If you do not take social media seriously in 2024, it doesn't mean you're going to go out of business. It doesn't mean that you're bad, but you are absolutely missing out on opportunity to create your thing. Attention is the number one asset. you and I were old school entrepreneurs.

Yes. And if you were say in your mid 20s today or maybe you're looking at a career transition, there's a lot of us who are going to be doing career transitions in the next couple years here. How would you look at things? You know? it's it's First of all, thank you for having me on and honestly I I I Love your audience. So the answer to this question is going to be pretty fun.

I've been spending a lot. You know it's funny you said not a scientist I I think of my way myself that way I'm not kidding I I Was just about to say I've been in the lab and what that means is I've been in my head. You know people see me, especially people that don't know me as well. Here may see me super loud super New Jersey Maybe a couple curse words and I'm very empathetic to the first glance.

being like is this guy for real is's a a blow hard. Other people love it and it clicks just how the world works. But what's ironic is when people see me on social media or on stages I'm talking the whole time, right? even in this format I'm going to speak a lot I even get excited at times and interrupt you so I apologize in advance to everyone who's listening. Um, but the reality is I I spend most of my time actually thinking my favorite thing in the world is the shower is the walk to work is the long flight and so I've been in the lab a lot in my own head for the last year, especially on the concept of redefining success.

I Think about root cause, right? You know I Think about like when I Think about health and wellness I Think about like the food system is very entrepreneur. you know America's a capital listen I'm an entrepreneur I Love capitalism. but when capitalism, like anything in life, goes too far, it does things like what's going on with our food situation and right things like that. I Think about these things.

you know it's funny I wouldn't have pegged you as someone who would call that out on the show. Maybe I'm just being. You know, like like you're You're such a a broad spectrum entrepreneur but more media so you're worried about the food supply too. H I Think about clean eating a lot.

Yeah. I Think about I Think about laws I Think about the fact that grassfed can be worked around but grass finished can't So when when did this come online for you cuz I I Don't know that 10 years ago this was in your your conscious field. Like what? what change for you in general like I would argue that most of the good that's happened in my life is curiosity and I'm also a kid that was born in the Soviet Union So for example, my great Grandma Ana when we moved to New Jersey out of Queens the first day she visited she in the morning when I woke up she made me go walk outside barefoot on the grass. No kidding.

So grandmothers are always biohackers if if they were trained by their grandmother, right? right? Especially from the old country, right? My Grandma spent her first 75 years in the Soviet Union which is 50 years behind America So you know or fasting like because I grew up in my dad's liquor store I didn't eat breakfast or lunch my entire life. I still don't predominantly so there's you know. So anyway, obviously I'm very aware of your audience and it's funny because the reason I'm bringing these things up is it's how I see entrepreneurship. so I Love entrepreneurship because I think it is one of the Arenas in the world that allow people to maximize their joy I Love building businesses the way I See my friends who are poets how I see my friends, you know I I see entrepreneurship today unlike when you and I played with it in the mid90s, even that short ago.

Now it's cool. So now kids are forcing themselves to be entrepreneurs and that scares me I Want people to be entrepreneurs if they are entrepreneurs. but I'm petrified if somebody does it because they think it's the cool thing to do. Thanks for saying that.

Well, because you know this Dave like it's really lonely and hard and it hurts your self-esteem because unlike school, you can't hide when you fail in entrepreneurship. Yeah, do you hear that interview with the founder of Nvidia I did not? Well, they asked him. you know what would you tell yourself you know back when you and a friend were in your college dorm starting Nvidia what advice would you have and his advice was don't do it It was. You have no idea how much suffering this is going to cause you.

Yeah, and I from one of the most successful entrepreneurs on the planet, right? Well, it's funny I don't know him and I've heard many people say that through the years and I don't think they actually mean it I think it's a sound bite I For for example, I think when you're a purebred entrepreneur mhm, this is going to be a left field one. I Actually think the adversity is the most delicious side dish. Yeah, because if you're used to fighting, correct, It changes though. I've heard your your stuff has changed as well.

So for me at the beginning it it was even before bulletproof. Just in Tech entrepreneurship it was like I'm going to I'm going to prove something to the world or to myself and probably more to the world like like I'm you I'm going to fight I'm going to push. this is very common I think there's two fuels I think there I think there's there's chip on shoulder right? I certainly had that and I think a lot of people had that. but you know I'm very fortunate and this is I Don't love using the word luck, but this is as black and white like luck to me as possible.

Between my DNA the mother who was a suffocating force of positivity and optimism, suffocating optimism. suffocating optimism but practicality, not modern parenting where you you also add delusion which eliminates Merit incredibly optimistic and positive in sunshine but held me accountable a word that has completely disappeared from Modern parenting mhm and Circumstance I believe if I was born in America as a third generation DNA of my family entrepreneur, my life would have looked very different. but I was born in the Soviet Union and came here and grew up with the struggles that gave me outrageous perspective to gratitude. When you are I believe Dave that the greatest gift is when you are born.

If in the first 10 years of your life you are not an incredible means you're lower middle class and below. This is the greatest way to be born. That money is not a thing in your family yet or maybe ever. but you have unlimited happiness.

