3 Lessons I learned from Garyvee

Lessons From a Legend

Once you stop learning, you decline!

Today I’d like to share 3 key lessons that I learned from Gary Vaynerchuk.

In case you’re not familiar with Gary, he’s a serial entrepreneur and one of the most influential people in the world with over 42.9 MILLION followers in total!

But most importantly:

He’s a shining example that you CAN achieve massive success without being a ruthless asshole! Gary not only shares incredible business advice, but also talks on topics like empathy, patience, humility and practical optimism.

In short, the keys to both success AND happiness in life!

In this issue of my newsletter I’m sharing 3 key lessons I learned from Gary.

1. Be Empathetic Towards Haters & Trolls

If you go anywhere online, you will at some point encounter haters.

And even offline you’ll find them.

One of the core lessons that I took from Gary years ago was to be empathetic to any haters or trolls. The reason for this isn’t to win them over, but comes from an understanding that hate is a reflection of the person sharing it!

These people are coming from a dark place mentally!

For example:

I remember a time when I make a post on Reddit about the way we talk to ourselves and how to turn that into an empowering conversation.

Most of the comments were fantastic!

However, I also got a comment telling me to go and end myself…

7 years ago, this comment could have destroyed me mentally!

However, it took mere minutes to shake it off like Taylor Swift!

From both his words and his attitude, it could not be plainer that he was hurting himself and hated both the world and himself. So I took his harsh words not as a criticism upon myself, but rather as a cry for help from him.

Instead of anger, I offered him sympathy, kindness and help.

Remember that hate should NOT be countered with more hate!

2. A Painful Lesson in Accountability

It’s shameful to admit how long it took for a “simple” lesson to sink in…

To be fair, I never learned what it means to have any discipline of any kind until my mid-twenties. After being bullied for years, I was left with a million bits and pieces to rebuild myself with.

However…

No matter the situation, I’m still accountable to my own actions.

There have been times in my life where I felt like I was doing a great job with working towards my goals. However, when I observe Gary’s work ethic and hear him talk about the action required to build something great…

… I had to face the fact I wasn’t doing nearly enough.

Note:

There is nothing wrong with wanting to have a simple quiet life as opposed to the “hustle lifestyle” you see on social media. You, and only YOU can decide the kind of life you want to live!

But once you decide, match your level of effort to your goals!

One of the lessons that I learned from observing Gary was to take a good honest look at my actions and level up my game. It took a painful amount of self-awareness to admit that the lack of results was 100% on me.

And spoiler alert:

Once you admit that it’s on YOU, now you have the power!

When you blame circumstances, luck or other people, you’re literally telling yourself that you aren’t in control. When you instead admit it’s on you, you now have the power to change things!

It’s why I’ve got this poster:

3 The Power of Aggressive Patience

This goes back to one of my biggest mistakes and regrets.

While I learned this lesson, unfortunately, I learned it too late.

Back in 2012, I had the idea to start an online business after reading Gary’s book “Crush It”. Both blogging and YouTube had pretty low competition compared to the competition these days.

I was posting content and started gaining a little bit of traction.

But… I gave up too soon!

In hindsight, it was easy to see that I was on the right track. But at the time, I remember being frustrated since I was putting in a lot of time, effort and money without seeing any real returns (read $$) for it.

However, had I stuck with it for 2 more years, I’m certain it would have paid off.

Massively!

And so here’s the lesson I have since learned from Gary:

In the micro, it is crucial to be taking massive action. Without great effort, you’d get nowhere fast. But in the macro, it is crucial to be patient and make decisions that benefit you long-term!

You can have whatever you want (and work for) but it will most likely take you a LOT longer than you want or expect it to take!

Bonus Lesson from Garyvee

As a final thought on this:

Being patient =/= Being Complacent.

If there’s one thing you can take away from Gary’s teaching, it is this:

You can be tenacious AND patient.
You can have conviction AND be curious.
You can be ambitious AND grateful.
You can have empathy AND be candorous.

Life is complex and no situation is ever black and white!

Navigating life gracefully is one of the hardest things we ever do, and figuring life out is a lifelong game that never ends. But the key is to find something that you LOVE doing because it’s too long to do shit you hate!

My Advice to a Young Confused Man

The audio below is based on a Reddit post I saw earlier today:

This was a post from someone who was ambitious, but he didn’t see a clear path to achieve his goal. He said that he felt like he couldn’t take action until he saw a clear and certain path to achieve his goal.

Here’s my honest thoughts on the matter:

Video: The Golden Rule for Life!

Staring in the Mirror

In light of lessons I’ve taken from Gary, I wish 1 thing upon you:

Self awareness!

There are billions of different paths you can take in your life, but only a couple of them are right for YOU specifically! Understanding who you are, what you want to achieve and what you’re good at is crucial.

When you have time today, here are some questions I’d like you to think about:

• What do I consider my biggest strength?

• What do I consider my biggest weakness?

• If I continue the same way I’m going, will I feel satisfied in 5 years?

• If failure wasn’t possible, what would I be doing with my life?

• What feels like fun to me that feels like hard work to others? (there might be a career or business opportunity here)

Two reminders about this:

1. Figuring life and yourself out are lifelong quests! It’s perfectly fine to change your mind on these kinds of things. In fact, it’s normal for them to evolve just like you do.

2. Because self awareness is crucial to have, don’t limit yourself to just 1 sitting and only these questions. Map out some time on a daily or weekly basis and dedicate it to self discovery.