If I were to write a three word review of Crush It by Gary Vaynerchuck I would say, live your passion. Gary Vaynerchuck teaches you how to find you passion, live it, and make money doing it. I have read this book three times now, every time getting more excited, than the time before. His writing style is authentic, unique, and capturing. Don’t be surprised if your eyes become glued to the pages.
Gary Vaynerchuck attributes his success to three simple rules, love your family, work superhard, and live your passion. By living these three rules Gary claims to be 100% happy. Never before had I seen such a simple blueprint for happiness. When I read this I said to myself, how can it be that simple?
What is your passion?
Gary Vaynerchuck starts out talking about passion, both what it is, and how to live it. While reading
the book I found it was hard to answer his question. I could come up with multiple things I was passionate about, but I couldn’t narrow it down to one in specific.
“Live your passion. What does that mean, anyway? It means that when you get up for work every morning, every single morning you are pumped because you get to talk about or work with or do
the think that interests you the most in the world. You don’t live for vacations because you don’t need a break from what you are doing- working, playing, and realizing are one and the same. You don’t even pay attention to how many hours you’re working because to you, it’s not really work.”
I found that hard to swallow. How could I have been doing it wrong my whole life? I now found myself re-thinking what I wanted, what I thought I needed, and what I don’t need.
Inside the business world…
Gary talks in depth about business and how it is changing before our very eyes. It is hard to watch business close up shop after so many successful years of making money. As well as watch friends and family lose their jobs overseas. In an economy like this there is only room for the best, and you might be wondering why you would ever start a business now? I found two quotes from Gary’s book I just had to put in my review because not only does he answer the question why it can work now, but why businesses in the past could make money selling products no one needed.
“It’s never a bad time to start a business unless you’re starting a mediocre business.”
“Booming economies like the one that recently ended keep all kinds of businesses afloat that should have sunk a long time ago.”
Hustle…Hustle…Hustle…
Feeling that I was being yelled at by my high school basketball coach, Gary speaks in depth about hustle and how it can affect your business. Gary is very black and white when it comes to business, if you work your tail off and you are providing value to your customers, you will crush it. Period.
“If you already have a full-time job, you can get a lot done between 7:00p.m. and 2:00 a.m. (9:00p.m. to 3:00a.m. if you’ve got kids), so learn to love working during those predawn hours. I promise it won’t be hard if you’re doing what you love more than anything else.”
Where did this guy come from…
Gary is originally from Belarus, in the former Soviet Union, in 1978. His dad having an entrepreneurial mind saw the opportunity in American and was fortunately able to capitalize on it. His dad knew how to hustle, in 1978, he was broke and couldn’t speak English; in 1985, Gary was the first kid on his block to have Nintendo. How? Because he knew how to hustle!
Taking your passion online…
I remember thinking wow that’s great Gary, now how can I apply this to my life? As we were talking early Gary teaches you how to find you passion whatever it may be. The second step is going online. For many people there is a huge mental block when going online with business. Many simply don’t understand how social media marketing works, let along try and combine it their passion. I remember thinking how can I write about my passion when there is already so many people talking about it. Once again Gary blew me away with his answer.
“To everyone who is freaking out because they fear the noise and distraction of all the additional content on the Internet, you can relax. Quality is a tremendous filter. Cream always rises, my friends, no matter how many cups of coffee you pour.”
One thing that I knew about online marketing, “content is king” and there is nobody who believes that more than Gary Vaynerchuck. Online there are hundreds of people claiming to know short cuts and tricks to get racked well with Google, but in the end it will come down to how much value you can bring to the table.
Where eyeballs go, businesses will follow…
You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to realize traditional marketing platforms are lost in the wind. More people are going online than ever before and there is no end in sight. Gary talks about websites like YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook and how they have taken the world by storm, turning traditional marketing upside down. Never before could you interact with your customers’ one on one, gathering information, feedback, new ideas, likes, dislikes, and much more. Going online allows you to do so much more than the traditional platform ever thought possible.
“The difference between promoting your brand via traditional marketing and advertizing mediums and doing it via social networking platforms is like the difference between sending a message by Pony Express and chatting on Instant Messenger.”
One thing that Gary talks about briefly, only because he believes it’s not as important in the beginning, is statistics. With Google you can track all your traffic, how many visits you have, what they looked at, where they from are, and more. This is one of the main areas where tradition marketing can’t compete. When was the last time you were able to track how many people looked at your billboard sign above the highway?
Step…by…step…training
If you read Gary’s book and you decide you are going to take your share of the online world, he doesn’t let you go without the proper training. “Crushing It” online can seem a little intimidating at times to say the least. Getting lost or on the wrong track is almost impossible though with the help of Gary’s step by step instructions to dominate the online world. In chapter 10 Gary walks you through 13 steps that will give you the edge against your competition and help your “passion” go viral.
Stop reading and start doing…
There is so much more I could say about Gary Vaynerchuck’s book crush it, however in all honesty your time would be better spent going online to Amazon and ordering it right now. I guarantee you won’t be disappointed, at the very least you can see what hustle and care did for Gary Vaynerchuck. If you care enough, and put out good content people will listen, I promise. The majority of people fail in this business because they aren’t living their passion. Find your passion, then live it. You will be amazed how far you go.