How To Stay Motivated FOREVER
How To Stay Motivated FOREVER
Today's video is my virtual speech at the True North event. I delve deep into the essence of motivation and emotional intelligence. I share my journey of being a default optimist, grounded in reality, and emphasize the importance of cherishing the journey over the destination in entrepreneurship. I also discuss the dangers of seeking external validation and the pitfalls of living life based on others' opinions. Lastly, I talk about the value of gratitude in everyday life and urge you to practice it genuinely.
Today's video is my virtual speech at the True North event. I delve deep into the essence of motivation and emotional intelligence. I share my journey of being a default optimist, grounded in reality, and emphasize the importance of cherishing the journey over the destination in entrepreneurship. I also discuss the dangers of seeking external validation and the pitfalls of living life based on others' opinions. Lastly, I talk about the value of gratitude in everyday life and urge you to practice it genuinely.
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00:00 a short-term motivator.
00:02 Love and compassion is a forever game.
00:04 Attention is the number one asset.
00:07 Look, I got incredibly fortunate.
00:10 I think I have a world-class mother who,
00:13 you know, I was born in the Soviet Union,
00:15 and that was a very challenging place to live.
00:17 My mom, unlike most of the people
00:20 from that part of the world, was an optimist.
00:22 People really struggled in that society
00:24 from 1917 to the time it fell in 1989,
00:28 and I don't have to tell this audience,
00:30 Russia's not the easiest place to live even right now.
00:33 And so I'm incredibly grateful
00:35 because I think a lot of us in this audience,
00:37 to succeed with emotional intelligence,
00:40 we either have to get very fortunate
00:41 and get the luck of the draw of DNA and parenting,
00:45 or we have to put in a lot of work
00:47 in meditation, therapy, and living life.
00:50 And so, for me, you know, a lot of times people say,
00:55 a lot of people that live the life that I lived,
00:58 which is worked a lot, and worked really hard,
01:00 and worked smart, and people will throw lucky at them,
01:04 right, they got lucky.
01:05 And a lot of people in the audience,
01:07 and their parents, and me, that have put in the work,
01:10 you get triggered, right?
01:11 You're like, man, I worked so hard, this isn't luck.
01:13 You're not working, or you don't get it.
01:17 But I will say I got lucky
01:19 when we talk about emotional intelligence.
01:21 I did get great DNA.
01:23 I have two siblings who have different DNA than I do.
01:26 And not that mine's better or worse than theirs,
01:29 it's just that I'm a default optimist.
01:32 And I believe that if you're a default optimist,
01:34 especially if you're built like me,
01:35 where you're also grounded in reality,
01:37 and it's not delusion,
01:39 that if you're a practical optimist, you're halfway home.
01:42 And then, I've also had the luxury of liking people,
01:46 spending a lot of time with people,
01:48 managing people since I was like 14, 15.
01:50 You know, when I was 16,
01:51 I was the son of the guy who owned the liquor store.
01:53 And so, by de facto, I was managing people at 16.
01:57 And so, here I am 31 years later.
02:00 You know, I have an organization with 2,000 employees.
02:03 I have a very public persona.
02:05 And I interact with people at scale.
02:08 And you know, life has become very obvious to me.
02:11 I believe that plenty of people can make money,
02:14 and plenty of people are not good at it.
02:17 But there's really no correlation
02:20 when it comes to joy and happiness and being content
02:23 to how much money one makes.
02:24 And I love entrepreneurship,
02:27 and I love being a businessman,
02:28 and I love being a competitor,
02:29 and I love grinding and competing
02:32 and tenacity and determination.
02:34 But I like being happier than all those things.
02:38 And you know, I guess, from my standpoint,
02:42 I was self-aware at a young age.
02:44 I knew myself.
02:45 I was willing to be ridiculed 'cause I had self-confidence.
02:48 And for everybody in the audience,
02:49 what I mean by ridiculed is I'm 47.
02:52 So when you were getting Ds and Fs in school
02:54 in the '80s and '90s, you were gonna be a garbage man.
