9 Life-Changing Paradigms From Gary Vaynerchuk

If there’s one entrepreneur that blown up in the past few years It’s Gary Vaynerchuk.

The content marketing machine was an early investor in Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, among other world-changing startups.

He’s also the founder of Vayner Media, a digital agency headquartered out of New York City.

If you haven’t watched his content on YouTube, you’re seriously missing out.

He offers life-changing paradigms on a daily basis that I believe all entrepreneurs, especially young ones, need to hear.

They’ve changed my outlook on both business and life.

He preaches a lot of practical and deep ideas that I want to share with you today.

Enjoy 🙂

Patience is crucial for success as an entrepreneur

There’s no such thing as an overnight success

Look at anyone you aspire to be and it probably took them years or decades to reach where they’re at.

Gary preaches “Macro patience, micro speed” in a lot of his videos. What he means by this is that you need to hustle your ass off every day but be patient in the long term.

As a matter of fact, the average business doesn’t turn a profit for three years.

Are you willing to wait that long?

Here’s the reality: you have no choice.

Gary’s advice about being patient is simply a fact about life.

There’s nothing that comes quick or easy that’s worth having. Think about a successful business, great relationship, or healthy physique.

Things of these nature take months and years to cultivate.

This brings me to another point he has which is that you need to enjoy the game, hustle, and journey because that’s all there is.

There is no destination you are going to hit when you’re done and complete.

However, many people struggle to wait to achieve goals. They want it NOW. Sorry, but it just isn’t going to happen.

Studies are beginning to find that social media is contributing to the rise in ADHD and can give symptoms of the condition without having it.

Our culture is quickly becoming based on quick wins and dopamine boosts that are rewiring people’s brains to be less patient.

Learning to enjoy the present moment of whatever you’re doing while knowing that you’re going to be successful is like having using a cheat code in real life.

Why do you think people start things only to drop them a couple of weeks or months later?

It doesn’t matter if it’s a business or a gym membership, people will quit because they’re impatient.

Gary said it best when he mentioned that if you’re feeling some kind of angst about the future or goals, you’re focusing too much on results and once again not enjoying the journey.

Remind yourself every time you feel like quitting or not seeing the progress you want that you WILL achieve what you want in the long term.

Get back to the present moment and let those thoughts of impatience pass before resuming the grind!

Content marketing is king

If you can’t tell by Gary’s outrageous amount of content he puts out on a daily basis, he’s all about content marketing.

He’s a firm believer that every business, no matter the industry, needs to document their process and put out regular content.

It builds trust with customers, increases authority, and helps attract people to your business naturally.

To be more specific, a company who blogs gets 55% more visitors than those who don’t and receives 97% more backlinks.

Heck, think about Gary himself.

He has a massive audience that’s continually growing and it without a doubt has landed him massive consulting contracts. Don’t you want results like that?

I like to produce regular content on this blog and I plan to go harder on my YouTube and podcast in the near future.

However, this blog alone has landed me heaps of high paying clients.

Why is that so? Simply because I offer tons of value for free, people find my articles, and they reach out for copywriting services if needed.

I recommend choosing one platform and publishing content on a regular basis, whether that’s every day, a few times per week, or another schedule that works for you.

Don’t neglect engagement and building relationships

There’s one story that Gary spoke about one told that always stuck with me.

It was about one time he received an order for wine and he did research into the customer to find out what he liked.

Turns out he was a Chicago Bears fan, so Gary ordered and sent him a free jersey.

Nothing came out of it. So he thought.

A while later Gary received one of the biggest orders he ever had in his life! Do you know who it was? That previous customer’s friend.

Don’t neglect being a good person and building relationships with your customers. You’d be surprised how it can come back.

It’s been found that 24% of customers will stay with a business for two years because of good customer service.

Alternatively, 39% will avoid businesses for two or more years after a poor customer service experience.

I have a similar story to Gary’s that I’d like to share, as well. Several years back when I was running a fashion e-commerce business, I received an order from a very nice lady out of France.

She ordered a jacket from me and everything was great… until I found out I sent her the WRONG jacket.

Despite the wrong product being sent to her house, she was very polite and simply asked what we should do.

Do you know what I did? I told her to keep the jacket and that I’ll send the correct one for free along with a pair of shoes.

I was out a few hundred dollars but it felt like the right thing to do deep down.

That customer ended up coming back to me over time and spent many multiples of the money I lost doing that good deed 🙂

Money doesn’t buy you happiness

If you look on social media, it’s so easy to see private jets, expensive wine, Gucci belts, and the whole nine yards.

Materialism and consumerism aren’t going away any time soon.

While there’s nothing wrong with pursuing things like these, it has to be done very mindfully.

There are so many people, especially in my generation, that are chasing money and material things believing it will make them happy.

It won’t. It can’t.

