Where Gary Vaynerchuk Got His Confidence
Posted by avin | Posted in The Startup Life | Posted on 10-10-2009
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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?
This is very interesting and revealing.
I love his confidence, and I think that it surely does help him win people over, both those who initially love him and the other 15% that don’t, but I wonder as to why he sort of glossed over your final question. I wonder if he would have the same confidence whether he was in the position he’s in today or a completely unknown person. It’s during those times when things are not on the up, not moving forward, not looking positive; when it seems as though everything around you is crashing down, that a true confidence is revealed or crushed. I think that during the worst of times and the best, it’s necessary to have a deeper confidence in something not just of your own self. What happens when your own self just doesn’t cut it? If your confidence is placed only in your own self, I believe you’re doomed for eventual disappointment in one sector of life or another.
Garnering attention, even if only from a few people, is still important, and they are worthy of serving. I totally agree with this point and your others, and I’m glad that you made them.
@parkeladd Great point. It’s easy to be confident when things are going your way, or you “own the crowd” like Maximus of Gladiator did :).