02:57 You weren't gonna be anything.
02:58 It's not the world we live in now
03:00 where entrepreneurship is a viable,
03:02 if not over rock-starred, capacity and occupation.
03:07 When I was growing up, the word barely had any traction.
03:11 And so I got used to losing early on.
03:14 I was able to build very thick skin.
03:16 I'm empathetic to judgment instead of crippled by it.
03:21 And I think it's powerful.
03:22 And honestly, I've become incredibly motivated
03:25 over the last decade to talk about these things.
03:28 And for the people in the audience
03:30 that are aware of my content,
03:32 I speak a lot about emotional stuff
03:34 in the framework of marketing and tactics and business.
03:37 And I'm proud of it because I think it helps people
03:40 and that feels good.
03:41 - When you think about everything
03:45 that you've been able to accomplish in your life,
03:48 we have a lot of entrepreneurs in the audience,
03:49 a lot of people working on their own businesses,
03:51 and they often look to you.
03:53 And they look to people to think about
03:55 what they want to do
03:58 and kind of what that success will be like in the end.
04:01 So you lose sight of the process.
04:03 How important do you think the process is?
04:06 And do you think the current generation of entrepreneurs
04:08 are a little too focused on the money
04:11 that's gonna come down the line?
04:12 - Yeah, I mean, you obviously have a good sense
04:16 of the things that are running through my mind.
04:18 I'm obsessed with the process.
04:21 I genuinely love entrepreneurship so much
04:24 that I weirdly like to lose.
04:29 And I like to lose because I respect the game
04:31 more than the stuff that the game can buy for me.
04:34 So yeah, do I think,
04:36 but you know, it's interesting when you ask,
04:38 the thing that I hear there is
04:40 I think entrepreneurship became cool
04:42 and I'm the beneficiary of that.
04:44 But I think 20 years ago,
04:47 a lot of the people in the audience
04:49 would have not been entrepreneurs, but I would have been.
04:51 And I don't say that as a razz or a dig to the audience.
04:54 I just think that what I really want for everyone
04:56 in the audience is not to be an entrepreneur.
04:58 And I do have fear that some of the people in the audience
05:02 are doing the entrepreneur thing 'cause it's cool,
05:04 'cause it looks good on paper, it's cool to say you are.
05:07 And why I fear that is not because they won't be successful,
05:10 although that stinks and it's things to lose.
05:12 It's that if you're not an entrepreneur,
05:15 like really actually, like a purebred,
05:17 losing in front of your family and relatives
05:20 will probably be scary
05:21 because really one of the telltale signs
05:24 of a true entrepreneur is their incredible capacity to fail,
05:27 at least in the micro.
05:29 And so, you know, I think I do, you know,
05:33 look, I mean, one of the biggest reasons I never show,
05:37 you know, I fly private sometimes, my time's valuable.
05:40 But the reason I like desperately never want to show that
05:45 is because I don't understand the glamorization of jewelry
05:50 or cars or flights because I don't think
05:54 that that is the healthy part of the game.
05:56 I actually think when entrepreneurs post that stuff,
06:00 I don't think that's aspirational, I really don't.
06:04 I actually think if you look carefully,
06:05 it's making a lot of people in this audience
06:07 and in the world feel bad about themselves, right?
06:10 They see all these people and they FOMO,
06:13 it triggers their insecurity and so I do worry about,
06:17 you know, as such a capitalist,
06:18 I do worry about the over capitalization of the content.
06:22 But that's always been the case long before social media.
06:25 People bought Mercedes and Chanel bags
06:28 and moved to 90210 just for the validation.
06:31 There are people in the world, you know this,
06:34 who send their kids to certain schools
06:36 for their own self-worth.
06:38 And I worry about that, I don't like that.
06:40 I think you should be doing things for yourself
06:43 and your family out of the process, not the stuff.
06:47 Because I think you'll be happier mentally
06:49 and you won't burn out and I think that's important.
06:52 - I think a big theme of what you were just describing
06:55 is when we live our lives trying to prove something
06:58 to others or show that we're feeling a certain way
07:00 or we're living this life so that other people think
07:03 we're successful and we did it.
