The answers to the questions you'll ask when you're broke in two years: Gary Vee lets loose

If you're not interested in using the web and new tech to promote yourself or your business, then you'll probably think Gary Vaynerchuk is an arrogant prick who cusses too damn much.  That's understandable.  But he's not.  He's been a businessman since childhood, and he knows just how amazing today's technology is when it comes to letting everyone into the game of business.

When I came to North Carolina in November 2008, after a  year on the streets of Southern California, I started surfing the web for the first time in my life.  That was years after most everyone else started wandering around in the online world.  I was way behind the curve on the internet and new tech.  But I wanted to figure something out.  I wanted to learn what it took to be a writer in today's world.  I've been going to the Google State University and You Tube College and self-educating ever since.  I started blogging, and have since had three blogs that were #1 in their little niches, in the world (FREESTYLIN' Mag Tales, Freestyle BMX Tales, and Make Money Panhandling; all have been taken down since).  They didn't make money.  But I DID learn that these days you're a media company first, like Gary says in this talk, and then you're whatever you THINK you do for a living.

I live in a fucking tent right now.  But I'm doing what I love.  I'm creating drawings that real people want to put on their walls.  I worked two years to get to that point, after ten years of developing my unique style.  I'm writing about things that I really am interested in and care about.  I'm not worried about the raccoons I share the woods with getting in my tent.  I can deal with them.  They 're actually better neighbors than many 2-legged creatures I've met. I'm not worried about that because I spent many years searching for the reason that I, personally, am here on Earth.  I found the answers I was looking for that ring true on a really deep level to me.  That simple understanding let me get out of my own way, and get much, much more productive.

Some people like what I draw, I'm starting to make money consistently with that.  The writing and blogging will lead to other types of income in time.  I go to sleep happier in a beat up, old, musty tent in the woods than most of you do in a big, awesome (or not so awesome) bed in your nice warm house.  I'm doing what I think matters, and it's starting to pay off.  That's because I've been learning from people like Gary Vee (and Seth Godin, Mitch Joel, etc) for the last 9 1/2 years, and I've been trying different things, finding my voice, and learning what does and doesn't work for me.  What I've sent out into the world, both online and off, is starting to come back in a positive way.  I've been meeting talented and motivated people with similar interests, and many have helped me one way or another.  So even if it's a cold, rainy morning, and my tent zipper won't zip closed, and I start cussing like a taxi driver (or Gary Vee), I'm still stoked on what the day ahead of me will bring.  With that going for me, dealing with the day to day crap doesn't phase me that much. 

As a homeless entrepreneur at the moment, I know that something really bad could happen on any given night.  It's possible I won't live to see the next day.  But more than likely, I'll be able to work my way out of homelessness (again).  At that point, the sketchy tent living will become a funny anecdote to tell to people who think it's impossible to start their own business. 

For a while now, I've been saying we'll be heading to another recession before too awful long.  Like Gary, I did some research on the whole student loan crisis, and realized that it will collapse, probably in this next recession, and it will cause hard times for millions of people.  It could be another 2008 mess all over again, and we'll see well known colleges and universities struggle, and some will collapse.  It's another big part of the shake down as the old Industrial Age fades, and the Information Age continues to take shape.  I don't say this to be a doomsayer or bum everyone out.  I see it as a financial weather report.  There's a big storm coming in the economy, we get one every decade, and I believe putting some thought into it ahead of time will help me, and all of you, deal with it better.  Gary Vaynerchuk is the first successful business person I've heard talk about the student loan crisis turning into a Great Recession-type mess. 

But there's another side to financial hard times.  Lame businesses go under, and there are all kinds of opportunities for people who have good ideas and are willing to work hard.  I don't care who you are, it's worth the time to listen to Gary's speech above.  I know most of you won't watch it.  So if you're reading this, come back to this post and listen to it a year or so from now when things look really sketchy.  You'll be ready for what Gary's talking about then.