Gary Vaynerchuck embodies confidence, but like 99% of other success stories, he wasn’t an overnight success.

When introducing Gary at the Future of Web Apps conference in Miami, Ryan Carson told the story of some enthusiastic guy coming up to him a couple years ago after a conference to meet him. Ryan even remembered thinking the guy was a little weird, but nice.

Two years later, after speaking at the same conference, I asked Gary what gave him the confidence through those years.

My Takeaways:

1. Know who you are

2. Care about the people you’re serving

3. Don’t wait for the Tipping Point. At the conference, Gary said that he had reached his tipping point with his first few viewers. He didn’t wait until he had a few thousand, or even a hundred viewers until he took it seriously. He knew that just one viewer was someone who gave him their attention and was important enough to serve.

Reader: what takeaways did you get?

I’m so Jaded.

I wonder if entrepreneurs are more prone to getting jaded than others. As entrepreneurs we try more opportunities and connect with more people and not only connect, but trust more people. I guess it just makes sense that we’re going to get hurt — jaded.

The more I experience the more I notice areas in my life where I’ve been jaded. I notice a typical curve - I feel negatively about it for a while, then days, months, or years later something changes. Often that something is my perspective.

I’m finding that holding onto those feelings could be keeping us from seeing with a better (or just different) perspective and may be keeping us from a next level of success.

Times change, people change, businesses change, and the best of all, we change. Plenty spiritual principles refer to guarding your heart - I think that applies here. Let’s be careful about getting jaded, and if we’re jaded right now, it might be a good idea for us to work to let that go - we don’t need any extra weight slowing us down.

So your life sucks - or at least it seems that way. Now is the best time to start setting aside some of your free time and start your business.

I just want to encourage you to get started. Now is the time - don’t keep putting it off.

I believe this is one of the most important messages for new entrepreneurs (video below - 2:27)

I subscribe big time to the idea that you focus on what you do best and outsource the rest.

I have a great team of designers and developers that work with me, and I’m continually adding to those partnerships.

When I add a designer or developer as a partner, I go through a very precise vetting process. Today, I found out that one of the designers I’m vetting ripped off a site considerably. I’m all for inspiration, not copying.

Things are working out well with the situation, I just want to encourage you to keep an eye on what’s going on with your partnerships. You don’t want to be the brunt of a lawsuit or bad PR.

When it comes to designer partnerships, here are a few ways to keep everything above board.

• Create partnerships. A partnership by nature requires respect - not just respect to you, but you need to respect your partners. Just because you’re the one paying doesn’t mean they don’t deserve your respect. They will appreciate that and act in kind.

• Promote communication. I let my partnerships know that communication is my top priority (followed by quality and efficiency). Make sure they know that every thing’s better when they communicate with you.

• Get the source files. If they’re creating a design for you, don’t hesitate to get the source files from them so you know they actually created the design. If you ever had a problem with someone saying you copied their design, at least you did your due diligence.

If you have experience in creating partnerships for a lean and productive company, I’d love to hear your thoughts on the topic.