Sure, money can make your life more comfortable. A car can get you around. A house is a good shelter.

But that’s it. These things are very practical but don’t have any extra value beyond that.

It’s a tough pill for people to swallow especially when they base all of their goals on the American dream.

Gary Vaynerchuk’s main piece of advice for everyone is to pursue self-fulfillment and use their self-awareness to live life peacefully.

I’d like to use myself as an example of this.

Every day I wake up and there’s not a SECOND I don’t look forward to. Why is this?

Because I get to work for myself and grow businesses that make me absolutely ecstatic!

Not only that, but every day is filled with my hobbies like working out, reading, meditating, making music, and journaling.

A.K.A I’ve used my self-awareness to craft a lifestyle that is fulfilling, healthy, and positive.

But don’t get me wrong. I’d love to own a beautiful home one day to start a family and have a Lamborghini in the garage because it’s a childhood dream of mine.

However, pursuing material things because you’re insecure and believe it will fill a void is doomed from the start.

Don’t be afraid to go against the grain and do what YOU want to do deep down. Some people will support it and some won’t. You only have to impress yourself.

Keep it simple and practical

Not everyone is interested in starting an e-commerce company or a digital marketing agency.

That’s exactly why Gary Vaynerchuk is all about practically and constantly advises people to hit garage sales and thrift stores to resell items.

Heck, I’ve even been doing it for fun!

There’s a thrift store right beside the gym I go to every day, so some times I’ll pop in and see if I can find anything worthwhile.

For example, I bought an Apple backpack that’s only given to employees for $3 and resold it for $75!

Do that enough every month and you could be paying your rent.

For someone like me where my businesses already generate me a full-time income, I do it purely for the sport and hustle.

Screw other people’s opinions of you

It’s very common to base life decisions on other peoples opinions.

I’m talking about parents, friends, coworkers, spouses, and society as a whole.

Heck, it’s the reason that so many people go to school and get jobs they don’t want to.

It’s done purely to please parents and blend in with their peers.

It’s also the reason that Gary constantly talks about only caring about how you view yourself.

Don’t get it mixed up with being selfish, though. You can still be a good person but do what’s right for you at the same time.

And let me tell you as an entrepreneur, you will most likely receive some lash back for carving your own path.

I didn’t get it as bad as some people, but I definitely was told to get a job and go to school from a few people over the years growing businesses.

I was making more money than some of these people, too. How does that work?

Here’s the thing, though. People have good intentions, but we all live in our own reality and not everyone lives in an entrepreneur’s reality.

If you’re willing to take risks, make sacrifices, and wait years to see results, you’re weird as hell! Welcome to the club 🙂

However, most people aren’t like that. They enjoy the safety of a job, not taking on risks and other things associated with the business.

So, they are projecting their reality onto you. See how that works?

All I’m saying is you should seek to understand before you’re understood.

Grasp that people aren’t coming from the same paradigms as you, so don’t take it personally when you receive some friction.

Double down on your strengths

I’m amazing at copywriting, affiliate marketing, and day trading.

I suck at PPC and cold calling.

What do you think would be the smarter move…

Pursue my strengths because they’re naturally where I excel or take years to learn new skills?

The first decision, obviously.

This takes a degree of self-awareness, but you definitely need to audit yourself as an entrepreneur.

Find out where your greatest strengths are and use Pareto’s principle to capitalize on them.

Gary talks about this all of the time saying he loves basketball but knows he’s too short to ever make it to the NBA.

Take advantage of your younger years

Your 20’s are the time to take risks, try out new things, and set the foundation of your life.

What’s the worse that can happen? By the time you’re around 30, you’ve built skills and a resume to land a career.

I think playing it safe is one of the most dangerous things to do, and Gary Vaynerchuk talks about this in many videos. Here’s one aimed at college graduates which touches on this exact topic:

Embrace adversity

I like to think of life as a movie. You need the highs and lows to create a good story and climax.

If everything was smooth, the movie would be really boring, right?

That’s why Gary Vaynerchuk constantly implores people to embrace adversity and shortcomings.

It acts as a catalyst to hustle your ass off and achieve what you want. People who don’t come from much often have greater ambitions and no entitlement.

Instead of complaining about coming from a bad position, you can leverage it to speed up how successful you become.

I’ve seen the opposite happen, too. Some individuals get handed everything from family and it results in a lack of discipline, patience, and emotional instability.

I’m generalizing, but you’d be surprised how often these two opposite situations play out.

Final thoughts on Gary V

Ever since my friend introduced me to Gary Vaynerchuk many years ago, I fell in love with his content and advice. We naturally have a lot of similar paradigms and beliefs.

Any person, especially if you’re young, should definitely take his ideas into consideration. Life is all about self-awareness and carving your own path, so take what resonates and leave what doesn’t.

With that being said, here are the main takeaways from today’s article: