#AskGaryVee: One Entrepreneur's Take on Leadership, Social Media, and Self-Awareness

“Stop focusing on dumb shit. Don’t be afraid to break things. Don’t be romantic. Don’t take the time to breathe. Don’t aim for perfect. And whatever you do, keep moving. Reread this a few times . . .”

“Passion is an unmatched fuel. Add being happy to that and you have a wonderful formula for good health.”

“Wake up before everybody else and work into the night.         Hustle”

“Bet on your strengths. It’s an underrated business strategy in a world where so many people are obsessed with fixing their weaknesses they give short shrift to the skills they were born with.”

“When you’re hustling, hustle with all you’ve got. When you’re sick, stop. Let it happen. Your body is trying to tell you something. Listen to it.”

“Because nobody else does it! But you can and you should. People love when you take an extra second out of your day to acknowledge them. It’s the equivalent of a nicely written thank-you note, except it takes less time to do and it doesn’t take two days to get to its destination.”

“Vagueness sucks. Lack of drive sucks. Half-assing things sucks. And so does the middle.”

“In some businesses there’s a real stigma around staying home when you’re sick, like it means you’re weak or unmotivated. (I have to admit early in my career I saw it that way, but I have evolved.) Coming in when you’re sick doesn’t show dedication, it’s selfish. And kind of gross. And not fun for your coworkers or for you. That”

“there are two core things that bring people value: 1) entertainment, and 2) utility.”

“If you sell fax machines, and your market doesn’t believe in fax machines, don’t try to convince them to buy fax machines! Go find the people who have bought into the fax machine idea and sell to them.”

“I’ve been spending a ton of hours on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, Snapchat, Meerkat, Periscope, LinkedIn, and many other platforms, and from this man’s point of view we are living in an unbelievably interesting time. I haven’t felt this sense of disruption since 2006–2007, when Facebook and Twitter started to eat away at Friendster and MySpace. The”

“You have to learn to prioritize properly and quickly identify what’s going to move you further ahead and what’s going to make you stall.”

“Your business isn’t that much different from a human body. It will run on sugar and caffeine. It will run even better if you give it water, vegetables, and a workout. But it won’t last five minutes without oxygen.”

“Use Twitter Search to act as your bionic ears.”

“If you’re not producing content, you don’t exist. It”

“Cash. It is the oxygen of your business.”

“Snapchat is a gold mine of opportunity for any team that wants to create real relationships and build loyalty with its young fans.”

“My kids’ generation may be the last generation that holds university to such high esteem.”

“If you’re single-mindedly focused on your long-term goal, you’ll be more effective in the short term and get there faster.”

“I think a lot of people make the mistake of assuming that if you believe in hustle, you can’t ever take a step back. That’s too narrow a definition. Hustle means adjusting to business opportunities as they come and adjusting to life as it changes. If your north star is family, then there’s no shame in revolving your hustle around that. It’s about quality vs. quantity, being fully engaged while you’re working, not necessarily working every day of the week.”

“Always play the long game of lifetime value.”

“But’ is not a word to use when you talk about your aspirations. If you are serious about reaching your dreams, nothing will get in the way.”

“A lot of new entrepreneurs tell me they’re hustling, and then they’ll ask me if I liked the last episode of Ballers. They’re trying to get a business off the ground and they’ve got time to watch TV? It’s like wanting to lose weight and sneaking away to scarf down a Big Mac. It’s just not going to work. I’m twenty years into my career with two businesses under my belt and the only time I take to watch TV is when the Jets are on. There is so much hustle in my day I don’t even have a second to spare to “hang out” and catch up with the people around me when I’m at work. It may not be ideal for most, but I love it because it allows me to get the things done that I seek to accomplish. You”

“You may have aspirations of being an entrepreneur, and you may have entrepreneurial tendencies, but if you are born to be an entrepreneur you will not be able to breathe for more than ten minutes in a ‘real’ job.”

“Never be romantic about how you make your money.           Try”