You've you've been taught, you've been built, You've been affected by money is not the variable of happiness. that is kind of true in the science, but a lot of the studies I found and this is before they inflated the crap out of the currency in the last three years, right? Fake all the money we printed. Yep, yeah it it said about $74,000 of right I've seen that I think you're struggling all the time and you only have Ramen Oh by the by the way I know people who have 200,000 but are always in debt are making 200,000 a year and I mean it's so funny cuz I talk to all my many of my employees I Can't say all because they don't all take me up on my open door policy and I don't get to everyone. but it's crazy because I'm so well known as an entrepreneur.

but I'm the CEO of this company and I speak to kids all the time that work for me. They will often bring up that their parents were entrepreneurs if they were or the or anti- entrepreneur right? Like one of the two. Like a union man, right? Like whatever it might be, and it's really interesting. This is so cliche.

I'm sure this will land for everyone. It's interesting to watch them then react to that right? They either go all in on it or they go all out on it. And the ones that go all out on it tend to be the ones that lived in families regardless of how well they were doing. Always stressing about money because you know there's also the other part in society that we've lost, which is there's making money but there's also saving money.

Yeah, and you know Dave you and I grew up when people talked about SA money. There are people that I know and especially in this new world with inflated dollars like you just talked about who make a million dollars a year and don't have a dollar to their name because they're buying dumb yeah, it's a it's it's a real problem I I kind of cringe when I See you know guys with you know, 25 with a Ferrari and all that even if you have the money, when you're 25, you probably don't need to buy I I crd less about the savings money I Always ask myself, does he need that to patch up an insecurity? Are we using things to make ourselves happier? Which gets me all the way back. I'm sorry audience but I'm coming all the way back to the answer your question. What would I say to 25 or 45 year-old depending on start or transition, please pick something you actually like.

It hasn't changed that much because of AI or anything like that. No, because I I think I think it's incredibly hard and if you're going to build something for yourself, you don't know if you're destined to have a $10 million business or a $300,000 business But if you love it, if you love Star Trek more than anything in the world, and you want to build a business around that passion, you start a podcast. you make content for social media that then leads to Creative Commons product like t-shirts or you you create like you know anything. literally.

That's what's so amazing about the world. Now you create anything a anything from a beanie to a protein powder that maybe is a slang term that Spock said in episode 4 of season 3 I don't know Star Trek very well. but I'll use Star Wars Greo was my favorite Star Wars character tier seven character in the Star Wars ecosystem. But like when you when you know something deeply or you love something deeply.

We live in an unprecedented time in the world where the internet, the blockchain AI you these per the mobile device we have we you and I when we started our stuff back in the day we didn't live in this lucky time where we could have just done organic content and got free distribution. Dave Social media is free distribution. Do you know how insane that is? It's it's so crazy. You know that that caffeine t-shirt I talked about a long time ago I sold it to 16 countries in alt.

drugs. caffeine on uset which is basically redit from 199. remember it right and it was the first time someone had done that and you know it wasn't that much money. but I was just trying to pay my rent in tuition so I was happy about it and like it.

it was very Scrappy and it it. It's one of those things though. all I had to do was talk about it to my people because I finally found my people. But now you can find your people anywhere.

Well even better instead of the in the same way that I was on Prodigy and then the internet on the E on the E Robert Parker Mark Squire's bulletin board talking about wine to find my community and then make them aware of Wine Library you and I had to spend hours, countless hours of building Community to have a community today Wine Library TV started on February 21st 2006 YouTube itself was was created launched on December 15, 2005 Within two months or roughly a little more than two months after YouTube existed I started a longform wine show about wine on YouTube I made a 20-minute video I posted it 19 people watched it maybe today 2006 Gary with his which I was born with my Charisma and capability to communicate and my Wi knowledge with at that point was more than half my life cuz I started learning about it at 14. that first video Dave might be watched by 800,000 people the first one. Wow. I mean it could also have gotten 80 but anybody who's listening right now let me just give you the universal truth.

If you do not take social media seriously in 2024, it doesn't mean you're going to go out of business. It doesn't mean that you're bad, It doesn't mean that you're like what, but you are absolutely missing out on opportunity to create your thing that is incredible in the speed and time if you produce content on the internet of building awareness and opportunity because the algorithm now is letting the creative find its audience when I started doing social back in the mid 2000s and you and everybody else all of us when we started doing 2005 6789 Myspace Facebook YouTube Twitter It was more like email marketing. You have to make content and slowly but surely build a following AKA list and then you would post and 30 or 40% Just like email newsletters of your audience would see it today. What we have is the interest graph not the social graph.

The social graph was build the following post the interest graph is make something and let the algorithm the AI find the audience of the billions of people it has on the platform. that is remarkable. It's crazy remarkable H because you don't have to do all the sleuthing. Are you worried though? And this is something that I'm I'm really thinking about when podcast first started.

Yes, you had an early podcast I had an early podcast right? Uh, you could make you could have these convers ation And now there's a there's one guy every single guest I've had on my show for 10 years. He'll call them the next day and try and schedule the same interview. Yep, right. And there's a lot of kind of people who will go to a website.

