I understand that. But education comes in so many different forms. I was on The Breakfast Club the first time, and Envy thought I was a motivational speaker, like a bullshit rah rah, kind of like the secret shit. So he kinda called me out and I was like fuck. You know, it was like.
(audience laughter) He's like, you know, you're lying on the radio, and he was like, "Give us something practical, "fuck this mindset shit," right, I'm like okay, the mindset's the game, but fuck it, I'll give it you. And I said, "Go to the dollar store and go to Marshalls, "take your phone, scan shit, look it up on Ebay, "and if it costs two dollars on Marshalls "and it's selling for nine dollars on Ebay, "buy it and sell it." And that was, it was kinda like this moment in a six minute radio spot. And then it caught a little, like, then I read all the comments, and people are like bullshit, or yes. Then I started getting emails like yo, I make $500 a week, but I'm making 200 now 'cause I'm going to dollar store and selling it on Ebay. And it built in this whole thing. And then I've named it the 2017 flip challenge. And we have 10,000 emails of people who've literally went garage selling to the thrift store and the dollar store and have made 20, 30, 40,000. I started thinking about the long tail, the long tail of all this, right http://casino-games.my/casino/. Like, we're in this, especially like in this incubator, like 99% of startups are gonna fail in this generation because we're living through the greatest era of fake entrepreneurship. The amount of fake entrepreneurs that are in this building right now is extraordinary. (audience laughter) It's true, it's true. And by the way, please, I know a lot of you don't know me, I'm not sitting on a high horse like I'm a good entrepreneur and you're not. It's just black and white obvious 'cause it's a bubble 'cause it got cool, right, it got cool. And it doesn't cost anything, and there's so much money in the system, there's so much incubators willing to give you money. All my friends for the last 10-15 years are building all these businesses where it's really not that hard to lose money every month, right. I think on you panel, you guys said, as entrepreneurs, you know, losing money and then making money or building, I couldn't catch the whole thing 'cause I was distracted. The problem is, it takes a lot of talent to build something to then eventually make money. And we spend 99% of our time talking about fucking Slack and Uber and Snapchat and fucking Instagram. We got like 17 companies to talk about and there's 17 fucking companies going out of business every hour, every minute, and meanwhile, there's more money being pumped into the system. And it's just all so obvious right now, where this is all going, and it's not very privy because we're lacking self-awareness. What we're doing is we're just riding the waves of what the current conversation is. There's so many people that are gonna be founders of companies who would've done incredibly well being number 17 at this startup or number 94 at that company or number 167 at that company, but they wanna be number one of the Uber of pancakes, right. And like so, and I'm watching this and I'm fascinated by it. Meanwhile, meanwhile, there's so much practicality. Let me tell you what breaks my heart. I read a lot of feedback from my audience. I've gotten two examples in the last three weeks of kids that were making money on retail arbitrage, right. So I think, I brought up already the Craigslist to Facebook Marketplace. I think no question, if you said to me hey, this is a classroom of 16 year olds and they have to make money in the next 24 months or bad, bad stuff happens, I only default into go buy shit and sell it and run the Internet arbitrage. We'll spend the first three months, I'll teach you everything about Craigslist and Ebay and Facebook Marketplace and Letgo, and then we'll talk about China and buying shit there and the arbitrage. I would spend an enormous amount of time, because the practicality right now and the inefficiency of the Internet, of buying and selling stuff, is extraordinary.
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And like, I just, I have not heard a voice in own my head but mine for a very very very long time. And I think what is most interesting to me right now is, if you really pay attention to what's happening, the Internet has absolutely done this incredible thing, which is there's nobody who's flawed that can sit in between you and the end consumer who's stopping you besides the narrative in your own head. That's a big deal. Like, you know, obviously, a lot of people growing up in the music industry, it's just so different now. Like, just fucking go make it, like producing a song now with technology and putting it on SoundCloud, production and distribution. Like, that's some shit you couldn't have even imagined.