07:04 And I think a lot of people in this room
07:06 would be afraid of posting that video
07:08 that their friends might make fun of
07:10 or their aunt might think is silly
07:12 and they should get a quote, real job.
07:14 So how have you kind of blocked out the noise
07:16 of other people's opinions when you fail or you lose?
07:20 Because I think a lot of people, myself included,
07:23 you don't need that advice.
07:24 - I got fortunate.
07:26 I lived in a cocoon of an immigrant family
07:29 where having a roof over your head
07:31 and having clothes and food was a huge win.
07:35 Both of my parents did not care
07:38 about other people's opinions.
07:39 They didn't flash.
07:41 They didn't need to go buy something expensive.
07:43 So that became a framework.
07:45 I also got very lucky that I was so loved
07:48 and my house was so happy because of my mom
07:51 when we were super poor when we came to America.
07:53 So I learned at a very young age
07:56 that money and stuff did not bring happiness.
07:59 So I never, I was built for it.
08:02 I was trained for it and then I practiced it.
08:04 I think in high school,
08:06 instead of going to the cool party on a Friday night,
08:09 I decided to do a baseball card show and sell cards
08:12 because I was an entrepreneur.
08:13 I loved the process more than playing spin the bottle,
08:16 though that was cool and I wanted to do that at 15.
08:19 I really just wanted to be an entrepreneur.
08:21 And so I've always had a cocoon
08:24 and it just has continued to accelerate.
08:27 And this is why I talk a lot about this.
08:28 It's crazy when you realize the prettiest girls
08:32 in your high school,
08:33 the richest guys in the world right now,
08:36 how insecure they are, right?
08:38 How much everything they do is to impress others
08:42 that they don't even know.
08:43 And I get it.
08:45 Like your dad never loved you the way you wanted
08:49 and you want to stick it to them
08:50 or the girl broke your heart
08:52 and you want to make a ton of money to prove to her.
08:55 You know, like I get it.
08:56 And you know, I get it and you laugh, given our connection.
08:59 I actually understand the rest of the world
09:02 predominantly through the lens of being a football fan.
09:04 And I mean this, the only place I envy,
09:08 like I genuinely hate New England Patriot fans.
09:11 And I mean that.
09:13 And I know like I heard the laughs and I appreciate it,
09:16 but I'm going to be incredibly transparent
09:18 and like give you an insight.
09:20 So much of what makes me understand the balanced world
09:23 is my complete irrationalness of being a New York Jets fan
09:28 and knowing what envy and jealousy
09:31 and I'm hurt so I want you hurt.
09:34 I'm completely inappropriate at football games.
09:37 You should have seen me yelling at Taylor Swift
09:40 from the seats last week.
09:42 - Gary, we'll have to talk about that as a Swifty.
09:45 - I mean, like I get it.
09:46 Like it's incredibly challenging to be jealous and hurt
09:50 and not feel in control.
09:52 All things I feel as a Jet fan,
09:54 none of the things I feel in life.
09:56 So I love everyone from a race and gender
09:59 and religion and income level.
10:01 And part of the world standpoint in real life
10:03 'cause I'm fulfilled, I'm happy, I'm at peace.
10:05 It's simple.
10:06 I don't, and I, do you know how excited I get
10:09 when people outperform me in my own industries?
10:13 Of course I'm competitive and I'd like to win,
10:15 but I don't hate.
10:16 I don't tear down others.
10:19 But in football I do.
10:21 In football, and because I feel that to the core of my soul,
10:26 it makes me realize, oh my God,
10:27 I do this in this silly arena known as the NFL.
10:32 This is how the world is living their lives.
10:34 There are people who actually hate,
10:36 hate other people because they see politics differently.
10:40 That blows my mind.
10:41 Or for the people in the room,
10:43 they hate people that are successful in a business
10:47 that they're in 'cause they're better than them at it.
10:50 I don't want that for anybody here
10:52 because I only have to be angry for four hours every Sunday
10:56 for four months a year.