In fact, you probably even have some people in your group. Here's how to ethically steal this business model. No, it's not ethical stealing, but they're going in there just mirroring a competitor's website. Uh, right over.

It feels like the the amount of of new information and signal to noise is going down and we're just getting an echo chamber of a bunch of people saying the same thing but moving their hands differently. and now with AI avatars, is it going to be impossible to find the good stuff versus all the copies of good stuff that are lower quality copies? I've never had the audacity to judge what people decide is good? Well, no. hold on that's you sell wine? Yes, But but if you you know what there's ratings for wine, there is and if you go, watch the Thousand episodes of Wine Library TV I would always say trust your pallet I Would say the reason I'm doing this show is I'm tired of people only buying what wine spectator and Parker buy and give good ratings and then I would say vly almost every episode hey by the way I just rated this wine 94 points but I love Big League Chew I love beef jerky I love oi I love oysters I love sweet breads I love Jolly Ranchers and lemon heads unless you like every single thing I like you have to tr then this was the thing I said 40,000 times. you have to trust your own palette.

so I Value craft I I think when the story you just told me my brain went to yeah but he or she may not be as good at interviewing as you are so they could have the same exact guests, but you might ask different questions and even if they decided to ask the same questions I Believe in energy I believe that the intent very true I believe in the moment I believe in all these other variables so you know to me I Listen I've had a career where people have done slight variations and tweaks and very slight and have built things. but I always say but what about me I was affected by Randy the Macho Man Savage wrestling interviews and I loved Chris Rock and Eddie Murphy and like when I watch my Keynotes like meaning I don't watch them like when I'm on stage and I do Keynotes somewhere a year or two in I'm like wait a minute. This feels a lot like Macho Man and Eddie Murphy mixed up with a little bit of like you know I think that's how the world has always worked To your point, the size and scale we're playing at now. Yeah, right, the size and scale we're playing at now and there's a lot and AI is coming.

but I don't know, you know it's funny. Maybe this goes back to being suffocated by practical optimism. I'm optimistic I believe that the cream does rise to the top I believe that you know you don't get to choose how much competition you have, right? I don't you really don't? and I'm I like to figure out the Merit of it and I also have enjoyed. And this is also fun being with you because we've been through this journey and have seen each other from a far up close.

At times we have moments right? Dave Like you and I both have had moments in our career. Yeah, sometimes we're hotter and winning more than we are. Like you know you think about all the personalities that have come up in the internet age that you and I can think of now. Early podcasters early Twitter personalities.

Some come and go. Yeah, they have a good year. Um, very true. Other people have been consistently around.

Some people have family events or their own personal. This is why I want people to choose things they love. Many of the personalities that have fallen off have fallen out because of burnout. It's so common, right? You haven't burned out and you run man.

I Feel it like I I've seen your energy. It's it's consistently high. It's because you like what you do and because of your optimism. But there's probably something else in there to gratitude.

It's gratitude. It's perspective. It's brother when I tell you man God this is like so even emotional like I just don't know how to Value anything other than the health of the people around me I don't know how to do it of course I am proud of my career of course I'd like to do well I'd like everything I do to do well of of course I'm grateful for the accolades I'm empathetic to the people that want to tear down my building cuz they don't know me and I don't mind when they leave a negative comment like I'm empathetic I Just the reason I will never run out of energy is I don't value this stuff enough I I don't I will tell you something I know we don't know each other that well, but I know that we like. you know it's one of those things.

We have a good sense of each other even though we haven't had the luxury of that kind of time yet. And I say yeah cuz I hope we get those dinners and times me too I I I I Don't value myself based on my professional career career even though it's my passion I don't I don't get self validation from Gary Vee or the successes or the followers or the money or the headlines I Just don't I get validation from the people that actually know me, how they speak about me behind my back. see that is something that if I could have internalized that when I was in my early 20s, uh, that would have been life-changing for me. And and I I write all my stuff and I feel like you do too.

just like like this is what you need to know, know and if you learn it early on, it profoundly changes what you do the the amount of time you're trying to prove stuff to other people or you're responding to trolls and all that kind of stuff. It sucks the life out of you. And if if you just say it doesn't matter and then if you say the level above which is don't feel bad for you, feel bad for them. Could you Dave Could you for everybody who's listening? Really, if I could accomplish anything in this podcast, it would be to encourage you to go try the thing you've been debating and I know for all of you, the literally the fundamental reason that you haven't yet started posting on social media to do the thing because that's what you would do.

we live in 2023, 24 is because you're genuinely concerned about the judgment And that judgment. that's totally true, right? And the Judgment can come from your mother, right? like the Judgment can come from your spouse. the Judgment can come from your children. It could.

These are important people. They can come from your co-workers your boss, your best friend and then unfortunately it can come from Johnny pants. 47 cuz you once posted something and he said you were ugly or stupid or you're wrong, right? wrong. and so for me the the level even above like it doesn't matter which is absolutely true is what about having empathy for your mom who's always been negative and has always put you down because I promise you her mom or dad or both did the same to her? The reason I've been able to continue to go Dave cuz again this is a fun interview because we don't get to catch up often and I'm sure you but we're both watching Always is I'm able to go because I have empathy and compassion for the people that are trying to tear me down, not anger so you're always welcome if you if you find you need a job at any point to be a facilitator at 40 years of Zen and this is my Neuroscience company where I teach entrepreneurs with neuroscience how to do gratitude and empathy and forgiveness so they can get that state I spent six months rearing my brain to do exactly that for but you it came you pick this up.

