Instagram’s down and so are Facebook and Whatsapp. Been a bit on Snapchat, but decided it’s way better to spend my Sunday afternoon dressed and productive. I feel like making music, but my neighbors from above (a young couple around 30, very unrelaxed) stopped by the other day to tell me to not make music in the evenings (after 6pm, lel) and on weekends anymore. “We hear the concert as if it was in our living room“. Well, it’s for free, you’re very welcome! Sit back and enjoy. This is what I should have said. Instead, I mimed the friendly neighbor. But of course friendly neighbor only worked on the outside. I mean, fuck friendly neighbor! Who are they to impose their agenda on me?!! Honestly – at this stage I wish I had much more Gary Vaynerchuk in me.
Do you know Gary Vaynerchuk? If not, you should check him out right now (i.e. after you’re finished reading this piece). The guy is a living legend. In fact, he’s one of the very few men over 40 who I still consider cool and fresh. I’m currently consuming a lot of his content in dear hope to assimilate his general attitude and perspectives on literally everything. (#workinprogress) I watch 5 minutes of Gary Vee and feel like hustling the shit out of my life. It’s that effective.
I think I can’t do exact quotes (and I can’t be bothered to go through his 5 billion Youtube videos to look them up), but I will freely render some of his notions and beliefs that resonated with me on a deeper level. So, for instance, in one of his speeches, he talks about how people let themselves be stopped by the opinions of others. Because others don’t like what they’re doing. And he makes his point by asking the audience if they remember his one post back in 2006 that only got 1 like. That one post that only got one like. Hahahaha. I. Can’t. Even. Of course it’s ludicrous. But it’s so graphic. Because nowadays, he has a followership of 5,6 Mio. (IG) and garners up more likes than I have self-doubts in a day. And as good as likes feel, I guess, it’s really important to detach oneself from the opinions – good or bad (!) – of other people. Because they never know what you’re up to. Only you know. Keep going and keep hustling is his main mantra, and he firmly maintains that the ROI of life is not money, but happiness. Duh. But hey, how many people operate solely on money? (1,2..)
A further keyword from his speeches is “patience“. And indeed, it’s a big one. We all know that Rome wasn’t built in a day, but still we expect pretty much everything to happen overnight (or even faster). Instant gratification fucks up our minds and the more I think about it, the more I get convinced that it really is the vampire of our time. I mean, you know, I’m a very impatient person myself, and I tend to be much more goal-oriented than process-minded, which often leaves me demotivated and frustrated. My usual coping strategies in these moments (not recommended!) are distraction or procrastination. So yeah, I guess the challenge really is to trust and even find pleasure in the process, regardless of the outcome.
You probably know Jim Rohn’s famous saying “You are the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with“. Gary Vee’s stand on that: “This shit is real!“ He recommends cutting out “that one loser friend“, and getting “a winner friend“ instead. Now when I first heard him say that, I thought: Wow, that’s harsh! What do you do if someone’s miserable, you can’t just drop them!? Of course he’s not referring to some temporary breakup-situation blues, but to people who are constantly negative in one way or the other. Call them naysayers, energy-vampires, pessimists, victims… The thing about these people is, they never wanna climb up to your level, but they always wanna pull you down to theirs. I experienced that first-hand, and I just know that I will never put up with that anymore. You wanna have people in your inner circle that are positive, encouraging, non-judgmental (!) and have something going for them. That’s the biotope in which you can flourish.
Quite generally, I’m staggered by how much negativity there is in the world. You watch the news, you eat a full meal of negativity. Social Media. A battleground for everyone who feels like dumping their shit on others. Paenda, Austria’s ESC starter 2019, has received almost 3k YouTube DISLIKES on her music video. What is this? People actually make an effort to log in on YouTube to publicly – and anonymously!!- smash someone else’s art? What for? Go and create something for yourself that’s almost half as good and then see if you still feel like pressing that needless button.
Gary Vaynerchuk perfectly encapsulated that notion when he said:
I wanna build the biggest building in town – ever- by just building the biggest building in town, while most people just try to tear down everybody else’s building. So I just think positivity and good is practical advice to building an empire. And I wanna be the poster child of the person that built the biggest, baddest empire and did it, by being a good dude along the way.
Amen, brother.
Ok I gotta go and find myself some food now. Keep spreading your love and your good vibes, peeps!
Mucho amor,
Conny