Crush It (audiobook) by Gary Vaynerchuck is about taking your passions and leveraging online tools to create a personal brand and business. It’s one of the main reasons we launched Asian Efficiency, and some of the lessons we learned from reading it really helped us along the way. Here’s what we got out of it.
The Passion Formula
This is the number one takeaway from the book.
Gary V introduces this formula:
Hustle + Patience + Big Dream = Success
We actually discussed a similar formula (different wording) in our Newsletter last November.
Essentially, it is the formula for making things happen – have a goal and a reason why (big dream), commit to getting there (patience) and then take action (hustle).
Online Business
Crush It also contains lots of small tidbits and ideas about leveraging social media and different online mediums to grow your business. It’s not super-interesting in terms of productivity (though parts may make an appearance in the upcoming AE Labs), but the one thing we did like was the idea of not delegating content production for something passion-based. This is why we write all the content on Asian Efficiency ourselves.
Personal Branding
Vaynerchuck also talks about building a personal brand to leverage in promoting your business. We have to disagree with this – the idea of leveraging a personal brand is important for some people, whose natural strengths lie with being in the spotlight, but for others, it isn’t so great. We’ve talked about this idea of personality, strengths and leverage before in our article on Leverage Points. If being in the spotlight makes you shine, then go for it. If it doesn’t, work on your other strengths like systems thinking or market timing instead.
Gary’s Beliefs
In my opinion, this the absolutely golden part of the book – being able to have a peek into Vaynerchuck’s mindsets and mental processes and how it approaches things. Not only is it a great way to help rewire some of your own existing mindsets, it’s also incredibly motivating to read it from someone who has been there and “made it”.
Here they are:
- Work superhard. i.e., take action and hustle. Hustle is not a bad word.
- Live your passion.
- Have a big reason for having money. i.e., have a good reason why.
- Success doesn’t have to look any particular way.
- Passion is great, but emotions have no place in business. This is absolutely KEY to getting things done.
- Just roll with it. Adapt and change as circumstances do. Exercise agility.
- You come last. We actually disagree with this one. Yes, you should reinvest in your business, but the reality is that most people have to put food on the table too when building their dream business. It’s important to remember the context in which Vaynerchuck found his fame – he already had a $60m alcohol business before he acquired his social media following.
Recommendation
If anything, Crush It is a great read for getting insight into how Gary Vaynerchuck runs his business and approaches his life. It’s an incredibly motivating book that makes you want to get out there and do something that makes a difference. Not to say that it doesn’t have its downsides though – the book’s content on social media and online business is fairly cookie-cutter, and nothing you can’t pick up simply by reading up in the blogsphere.
You can grab a copy of Crush It on Amazon.com here (audiobook).