Is this from your mom? 100% And the DNA and it was look I was such a poor student I'm not a reader I'm not a consu I'm like this very interesting consumer I'm consuming everything thus almost rendering me consuming nothing. Deeply curious, always gravitated towards humans. Here's a good one. My mom, if she was, you know she's very behind the scenes.

My dad would do a podcast he likes the Limelight My mom's very behind the scenes. My mom would tell you that the weirdest thing. the most interesting, intriguing thing about my childhood was starting at about 3 to 6, predominantly in: Queens In the early 80s late 70s, we would go outside to get some fresh air or whatever we were doing and I would pull at her arm I would gravitate to go sit on a bench with a stranger who was over 80. Holy crap that my great grand that my great-grandfather who passed away unfortunately pretty quickly after we got here was my best friend in my youth I'm my Granda yeah my great-grandfather Shia that there you know now I and I can I don't remember 3 to 5 but I remember 6 to 10 when when grandparents would visit my friends and again I'm an 80s baby so we were outside at all the time and when a grandparent would come for the holidays or a birthday and they'd come to the park where we were playing basketball or baseball or whiffle ball or football I would always go out of my way to go talk to them.

and now in my you know especially you know don't forget I was 34 years old before even I started any level of a public life so I was a I I know myself because I lived it like I I spent my 20s and my early 30s building a business for my father I owned none of Wine Library I never got paid much I I wanted to give back to my parents I was very unique I'm a first generation immigrant I was born in the old country I was in a cocoon I wasn't a good student I didn't go to a university that expanded my world I like was family business immigrant life cocoon didn't go out like I was closed in this beautiful closed environment that made it unique which is why now in my 40s I'm like ah I loved wisdom I'll give you one right now we Champion youth yeah we want to look younger. we love the kids. Have more say you know Gen Z Even young Millennials had more say with their parents and in the workplace than our Generations we we we clap for the Youth 70 years ago we clapped for the elderly wow and I believe we're in the pre-dawn of going back I believe in the next 20 to 30 years after this chapter of our over Obsession of Youth we will counter it cuz that's what we do over 50 and 100e windows and I believe that you will start to see signals right now. No, because we're in generational.

Warfare I've never seen the level of Judgment of Boomers versus genz and gen Z versus Millennials. It's really unfortunate humans have found another thing to tribalize to me mad at each other and it breaks my heart. But I do believe you will see more. back to social media and branding.

I believe you will see more breakout stars who are in their 70s, ' 80s and '90s start pod. If you're listening right now and you're 70 and older, please start. Please start a podcast called the Wisdom Week or what I or what. I've learned and and and don't be insecure here, let me everybody who's 80 has something massive to put deposit to the world.

Tell us about your life, Tell us about what you learned because that's what I've always been drawn to. So I think to answer your question, where did this come from I think I came out a 90-year old man. Wow, you know this is also just an enormous drop of knowledge. The reason I started the biohacking movement is because when I was 26 and my health was failing and I had brain fog and arthritis and um, just all the bad stuff.

I Hung out with a room like 60 to 100 people in their 70s, 80s, and 90s who taught me longevity before it was supposed to be done and that led to me becoming an expert in field I didn't know how to to do it. So I ask the old people right and old people know a lot and the crazy thing is they want to share it. They have a lifetime of wisdom and they got nothing else to do with it but just share it. and especially now because families unfortunately are not respecting their elderly.

especially in America more than ever and they're just sitting around with so much to give. which is why I'm telling all of them that are listening. Don't wait for your grandchildren to ask. Start a podcast.

Yeah! Go make Tik Toks tell us cuz my great I'll tell you exactly when in August of I'll tell you the exact month in August of 1982 my Babushka Ana when I woke up instead of making me breakfast took me outside in my bare feet and made me walk on the grass for 15 minutes and now it's cool to do grounding in 20. You know they know they totally. And when we used to drive on the highway my grandma Esther and my Babushka Ana they would go crazy when they would see something in the grass on the side of the highway and we would pull over and we would pick it and we would bring it home and they would dry it and make it tea. Now I've learned all these years later, that's that.

It's a St John wart or wart. Yeah right it's called z boy in Russian we would literally be driving to like the beach or to the store and out of nowhere I mean we'd be listening to like Michael Jackson or Cindy ler and look radio if we you know out of nowhere my grandma or uncle or my great grandma would be boy boy which would mean my mom would have to pull over on the highway we had bags plastic bags in our trunk and we would go outside and to I'd have to go out there as a seven-year-old and pull the V boy and we would fill the bags and like you know and then 30 40 years later I hear people on social or podcast or wherever I see it or over dinner talk about like hey there's this thing it's good for depression or things of that nature and I'm like wait a minute I Googled it and I looked at I'm like that's v a boy you know and so there's a M. I mean especially people that are from outside the US cuz the US has always been a modern society. You get some real oldw world from The Immigrant grandparents and you don't even have to do it with your own grandparents I I didn't I just mentioned two of my grandparents I I really only grew up with a grandma, a great grandma who had dementia pretty early, a great great great-grandfather who I told you died very early.

