Gary Vee: Work

Before I get into some of his quotes and excerpts, I was listening to a brilliant podcast on Jim Kwik’s podcast featuring Vishen Lakihiani of MindValley.  While I was listening to it, he came across the “hard-work” lingo that’s being thrown out there, most notably, by Gary Vee.  Not exactly sure if Vishen knows Gary Vee, but Vishen said, “there’s a very destructive term being thrown out there called ‘hard-work.’  I think it’s bullshit and it has destroyed families virtually everywhere in the world.”

I then thought about it and said, “well, that is true.  I mean my mother worked at a drugstore from 2pm-11pm everyday and I never got to see her on days she worked this “swing shift.”  People ask Gary Vee a lot about work-life balance and there’s never really an answer.

Everyone’s life is different, but I think there is a considerable amount of reference to the word “hustle” and “hard-work.”

Sure, I’ve coined the phrase a couple of times, but that’s in terms of me making back-to-back videos, writing three blogs in thirty minutes, or handling things on my top priority list.  Then I would say, “boy, I’m on fire today! I’m hustling!” meaning I’m doing a lot.  It has nothing to do with getting 4 hours of sleep and working all the way until 2am.

Another blog I read recently took every word that came out of Gary’s mouth – literally.  He said, “if you wake up at 4am and sleep at 11pm, you would be dying.”

I believe, wholeheartedly, in traveling abroad and initiating “escapism.”  Well, I wouldn’t necessarily call it escapism, because then you would never be content with traveling abroad – constantly checking your phone every hour.  Gary thinks everyone should “eat shit” for ten years and close their eyes, practically meaning don’t do a damn thing except hustle and build your brand for ten years.

With that being said, you have to choose the lifestyle and use vocabulary terms at your own risk.

“I’ve audited a lot of people over the years who on the surface seemed to be doing everything right. They’d established a good niche, they were personable and interesting, their content was on target and valuable, yet they expressed frustration that they weren’t meeting their business goals. When I looked closer, I’d see that they were still playing golf or tweeting about the previous night’s Walking Dead episode. Let me make this as clear as I can:
When you first start out, there is no time for leisure—if you want to crush it. There is no time for YouTube videos or shooting the shit in the breakroom or an hour-and-a-half lunch. ”

Excerpt From: Gary Vaynerchuk. “Crushing It!.” iBooks. https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/crushing-it/id1229850109?mt=11

And, remember, Gary does often contradict himself, which is totally fine.  Some people aren’t making expectations simply because they’re missing out on one of the key categories of life.  I believe that leisure is one of the most important components of either winding down, or just simply enjoying your life as you go.

Now, of course, I would never go out on a golf course or even attempt to watch an episode of just about anything on tv, but other people do.  People waste their time watching Indian TV series here in Thailand when they could be doing so much more.  I’m diametrically opposed to time-wasting activities; however, like Gary and his New York Jet football games from the 1980’s, I will go to my Kazakhstan, Cyprus, Tedx talk in Morocco, getaway in Fiji/American Samoa, and so forth.  Seeing the world at the same time I’m doing what I love is true fulfillment – in my own words.

“Your only prayer to one day live the Crush It! life, therefore, is to deploy ungodly amounts of work from seven p.m. to two a.m. Monday through Friday, plus all day Saturdays and Sundays. ” – Gary Vee

And this is what I was talking about pertaining to the no-name article I mentioned.  People take this literally, therefore they truly believe they should stay up until 2am – only to wake up 3-4 hours later.

Of course this is an absolute no-brainer in terms of “doing.”  You will become an insomniac and you can quite possibly develop an autoimmune disease, when your body will begin attacking itself because it’s going throw endless amounts of NO SLEEP.

In the middle of this chapter, where I’m stopping today in my writing, he talks about bringing your family along with you so you can enjoy your leisure time together.  This was essential for me to read at this given moment in my life.

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