[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDgLEio-YL0&w=420&h=315]

Gary Vee is an enterpreneur and social media guru. This clip is a spontaneous, unscripted, stream of consciousness from Gary about business, success, ‘going for it’, not letting fears and doubts hold you back. (There is) Lots of idiomatic language here and obviously (he gives) a great delivery with lots of prosodic features to analyze. Warning: There is a fair bit of swearing. NB. I don’t own the rights to this video.

You can download the transcript for A rant from the heart, hip and head Gary Vaynerchuk

PRE-WATCHING VOCABULARY NOTES (less common expressions, idiomatic language)

I’ve caught up with (something) = I was behind (e.g. I have 40 emails to reply) but now I finished everything. I am caught up.

A rant = a speech about something that bugs you

To bring value = a high frequency business expression (useful for interviews and sales meetings)

A bunch of = a much more common way to say ‘a lot of’

People want to make it = to be successful, to arrive at success e.g. I made it! I did it! How am I going to make it?

Murky water, murky thinking, a murky idea = unclear, not obvious, unorganized

The fear trumps the possible excitement = the fear wins over or succeeds over the possible excitement

Are you hitting on those girls? = to flirt with someone

To go for it = to try e.g. If you want to start a business, go for it! (in sports) So-and-so is really going for it!! =trying hard

That string of DNA = search Google image for this one

What I mean by that is… = very common sentence starter

To get (be) made fun of (passive voice) =to get (be) laughed at)
To make fun of some (active voice) (=to laugh at someone)

To get shut down (passive voice) = to be rejected
To shut someone down (active voice) = to reject someone

“I got a lot done” is a common way to say “I did a lot.”
I need to get a lot done this weekend. (rather than: I will be busy this weekend.)
We need to get this done. (rather than: I need to finish this report.)
This needs to be done by tomorrow. (rather than: We need to finish this before tomorrow.)
I can’t go out until I get my homework done. (rather than: First, I must finish my homework.)
Did you get your report done? (rather than: Did you do your report?)
The establishment = the powers-that-be, the established elite (Wall Street, banks, Yale, Princeton, Oxford, Cambridge, beans on toast … conventional / traditional institutions)

He speaks with massive bravado = huge bravery, huge confidence (or, over-confidence)

A punk = a young person, inexperienced, a jerk

You’ve got to play that game = you have to follow the rules of how business really works

To hedge what you say = to clarify, to add disclaimers, to make a big claim and then backpeddle

To be off the grid = to be away from the cameras, to be less in the spotlight, to NOT be putting yourself forward

To roll up on / to someone (a metaphor from driving a car) = to pull up to someone, to go up to someone, to approach someone

TRANSCRIPT

Hey guys, I know I look like the Emperor from Star Wars right now, but I’m very high in the air back from London headed to New York City. I’ve decided to do a video mainly because I’ve caught up with my email and I don’t like wasting time and I figured, you know, it’s 2012, it’s early, my eyebrows, I could see. It’s early in the year and I figured it’s almost February, I’m clearly not excited about football as most coming up, and I figured, you know what, why don’t I rant, make a little [Website 00:37] video see if I could bring any value, I just read a bunch of emails.

I get a lot of emails from entrepreneurs who are looking for advice, trying to figure out how to make it. And I think about a lot of things, especially on these flights when I get a lot done and I’m just thinking, thinking about my life, thinking about what I want to accomplish. And I figured, you know, hit record, [01:00] see what comes out of this, see if there’s any value for anybody.

I think people underestimate DNA a lot. I think that a lot of my success happens because I was born with it. I also think that people underestimate how insanely obvious it is for some people and how murky it is for others. What I mean by that is, it’s always been obvious to me, it has always been obvious what cause success, what I needed to do. Every time I watched content through the internet or on television, or watched Oprah the other night, I was watching while I was working. She was interviewing George Lucas. And he was saying the same shit, same shit I always say. Same shit I hear from everybody who wins.

I think the fear of losing trumps the excitement of victory for so many people. I think people are so scared. It’s kind of like hitting on girls. I get it, right, because I kind of was more scared of hitting on girls that [02:00] I was in winning in business. I was much more fearless in executing business models than I was going up to a girl and getting shut down.

Nobody wants the rejection. Nobody wants to lose.

So I understand the philosophy, I understand that string of DNA that doesn’t want to make you lose. But I’m so desperate to figure out how to convince people that there is no loss in going for it. That yeah, you might get made fun of, and you might have it in your own mind, but trying to figure out how to make people drop that fear of going in building a business for themselves in 2012. Trying to figure out how to make a video of give a talk or send a tweet or write a book, just something that makes people understand that executing the way it always is, following the school business model, [03:00] which is such a horseshit, it’s going to lead you to a place where you’re not going to win.

