Gary Vaynerchuk and Eric Thomas discuss making decisions based on your core values instead of external pressure. They introduce the "one-word" philosophy: identify a single value that defines your purpose, then build your life around it. Being a yes-person brings short-term security but long-term failure.
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Good morning, Believe Nation. My name is Lily and my one word is extraordinary. I believe that every single human being is capable of extraordinary things when they embrace who they truly are. So to help you on your journey, today's message is die on your own sword. Over to you, Gary Vaynerchuk.
It is far more fun to die on your sword than to die on someone else's. I'm inspired, YouTube. We're gonna make this the episode thing. You'll get whatever you want, Tyler, but this is the fricking core of it. You just saw it on stage. Oh, sorry. You just saw it on stage. Dying on your sword is better than dying on someone else's. So many of you are doing things, making decisions, and navigating your lives based on somebody else's thesis. You're doing it because you think it's the right thing because your dad's telling you it's the right thing. You're doing what you're doing right now 'cause you're pandering to your boss even though you don't believe in it. This is how it's gonna play out. You are doing things right now. Yesterday you made a decision that you don't believe in, but you're smart. You did it because you know how your company scores. Here's the problem with disruption and innovation. Right now you're being rewarded for being a yes person, and in 36 months you're gonna be fired for being a yes person and you're doing it 'cause you just need the security of your job. I'm telling you right now, if you're watching this vlog and you've got, like, that means you have a certain DNA. Please, I implore you, please die on your sword, not somebody else's. If you're gonna lose, it's much more fun to lose based on what you thought. Do you know how many of you are gonna lose on somebody else's thesis? It's gonna kill at you, it's gonna eat at you, it's going to be the worst feeling, so please pause this video right now and ask yourself, am I doing my shit Am I doing it because of me? Then you're good whether you're winning or losing. Or am I doing it because somebody else is telling me it's the right way or I'm subconsciously pandering to please somebody or something because I need the short-term stability? Figure that the fuck out. You know it and I know it. You just need to do something about it.
You will never be truly fulfilled if you live your life for someone else. Whether if it's your spouse, your mom, your teacher. You need to pave your own path, but at the same time, how can you pave your own path when you don't know what you stand for? It's like the old saying, when you stand for nothing, you fall for everything, which is why I have wholeheartedly embraced your one word philosophy right here. Your one word is your single most important core value defined by you. When you discover what that core value is, You know what you stand for as a human being, and then you could create a life with meaning and purpose according to you. Now here's the amazing part. Not only are you going to get clarity yourself to go out there and make the decisions that you need to make, you give clarity to other people as well. So when I resigned my full-time job to go out there and create my own business, I had to have a conversation with my boss. And it was really hard because I really loved her as my manager. So I honestly told her that I loved working there and I love my team, but I'm about something much more than that, much bigger than the company I was working for. I wanted to have a world-changing impact, and by staying at that company, I wouldn't have been able to do that. And she told me that she's sad to see me go and she wished I would stay, but But you know what? She was really happy for me. So having the clarity myself, I was able to articulate my value to her. And as a result, she understood me and why I made that decision in the first place. Now that is a best case scenario that that could happen. I've had situations where there was complete clarity and people went against what I stood for, but that's okay. Not everything is going to work out perfectly. But when you make decisions based on your own values and comes from a place that you believe in, even if things don't work out, you have the fulfillment in knowing that you died on your own sword and you didn't fail because you're trying to live someone else's life. And the question of the day is, what is your one word and why? Leave it in the comments below and I'll join in on the discussion. I also have a quick shout out for Matt McGill. Thank you so much for picking up a copy of Evan's book, Your One Word. Obviously it has had a huge influence in my life and I hope it will impact your life as much as it did with mine. Thank you so much for watching. We believe in you and hope you continue to believe in yourself and whatever your one word is. And we'll see you again tomorrow morning for another shot of espresso.
I wake up every morning, espresso keep me going.
People don't believe that they're good enough.
Yeah.
They don't believe they have what it takes. But when you embrace who you are and not worry about fitting in anybody's box—
Yeah. Well, you know, they don't believe they have what it takes. I think a lot of people don't believe they have what it takes because they're comparing themselves to everybody else instead of looking at themselves.
I tell people, stay in your own movie. We're over here looking at other people's movie. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And you have no idea. You look at someone else's movie, and in one scene, it looks like they're on the top. But you have no idea what's getting ready to happen in that next scene.
Yeah.
So you stay in your movie, you focus on your scene, you become the best that you can be.
Yeah.
And you'll be surprised at how great your own story works.
Yeah. Continue to refine and develop your own script.
Absolutely. And, and, and your own character.
I love that. I'm going to start using that. Stay in your own movie.
That's right.
And my mom and I are really, really close, so she would drive me to auditions and read scripts and give her opinions. But then there came a point when I verbally had to say, like, I love you, thank you so much for all your opinions, but I need to now kind of do some of this on my own and stop reading and, you know, asking her to read scripts. And I just became more independent, which I think regardless of whatever industry you're in, we all go through that. Male, female, it's kind of like, let me do my own thing.
The only decisions I've ever regretted were ones I made for impure reasons, like to do a movie because I thought it'd be a big movie or, you know, like it'd be popular or something. Instead of just really feeling like it was the right thing to do creatively. So I just think every decision you guys make should just be completely from your heart. And if you wouldn't go—
if you—
you should only make stuff you would want to show the whole world forever, you know? And constantly just go from your heart and don't have anything else cloud your judgment, you know? Purity. I know it sounds like really straightforward and like cliché, but purity in your decisions. Just, you're— they should come from what you feel all the time.
Raise your standard.
Apple, at the core, its core value is that we believe that people with passion can change the world for the better. Not one drop of my self-worth depends on your acceptance of me. I don't ever give up. I'd have to be dead or completely incapacitated.
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