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The GaryVee Matrix: Your One True Way To Win

Nik

On 29th of September 2016, I moved to Munich. Two days later, my mattress still lying on the floor in the middle of my room, I went to one of the many college libraries at 11 AM and opened my laptop. I worked on Four Minute Books all day until 6 PM, before going home and assembling my bed.

GaryVee Matrix Bed

(yup, left it like this)

Moving to one of, if not the most expensive city in Germany was an all-in move for me. No more half-assing. No more part-time freelance, part-time writing. It’s all-in or nothing on two fronts:

  1. Getting a (free) graduate degree from one of the country’s best schools in my favorite city while saving money on tax and health insurance is my practical all-in.
  2. Paying my own way through it, without taking on debt, while going for a full-time writing career is my impractical all-in.

What’s surprised me is the ease with which I’ve catapulted my work ethic into high gear. Today, I’d like to give credit to the man, who’s largely responsible for it: Gary Vaynerchuk. Welcome to the GaryVee Matrix.

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What Are the Lessons People Most Often Learn Too Late in Life?

Nik

I’ve learned all of these from Gary Vaynerchuk. Thank you for teaching a 25-year-old what most 65-year-olds still don’t know.

1. Self-Awareness.

“You have to accept yourself and go all in on who you are.” — Gary Vee

You might not like who you are, but if you don’t know it, you’ll live your life in denial and can never really win, because you’ll keep spinning your wheels.

For example, you can keep saying you’ll write a novel someday, but if you’re a people person, total extrovert and can’t sit still for 15 minutes, you might be a lot better off just organizing public readings for other writers, because that’s where you’ll shine.

If you don’t know, round up your closest family members, friends and loved ones, and let them tell you who you are.

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The 7 Uncommon Habits of Not-Yet Successful People

Nik

What you see up there is not a CGI rendering from a movie. It’s a real animal. An inhabitant of the Australian desert called the thorny dragon.

Let’s call him Trey. Trey does a few very uncommon things:

  • He collects dew drops falling from plants on his back, where they remain on his spiny, rough skin.
  • Trey then sends those dew drops to his mouth via his capillaries with one simple “chewing” motion.
  • This means he can literally “suck up” water by just standing in it.
  • He follows a simple, one-item diet: ants. Trey eats nothing but ants.
  • Lastly, Trey has a second, fake head on top of his real one, which he can present to enemies by bowing down and hopefully get away without much damage.

Pretty cool, huh? So how come you’ve never heard of Trey? I mean, he’s not the national animal of any country, there are few clips of him on Youtube and he hasn’t been on the cover of Forbes.

However, Trey, much like his fellow thorny dragons, has a lifespan of 15 to 20 years, which is an eternity in animal land. A few more evolutionary cycles and they’ll close in on the masters of longevity: turtles.

When we look for success, we usually turn to the commonalities of those, who’ve made it to the top. But what if we’re wrong?

Maybe, the only commonality of making it to the top is to not share many commonalities with others.

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What Are Some Important But Uncomfortable Truths of Adulthood?

Nik

Whatever “important, but uncomfortable” truths you have learned, I suggest you instantly unlearn them again.

The five worst words parents can say are: “It’s time to grow up.”

It’s the ultimate form of all the things people tell you you “can’t” do:

  • “You can’t become an astronaut, Neil.”
  • “It’s bad manners to leave your drink standing around, Frank.”
  • “Bartender isn’t a real job Mark, maybe try being a carpenter?”

Well guess what, Neil Armstrong did become an astronaut. Leaving his drink out on the porch over night is how Frank Epperson gave us the popsicle at 11 years old. And if Mark Cuban had gone through with becoming a carpenter, he wouldn’t own the Dallas Mavericks today.

Whenever people tell you: “Life ain’t easy, but that’s how it is,” what they’re really saying is: “I once used to believe in this like you do, but I’ve failed for so long that now I don’t.”

They think they’re doing you a favor, but they’re only projecting their own excuses on you to feel better about themselves.