Other than that, my mom lost her mom at five, my dad lost his dad at 16. So when you ask me about me, I grew up fearing my parents dying so much. fear, death, of course, so much that once they didn't by the time I got to 18, I kind of went into I won and now I'm just going to like live on pure gratitude. and yes, and it's really wild.

like I would actually argue that in my essence, Mhm I'm the most opposite of what people think an entrepreneur is. I would say that it's weird that I became an Entre like if like I'm so simplistic like I dream I love the idea of living in an incredibly remote town and making my own food and going to sleep at se like I I would have crushed 1643. But there was one other thing. One of my DNA traits is I'm an entrepreneur and did want to sell flowers when I was five and I did want to sell lemonade and when it snowed and everybody sled and played snowball fights I did ring doorbells and shovels like driveways.

so this weird mix. but all this movement today I think parallels into entrepreneurship. Importantly. So I'm going to recall it all the way back.

I Believe in the same way that the biohacking and food and mental health. If we can reframe entrepreneurship and tell people don't follow, follow the next. Trend It's not about is cannabis hot or crypto is hot or real estate is hot or apparel is hot or coffee like No No's always hot. There you go Brother: No, no, what do you like Susan What do you like En Ra, what do you like Jonathan Johan Samuel Like what are you about? You're into music.

Okay, through hell high water. your business needs to be about music. Because here's why: I Prom. Promise you to everyone who's listening.

if you make $318,000 a year doing music, you will be 4 billion times happier than making $730,000 a year in real estate 100,000% that the number of friends from business school who went into management consulting and banking where you make the most money. Almost all of them are terribly miserable. You know, just vulnerable. They're vulnerable.

Substance abuse. They make you millions of dollars a year. but it's not worth it because you're selling your life to do that. You're vulnerable You're vulnerable.

even even the ones Dave that don't fully crack, right? The ones that don't do substance abuse, The ones that don't have infidelity, The ones that don't like do whatever humans do. Uh, food. Like you know, many people just eat their way out of their. you know, you know, because they because they because they they had the gene to not use drinking and drugs, but they're using food or something that people don't see.

They use weekends and holidays and interests to deal. if you. here's one my friends who are listening again respecting living out of this audience, having a good sense of what they was built here from afar I Know how thoughtful the people are that are listening to this podcast and what? Journey they're on I Don't know where they are in their Journey but I Get this: I Have a sense that you're on this journey for more thoughtfulness and all this stuff. I'm You have to hear what I'm about to say my friend friends, If you're a human being that wakes up on Friday and you're a static for the day to end and you wake up on Monday and you are crushed that the week is starting.

you are in a not in a good place I'm telling you, you're not. It doesn't mean you don't love your family and what you do on the weekend. That's remarkable. But if you're in a place where you are so not fulfilled at work that you live for the weekend and we're filming this I Don't know when you're going to put out but we're filming it on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving Yeah and all of us are excited in America and other places that you know.

Obviously it's fun to spend time with family and I know that all the jokes that ants Su and all that but you know I I If you know it's great and vacation and late August And Christmas I get it. But I'm no. I'm talking to the people and I'm hoping you're listening to this randomly on a Friday or Monday and this hits you in the core my friend. If you are really unhappy, I'm not naive I Love when people think and consume my content and they think I'm delusional I'm aware that you have I Know that you have debt I Know that you have bills to pay I'm talking that happiness is worth fighting for.

Happiness is worth selling your home to get out of debt and rent a house or an apartment. Even though the re you're all all of you are not doing this because of judgment. Happiness is worth fighting for. If your job is killing you, how are? Don't come home and use Netflix or food or alcohol or video games or go into your favorite sports teams games as you're escaped from work.

Use those evenings to crush on LinkedIn to get a job offer to get you out of it. You cannot with the amount that the world works. Even though we've got it better, we're better than we've been with work Life balance in America Other parts have it better. by the way, on work life balance, some people are a pig and working 70 hours a week.

Some people are devastated working 25 hours a week. When it's not right. you must fight to change it, even if you have to take a step back in front of all your family and friends with your luxuries. Go exchange the BMW to the dealership and drive a Toyota Don't go to the Four Seasons When you go to Disney go to the holiday end like I did when I was a kid.

like it's okay. humble, like, don't buy seven I'm sorry on this one. David Don't buy $7 coffee, make your own tea for a little while, reform your dollars to give you the breathing room to reset your life Because if you do not like what you do, it encapsulates your entire it. It suffocates everything.

That's entrepreneurship. that's work. That's my relationship with it. And just like with food and mentality, we've made huge advancements in the last 20 years.

I Don't believe that we've gotten to the 301 401 conversation I Believe what I'm talking about today, which is not the common talk of. Entrepreneurship will become the normalized talk in 25 years. That will understand that the joy of the process, not the riches we get from it is the game of Entrepreneurship and work and that is what we have to fight for. It is except do you have to fight for it I I Feel like the fighting part was really the first 35 years of life, right? I'm fighting and some of that came from being bullied to be perfectly honest.