10:57 Everybody else here is doing that 365 days a year
11:00 for their life and I don't like that.
11:02 - So I think there is a lot there.
11:07 And I feel like where I'd love to take it
11:11 is when we think about those people who,
11:14 it's not just their favorite NFL team, it's year round.
11:17 It's the envy, it's the I'm not good enough,
11:19 the victim mentality.
11:21 Something you talk a lot about is gratitude,
11:23 how you're so rooted in gratitude and you're so grateful.
11:26 And that gives you that default optimistic lens.
11:29 But I think all of us here, we know, right?
11:32 Three things you're grateful for in the morning.
11:34 This is what gratitude is.
11:35 We try, but then after three days we stop doing it, right?
11:38 So how do you really live and breathe gratitude every day
11:43 and how can we do the same?
11:45 - Do you know that I never write down
11:47 three things I'm grateful for?
11:48 I don't meditate on it.
11:50 I do nothing like that.
11:51 I just do it every second of my life.
11:53 Do you know that multiple times a day
11:55 I will think about things that are challenging
11:58 that I hope don't happen, like getting a phone call,
12:01 that someone I love had a stroke,
12:04 that someone I love is diagnosed with a disease,
12:07 that someone I love suddenly died in a car accident,
12:11 because these are real things that happen to real people.
12:14 I also struggle with complete delusion.
12:17 Do you understand that everyone in this audience
12:20 lives a remarkable life in comparison
12:22 to the eight billion people on earth?
12:24 Do you know that 735 million people on earth,
12:27 almost 10%, do not have access to clean water?
12:31 Clean water, like, I don't know, there's some water.
12:34 Like, do you, like, like, like,
12:37 the jacket you're wearing, the hat, it's a $40 hat.
12:39 - Well, it's from Express, it's not--
12:43 - But, but, but, no, but you know
12:45 what's so amazing about that, right?
12:46 Like, think about this, like,
12:47 the fact that you on a Friday evening afternoon
12:50 are able to watch this or be in the audience,
12:52 like, I don't think people understand.
12:55 And I don't expect people to understand.
12:57 I know I got lucky in being born
12:59 in one of the most horrible places in the world.
13:02 I know I got lucky by living with eight family members
13:05 in a studio apartment for multiple years.
13:07 I know I got lucky that my parents
13:09 basically didn't buy me toys
13:11 because that's not what we spent our money on.
13:13 I know that I'm hungry because I wasn't fed.
13:15 I know that I'm not entitled, I know.
13:18 But for everyone who's listening,
13:20 you have to go through the work.
13:22 On the flip side, I grew up not eating healthy,
13:25 not being told that that's important, not working out.
13:28 And at 38 years old, I changed that.
13:30 And for the last 10 years, I've put in the work
13:32 for something that didn't come natural.
13:34 I also grew up with a mom that's the sweetest,
13:37 but she lacked candor, which meant I lacked candor.
13:41 And candor has been disproportionately my kryptonite
13:44 in my professional and personal career.
13:46 And that I can go backwards and tell you
13:48 everything that has not worked for me
13:49 in the last 25 years, and I can tell you immediately
13:53 that the seed of that not working out
13:55 was my inability to deliver candor to somebody,
13:57 which led to resentment on my end,
14:00 or me being sloppy and them not respecting me
14:03 for my lack of candor.
14:05 And I know I've worked on that the last four or five years
14:07 after a lot of pain, professionally and personally.
14:09 So I would argue, though I can understand
14:12 that people in the audience can't do gratitude
14:15 the way I can, that I've worked very hard.
14:19 I know that people have put in the work
14:21 to work on their alcoholism.
14:24 They've put in the work to work on their depression.
14:27 And I just challenge everybody here to not just say,
14:29 well, it doesn't come natural to me,
14:31 like work on gratitude.
14:32 And the way you work on gratitude is,
14:34 if writing it down three times in the morning works,
14:37 well then actually do it every day,
14:39 not for two weeks, January 1st to the 13th,
14:41 and then give up.
