIn party stuff. That's not Crush It. But man, I have definitely suffocated excuses better than a lot of people

which is really the biggest reason so many people who are listening right now are not winning. They are surrounded by people that are willing to accept their excuses on one very interesting insight. It's because those people don't give a fuck. Your friends and your family

are letting you get away with your excuses because they don't care. I weirdly don't know you and I care and let me tell you how to fix this. Get an excuses out of your mouth. And so like I think between that and then showing people this whole $1.80 strategy,

I don't know if you've seen this, this has been great for me. You know, once in a blue moon I come up with very tangible advice. So I've been talking a lot about leaving comments in people's Instagram posts, but not like follow me or like just to game it. No, take the out. You want to grow your,

everyone's like, how do I grow? I'm like, there's a way. It's called the thank you economy. Quietly going like nice and calmly. Like if you're a photographer, go to Nick's page. He's getting legit shit. He takes a photo of some pretty person,

boy or girl, he's very good at that, in some beautiful setting and like look at it and then leave a comment that's meaningful. Like, hey Nick, you Nick, are you using this filter or I noticed what you did with the light there. Something that means something, not like cool lit.

You're not leaving the comment for the sake of leaking the comment, you're taking the actual hour and a half to look, add something of value. You do that on 90 different, and the way I came up with it was leave your two cents in a comment, leave your two cents, you know, in a comment, leaving your two cents, go take nine hashtags that are relevant to your business, and then go to 10 accounts,

or 10 hashtags, top nine, it used to be the top nine, now it's just random nine. So pick 10 hashtags, the random nine, that's 90, leave two cents, now you've left $1.80 for the day. Watching the last two, three, four, five, six weeks of people like, you know, because it's funny, right?

People are buying f***ing likes and comments. People are like trying to do dumb shit, give away iPads or Yeezys or Off-Whites to get followers or you can actually work for an hour. On value. Know your craft and like Nick, I'm actually looking at him like, do you know what would happen because he actually knows his craft

if he actually spent three hours a day? Three hours is a lot of time. It's a lot of time, yeah. And if he gave up, and I don't think he should or shouldn't, but if he gave up, the fact that if he spent three hours looking at 20 hashtags in photography

because he's crafted and skilled and gifted and went to those people's photos and said shit that I would never understand. I'd just be like, nice thong or like nice muscles or like cool coconuts. Like if he said like, oh shit, I see what you did there off the reflection horizon. Well, that matters because like people see

that you're leaving something meaningful, right? I don't even remember why the fuck I'm talking about that. Basically, I'm thinking about bringing the most value. I think it's mindset and strategy. I used to not like the motivational version of me. I've gotten much more comfortable in the last 18 months because I'm like, huh, if I didn't think of it as motivational and I thought of it as strategy,

because mindset's strategy, right? Like being insecure is a mindset. It was put into you for a million different reasons. Figuring out how to get out of that hole by who you surround with, how you think, what you do. Insecurity is the biggest poison in our lives. Like insecurity scares the fuck out of me.

Lack of self-esteem is why people do everything bad. Buy dumb shit to make themselves feel better. Do dumb shit. Like take dumb shit and put it into their body. It's all insecurity. I used to remember in high school, back to dating now, I'm going to tie these stories together. I remember when I realized, oh, my friends drink alcohol to get courage. But they don't even that drunk. They just use it as an excuse to do shit that they wanted to do anyway. It's just all insecurity, man.

Yeah. I don't know. What's your insecurity? What is my insecurity? My insecurity is, this is gonna be very weird for a lot of people who don't know me. I hate being disliked,

which is a really funny insight because the way I act in public and in my content shows a huge willingness to be disliked. But I only think of it simply as if you really break down my content and my ethos and who I am, I'm willing to be disliked in the micro.

I'm willing for you to not like me because I'm suffocating you and you don't like that I've put you into a corner, but you're gonna love me in three years. I hate being disliked. Why? Because I think I should be nice and I think I like people.

I think it's a bad idea. I don't know if it's an insecurity. I don't know if you saw, I had Tim Ferriss on my podcast and I apologized to him at the end because in my early part of my career, I got on a tangent in one speech at Blogs with Balls where I was like, four hours of working, like go all in. And it just, I didn't like the way it came out. I knew what my intent was, which is why I'm kind of fine.