Makes sense, right? And and at at a certain point I did enough of the Gratitude forgiveness, the neuro feedback, the meditation around the world, all that kind of stuff. and I just realized I'm moving toward something that matters. So I feel like I was fighting for the first half. In the second half, I was moving towards something greater and there was a a quantitative shift in it.

You are you and I are saying the same exact thing what I'm saying is, but it wasn't a fighting energy at the. It was like I'm going to do this because it's what's important. It's what matters for the world because the first part was your fighting. Yeah, yeah, so how people make the shift from fighting against towards moving into honestly I view that as semantics.

Okay, Dave right? like I I swear I do. What I'm saying is if you're 49 and you're sitting and listening to this which many 49 year olds will given our audiences I Can't let you out of the goodness of my heart and my I'm a hoper I love to Hope I will hope I Can't let you just throw up your hands and say, well, it's not in the cards for me to enjoy my professional career. Gary You don't get it like I'm pretty good. My teenagers are 15 and 14.

Just a couple of more years and I'll I I just I think that's worth fighting for? Challenge yourself. Look you. actually we've known each other long enough where maybe you noticed somewhere about eight or nine years ago my physical health got better I got better and and when I tell you nothing on Earth comes less natural to me than eating well and working out. and I mean nothing.

and I lived my whole life being a poor student but being successful, being liked and being successful and so I thought I was one of these people who was crushing what came easy to them and punted right because I wasn't even willing to get C's I got D's and Fs so I thought in my 20s oh I know who I am and I saw that in my mother. if it comes natural, quadruple down superhero smart if it would and I agree and I still believe in that. but what I thought was doesn't come natural. punt I'll give you one in business and in life that I struggled with Gary ve on a podcast like this.

Canderous at a Hall of Fame level Gary Vaynerchuck the human being at work if he liked you which usually happened within the first two days of you working for him could not be canderous cuz he didn't like delivering bad news which led to all the sloppiness in my career. you know. same here. that's that's you could almost say that twice.

Yes, you got to be. You got to be kind, not nice. That's right. There's uh I hope I can find my book I don't see it, Let me no.

Anyway, my last book 12 and a half I see it there but I won't make a mess of it. um I call it K Cander my half I talk about 13 traits that I think are really needed to win the game one man's humble subjective point of view of business and being a leader and I called it 12 and A2 cuz I wanted to be vulnerable and say this one's a big one, it's called K Cander I'm only at a five out of 10 right now and by the way, that might be nice. Me grading my own homework today I'm probably a four out of 10 but three four years ago I was a one out of 10 and when I look back at my 25 years, the only people that know me that don't feel remarkable about me were people that I wasn't able to be canderous to and I had to fire and I surprised them cuzz I didn't warn them them and more importantly now that I look at it my the reason I used to think it was good that I wasn't deploying K cander was I didn't want people to be scared and I I I hate fear Dave when I tell you what I spend a lot of time thinking about is how people weaponize fear on everything and how much it breaks my heart. Well I thought I was doing this great thing as a boss cuz I people weren't scared.

What? I realized the lowest point of my professional career was when I realized oh my God People now really know me in my and because they know they might get surprised fired because they've seen it happen to others. They're actually scared. my lack of cander is creating fear and it's changed everything for me personally, professionally. and so anyway I know I'm bouncing around because I'm excited to be on this show and I'm hoping somebody gets value out of this talk there.

There's Great Value you're teaching people the stuff they don't teach you in business school about about how to think I think so like I I I I really I think these things really matter I think the EQ part of life I'm just IQ is getting commod with AI I mean like the IQ is getting commoditized. it's the EQ I love that it it is the EQ and I've lost at least $100 million from allowing people to be in leadership positions. Um, where I should have been a lot much more quickly. Uh, I should have been a lot more direct about things that that I didn't like.

but I was you know, and from body listening. For everybody who's listening who who wildly agrees with Eric and has no question, the reason I've been able to build companies has been based on being thoughtful about who you fire and why. other than like dramat like I don't I I have a even when someone's completely me and their fellow workers I don't really want to hang them out to dry in Town Square but I'm not. but I definitely make it.

you know known to why one is no longer here. Yeah um but I will say this this and I want everyone to hear this I am predicting that $100 million number is low. The probably the hidden loss of compromising your values because someone is effective at their job is the great economic loss of every company, especially when someone has a sales. When you have a sales organization and you can see that Johnny is the number one salesman and he bigger than number two, 3, 4 and five combined.

but he's the biggest on Earth What nobody realizes is that number 2 to 40 on your 40 person sales team. the second he's gone all Elevate up 20 to 50% because they're spending 50% of their energy on the anxiety of having Johnny around. It's so true. I I Had a salesperson recently gave away a million dollars of my of my ad spaces without telling selling anyone so she could get her little bonuses approved, her own deals, all the dirty stuff that sales people are prone to do and and we caught her.

and and of course in a situation like that, it's oh no, it it's the company's fault. It's not their fault. And as soon as we cleared that person out, the other people in the company, they blossomed and flourished and were serving customers better and making clean deals. But you don't know and if you just look at the top line.

