Why Neistat and Vaynerchuk Listen to Few, But Hustle Harder Than Most
It’s not every day you get to spend time with one person who is changing the world, let alone two.
Yet, a month ago at TNW Europe, I was fortunate enough to meet Gary Vaynerchuk and Casey Neistat. These are two guys who are, quite literally, blowing up across the globe. Their work has, and will continue, to violently disrupt the status quo; Gary is an awe-inspiring entrepreneur, Casey, a kick-ass movie maker with a purpose.
Across Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter, these two combined have just under 7 million followers — 6,895,232 to be precise.
If Gary and Casey’s following was a country, it would be bigger than the populations of Paraguay, Ireland, New Zealand or El Salvador — to name but a few.
As impressive as this following is, the message that these two stars had for all those lucky enough to be in the room was even more powerful. Despite having totally different backgrounds, Gary and Casey both learnt to always listen to themselves first. Then, they hustled ridiculously hard at what they wanted to do, not what others told them they should do.
As an entrepreneur, this really struck a chord with me. Like many of you, I often deal with criticism from other people when I talk to them about the ideas that I am trying to bring into the world. It sounds easy to just go out and do what you want to do, without caring about rejection, but it is really damn hard. Yet, these two taught me to deal with it since it’s such a critical part of the learning process.
Unfortunately, the sexualisation of entrepreneurship — “hey, let’s just wake up tomorrow and make millions building the next Facebook” — has led to the adoption of this naive belief that the most successful people and companies in the world never had to deal with rejection or the dreaded word “no”.
This couldn’t be further from the truth.
It is well documented that some of the most successful people in this world were at one point told that they’d never make it happen. Whether it was Jobs with Apple, Rowling with Harry Potter, or Ian Wright at Arsenal, they were all told to stop dreaming because they didn’t have what it took. Yet, even with this knowledge, many of us struggle to initially overcome scepticism and often it leads to us stopping dead in our tracks.
For every Jobs, Rowling or Vardy, think about how many people there are out there who did give up at the first “no”. Could that be person be you?
Rejection is a Part of Life: Always Listen to Yourself
To many, Neistat may look like an overnight sensation who was always destined for the top having first been a successful, award-winning director for HBO shows.
The reality could not be more different. With an award in his hand on the airplane journey home from the prestigious Sundance festival, Neistat had finally achieved his life goal. This was undoubtedly one of the biggest moments of his career, yet he was totally miserable. It was at this point that he decided to start making internet videos.
“I had spent the previous two years not creating, but working the politics that was the media industry…I had gotten away from the thing that I loved the most, and it was at that moment that I said f**k it, I’m gonna make videos on the internet…
…My big Hollywood agent at the time said, ‘That’s Crazy! You don’t do that’”
Neistat listened to himself and, guess what, the world thought it was a dumb move. After all, how many successful filmmakers turn around after winning a prestigious award and give the middle finger to the system? The answer is next to none, but that’s exactly what makes Neistat so special — he didn’t care what anyone else thought, he did it for himself.
The Harmful Myth of Overnight Success
Truth be told, Casey was not immediately successful making internet videos.
“After a couple months, I had five or six videos up with a few thousand views. I had a show on HBO at the same time, yet my kids’ friends from high school had more views than I did”
I know what you’re thinking: it’s a little tougher to listen to yourself now, right? You’re 100% correct. We’re in constant fear of what other people think, so much so that if we don’t have immediate success, we quit. Yet, Neistat didn’t give it up or pay any more attention to what everyone else thought. Instead, he just kept plugging away and finally landed his break with this video about bike lanes in NYC (that has 16 million views and counting).
The Video That Changed Everything: Bike Lanes
“The thing that affected me most was that I didn’t have to ask anyone’s permission to make that movie. I wanted to create something, so I created it and then I shared it with the world. All that politicking, applying to film festivals, getting the right meeting with the right person and having an agent tell me this isn’t good enough for the internet never existed. It was just me and the audience”
Today, Neistat has nearly 4 million subscribers on Youtube alone, and the total views on all his videos are quickly approaching the 1 billion mark. Casey’s story illustrates not only the power of self-belief and faith, but also that resilience in the face of rejection is often more important than listening to what the rest of world is telling you to do.
The Undocumented Art of Immense Hustle
Yet, the self-belief and resilience required to listen to nobody is only half of the equation. Plus, there’s also a risk that Casey might have made it sound easy to be a world star. It’s not.
Enter Gary Vaynerchuk, the man who is showing the world just how hard it is to develop and maintain the immense hustle required to be successful. Hustle has played a huge role in the rise of Gary’s career; it is his domain of expertise, and quite rightly, he talks about it every damn day.
With his YouTube show “Daily Vee”, Vaynerchuk is not just talking emptily about the importance of hustle but is instead showing the world what that word really looks like. He is working tirelessly against the sexualisation of entrepreneurship by illustrating just how bloody hard it is to be a successful entrepreneur.
People often talk about the 5AM’s, the late nights and all the sacrifices that come with the grind; Vaynerchuk is actually living it (and we can all watch).
I call this the undocumented art of hustle. Why? Because few show what it takes to be at the top of your game. Almost ironically, this is the most important part of any successful person or company. Yet, it goes largely untold across the world of media when we talk about success cause it’s the furthest thing from sexy; it is brutal and excruciating.
Just ask MJ.
10,000 Hours? More Like 25,000 Cold Calls
The documentation of the undocumented art of hustle truly resonates with so many across the globe because Vaynerchuk isn’t selling the sexy dream world of entrepreneurship: he’s talking about stark reality. Nobody wakes up one day with an idea and suddenly makes millions of dollars.
As Joel Myers will tell you, it takes years and years of hard graft, persistence and the unique ability to constantly deal with rejection.
“It took a decade before I had 100 paying customers. This meant I had heard potential clients say no 24,900 times. You can’t imagine the rejection I felt. But slowly, I convinced people that an accurate weather forecast from Joel Myers could save their business money.”
With 24,900 rejections, Myers still built an $100 million dollar business. For Gary, it took replying to every single like, comment or share from any fan that ever interacted with him.
And, I’m thrilled to say, the proof really is in the pudding.
Together, Neistat and Vaynerchuk have begun to tell the story of a movement that appeals to the inner voice that we all have inside of us. It’s the one that says, “I don’t give a sh*t what the world thinks, I’m gonna hustle harder than anyone to make my dreams become a reality”
So, let now be the time that we stop fantasising with the facade that is overnight success and the feigned sexiness of entrepreneurship. Instead, let’s start making those 25,000 cold calls. After all, that could be the only thing standing between you and building the next Facebook.
— —
Cornelius McGrath is an entrepreneur and a writer who loves the hustle. Originally from London, he is currently on the other side of the pond chasing his dreams at Notre Dame.
Loved what you heard? Hit the heart below, follow me on Twitter and check out my other posts here.