But I've been apologizing to Tim for a decade because I don't want Tim to. From that one speech. Yeah, because it hurt Tim's feelings, rightfully so. Like if you go and find Blogs with Balls 2009, I went on a good three, four minute tangent. I didn't talk about,

I've never read anything. Right. From what I know, four hour work week is about efficiency, not about working four hours. So like, I just don't like being this,

like I look at Ray Lewis on your wall, right? In the right circumstance at a Jets-Ravens game, there is no question that Ray would never remember and this didn't happen, but like,

Tom Brady. I fucking hate Tom Brady. But do I? I hate him, right? But you love him. I appreciate him. But I would hate, no, no,

I don't even appreciate him. I know how great he is. I have zero appreciation for him being great. None. I know it's there. I don't appreciate him. If he was on your team,

you would. No shit. And I hate him and I say it in public and fuck you and if he was on your team you would no shit and I hate him and I say it in public and fuck you and this and that and at games and if like

if he was on the sideline I flat out like fuck you you fucking suck like mean it right but in like kind of like in real life

like if I cross paths with him and I feel like you know what scares me now is I'm like oh I'm definitely gonna cross paths with like the Kobe's and the Tom

like all these guys want to be entrepreneurs and will be entrepreneurs so I'm like, oh, I'm definitely going to crop spats with like the Kobe's and Tom, like all these guys want to be entrepreneurs and will be entrepreneurs. So I'm like, the sports thing's weird now. Like I'm going to see him at some like, you know, like Allen and co. I don't want to be disliked because I think there's no reason to, I hate cynicism and hate. I hate it so much. And being associated with it would really upset me. I'm insecure at, I don't know if it's insecure is the right word, but I, I am aware that I'm awfully peacocky on stage in a podcast. Like you could ask me questions here and I could say that I believe, but I don't want to deal with the ramifications of my truth.

Sure. And more importantly, and it's a great time to say it, and Babin, I hope you're filming. There is something that's really interesting to me, which is I really know that I mean nothing. I think the biggest reason I'm willing to spit authentic is because I don't think so highly of myself, meaning I'm not insecure. It's just that like me thinking Nick is not good at something like business. Forget about photography where who gives a**. Me saying your business stinks, even with all my business things, I still think is just one dude's opinion. I understand it's a solid opinion. I understand that it comes with some heritage and value. Too many great people

who've won so much in things have told me I'm not going to win and that I've won, that I know I'm the same. And so I think one of the reasons I'm willing to spit is like, my opinion is still my opinion and like, take it with a grain of salt. Yeah. You talk a lot about, you know, delayed gratification. There's time and everyone has a lot of time and people are wanting things right now. What do you think, even with that mentality, I know that you would love to get results, bigger results all the time with what you're doing. You know, if you sell a hundred thousand books, you would like to sell 200,000 books right now. That's exactly right. Micro, micro, macro.

Yes, exactly. That's it. But what do you think you're going to need to do to step into getting faster results in the micro and the macro, what would take you to the next level quicker? I think what takes everybody to the next level is cutting out dumb shit. If you really look at anything,

it's always cutting, that's why Jack Welsh had such a great career. He was so right in like, when it was a revolutionary thought of like cut your bottom 10% of your staff each year. But it's right. I mean like no question, whether in your training, in your business,

in your friendships, do you understand that if every person who's listening right now started to weed off the friend that is bringing the least value, and I mean they're a bad influence, they're a bad mojo, they're bad.

Like bad. I mean they're just negative. They're a negative person so they're dragging you down. They're bad. Like, bad. I mean, they're just negative. They're a negative person, so they're dragging you down. They're selfish. They have bad habits, like a drug addiction or something. And you don't want to leave them. I want to make sure people, people when they hear me say this,

like, oh, you can get rid of your friend. No, just if you audit your circle of who you spend time with, if you just spent less time with something that is broken and you added one person that was incredibly valuable, your life would be a lot better. That's just real. And so I think the thing that I'm not good at,

but I will never give it up, so I don't know if it's a strength or weakness, I do a lot of meetings on spec when people ask me to. Some of those pay off long-term, and some of them you're just like, am I wasting my time? Even this was back in the day. Can I drive you to the cost plus?