So yeah, if people in a cultural fit, you have to let them go and and quickly. and I think that's true for friends as well. b a big believer in that. I and I don't I think the reason people struggle with the friend part and I'll go back to the salesperson.

the friend part is a challenge for people cuz the world is too absolute. Yeah. Dave The reason so many people just heard that and said ah, I know Johnny is toxic in my relationship. He's an asker.

Yes, we were best friends from first to third grade, but like, but for the last 25 years of adulthood he's He's played on that and all he does is ask and really doesn't provide anything genuinely. You know whether it's monetarily or emotionally takes gives zero but I'm loyal I'm you know like I I need you to hear this. You don't have to cut people completely out and a lot of times this is what's going on with people's parents, siblings. We have not learned because the world is absolute.

They hear this and be like, well, can't cancel, fully cancel, and never talk to a friend or a family member ever again like that sounds not productive and you're right. But what about limiting? You know when the whoever is the most negative force in you are what your surroundings are if you talk to your mom four times a day and all she does is on your sibling, on your dad, on her boss if she is a negative. Nelly And by the way, I grew up in a family of extremes. My my mom was the most positive.

my dad and more specifically his mom and my great- grandma who I've referenced were uncomfortably negative. and so I and I'm talking extremes on both sides. So I got this upbringing where I really saw the world through two very different sets of eyes and I'm a very big believer that the world is how you see it. If you went into my Instagram feed right now Dave you would think the world is filled with Sunshine rainbows and unicorns and that's how you see it.

It's also what I engage with if you engage with content of someone helping a kid cross the road. If you consume that, if you do, you know how fast you can make social media more positive. go to Instagram or whatever platform you like. Tik Tok YouTube Shorts Twitter Search Happiness Joy Positivity Optimus Advancement Upgrade search these things well played, consume it and then like and follow things that are actually positive and then watch how the next morning you wake up.

People are always like people, love to not be accountable, just like you're salesperson. It's the algorithm's fault. No, it's not. The algorithm is just smart at knowing you.

Social media isn't changing you. Social media is exposing you. Oo so good. It's real brother.

It's real and we've got to fight. And I I Like fight. but I'm I'm I'm the same way as you like. I can change that.

I Used to word use the word hustle because I I believe that work ethic is one of the variables to have a 1% life. Mhm. The world kind of canceled hustle like that's bad I'm like, okay, no problem heart I Now use work ethic just like you jumped on early and I like it. Maybe you don't want to call it fight, You want to go.

Uh, lean into Upgrade towards I'm I'm agnostic. It's about willingness and ability to work hard when it's called for instead of doing it reflexively and stupidly. And and yes and where I'm going on this little mini rant. You're worth it.

There you go. It's worth it. It's worth it. It's what people don't realize is that everyone, most people are in some version of an abusive relationship with themselves.

Yes, Dave insecurity for what? As if not every other person on Earth sucks at a lot of things too. We all suck at tons of stop putting others on a pedestal to only undermine yourself when in essence, a parent likely put that insecurity negativity into you like you don't hate yourself as much as you think you don't think you think as much as you think you are borrowing the words of something that happened along the way and you are capable right now to start the process to not do that anymore. Wow, So all right Seven eight years ago we met at Jason Gay's an amazing Mastermind event and you were on stage and I think you were going through something right then you you said you know I I would give anything to someone who could just teach me how to meditate how to be happy like there has to be a way I don't know if you remember that talk. you and I both give a lot of talks I don't I and I'm being really serious with you.

This is very important I I believe if you you know it's funny that your brain recalls that and the video is online, it's not. It's not how I positioned it what I was say what I was saying was it was cool to me that meditating was exploding. Yeah and that I was scared to meditate. Okay, there you go because I'm in such a good place that I'm actually scared that if I start to meditate that I might something up.

I Get it? Yeah, yeah, that's a much better translation of what my brain recorded. Yeah, it was it. I I was saying that for a long time a lot in a lot of talks about 5 seven eight years ago cuz obviously meditation was starting to get its momentum and and by the way, I'm still in that place I and I as I've watched the space and as I've watched people get the value of it cuz I'm a big believer mhm I'm kind of in this new state where I'm like I'm meditating at all times. That's what I'm picking up like I I I can I spent many, many years.

So there's you. read people, whatever you. maybe you're born with it, but I I want to know? So when you lean into the camera and you do this and you say something that really matters to you, your eyes change and you're actually transmitting energetically and I can pick that up and so can everyone else, Whether they know they are, they don't know they are picking that up. That's one of the reasons you're powerful media is that a skill you learned or have you always done that? I've always done that.