14:43 Like work is work.
14:44 And if you're unhappy and you've got some money,
14:48 go to therapy.
14:50 And if you don't have money,
14:51 go start listening to more positivity.
14:53 Go take a walk, work on your health.
14:56 You are accountable, you are capable.
14:58 Don't blame the president, don't blame your grandma,
15:01 don't blame your mom, don't blame the mayor.
15:04 Blame yourself.
15:05 And don't blame yourself like I suck,
15:08 and beat yourself up.
15:09 Have compassion to you that this is my circumstance,
15:13 but I can fix it.
15:14 And all of this stuff, bringing it down to the ground
15:16 instead of the clouds that I'm in right now,
15:19 all of this stuff has a direct correlation
15:21 of you being a good founder and CEO.
15:23 'Cause it's hard.
15:26 And the real issue is,
15:28 who you are when it's hard is the whole game.
15:31 Because your team doesn't need a leader
15:36 that is nice when it's good,
15:38 but then when you lose a big account or something goes bad,
15:40 you're yelling and screaming and scaring everyone.
15:44 A real leader is best when it's worse.
15:47 - I love that.
15:52 Recognizing privilege, having perspective.
15:55 Yeah, that's so important.
15:56 I heard some claps.
15:58 It's amazing.
15:59 That's why Gary's the best.
16:00 He's straight to the point.
16:01 - But listen, I want to also show compassion.
16:04 I hate that we've weaponized words, privilege.
16:08 I promise you, everyone in America's privileged
16:11 at some level.
16:13 Like, you can look at privilege from a lot of angles.
16:15 Do you know that I believe that if you were born
16:17 into extreme wealth, you're less privileged?
16:19 - I've heard you say this.
16:23 Will you expand on it to the audience?
16:24 I think it's super fascinating.
16:25 - Yes, I think people have weaponized privilege
16:27 and I don't want people to feel bad
16:28 that are sitting in the audience
16:29 who happen to be fortunate enough
16:31 that their parents or grandparents have done well.
16:34 Like, I don't view that as privilege.
16:36 I believe that if you are second or third generation wealthy
16:39 and you're a purebred entrepreneur,
16:40 you're in a very peculiar spot
16:42 because no one's ever going to give you credit
16:43 'cause everyone's always going to say,
16:44 "Mommy and Daddy put you on."
16:45 That stinks.
16:47 I think we need to stop weaponizing things.
16:50 Stop judging everybody.
16:52 Like, everybody's got something, I promise you.
16:54 Everybody's got something.
16:56 Instead of judgment and envy and jealousy,
16:59 why don't we all lean into compassion, sympathy,
17:01 and empathy and understand that everybody's got something.
17:05 The amount of people that come up to me
17:06 and just assume my life is good
17:07 'cause I have a blue check mark
17:09 and some followers and a couple of dollars,
17:11 get the fuck out of here.
17:12 (audience applauding)
17:17 - So, I love that you're bringing up self-compassion.
17:21 Sometimes with entrepreneurship,
17:22 there can be this mentality,
17:25 I'm going to push myself,
17:26 I'm going to tell myself I suck
17:28 to motivate myself to achieve.
17:29 What's the balance?
17:30 How do you be nice to yourself
17:32 but also be the best at your craft?
17:34 - Love yourself is a default
17:37 that everybody should work on every minute.
17:39 It should be non-negotiable.
17:41 And then as far as motivating yourself,
17:44 look, this goes back to what I touched on earlier.
17:48 People are more motivated by love than they are fear,
17:50 but most of the world sells fear.
17:52 So, stop selling fear to yourself.
17:56 You're not going to work harder
17:57 'cause you're saying you're a piece of shit.
17:59 If you're sitting there and you're, I suck,
18:02 you're not going to, I promise you,
18:05 fear and negativity is a short-term motivator.
18:10 Love and compassion is a forever game.
18:14 And you can either believe me or not,
18:16 but I promise you that, you know what I love?
18:18 You know what I love?