I'm glad I did it. Now we know each other for a long time. I think at this point no question my time has become remarkably valuable and I still do 20% of my time this year will be highly questionable in somebody who was auditing my life. At some level, you got to accept some of your humanity aspects. But I think that that is the

thing that would take me to the next level, getting even more disciplined on every single thing I do, debating every single idea. I'll give you a good one. This is super funny. If Tyler was in the room right now, he would argue that I've made a mistake by being here today for an hour. You're assisting Tyler? We've got a lot of things going on. I'll break it down. This is going to be interesting for people listening. We had a bunch of new

business meetings, new people I could have met. Hi. Big. Good. Would have been on your biggest wall. Right? And Tyler gave me a list of things. He's like, you can do one of these four things. And I did this. I would argue somebody analyzing me would say this is the wrong move. A couple reasons.

Number one, the new book Crushing It is selling so well that I'm not even trading for speaking or doing podcasts. I mean, I've never been this passive two weeks away from a book release. I don't even know what I'm doing. I'm like, I'm weirded out myself. I almost like weirdly wanted to collapse and everybody returns the pre-sales so I get punched in the mouth for being so passive. This audience that is listening right now

has heavy crossover. I've been on this show not too long ago. A lot of people that like you, like me, vice versa. So I get somebody analyzing how do you you get better that this was the wrong choice for the hour? And I just like you. I just wanted to see you. So like, I think that's a human thing. Like sometimes you just have to do those things. But so that's why I say I won't change what would make me better. But what would make me better is to analyze my time more fruitfully for micro results. But for macro results, friendship, whose funeral are you going to show up to and why, I think this is the better decision.

And so I will always make a macro decision and I will take 100% of the macro results and only 60% of the micro results. And I think everybody who's listening, man, do I think 99% of the people are trying to maximize micro. Everything personally, like I'm blown away by people literally analyzing like what's in it for me in this thing. Micro second of this thing, everybody. It's so awesome for me to watch. Cause I'm like, you've lost.

And people do that. And people do it when they don't mean shit. I love people getting put on just a little bit and they think they're fancy and they just start valuing it. Anyway, Babin, you're smiling because that's a big thing you've learned, right? As somebody who really gets to see everything I do in every minute, that's the one, right? This last seven, eight minutes, if we can deconstruct this in a meaningful way, it's the one, right? This last seven, eight minutes. Like, if we can deconstruct this in a meaningful way, it's the one. Like, I genuinely think that people are in the business of thinking what's in it for me. And I only think what's in it for me is my legacy.

I am obsessed with what Nick says behind my back. It's just interesting. I think it's an interesting thing. He says good things about you. Right. And like, I know how well I know him and he knows how well I know him. We're in between that zone of acquaintances and friends. We haven't spent enough time.

By the way, I'm going on a complete tangent. Aren't you fascinated by the serendipity of something happening that takes an acquaintance to a friend? It's usually predicated on something like a trip or some weird night where I'm desperate for one of my flights to be canceled and I'm there with it. A dream for me would be to go on a red eye

from LA to New York that nicks on, it gets canceled, and for some reason it's a blizzard and we can't leave the airport, I know in those six hours sitting there, that's where the friendship gets made. Love that shit. Early college is that for a lot of people, right?

Remember that first conversation you had, probably around like the first week of October with the kids you just met, and you stayed up to four o'clock, and one dude cried, and like, you know, and like forever, that night, you're like literally, I'm literally still texting kids who are my friends 21 years later off of that October 7th night

where two people cried, and I'm like, I love you, dude. And you've only known the guy for four weeks, but now you're friends forever. College is the biggest racket, and everything college should go to jail for the debt structure that's created around it, but no question, and that's why I love, whether it's a Soho house, or the Summit at Sea thing,

or South by Southwest, getting people into a place where they have to spend two to three nights together is powerful. I've actually been thinking about launching a club thing, by Southwest, getting people into a place where they have to spend two to three nights together is powerful. I've actually been thinking about launching a club thing that where, it's called Tuesday. I had this idea of a club that's called Tuesday and you walk in and the only way you're in this club,

