If you’re an entrepreneur, you must know who Gary Vaynerchuk is.
He’s the CEO of VaynerMedia – his digital agency with more than 600 employees. He’s also a successful businessman, social media guru, an investor, a YouTube celebrity with 2 popular shows, a public speaker and bestselling author.
But most of all, he’s a hard worker.
You can hear him say stuff like ‘My hustle is better than everybody else’s’, or ‘I’ve got a dream worth more than my sleep’.
When you watch his videos on YouTube, you’ll be receive advice such as ‘stop focusing on dumb shit’, ‘the easiest way to work is to fucking love it’ and ‘battle scars are attractive’.
When you open his Instagram account with more than 1.8 million followers, you’ll see passionate posts like ‘you can make shit happen’, ‘working hard is the cost of entry to anything’ and ‘life is about grabbing it’.
That’s the language he uses, that’s the life and business wisdom he shares from the bottom of his heart, and that’s how he motivates millions of people all over the world to actually do something about their goals, to get out there, start making things happen and make money and do work that matters at the same time.
Gary Vaynerchuk, aslo known as Gary Vee, is an advocate of simple hard work, and that’s his biggest strength. He’s realized that early on.
Let’s see how he started, what helped him become such a hustler, and whether or not he’s really like that 24/7.
Gary Vaynerchuk: The Beginning of The Hustle
He admits that many people have talents and can easily be compared to him. There are also things he sucks at. But the one thing he’s absolutely sure about is that he works harder than each and every one of them, makes more sacrifices, invests more time, focuses more, takes more action and makes no excuses.
When he’s awake, he works every minute, there are no unproductive activities on his to-do list or free time on his calendar. He spends time with his family whenever he can as family always comes first, but the rest of the time, he’s an entrepreneur and hustler before anything else.
How did he become such a hard worker?
Mostly from seeing his parents create a life for their family although being immigrants.
His father was working really hard too, doing stuff for his wine business all the time. Gary actually worked there as a teenager, where he learned all he knew about wine so that later he could combine it with the best medium for him – video, and start his own little empire.
He was also admiring his mother for taking care of 3 kids and doing everything else at home, without complaining. He took that attitude towards life too.
He says that one part of his success is his DNA. But that’s no excuse or a reason not to work hard, of course.
At an early age he identified his 2 best gifts: good communication skills and the ability to make money. And as we know, being a people person and good at sales are two very profitable and respected qualities these days.
He was truly grateful about having these and worked on improving them. But the 1 thing he added – over which he had full control – was the grind.
In an interview for Foundr mag with Nathan Chan, Gary Vaynerchuk said that the hustle was just in him and admitted that he felt like a businessman even when he was in 7th grade.
Even then he found ways to make money from side projects.
Gary Vee as a Kid and Keeping The Hustle Alive
As a kid, he was an immigrant, didn’t speak the language, was short and a bad student.
All that makes people feel less than average and they rarely find the confidence to take chances in life, speak up and create a business of their own later on.
But Gary Vaynerchuk was different.
His success started with Wine Library TV, where he combined his experience in the wine industry with how good he was at selling it, but did all this using a platform that was just a year old – YouTube. This combination, together with his confidence and attitude that can be easily felt from the screen, crushed it.
He started VaynerMedia, his agency, a few years ago and built it up to $100 million business.
He never imagines a reality where he could be working for someone else. That was just not an option.
He has always been one of those people who don’t wait for things to happen, don’t wish for them to happen, but simply go and make them happen.
What Else is Different About Gary Vaynerchuk
He knows who he is – a businessman and a hustler. He loves working hard and believes that’s his destiny.
He’s happily married now and his wife understands his passions and lets him do his thing. But that’s not a coincidence. He made it clear to her from day one that he’s grinding when others are sleeping.
Gary Vaynerchuk doesn’t just think big or aim high, he openly shares one of his goals – to buy the New York Jets. Although he’s not that much about the goals, but about going after them long enough and loving the journey.
When people ask if he’s getting tired of all this popularity, social media domination, 24/7 hustling and business growth, he says that the older he gets, the more motivated he becomes.
He admits that he gets overwhelmed like once or twice a year but quickly gets back on track as he doesn’t let himself whine.
He doesn’t waste any time complaining, he just does what he does, which is usually hard biz-related work.
He actually calls himself ‘the purest bred entrepreneur you’ll even find’.
Gary Vaynerchuk is a player and he loves the game of entrepreneurship. It doesn’t tire or bore him, it gives him energy and focus.
Competition also doesn’t scare him in any way, it excites him and makes the game more interesting.
I too believe in hard work and that it’s the solution to most of the things we consider problems.
We can all be like Gary Vee. The least we can do, is watch his videos for daily motivation, try to have his attitude, and whenever we’re wondering what to do, we should just get to work.