4 Words That Will Cure Our Generation: Time to Pay Attention
A Review: Crush It! by Gary Vaynerchuk
You could do worse than follow @garyvee on every social media app on your phone. I'm sure you could do much worse.
The book I'm lauding today is called Crush It! Gary Vaynerchuk's first book published in 2009. I know what you're thinking, it's dated – I wouldn't blame you for not immediately shoving this into your Amazon cart. The point of today's exercise is to introduce you to Gary (If you haven't met him yet). He's pushy like a used car salesman and overly obnoxious for his size — some would say Napoleonic. But all millennials need to hear his message.
Scratch that, everyone needs to hear his message.
Gary's family moved to New Jersey from Belarus in the late 70s. Like so many eastern European immigrants, his family embraced the American dream and embodied values like hard work and perseverance. Instead of chasing worldly experiences or floating from job to job, Gary spent his twenties working the cash register at his father's liquor store outside Newark, New Jersey. While his friends partied in Manhattan, Gary spent New Year’s packing trunks with Champagne.
Yet during that time, he taught himself the intricacies of human spending behavior and marketing techniques. He took those lessons and built one of the first online wine retailers and transformed the liquor store into a multi-million-dollar business.
At the age of 30, he left the liquor store and started a marketing agency. Vaynermedia is now worth hundreds of millions and employs close to a thousand people.
There are many business influencers out there, most of whom I discuss in this newsletter. Gary is unique because he's open about his story and failures. Other business celebrities lean into how much money they've made, or their perfect morning routine. Gary talks about a baseball card collection he's owned since childhood.
His philosophies towards work and life are radical, but pierce the very heart of our cultural and psychological issues—the same issues that plague millennials like entitlement, anxiety, and laziness.
I’ve summarized his message in 4 words: Self Awareness, Hustle, Empathy, Patience
Self-Awareness
In Gary’s world, self-awareness means a complete understanding of your strengths, but more importantly, your weaknesses.
Don’t force it. You shouldn’t fit a mold or become what everyone thinks you should become. You know your strengths, more than your friends and family. You know what will make you happy.
Gary never explains how to build self-awareness. To me, that’s the easy part — through living. You learn your shortcomings quickly through experiences, especially the experiences that involve failure.
Hustle
He's salesy, but he doesn't push a script or a secret sauce, unlike other salesmen. In fact, secret sauces don't exist. Anything worthwhile will require you to work your face off—end of story.
Empathy
Gary has a famous quote, “If you chase the money, you will lose.”
The key to winning in business is to simply care. Not just caring about making a sale, but caring about what you’re selling and the ability to understand your clients, customers, friends family, on a deep and emotional level — to walk in their shoes.
I don’t think we fully understand the impact of this message. We come from a generation that watched investment bankers cripple the economy then walk away clean. A real estate developer become POTUS then teach winning at the expense of others. I don’t think I’m going out on a limb when I say millennials have a warped view about what success means.
You can be a good person and live your dream. It’s not a choice between good and evil.
Patience
“Patience is the shortcut to success.”
You have to admit, our generation has an obsession with having everything and having it now. A luxury car, a baller Instagram account, a dream husband or wife; It’s like we are in a sprint with each other, but the finish line keeps moving further and further away.
Life is about patience. Overnight success happens, but even those people will tell that overnight success was years in the making. We all need to grow the humility to focus on our craft for the long haul, fully knowing that the road will be paved with No’s, judgments, testing, and tinkering. Be patient life is a marathon.
Final Thought
Gary’s taken the role of life coach seriously over the past few years, but his expertise really falls with social media. He teaches that these apps are the magazines, radio, and televisions sets of decades past. Whoever won those mediums won business. Period.
Nowadays, the gatekeepers are gone. You can show your passion, gain influence, and monetize your knowledge. Anyone can be an entrepreneur.