think Soho House, Newhouse, think about those kind of places where you have to be there by nine o'clock Tuesday and you don't actually leave until 6 a.m Wednesday you're like stuck and there's like showers and beds and like obviously some weird shit could go down but I'm not caring about the weird shit I'm caring about like what actually happens when you're forced to spend the night here's what happens you'll have dinner with people but it's what's going to happen from 11 to 3 in the morning that will forever change your relationship with that person

so I'm trying to create a context and force. You know what I'm pumped about that we just said this is this is now on the record. I've never said it out loud. I probably won't do it because I'm busy

but it's now going to happen and of course they're going to call it Thursday to like disguise it. That's my shit. You motherfuckers. That's good Tuesday you dick. We only got a few minutes left

so I want to make sure that I get to a couple questions left. Well, before we get to the final questions, I want to make sure everyone gets the book. We don't have the copy right here like we usually did. You just got it like this morning, but it's back in New York. Make sure you guys pick up Crushing It. Lewis is in it. I'm in the book.

I think there's a few pages of me, or there's like a whole profile about. There's a whole profile. My story of reading Crush It, meeting you nine years ago, and what the book did for me. And my favorite chapter is the one about caring and giving. I think it was the one-word chapter, care, right? It's true. And that's been my approach ever since.

I mean, I think I came from that before I read it. But when I read it— Sometimes when you put something on paper, right? Yeah. It was like, okay, what can I do? And hopefully you felt this from me that every year I'm thinking, how can I give to Gary? Let me help. Let me say something about you. That's nice. Cause I like your audience to hear it, but more importantly, it will help so many people. When you started trying to care towards me as your career evolved over the last

nine years, the first four times that you cared, I thought this is the setup for the other thing. The ask or something, right? Because that's what we as humans think. That is the environment we live in. I'm sure that's what people feel about me. The fact that you, look, I think here's the thing. Actually, let me say this about you as well. This is a good topic.

I want to pay forward at all costs. I want to give, give all costs I want to give give give give give right hook like if I had it my way that book would have been called jab jab jab jab jab jab jab jab jab jab jab jab jab

right hook I think the thing that you have that I have and this is our kinship and no question speaks to our success is we're very willing to give we're not scared to ask for something in return

but we are not crippled we don't overreact to somebody coming through We're very willing to give. We're not scared to ask for something in return. But we are not crippled. We don't overreact to somebody coming through. And we're not crippled when they don't. I'll give you a great example for everybody listening. When School of Greatness came out, you emailed, you reached out. I was able to buy a bunch of books. We did all the right things.

When Mass came out, this feels like what, three months ago? Yeah. I remember this clearly because I kept getting scared that I was being up because you reached out, you're like, this is coming. But I had some shit going on, just like business stuff. You were really busy too and everything, yeah. No, but I was just really like, between personal life and business.

And I just remember like, because I remember this because I was like, oh shit, I got to, it wasn't like notes, I'm like, oh, I got to reach out to him, I got to, and then I like hit you up and I was like, dude, where are you? Like, dude, I was in New York four days ago. But you know what's interesting to me?

That. Because that's how I play. Sometimes you know what's interesting to me? That. Because that's how I play. Sometimes people will come through. Sometimes they don't. Giving with expectation is a devastatingly bad idea that 99% of people do. And somewhere after the fourth time you ask to do something or this, I'm like, oh, he can figure it out. So now I look forward to the asks. I want to support the asks. I'm like oh he can figure it out so now I look forward to the asks

I want to support the asks I'm always and I don't really ever ask it's like you ask the same way I ask

yeah it's like once in a blue moon oh dude do you know how pumped I am that crushing it's selling so well so I don't have to ask exactly

because I also have the next two K-Swiss sneakers coming out and they sold out so fast that we've produced so many

so I'm like oh shit now you need that like dude do you want to wear a fresh new pair of k swisses every day for the whole year well yes please buy 365 pairs of my next thing my mentality is also and i think people listening can take a page out of this mind mentality with you is i'm thinking of how can i give to you without you even having to ask i'm thinking like i made a couple i don without you even having to ask. I'm thinking, like, I made a couple, I don't even know if you saw them in the email,

but I made a couple introductions where guys were like, I want to buy a couple thousand books from Gary, and I said. Let me tell you how, yeah, like making intros, and like, hey, you know who buys four or five or 10,000 of yours. You made intros of people that,

and you're winning, right? Because I'm not as easy to get to these days. So you won twice, and that's so smart, right? You're getting, these people, a lot of them have told you this, I'm sure, because if you intro,

I'm saying yes. Right. Well, I say, the only way I'm going to intro is if you buy 2,000 books. But even more interestingly, these are people that have reached out 10 times

that say, I'll buy 3,000 and I don't reply. And then you do it and I do, which I know makes you, but for me, the best part is

now that I'm in a different kind of like, as my brand grows, as my career grows, as my reputation grows, that's reputation. Because when I say brand, I know a lot of people are like, reputation. That's what it is. What's been fun for me is when real senior people, not people with like 10,000 Instagram followers.

