3 Hard Truths That Gary Vaynerchuck Made Me Accept in Life at 20 Years Old

Everything finally clicked.

If you’re reading this, you finally did it, Gary.

You broke through to me.

I finally get this hustle stuff you’re pushing. I used to call that type of content “hustle porn” all the time. A bunch of people still do.

Now I don’t look at it as hustle porn anymore. I look at it as a mirror reflecting every dumb ass excuse I made back in my face. I needed that. Especially when you’re someone like me who’s a listener, not a doer.

Here are three hard truths that Gary Vee got through my head and forced me to get up and do something with my life.

I hope these hard truths can give you the kick in the ass you need too.

The most important asset you lack is patience, that’s why you'll never win.

I’ve always been impatient as hell.

I guess I never grew up with that quality. I was the spoon-fed baby of the family who got everything they wanted at the snap of my fingers. Seriously. I’d treat other people like they were my maid.

It got condescending at times.

I deserved all of my failures in life that came from my lack of patience. I failed for three years straight. Losing money because I found some false pipedream on YouTube to get “rich quick” (which doesn’t exist).

Here are just a few of them:

• eBay reselling — I saved up five hundred dollars to flip some shoes I thought would sell for a ludicrous price. They didn’t. Five hundred dollars down the drain and those shoes are still sitting in my basement to this day as a stark reminder.
• Digital marketing — I couldn’t cold-call to save my life. All of the two hundred businesses I called around my local area were crossed out because they didn’t want my services. The clients that gave me a shot on the phone never followed up.
• Writing for the first time — This is the dumbest mistake I ever made. I mean, how can you cold-call people and ask them for money when your nonexistent blog is a crime scene? Not a trace of views, just the remains of an anime review blog gone wrong.

I deserved to fail at every single one of these. I worked on them for about three months max and gave up.

Now I’m trying to write again. This was never a “get rich quick” thing for me. It’s my passion. I just turned it into a quick money pipedream because I got infatuated with the hype of being an entrepreneur.

I’ve almost reached my goal of writing every single day for a year, and I’m seeing a significant improvement in my writing.

That’s just a small taste of what a little patience can get you in life.

You don’t realize how unbelievably young you are.

Everyone thinks they have to be a millionaire by twenty-five.

I can’t blame anyone. I think social media culture has made everyone younger than they actually are. The people you see flexing on the gram are rich 18-year-olds with Teslas in the background.

Now you’re playing catch-up to see who can be the youngest billionaire — it’s unrealistic.

You’re playing a game fueled by fantasies. It’s just not humanly possible to get there so young unless you have a rich family or you were signed to a record label at twelve like Justin Bieber.

I’ll never forget watching my daily dose of Gary Vee content and there was a 55-year-old in the comments talking about how they just quit their job and started a business. You have time.

Just like Gary always says, you’re going to live at least three more lives when you’re in your twenties.

Never rush the process.

The only person in the race is you — so stop focusing on what other people are doing.

Stop competing with other people.

I always have to say that phrase again in my head because I do it subconsciously sometimes. I can’t lie, it’s disheartening when you see other people making the best out of their career and you’re in the dust flailing around. It seems like you’ll never catch up to the rest of the pack.

That’s always how I felt at the beginning of my writing journey.

I never knew how so many people got boatloads of views before I even made a small dent in the atmosphere. But I had to realize later on that I don’t know these people.

You don’t know how many years these people worked on their craft to get where they are now. You don’t know who could’ve helped them along the way. You don’t know their backstory.

All you can do is focus on yourself or else you’ll be unhappy for the rest of your life comparing yourself to this one person who came into the game before you.

Remember what we talked about before?

Have patience and never rush your process.

Final Thought

Darn you, Gary.

You got in my head again and forced me to look at myself in the mirror again. Honestly, thank you, it’s helped me in more ways than you think. If you need the rude awakening that I just had, remember, the most important asset you lack is patience, you don’t realize how unbelievably young you are, and the only person in the race is you.

The more attention that’s put on you and your abilities, the faster you grow.

So what are you waiting for?

Start hustling.

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