There was a theme for Wednesday’s Tea With GaryVee. Every hyper motivated guest this week was struggling to find balance between their high ambitions and the necessity of patience. Below, we’ve compiled some of the brightest, and most universal nuggets of truth from the latest “cup of tea.” Check them out below!
I want to grow my personal brand and share my experiences with other people. I have all this motivation and I love to work, but how do I find balance when I have so many passions and I want to make all of them big? – Anna
Gary: Patience. I also had all those things that I wanted to do, but first I created stability. The way I looked at it was to build a platform. Now, years later, companies like Empathy Wines and VaynerMedia continue to grow.
When you have ambition it’s awfully hard to have patience.
I feel like, for whatever reason, I was gifted with extreme patience and extreme ambition; I realize now that’s not as common as I used to think. What’s hindering [many people] is too much judgement on themselves and that comes from a lack of patience. Give it time. Things need time to manifest. Also, understand that some of the things you try may fail, and that’s okay. As long as you go about [pursuing your ambitions] in the right way, you’ll be in a really good spot.
Patience is hard because it’s important. It’s the core ingredient to most people’s success.
Who’s affirmation are you looking for? Take a breath and be grateful [for what you’ve already accomplished]. [Then], put your head down for a decade and put in work.
Okay, I understand I need to put in work but I know I won’t be able to give 100 percent to everything I want to do…but I want to do it all. -Mahogani
Gary: You can do everything you want to do, but understand that doing everything you want may not give you the financial impact you want. You might be wildly happier [without strong financial impact] but if you have financial goals, you need a stabilizer. Something you can do from 9am to 6pm that helps you accomplish your goals. It should be something you like, that may not be your favorite thing, but it helps you work toward your favorite thing.
You can have philosophical goals but you should have practical goals to help you achieve them. The philosophical goals only come if you execute them. There are many people who hit age 89 and they never reach their ideal goals because they never went operational. Instead of having excuses and regrets in your old age, execute your ideas now.
Work for someone who already does what you want to do and learn from them. Something the shit you don’t like to get to where you need to get.
Vaynermedia itself is me bearing it; I didn’t need to build a business where I had clients yelling at me, there’s bullshit to deal with, and I didn’t make a lot of money. Still, I knew I needed the foundation. I knew I needed to eat shit. I’m eating shit right now, even with all the leverage I currently have. The question is: how much shit are you willing to eat to get to where you want to be.
Gary, what are some strategies you’ve used to disrupt traditional markets?– Alex Wang
Gary: The number one thing is patience. You’re going to have to play the long game. No one is going to disrupt all these big names in one day; it takes one decade or two decades or three decades. I’ve always had the long game in mind.
Two, you need actual operational talent. No one sees me take calls at 8:30am or converse with executives in Dubai–but that’s what it takes.If you want to disrupt you need actual skill.
Three, you need to be a culturally lead CEO. You need continuity, you need the same people around you–you can’t spend all your time re-training. One of the things that’s worked for me is that I’ve built families at VaynerMedia and Wine Library. That matters. Being a true leader is having compassion and empathy.
Finally, you have to be 100 percent consumer centric. Whoever brings the most value will win. Vaynermedia is doing more for certain brands than what our competitors are for the same amount of money. Wine Library had a better price for customers and had better customer service. It’s not super complicated.
