The Disposable Age
We live in the disposable age. We eat take out, use disposable dishes, and look for a quick and easy fix for everything. The current bestselling books talk about doing less and enjoying more like “The Four Hour Work Week” by Tim Ferriss (which I am all for by the way). We are bombarded with mlm (multi-level marketing), network marketing, internet marketing and many other disguises for a way to make a quick buck. It seems like most people have forgotten that the most important ingredient in becoming successful is hard work.
Gary Vaynerchuck: The Hard Worker
Being involved in social media, I am very familiar with Gary Vaynerchuk, a wine expert/store owner who has used social media to grow his family business from $4 million per year to a $50 million business. I’m mentioning Gary Vaynerchuk because he is a modern example of a hard worker. He is passionate about what he does and he may be one of the hardest workers out there.
Scalable and not so Scalable Apps
Not long ago, platforms such as the Facebook and iPhone opened up to developers so that anyone can create an application for their platform. Most people saw this as an opportunity to create a scalable app that can continue to make them money while they slept. It was a dream come true for some people. Gary Vaynerchuk jumped on the bandwagon and created his own Facebook app but contrary to what everyone else was trying to do, he may have created the absolute least scalable app in Facebook history. His app “Ask Gary” was pretty much just a place for people to ask him questions about wine. Gary answered every single one of the questions himself.
Gary Vaynerchuk’s lack of scalability doesn’t end there. He also answers every single one of thousands of emails he gets every day. To top it off, he personally speaks to almost every customer that comes in to his store. Gary also manages to record Wine Library TV, a regular videocast on wine which happens to be very entertaining.
Gary on Social Media
Gary was recently asked how much time he spends on social media platforms such asFacebook and Twitter to which he responded “about 2.5 hours per day”. Shocked at the answer, Gary explained that it is a CEO’s job to make connections and get business and that he has found Social Media, the best place to make his connections.
Gary’s Research and Development
Looking at Gary and what he has done, you may think that Gary has it made and can start delegating now. He can let other people do his work for him and go relax on a beach, he can definitely afford it now. Gary feels otherwise and for a very good reason. By answering thousands of people’s questions, speaking to customers and doing research online, his mind and gut are a better R&D team than you can ever possibly hire. He can smell new trends and predict what people will want and like. The human mind can accurately crunch more information that any super computer in existence. Gary takes advantage of this and stays years ahead of his competition.
Hard work does pay off… Just “Ask Gary”.