And so I just think, I'll be very honest, I think we're living through the greatest time to be a human ever, I do. We've got problems everywhere, we got genocide in the world, we've got nothing but unlimited problems. But I put things into perspective, like I don't know. We got plenty of problems, but the black plague was worse. Right? We got plenty of problems, but World War II was worse. Like you know, there's just opportunity because of the Internet, not because we've evolved, I don't put this on us. Like, we've still got plenty of short, but the fact that we have so much opportunity. And so to me, it's basic. Either you're dwelling and looking backwards, or you're optimistic and looking forward. The problem is, you grow up in an environment, you grow up with parents that put you on the defense or the offense. And that is really the lottery. The lottery really is who's your mom, right. The lottery is who's your best friend. That's the lottery I think a lot about. And so I look at, I have unlimited white male friends who have tons of fucking money in the bank who fucking lost, who suck, who are in depression 'cause they got the wrong lottery 'cause their mom's broken 'cause her mom was broken and 'cause her dad was broken. And so I am the byproduct, against all the odds that I had, of parents that fucking dominated. Like, my mom is all time. Just all time, she is. And so, even when I was getting Ds and Fs and all the other immigrant families were making fun of her because her son wasn't gonna make it 'cause you had to get As and Bs 'cause that's all we knew in the 80s and 90s, she knew who I was, she let me hone my skills. I'd get Ds and Fs, I'd get punished, but I was still allowed to go do my baseball card shows 'cause I was building my skill, building my skill. And they taught me work. They taught me work. I didn't see my dad until I was 15, and he made me work in his liquor store even though we slept in the same house every night, because he'd left before I woke up and he came after. And so we live in this world now where the fact of the matter is, your Instagram account, your YouTube account, your SoundCloud account, the Internet. Like, the fact that, let me tell you something that fascinates me. Because we think a lot about money and opportunity, let me tell you about an opportunity that I can't get out of my head. Which is, there's a website called Craigslist. There's a section called Free where people list shit that they wanna get rid of. You go there and you take it. And then you list it on Facebook Marketplace and you sell it. And when I think about this, I've been dreaming about this for the last 72 hours, by the way. I'm literally doing this selfishly so (mumbles) captures this 'cause this video is going out. You know, it's crazy to me that the only thing that stops somebody from winning is education and the work ethic, right. Hey. (audience laughter) - [Audience] Hey. - First and foremost, I'm always flying in and out on these things, so I don't get to see a ton of presentations, but I catch a whole bunch kinda little something here and there.
I just wanna clap up the last one one more time, 'cause I thought that was phenomenal. (applause) I was sitting up there and I was listening, I'm trying to always maximize work, so sitting there working, and all the sessions were really good, I was actually able to get a bunch in today, which made it fun, but that was really good, I was really like feeling it. And I was like, this is really good, I was like listening, I was like, I believe in all that shit, I believe in every word that you just spit. But then you got into the Michael Jordan part. (audience laughter) And I was like, fuck Jason. (audience laughter) 'Cause I'm a die-hard Knicks fan and I fucking hate Michael Jordan. (audience laughter) Period. Oh, man, that sucked. And I'm a Jets fan, I got Tom Brady, I'm fucking miserable about sports. Anyway. Look. I wanna really take advantage of this format. This is a fairly small group, and we're really tight in here, and this is just like how I love it. And so, to be very honest, I'll spit a little bit here, but I'd love to do a little bit of Q&A. I'm not sure how set up they are for it, but I don't even need the mic, so I'll repeat the questions. So I think, you know, the beauty of technology is that so many of my current thoughts are on YouTube and Facebook right now, especially if any of you have consumed any of it, I don't need to repeat the themes. I think they're basic. I think, at some level, everybody has touched on it. You know, I think the thing that I'm most interested in is the notion of taking it, right? To me, the most interesting thing to me is the Internet. I think we grossly underestimate the Internet. You know, the Internet itself is ultimately the thing that gives us an opportunity to solve the thing that I think is really in our hearts and we're passionate about. I associate so much with so many, because you know, my story is, I was born in Belarus, I came to the US when I was three, I lived in a studio apartment the size of the stage I'm on right now with seven family members. And so, no matter what you look like, as we all know, it's about what you live, where you come from. And to be very frank, I'll be very, I just, it's interesting, I see this all the time and I'm empathetic that the system doesn't put everybody in the best position to succeed, but I'm a product where I think all my struggles have been my biggest advantage. And really, I didn't grow up in an education system or VC system that rewarded me for being a white male, I grew up in a very interesting path, I was a terrible fucking student, I was a D and F student, so like most immigrants, I didn't use education as my way out, I was just a kid that sold shit. Right, like I just sold flowers and I sold lemonade. Now, I'm Jewish and I sang Christmas carols like fucking it was my last song. (audience laughter) What I did, and really, what I would love to leave you here with, like I know the real answer 'cause I've seen it in so many people's eyes, it's self-awareness. My biggest fear in this room is that you're trying to be somebody because you want to be them versus you figure yourself out and put yourself in a position to be that person. I think, what you had when I watched what you were just talking about, like that kid was that kid from the get. He was self-aware, he figured himself out. He was comfortable in that nerdy environment, I was comfortable in high school working every minute, every second, and missing every party. |
Author Jennifer GrooveJennifer is from New York. She studied in Washington University in St. Louis. Jennifer likes writing, reading and traveling. She decided to create travel blog for gamblers and to travel with her followers together. She in love with online gambling so... and play casinos all over the world. Archives
December 2018
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