Okay, that's just part of who you are. I I I I Realized that most of the reason I was able to get through school with the even though that I should have stayed back every grade since fourth grade. If we're going on the Merit you know if you don't do homework ever and you get an F on every test and you don't pay attention in class unless it's history cuz you're genuinely interested interested in it, you shouldn't pass but they passed me a probably for self-interest of you know cuz the school's going for a blue ribbon and need everyone passing or all those things I've come to learn that or what I've now come to believe is my Charisma My teachers loved me I never I was an atrocious student but in the history of school because of the way I was parented I never disrespected a teacher I might have been disrespecting the craft by my behavior right? by not pay by talking to my friend and trying to sell him baseball card or talk about wrestling or about the Jets game while a teacher was you know, giving a lesson I can respect that. That is a form of disrespect but with words two I always I never did it once and so you know I look I was the I was the president of my fifth grade right? So clearly clearly when I look back at like like I don't even know why I did it right but I did it like yeah I mean but but there's also another thing that comes along with this which is I really like people I actually have a very weird relationship with dogs.

This is very tongue and cheek so don't get all upset with me everyone but I do have a funny like I anytime I'm in the world and I see people hutter around a dog and they love the dog I Always think to myself man I wish we did that for each other. this unconditional love that we are able to as a society to deploy towards dogs. and I know what going to say? Well, that's cuz they unconditionally love you Yes, but where is our capacity to be the bigger person? like why do you need someone else to do something for you, Why not take it on yourself to do it for them? Because oh by the way, you're doing it for yourself in that framework. Yeah, you got to do that to yourself.

the self-love and not maybe not self-loathing It was back to an early point. You said 90% of people that I see become successful went down your track with a chip on shoulder. Yeah, I'm in a very small group and if you part of this and you're listening, please call your parents and kiss their faces I am in a small group of people where gratitude was my fuel not insecurity Gary When are you going to write a book on parenting I've been writing a book in my head called Perfectly Parented Yeah, there you go. Please please write that it would be an active service I'm going to write the book from the perspective of being the one who was parented.

Yeah, I'm I'm also so like I'll say it here because I think parents need to hear this even though I spend my life 20% of my communication putting my parents on a pedestal I could spend an entire another hour with Dave on a podcast telling you all the things my parents did that I don't think was great. It's the it's the flight of a human like it's what we go with. It's just that I wish that everybody would stop spending 100% of their energy pointing to one to Seven Things Their parents did wrong instead of the many things they did right. So you got it.

Balan View You've got good and bad. Most people go all good or all bad one. That's true. so you you see reality for the way it is you.

You'll like this. I I My I have a new book coming out next year called Day Trading Attention which I think is going to be a smash because I think it helps everyone everybody would like. whether it's a nonprofit or their personal brand or the company they work for or their startup or their Instagram page or running for mayor in town. everybody is starting to wake up to the fact that if you're unable to Garner attention on social media you're not going to be able to pull off the thing you want selfless, selfish, and everything in between the the the cover is purple Dave because of what you and I just talked about.

all of The answers to our unrest is in the purple. Life is about the purple. Happiness is in the purple. So well said.

The reason everyone is so G and they will point to everything but the accountability of their journey to move to the purple. They are either red or blue. It back to fear, the weaponization of fear. Parents think about how you talk to your children if you do that.

I'm going to do this all we are weapon bosses. If we don't hit our number, someone's not going to be here. Fear And then we're eliminating. Barrett One last thing, while I'm on this eighth place, trophies is not a good idea.

Oh man. I was going to ask you more about that CU Yeah, that that is rotting the world. teaching, teaching indifference is devastating. Worst thing you could ever do and that's what you're doing.

It doesn't matter. Tell that to a kid who's born competitive. Tell them that their seventh, their seventh grade championship basketball game. Hey, Johnny it's okay.

Don't cry. That's silly. This doesn't matter you. It matters much more than my report card, which is completely subjective and ridiculous.

This is real life Mhm Like we we we have. we have misplayed a couple of hands in parenting that if we tweak, we can have way more joy back we are we are I'm just going to throw this one out my friends cuz I'm just trying to throw a couple deposits that maybe make someone think about it. If you have a 27-year-old child and you were paying for their lifestyle, it's bad. Yeah, you have they want they and as someone who gets 10, I'm going to say this nice and slow.

as someone who gets 10,000 direct messages a day and who when he goes on long flights reads tons of them. I was taken a back 10 years ago when I realized the resentment of 26-year-old Nepo baby has to their parents crazy. I would read these things and I would make a piece of a Content that would trigger them DM me Gary I'm like that kid you talked about in that video I have a BMW I live in the West in West Hollywood My parents pay for my Equinox I have a job because I don't It doesn't matter cuz my parents pay for everything and they think they're and like and I thank them and they think they're doing the right thing. but deep down you're right I hate them and what what that means? What just to give everyone the preview.

When you pay for your kids and their grown-ups you're telling them that you don't believe in them. There you go, that they're not capable y they can't fly. You're never going to kick them out of the nest. and the second they smell that you're really doing it because you actually care what your friends, you, the parents, friends, think about the kid and they become an object to your self-esteem then it's tipped.

Yep, and you've got so much wisdom. Gary I I Greatly admire the way you communicate and the way you're living your life and the way you've maintained optimism even with all the the pain that comes with entrepreneurship. And I'm not discouraging anyone, but it is more painful than you think and it's more rewarding than you think, Especially if you care about what you're doing. you somehow stay on top of it all.

It's you got. You got to like it. Thank you brother. You got to like it.