I mean like the 74-year-old lady that's running the world that you haven't heard of. What's been fun for me, and this is the thing that, back to Nick, what he says behind my back, when real power players, like $80 billion hedge fund people that want to invest in something, or somebody deciding,

even when you've got somebody as incredible as Scooter behind you, when you're looking at TV stuff, when there's people that are on the board level of a network saying, hey, this guy's coming through the path we're trying to you know this anybody that's growing up in our era everyone's trying to figure out is this real or is this fake is this a real dude nothing is more fun now look

buying 500 books is the easy part me putting my reputation on the line for somebody else is the thing that scares the shit out of me and i think the thing that's a lot of fun, and this is the hidden thing that all the kids and even the 70 year olds that are in kid mentality don't get it. I had a meeting, I was with Scooter today. We talked about the game. We talked about multiple people that we're fine with,

we like, but deep down, everybody knows this. There are plenty of people that feel that you have relationships with that that person will feel like you guys are fine. Why would I say something bad about somebody? Like when there's no benefit. But if somebody said your reputation's on the line, and this happens in real life.

Guys, this is what's happening. Just so you know what happens as you continue to try to build your game, there's always this moment. There's so many huckster kids running around right now who claim to be friends with all of us. So they know someone. That's right.

Who, all of us are nice people, but behind the scenes, if you're a huckster and you're doing it just for you and you're name collecting to get selfish short-term shit for you, let me tell you what's happening. At dinner, four of the people that are really winning are having dinner, your name gets brought up

because maybe the fourth person's like, hey, this kid's been reaching out to me and says he's homies with all three of you ironically. What's the story? You are getting shit on. You think you're winning. And again, on a micro level you are. Like that person's commenting on your Instagram post, you're at a conference and they high five you

and give you a hug, but the truth selfie with them. But the truth, shit. I'll wrap it up perfectly. The curtains look good. Yeah. The painting looks good. Foundation. But the foundation can broken. And here's the punchline.

The four titans that are winning, they're not wrong. Because they're just being polite. You're wrong because you're doing behavior to gain those titans for your selfish needs. And you look like a idiot to the 1% and you look cool to the 60% that don't matter and the 39% in the middle are trying to figure it out. Too many people winning with the 60%. Yeah. What advice would you have for me over the next 10 years? You've seen the first 10 years from crush it to crushing it now in my career evolving. This isn't for selfish reasons.

No, I think it's going to help everyone. Here's my thing. I think you're at the point now where you need to decide if you want to build a business for yourself that isn't around you as a human. Do you have that ambition or not? If you do, you should start getting serious about it. If you don't, you need to quadruple down on the Lewis Howes business. That's the only decision you have, in my opinion.

It's actually binary. Do I, Lewis, should I buy Prince, the tennis racket company? Do I want to buy a company? Do I want to start a company? Or do I want to triple down? For you to have this much brand awareness around a human, you've got to decide if you want, like, if you look at all these pictures,

a lot of those people make the majority of their money being that human, but if you look at the CEO of Spanx, or if you look at something else, there's, I'm in that category, they're making their money other places and happen to also have that. You need to decide, are you gonna still just only be Superman

or is there a Clark Kent in your repertoire? And that doesn't mean that you have like, I'm looking at Logan Paul, he's obviously going through his own stuff and like what right now, but like he sells hoodies and makes millions of dollars, but that's 100% still on his brand. That's different than VaynerMedia,

that's different than Spanx, that's different than my ambition to buy K-Sw different than Spanx. That's different than my ambition to buy K-Swiss and be the CEO of K-Swiss. And it's not because I'm the face of, I'm the operator. Do you want to be the operator of a business that 90% of it, the customers don't care you're this person? Or do you want to continue there? That's, I think, the most interesting thing for you to think about, right? Yeah. That's good. Good advice. You know, there haven't been, you know, Phil Knight and all these, I'm looking at books around here.