18:19 Somebody said something to me the other day and said,
18:22 they said, "Gary, that's toxic positivity."
18:24 And I sat there and I laughed.
18:27 I said, "Man, the world is so infatuated
18:32 "in pushing negativity,
18:33 "they've created this term
18:36 "just to demonize positive people."
18:38 And I laughed and we had this discussion.
18:42 It was a very civil,
18:44 I actually genuinely enjoy people that don't agree with me,
18:47 meaning, because I don't default into thinking I'm right.
18:50 You want to be really happy?
18:51 Fall in love with the humble side of your life,
18:53 no matter how much success you have.
18:54 It keeps you in check.
18:55 And I enjoy the humble part of my style
18:57 just as much as I enjoy my competitive conviction side.
19:01 So we had this nice discussion
19:02 and it was really a mental chess game, very bright person.
19:06 We were going back and forth.
19:08 And finally I said to this individual, I said,
19:10 "You know what's funny?"
19:12 I said, "We can have this incredibly interesting conversation
19:16 "for the next 50 years of our life."
19:18 I said, "But there's one problem."
19:20 And the person said, "What's that?"
19:22 I said, "I've already won."
19:24 And of course, that was the point
19:26 of this mental chess we were playing.
19:28 And the person said, "What do you mean?"
19:29 With a smirk, trying to see what point I was trying to make,
19:32 said, "Well, life is how you see it.
19:34 "You've already decided to be a cynic
19:37 "and I've already decided to be an optimist.
19:39 "You've already lost."
19:41 - Absolutely love it.
19:46 Gary, just facts, facts, facts, facts.
19:48 - No, but to the point, right?
19:50 For the audience, to go a little further,
19:52 'cause I know I left it on a little bit of simplicity.
19:55 If you decide that the world sucks, the world sucks.
20:01 If you decide that you suck, you suck.
20:03 In the same way that if you decide
20:05 the world is good, it's good.
20:07 I wish all of you could see my Instagram feed
20:10 and TikTok feed.
20:11 It's like kittens kissing each other.
20:14 It's like sunshine touching your grandma's soul.
20:18 It's like, it's fucking positive.
20:22 And everyone's like, "The algorithm is exposing you."
20:25 I wish I could take everybody's Instagram Explore page
20:29 and open it right now.
20:30 I could tell you everything about you.
20:32 - Lastly, Gary, you mentioned your love of the Jets.
20:39 Would you share the reason that you fell in love
20:41 with the Jets in the beginning?
20:43 - Oh, you're trying to go there for me?
20:46 It's a very special story.
20:49 I was an immigrant, like I said.
20:50 I moved to Edison, New Jersey.
20:52 I was six going on seven.
20:55 I was outside.
20:56 What's the makeup of the crowd?
20:58 What's the age group?
20:59 What's the range?
21:00 - We've got a great mix.
21:01 We've got college students,
21:03 we've got young adults, old adults.
21:05 - Good. - We're rocking in here.
21:06 - All right, so can the 40 and older make some noise?
21:10 (audience cheering)
21:13 All right, so for all these OGs,
21:15 you guys know this, for the kids in there,
21:17 first of all, I love you.
21:18 I'm a big proponent of the kids.
21:19 I hate all this Gen Z bashing.
21:20 I wanna bash the boomers.
21:22 But for the 40 year olds that just made noise,
21:27 the kids in here won't understand.
21:30 In the 80s, we went outside and played.
21:32 And so in 1982, right before I started first grade,
21:38 I went outside to play.
21:39 And this is how we played kids in the room.
21:41 You'd actually go outside
21:42 and you had no idea what was gonna happen.
21:44 So I went outside and I looked for kids,
21:47 like literally looked for kids.
21:50 And I saw some kids playing football with a Nerf football
21:53 and I walked over.
21:54 I just started really speaking English even, right?
21:57 And these kids took me in as a crew.
22:00 They're like, "What's your name?"
22:01 And they were very warm to me,
22:03 which really meant a lot to me, as you can imagine,
22:05 just moving to a new town.
22:06 And they're like, "Who do you like in football?"
