Gary Vee is the founder of VaynerMedia, a global digital advertising agency, Resy, a software-solutions company servicing the restaurant industry, and Empathy Wines. The crypto guru, NFT-enthusiast, and Belarusian-American is the the author of New York Times best-selling Crush It! Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook, Crushing It! and #AskGaryVee. I haven’t read any of those books. But I have seen a lot of his content on social media. With a net worth close to $140 million and a passion for personal growth, the Gary Vee is one of the most popular online life coaches, motivational speakers, and entrepreneurs in the world. Gary Vee has a very provocative style; never loathe to stir the pot, he undoubtedly has a knack for getting people thinking about important issues.
Integrity, to my mind, is a lot more than fulfilling a list of “dos and donts.” Integrity is about becoming a kind of person who not only does the right thing but is the thing. In other words, a person whose desires, actions, and intentions are in harmony. Lately, I have been learning about the importance of gratitude in this pursuit. I have observed that at the root of lust, greed, anger, selfishness, etc., is typically a lack of gratitude for our lives. Gratitude, it follows, can be a strategy to overcome bad habits, addictions, compulsive behaviors, and vices of every kind–and a highly underrated one at that.
Today, I’ve described a short inspirational YouTube clip put out by Gary Vee entitled “The Power of Gratitude.” It’s easy to look at Gary Vee and think, “Well, that’s easy for him to say.” However, there are many rich people who do not practice gratitude, and many people without great means who are thankful for their lives. In fact, I have observed that whether someone is grateful or not has little to do at all with how much they have, and everything to do with their mindset. Gratitude is not a fad of pop psychology. It has ancient roots, including in the Bible, and, ironically, its as relevant in the modern world as ever.
One more thing: a common misconception is that gratitude and life motivation are inversely related. Many people seem to think that if I became grateful or content, I would lose my motivation to get ahead in life. That is simply not what we observe in reality. Gary Vee talks about gratitude as much as anyone, and he openly aspires to own the New York Jets one day. I have noticed in my own life with the small progress I’ve made in this area that gratitude, if anything, makes me even more productive. If desires and motivations do evolve, they go from being self-centered and focused on filling an inner void to creating value for those around us.
Check out the complete video and transcript below! I leave you with a few quotes on gratitude to get the juices flowing, including an expert from the video itself.
Without exception, every person I interviewed who described living a joyful life or described themselves as joyful actively practiced gratitude and attributed their joyfulness to that practice.
Brené Brown
Settle in on this idea and let it sink down deep for a few minutes. It [gratitude] may be the key strategy God wants to use to set you free from your addiction. . .
Heath Lambert On Gratitude
I am happy because I’m grateful. I choose to be grateful. That gratitude allows me to be happy.
Will Arnett
Everybody in this room is likely to get hit by lightning seven times–more likely than being alive. That’s crazy. Perspective. And once you see gratitude and opportunity, life is fun. You get to decide if you’re going to dwell and play prevent-defense, or if you’re going to see opportunity, and be grateful, and go on offense.
Gary Vee
For more, see the complete archive of articles on integrity.
Transcription Of Gary Vaynerchuk Talking About Gratitude, Happiness, And Success
There are over a billion people on earth that don’t have access to clean water, and you’re complaining that your Instagram is not growing?
You just got to be thankful. People just don’t have perspective. It’s really easy to be energized when you actually understand the score. The problem is that people just don’t have perspective, right. They don’t understand that it’s impossible to be a human being. Like, it’s impossible. Like, that’s the rarest sh*t in the world. People take it for granted. You know you’re more likely to win the lottery ten times than be alive? 400 trillion to one. That’s how rare it is to be a human being.
Everybody in this room is likely to get hit by lightning seven times–more likely than being alive. That’s crazy. Perspective. And once you see gratitude and opportunity, life is fun. You get to decide if you’re going to dwell and play prevent-defense, or if you’re going to see opportunity, and be grateful, and go on offense.
I’m inspired by practicality and reality and the truth, which is it is ridiculously impossible to become a human being. I am one. I have other good things going for them as a human being, and I’m just grateful. Your dwelling and looking at what you don’t have versus looking at what you have. . .
There’s nothing you’ll ever accomplish that’s more remarkable than that you have a chance to accomplish something. When you’re so grateful for the at-bat, you’re happy. But people dwell about dumb sh*t.
What’s something you think most people take for granted?
Family time. Your health. You know, living in America. Access to clean water. Food on the table, a roof over your head. I’m grateful for everything I have. We lack gratitude. You understand that, right?
I’m trying to get people to practice reframing their perspective. I practice gratitude every day. If I wake up in the morning and nobody I love passed away or came down with a terminal illness, then my day starts off great.
If there was a list that ranked everyone on earth in terms of overall success and happiness from 1 to 7.7 billion, where do you think you rank? And this is really it for me. If you actually asked me, why I’m so d*mn happy all the time, I play this game all the time. When I’m anxious, when I’m upset about something silly–because I’m a human–where do I rank?
When you live in Dubai or Los Angeles, you’re living amongst the wealthiest of the wealthy, and you’re looking at a very narrow window, well, my neighbor has this. But you haven’t taken it all the way up and said, “Look how grateful I should be for what I have.” I love when people are like, “Easy for you now.” No, from the get. I cried when I had two Star Wars figures instead of one when I was 6, because I couldn’t believe my parents could afford to do that. Like, I’m grateful. I’m grateful. Gratitude, gratitude.
Like, somebody’s always got it worse. That’s how I think about this. You got to stay grateful. You can’t take things for granted. We got so much abundance in the world, so much opportunity. And too many people are crying about what they don’t have instead of being so deeply grateful for what they have.
No, really, just stop right now. Take a deep breath. *breathes deeply* I’m not kidding. Take a deep breath, do it. Perspective.