They didn't have that. There was no way for Phil Knight to make $4 million a year being Phil Knight in 1984. All these youngsters now can do that. You're a youngster. What's interesting is, like our mutual friend Adam Braun, there was no kids building huge nonprofits. Right? So, like him, when he wanted to go on and build a business, there was like this weird dynamic of like,

wait, you're not allowed, you're a nonprofit. Of course he's allowed, but he's a first of generation where kids started nonprofits from the get and then go private. Same for you. You're part of the generation that can make a great living just being the person. Now your question is, do you want to build a business that is scalable outside of yourself or do you want to quadruple down? And truth is both work.

That's just up to you. Yeah. Cool. Final two questions. This is called the three truths. And I don't remember if I asked you last time, but if you did, maybe it'll be different now. If this was the last day for you many years from now, you've done everything you've wanted to achieve. You've created it all. You've said everything. Yep. But for whatever reason, all your books and shoes and businesses

have been erased. Yes. And so there's nothing left that people have to remember of you. Yes. But you've got a piece of paper and a pen

to write down three lessons or three truths that that's all they would have that you would share with the world. Yep. What would those three things be? 51-49,

I would draw that first and then I would like in parentheses explain it, and it would say give more than you take. And then we talked a lot about that the last 15 minutes. It just works. And the reason 51-49 works is it painted a picture for everybody right now who's been listening for the last 20 minutes, and like that's an interesting insight of like why Gary and Lewis are winning. That's the right number to me. And I've debated like should it be 50.1 to 49. But then you can still be selfish

in the power of your selflessness. So 51.49, I would say legacy over currency. How many people show up to your funeral is the KPI. Because if you're great at that, you're gonna have money. Like occasionally you have somebody who's a teacher or sat on the porch of a town and everybody loved them. But like most people that have 10,000 people

or 5,000 people show up to their funeral. And by the way, just being loved is better than having money. Like how much money do you need? So anyway, legacy over currency. And then the third one would be patience. It is the disease of our society. The lack of patience, bro. I mean, it's crazy to me

that literally patience and insecurity is 90% of the unlock for everybody listening right now. Their mom shitted on them their whole life and said they're gonna be a loser so they believe it

because that's what parenting is and they just wanna have a Maserati now and they'll do whatever it takes to do it and so they'll take, they did something, like how many kids because that's what parenting is. And they just want to have a Maserati now. And they'll do whatever it takes to do it. And so they'll take, they did something, like, do you know how many kids are doing something smart, like doing a good retail arbitrage on Amazon right now and making $100,000 by buying on Alibaba

and selling on Amazon? Took a year and a half, three years to get good at it. But now we're taking every profit and buying some rando cryptocurrency because they're playing the lotto. This is what's going on in our society. We have to have these conversations. You're saying big gains fast,

like let me jump in on that. There's a kid who spent three years being disciplined and getting good at retail arbitrage. It's a real skill to have an eye for what to buy in China, how to set up on Amazon properly, how to run ads. It's a skill. Yeah. They did it for three years meticulously.

They made $13,000, then $47,000. Now they finally are making $300,000. And they could be on their way to $10 million, yet they've chosen to kind of stop, jump on the short-term bandwagon of buying some weird cryptocurrency, hoping it's the next Bitcoin or Ethereum. I'm just seeing that every day.

And I'm just like, it's being predicated on short-term. You hear one story, Zucks did it. Instagram sold in 550 days for a bit. Now, that's why everybody started an app company. The follow the leader shit, completely predicated on short term. I went the other way. While everybody was blowing up,

I decided to build an agency. Boring ass, shitty ass business in the prime of my career when everything was going for me in Silicon Valley. I'm proud of that. I think I'll be historically correct. So those are the three things I would say. That's great.

