So many people that I told I was coming to chat with you associate you with hustle. What are they getting wrong when they make that assumption? The nuances of it, right? Like, yes, I believe in work ethic. I, you know, I think it's a variable. But I don't think it's as, you know, it's, it kind of reminds me of what's just kind of going on in the world, right?

We're so into headline reading. I think there was a couple of viral posts on Medium written about me on hustle porn and that kind of like cemented a point of view that even the writer of that article three years later DM me to apologize because he spoke to the agenda he had at hand and realized he was making certain variables convenient to the story he was trying to tell.

And I really appreciated that by the way. I think that takes a lot of humility and courage. And, and honestly, I, I, I really do love the idea of like understanding that work ethic is a variable, but there's so many other variables. Like, for example, from the first book I wrote, Crush It!, when I wrote it in 2008 and came out in '09, in that exact book, there's like, hey, if you work nine to five and you make $48,000 a year, you've won if you're thrilled, if you live within your means and you're super happy.

And so I think, you know, what people get wrong is, you know, I'm excited and I enjoy what I do and I put in hours towards it, but, you know, it doesn't define me. I, I, I'm completely utterly detached from like financial success, from notoriety. I just love my game.

Like, you know, the people that know me best know the same vigor I talk about, like, hey, you can have a career that you love. I bring that same vigor to 6 a.m. on a Saturday to go garage sailing because I love it, or competing in basketball or pickleball, or, you know, or watching a Jets game.

I think what they get wrong is, unlike a lot of people who don't even use that word or even deploy that energy, I have tons of friends who are seemingly calm, speak all the right speak for acceptance, but are absolutely incredibly overly driven by money, by fame, and are detached to that.

And, and I think that's why there's a lot of anxiety in the world. And so I think, you know, I think the nuances of how I think about it, plus I also spoke about that concept during an incredibly down market in the economy when the internet was hitting an incredible inflection point in 2008, 9, 10.

So, you know, I think, I think just the nuance of it, the word, when I use the word hustle in 2008, 9, 10, the, the intent is like, hey, there's opportunity and you can go get it. I'm thrilled to change that word to tenacity or grit or work ethic.

So I think, I think the semantics of it all. And, and I am a communicator that I, I'm incredibly self-aware that the way I communicate with the excitement level, with the, the energy, with the Jersey chat of it, you know, I, I'm very aware and under, and genuinely compassionate and understanding to why people may take the extreme take.

And I also don't, I don't have the audacity. I deploy enormous humility when I'm about to say what I'm saying. I would never expect someone to spend five hours to double click into it and actually understand what I'm about and what I'm saying. And so, you know, I guess at the end of the day, what are they missing?

They're not missing anything. If they're just doing a drive by and reading a headline, if they've spent two or three hours on me through content or interaction or people that really know me, I doubt they'd be missing anything. Cause I think they would contextualize it. Yeah. Do you think that work ethic, you have that grit, that tenacity is something that can be taught or learned, or is it just something that's part of your DNA?

I think it's a combination of both. I think, I think it's clearly in people's DNA. You know, there's, there's many people that are either born with too little or too much that deploy it immediately to quote unquote, prove something or, or, or see an opportunity, especially for immigrants. You know, it's like so easy for me to go at it.

My, my, I was born in the Soviet union. My parents lived their entire childhood and, you know, into their early twenties there. So I lived in a household that really understood like shit, man, like America's pretty epic. Like this is pretty cool. Like you don't go to jail for trying to make a better life for yourself in entrepreneurship.

So it was just, you know, it was very easy for me on the flip side. I've seen a lot of people be affected by the osmosis of work ethic. You know, it's, it's kind of like what's going on with me in the gym. Like I, it became so not natural as natural as it comes to me to sell lemonade or sports cards or run businesses or be nice to people.

It comes equally not natural to me to work in the gym, but you know, we've known each other a long time, somewhere around 38, I decided to put in the work because I wanted to live longer and just thought it would be better. And, you know, through osmosis practice, like I'm now someone who goes to the gym.

I still don't love it, which is why I really do talk about how important passion is to actually get to that like state where like, it's so easy because you love it so much. You know, I really do wish for everyone that the job they had was similar to their favorite hobby.

For everybody right now who's listening, they can take a step back and whether it's skiing or cooking or playing video games or sailing or garage sailing or watching movies or what have you, if they could do that 24 seven and sustain their life, a lot of people would be happier and would enjoy that.

But on the flip side for a lot of us, just like me for the gym, you know, sometimes you have to put in that work. If you want to accomplish something that you think is good to me, I'm actually very focused on people living within their means versus creating, you know, frameworks that require them to work harder to make more money to live within the means that they think they need to live in.

Like, I don't think you need a BMW. I don't think you need a six bedroom house. And I think that is where that conversation gets interesting. But, you know, at the end of the day, I think it is something that can be taught, but I don't think it's something that can be taught in this scenario.

I've gotten better at basketball. Even the last year I put in more work. I'm not an NBA player. So I think there is a level of DNA that caps out everyone in every genre, but I think the capacity to get better in everything is quite high. Like I can't sing for a lick.

I have a feeling if I got a voice coach and really put in the work and like worked on it for a decade, like I think I would be better at karaoke than I am now. And so that's interesting to me, the things you can control versus the things that you can't.

So I'm guessing you don't want to sing, which is why you haven't done that, but you did want to, you did want to build. So I have a new song out with Snoop. Everyone go check out. This is not a joke. Go check out on Spotify. Please take a step back.

Snoop Dogg and Gary Vee. 17 year old me is still freaking the fuck out.