22:10 I was like, "Eh."
22:11 They're like, "Well, we're Jet fans.
22:13 "You're a Jet fan."
22:14 Which to be honest, the more I think about this story,
22:16 if those fuckers would've just said Giants,
22:18 I'd have four Super Bowls and be so happy.
22:20 (audience laughing)
22:22 But anyway, Eric Godfrey, Robbie Turnick, that crew,
22:26 they're like, "You're a Jets fan."
22:27 That was 1982.
22:28 The Jets had one of their best seasons ever.
22:30 They got to the game before the Super Bowl.
22:31 I thought I hit, I'm like, "Oh, this is good."
22:33 And little did I know.
22:34 But nonetheless, they all had Jets jerseys.
22:37 And I wanted one and I asked my mom for one
22:42 and she's like, "No way, Jose.
22:43 "That's not what we do in immigrant life.
22:46 "We don't buy $20 shirts.
22:48 "Your whole wardrobe's like $6 from Kmart."
22:51 And so I was sad and wanted one.
22:55 And at night, my mom spent the next three weeks
22:58 knitting me a Jets jersey,
23:01 which is my prized possession.
23:03 I still have it.
23:04 And it has the number five.
23:05 How many people here consume my content?
23:08 Can you make some noise?
23:10 (audience cheering)
23:12 So some of you are probably aware,
23:14 you see me do this all the time when I take a photo.
23:16 And I do that as a head nod to my mom, who's my hero
23:20 and who's the foundation of everything that I have
23:22 that is good.
23:23 And it's because she knitted me a jersey
23:25 and put the number five on it
23:26 'cause that was my favorite number.
23:28 And that jersey is the most near and dear thing to my heart.
23:32 And somewhere around five or six or seven years later,
23:34 when I was 10, 11, 12,
23:36 I decided that I wanted to buy the New York Jets
23:38 when I got older.
23:39 And somewhere about five to six or seven years later,
23:42 I realized how important that jersey was to me.
23:45 And I have this great dream to buy the New York Jets
23:48 and one day build a stadium and put that jersey in the front
23:53 so that every single fan has to walk by it.
23:57 And I wanted the plaque to say,
23:59 from not being able to buy a jersey
24:02 to owning the whole damn team,
24:04 as a head nod to my mom,
24:06 who is the greatest person that walks earth today.
24:09 (audience applauding)
24:15 And I think the world works on stories, right?
24:18 I'm very passionate about the reason
24:24 even is a Gary V is I want to be looked up to,
24:28 not because I'm trying to close a gap,
24:30 but because my mom created me to not have gaps
24:34 and I want to close other people's gaps.
24:37 And so I think stories matter.
24:39 And I think a lot of us in the crowd that are fortunate
24:41 and we feel good,
24:43 I think the people that are unhappy
24:45 are very loud in the world.
24:47 And I feel like a lot of us that are happy, like myself,
24:49 we're not doing a good enough job of being louder.
24:51 And I think positivity needs to be louder.
24:53 And I challenge the people in the audience
24:55 who are in a good place to share more positivity on social.
25:00 I feel like happy people like me tend to be quiet
25:03 and be with ourselves and keep it in our cocoons.
25:07 And I think positivity needs to be more sharing.
25:12 I think we need to be louder.
25:13 - We all agree.
25:16 And thank you, Gary.
25:18 One of the most special stories,
25:20 I know I've never forgotten it
25:21 since I heard it about your mom.
25:22 And actually I want to invite Dave Velasco back on stage.
25:26 We have a guest, oh, he's here, magic.
25:28 - Hey, Gary, how you doing, man?
25:29 - Dave, how are you, brother?
25:31 - It's good to see you.
25:33 For anyone that knows,
25:34 Gary came into my class unannounced in 2015
25:38 and gave the best 45 minute talk I have ever heard
25:42 on entrepreneurship and mindset.
25:44 It was a masterclass.
25:45 He challenged students in the audience.
25:47 He's like, who's really an entrepreneur?
25:49 Who's like really ready to go?