Before I ask the final question, make sure you guys get the book, Crushing It. It's out now. You can preorder it or it's out now. Get the audio book, preorder that, which is coming out in a couple months, I think. If you don't already follow Gary, make sure to follow him at Gary V. Instagram seems like it's your platform of choice these days. It's been crushing it. Literally, it's been blowing up in a massive way. Your attention there is unbelievable. So go follow him there if you're not following him already. One final question before I ask, I want to acknowledge you for a moment, Gary, for

constantly showing up. Since I've known you 2008, 2009, you're constantly giving. You care deeply about everyone. You always want to give. And you're doing things that aren't necessarily the most popular things to support other people. So I want to acknowledge you for constantly being yourself, speaking your truth. You never hold back. Just like now, you're always going to say it like it is. Your authentic ability to give, to speak what's on your mind,

I really acknowledge that. Appreciate it. Appreciate it. Final question, what's your definition of greatness? I've never really thought of that. You know, it's funny. A couple things ran through my head. I'll just go with what ran through my head.

First thing that came to mind is that a lot of people know who you are because you've impacted them in a positive way. The second thing that came through my mind was interesting was when you say somebody's name, you feel something. You know, like when you get nervous, like some version of like excitement and butterflies. I'm fascinated by the word great because I think it's one of those words that has absolutely been like, I think about sports casting. It's funny.

Everybody's nostalgic about their youth and you always become the old man or old woman. The way great gets thrown around, you know, I'd love to get your perspective on this because you've anchored into this so heavily, but like those are the two things that come to mind. Like that mix between nervousness and excitement in your stomach or like to me, it's like when you hear a name,

like it's funny, Martin Luther King's birthday was the other day, right? I went to Martin Luther King Middle School. I don't think we can wrap our head around the people that have changed the world because that's a level of selflessness. Like I'm pumped because I'm gonna be 50% selfless and I think I'm gonna be legendary for it.

There's people out there that are 100% selfless. I think for entrepreneurship, you have to be 50% selfless and I think I'm going to be legendary for it. There's people out there who are 100% selfless. I think for entrepreneurship, you have to be 50% of each, but it's wild to me that I am going to be far more successful and great because of the DM that I'm going to send to a kid tonight than for the 97 things I'm going to be right about in business over the next century and will make me successful. Doing the right thing is always the right thing. There's something in that statement with greatness. I think to be great, you have to be an enigma.

You have to be like against the status quo. You have to be willing to say, work-life balance in its current state, like I did earlier in the segment. So yeah, just different and invoking a reaction. A human reaction must occur. Otherwise, you're not great. Gary, thanks for that. Appreciate you. There you have it, my friends. If you enjoyed this special episode with Gary Vaynerchuk, then make sure to share this with your friends. Tag me on Instagram with a screenshot of this podcast image and let me know what you thought. Tag at Gary V as well. I'll be screenshotting them, posting them on my Instagram story, retweeting them, posting them on Facebook. So make sure to tag both of us at Lewis Howes and at Gary V on Twitter and Instagram with what you thought about this episode. And if you did

enjoy it, make sure to leave us a review over on iTunes. Again, you can do it right on your podcast app if you're listening on your phone, or go to lewishiles.com slash iTunes and leave us a review for your chance to be shouted out as a fan of the week. Also, make sure to pick up a copy or two of the book, get one for yourself and give one to a friend. Again, I'm in the book, so I'd love to hear your thoughts about my case study of my journey. Again, so many people are always interested about what I've been able to do over the last eight to ten years. And I talk a little bit about the things I learned from Gary's original book, Crush It, and how I've applied that specific principle towards my business.

So you'll learn a lot in the book. Go check it out. Get a couple of copies for your friends as well. Again, if you enjoy the School of Greatness podcast, and if this is your first time here, then welcome. I hope you subscribe to the podcast. And if you want to watch the full video interview, you can do that at lewishouse.com slash 595 for this episode with Gary Vaynerchuk. And if you've been here many times before, then welcome back and thank you again for constantly listening and sharing this with your friends. Our mission is to bring you the greatest and brightest individuals in the world to help you unlock your inner greatness. You were born for greater things than you have right now. And Ralph Waldo Emerson said, to be yourself in a world that is constantly trying

to make you into something else is the greatest accomplishment. All you need to do is become more of you. Continue to overcome your fears, continue to step out of your comfort zone to grow, to learn, to develop, to tackle life's greatest challenges and become your best self. Be yourself and become your best self. I love you and you know what time it is. It's time to go out there and do something great. I'm a super I'm a super