Children don’t give a damn about the rules of the world. They find out through experimentation which ones apply to them and which ones don’t.

Children aren’t afraid of being wrong. They know what’s true for others doesn’t have to be true for them.

I say screw all these lessons, all these rules created by the limits of other people’s reality. Be a child, go as fast as you can, bash into the walls and when you do, learn for yourself.

Make your own rules. May you never grow up.

I’m a Student, and I Feel That I’m Wasting My Life—How Can I Change This?

Nik

Help just one person. Then do it again.

Right now, I could tell you how it’s not too late for you. How you’re still so young and have lots of time.

I could tell you about habits. About morning routines and reading and waking up early and meeting new people and getting fit.

I could tell you about success. About money, about fame, about entrepreneurship. About winning big.

I could paint a picture, a vision of your future self so grand your eyes will light up and sparkle. Maybe you’d start making it a reality. But likely you won’t. Because you’re stuck in this hole and it’s just too hard.

So I will do none of that.

Because I know the only thing that’s helped me when I was really, really down in the dumps was this: Help. Someone. Else.

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Would You Rather Earn $70,000/Year Today or 100 Years Ago?

Nik

First things first: Was modern anesthesia invented in 1917? Yes, it’s been around since 1846, actually. Good. Because I’m not sitting through having my wisdom teeth pulled out without narcosis, not even for $1.6 million a year, which is what $70,000 back then would be worth.

That is some serious money we’re talking about here. Enticing…

But what’s more important to me is: $70,000 in 1917, doing what?

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What Are Some Useless Skills You Have?

Nik

Grammatically perfect drunk texting.

Usually, when people are drunk, you can tell in their texts, because they make lots of spelling mistakes, like this:

But not this guy. *points at self*

For some reason, I can really keep my shit together when I’m drunk. I have to focus like crazy on things like walking, talking and texting, but to the untrained (or also slightly inebriated) eye, I could be sober as a nun.

Now you might say “how is this not useful? I WISH I could do that!”

However, it’s not only not helpful, it’s actually dangerous. When you get a drunk text from someone, whether they pour out their heart, tell you they love you or curse at you, you take it with a grain of salt – they’re drunk, after all!

But when my text to you is grammatically perfect, how are you supposed to know I’m drunk?

So while I always leave a great impression on the people I’m with when I’m drinking, I’ve texted myself into serious trouble with friends and girls because I got way too honest when the timing was way off.

That is my most useless skill.

How Can I Become Influential?

Nik

You’ve known the answer to this since first grade: One is greater than zero.

What does that mean? You should never pass up an opportunity to connect with someone, just because you’re holding out for something better.

Are you willing to play when the seats are empty?

The only way to be interviewed on CNN is to not be interviewed on CNN for a long, long time, yet still do interviews. Every. Single. Day.

1>0 means every chance you get to help someone, you take. Yes. Yes. Yes. The answer is always: Yes.

First, 3 people will hear the podcast. Then 7. Then 15. The interview gets 87 views. Then 113. Then 259.

That’s how you do it. One by one. Step by step.

If you eschew those, who think you’re influential already, why should you even deserve to influence more people?

Only those, who are happy to do the right thing when they influence an audience of one, will continue to do it long enough to go big.

Gary Vaynerchuk explained this idea perfectly two years ago:

Youtube video

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I Wrote 500,000 Words In 2016, But No Book. Here’s Why.

Nik

500,000. That’s how many words I wrote in 2016. 1,370 per day. 450,000 of those went into summaries and content on Four Minute Books.

Add to that 12,000 words on this blog, another 15,000 words for Time 2 Read, Medium articles, a few long guest posts, work for clients, copy for landing pages, etc. and the half a million mark falls faster than you can say writer’s block.

Up to a million books are published each year in the US alone, half or more self-published by independent authors. When I first saw how much I’d written last year, I wanted to punch myself.

“Why didn’t you write a book, you idiot? Or 2? Or 5?”

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