25:51 And like six or seven people raised their hand
25:52 and he goes, I think you should walk out of right now.
25:55 I think you should drop out of college and walk out.
25:56 And I was just cheering.
25:58 I wanted someone so badly to just get up and leave.
26:00 And it's like Gary V told me.
26:02 But since then, Gary, you've shown up for us.
26:07 And when I invited you, there was no hesitation.
26:10 And he wrote back, we show up for our people.
26:12 And that is something that I will never forgive.
26:15 We had, so I can't thank you enough for that.
26:19 - Thank you, brother.
26:20 - You're a mention.
26:22 Before you, a couple hours ago, we had Pete Carroll here.
26:27 And the story that you tell about your mother
26:29 that you just shared is one of the most
26:31 inspiring things I've ever heard.
26:33 And so we were talking about it with coach
26:35 and he said, you know, Gary needs a West Coast team.
26:38 He also said, you know, Pete was fired
26:40 from the New York Jets at one point.
26:41 - By the way, I got a story that you can share with Pete.
26:44 When Pete was the defensive coordinator
26:46 for the New York Jets, the Jets played the Bills
26:48 on a Monday night game in 1993.
26:51 And it was ABC would air that game.
26:53 I was such a big Pete Carroll fan.
26:55 He was a kid back then, a real kid.
26:57 He's still a young dude now, but he was a kid kid.
26:59 And I loved his energy.
27:01 And I snuck in a sign to the Meadowlands that had ABC
27:05 and the Jets coach that Pete Carroll
27:07 was the defensive coordinator for,
27:08 his name was Bruce Coslett.
27:10 And I had the letters ABC and it said,
27:13 ax Bruce Coslett, promote Pete Carroll.
27:17 And when Pete was promoted later that year,
27:19 that was one of the great, great moments of my life.
27:22 I'm a huge Pete guy, but I will not be a Seahawks fan.
27:26 - Well, you need a West Coast team.
27:30 They were so inspired.
27:32 There's a gift coming your way.
27:33 If you could show it on the screen.
27:34 - I will not, I will burn that shit.
27:37 - Gary, can you please show the gift that's on the way.
27:40 - That's very nice.
27:41 I will say this, I will say this.
27:47 The Jets ripped off the Seahawks so bad
27:50 in the Jamal Adams trade,
27:51 that I feel like I'll take the gift.
27:54 (audience laughing)
27:58 - Gary. - That's very nice.
28:02 - You're the perfect closing to this,
28:03 to start True North and North on mindset.
28:06 You're all about mindset.
28:07 This is really what you preach.
28:09 It's your content.
28:10 And you and Pete are two sides of the same coin.
28:12 - Yeah, we are.
28:12 Yeah, we are.
28:13 I love, by the way, by the way, on the record,
28:16 I think I had one or two conversations quickly
28:18 with Coach through the years.
28:19 I'm a big, big, big fan of Coach.
28:21 And there's a reason he's been continuously successful.
28:25 And by the way, he was successful with those Jets.
28:27 He was the coach when Dan Marino did the fake spike
28:30 and we lost a bunch of games late.
28:31 And firing Pete was one of the great mistakes
28:33 the Jets have ever made.
28:35 And I'm thrilled he was there.
28:37 I'm really thrilled to be with everybody in the audience.
28:39 I hope one or two things hit today.
28:41 And most of all, what I'm really,
28:43 and it's so cool that you brought that up that moment,
28:46 what I'm most hopeful for is there's just one person
28:50 in the crowd that will actually act.
28:53 I know a lot of you,
28:55 almost all of you heard something that hit
28:57 'cause I know I'm speaking human truth.
28:59 I just hope one of you acts on it.
29:01 - That's what it's about.
29:03 It's only about practice.
29:05 It's only about practice.
29:06 Let's thank Gary Vaynerchuk, Gary V.
29:09 You're the best.
29:10 - Love you.
29:11 (upbeat music)
29:13 (upbeat music)
29:16 (upbeat music)
29:19 (upbeat music)
29:21 (upbeat music)