Or that is a place where you’re going to win meaning some people are meant to be BNC players, some of you are not meant to… you know, go out and win. I think this whole like if you try it will come to you it’s such horseshit. I’m worried that people are confused that effort or the secret or hassle is enough, because it’s not. It’s part of the equation.

But talent and skills and the ability to work hard and having a thick skin, do you know how obnoxiously thick my skin is when it comes to business? I don’t give a fuck what anybody says about me or thinks of me or thinks what I’m doing when it comes to business, because I trust my intuition 100%. I know that I’m built to win when it comes to business. I always win. I’m going to win and [04:00] people that don’t understand my style or don’t think that I’m doing the right thing or think that being in media is a dumb idea because its client services, they just don’t know me.

People just don’t understand how early it is. I’m 36, I’m a kid. Shit, would I want to be 25 like A.J.? Fuck yeah. But I’m 36, in 6 years I’ll be 42. Do you know how much I’m going to do in the next 6 years? I just worry that people don’t have patience. I worry that people don’t tap into their strengths.

My strength is that I tell stories. My strength is that I understand people. My strength is that I understand how to build organizations to succeed, my strength is that I understand that people is what… or what the foundation of any business is, my strength is that I give a crap.

Yeah, I care about myself more. But I actually care about you as well.

[05:00] My strength is that I am a communicator, that I’m showman, that I know how to brand, that I’m willing to work ridiculously hard, that I have intuition of where things are going, that I work tirelessly to listen to people that I think know where things are going, that I engage, that I genuinely care, that I’m willing to sit here right now and make this video hoping that one fucker, one fucker says: “Oh shit, yeah, I mean fuck it, fuck mom, fuck professor Tom, fuck what the intuition of other people is, I’m going to listen to mine.” The establishment, the blueprint, fuck all that. I’m just going to listen to myself.

Listen to yourself always wins. Do I have anxiety? Sure. I’m calling out myself every day for the last 6 or 7 years telling everybody I’m going to buy the Jets. I am 36, getting older, worrying about like the time. [06:00] But still, betting on patience. Betting on I’ve been right, betting that I get better every year, betting that the 2006 version of me that was so cocky, that ruled with massive bravado is a punk compared to the 2012 version of me, because that’s the truth. You keep getting better.

I’m betting on that I continue to listen, continue to stay humble while still being obnoxiously confident. I’m betting that the world’s changing, and I’m paying attention. Understanding that you’ve got to play that money ball game which is mean data is the game but putting EQ on top of that matters. Betting that all the good that I’m trying to give everybody comes back to me, that somebody that I affected opens a door for me. Betting that the people I’m networking with now on a daily basis from 9 PM to 2 in the morning open up doors, open up opportunities, open up my mind. Betting that the work I put in operationally on media is going to pay dividends. Is it sexy? No. Am I turning down things like TV? Yes. [07:00]

Am I less famous, little more quiet, little more off the off the grid? Absolutely. Am I happy that I’m executed and that I’m making shit happen and that I’m building the business? 100%. Betting on a lot of things my friends, betting on a lot of things, but most of all betting on my community.

Community is the last great asset. When you play all these chess moves out, is going to be the only thing left. The people that give a shit about you and the people that you give a shit about. And they’re going to open up the opportunities, the doors, the business opportunities, the life opportunities that I will always bet on that. I believe in that until the end.

And so I sit here and give this 7:37 second rant to you because I am being real and authentic and honest matters. I think I’m good enough to win. And I think you’re good enough to win at your level. Am I going to win at the ultimate biggest guy of all time? Gates, Zuckerberg? Probably not, I am more charismatic and loving and more interesting than those characters? [08:00] I think so. Do I have enough to get me to a billion? I think so. But is that 40 billion? No. Are you good enough to get to a hundred thousand? Four hundred thousand? I think so.

I just sat here and read a hundred emails from people: “Oh, make it 40K, 50K, 30K. [Inaudible 08:20] economy, got inspired by me.” But I was the spark, I was the one that had that insane thing that I have in me that made them say: “Hm…” you know things that make you go “Hm…” But then they had it in them.

And so when I make this video what’s coming from my heart right now is maybe you’re watching this and saying: “Hm”, maybe I need to hedge. If you work from 8 PM to 4 in the morning, will your dreams come true? No. You might not be good enough. You might have not picked the picked the right product. But are we living in a world 2012 that’s so much better than your parent’s and grandparent’s and great grandparent’s generations? Because assholes like me can make videos when I’m 30 thousand fucking feet in the air? Yes.

And because of that, and because of those opportunities, and because of a network in a way we’ve never seen before and because sending an email to a hundred people and one answer will give you a shot matters, because of that opportunity, because of 2012, I beg you, I beg you to take a shot. Roll up on that hot chick at the bar and ask her out. Roll up on that good looking dude and ask him for coffee, roll up on your business idea and make it happen.

Because being 50, 60, 70, 80, 90 and having regrets that you didn’t swing the bat is the worst of them all. A bat is in front of us. Take a swing!