If you're not your poor and you're a creative, it's not like being a doctor or a lawyer where you really need university. But I think a lot of kids demonize university because a lot of entrepreneurs speak about it. But it might be a wonderful thing for you. And you're still to be plenty young and be able to do your things.
You just have to make a personal decision. First of all, thank you very much for the warm welcome. Just thank you. Thank you.
Thank you. My story is very simple, not very complicated. I was born in the US as a, in 1975, I came to America in 1978 as a young child. Our family was struggling.
It was very hard to, you know, cover to the US at that time. It's a child. And, you know, really the American dream was very alive and well during that era. My father got a job in a liquor store and worked his way up.
And I was very entrepreneurial, very early in my life. I realized I wanted to sell things not be a good student, which was very unpopular. That was not going to be the world was. But I believe that myself, I focused on what made me happy.
Even today, as an successful business man, there's many things that I do that are not the right thing to do financially, but they're the right things to do for me, the things that I like to do, the things that I want to do. I think that's a very big part of the legacy that I want to leave. I want to convince people to fight for and strategize for and build for happiness and peace of mind much more than money. So, you know, we're the only thing that I want to do.
You know what I'm saying? I don't know. I don't know. I'll say anything about all the different areas in your ears and you see them right?
That's what I'm saying. People were happy, right? You know, they're all happy and you might be super and super-boxed up, right? So, today we're not celebrating.
You know, they're from Gary. You know, he's a mess, right? You know, I'm very from him. And, you know, all the way, you know, we're the norm to be done.
So, you know, what he's saying, you know, he's all right. They're a big, no, I'm sorry. So, the end of the world, if you just buy it, you know, you can ask it. I mean, you can't do a convention.
But that's how it works, right? So, yeah. Yeah, I think on that last point, something that I'm very passionate about is hustle. You know, it's a word 20 years ago that was very important and very popular.
In the last 10 years, not as much, because now people are more thoughtful about burnouts and things of that age. And I think that's wonderful. A lot of people try to position me as someone who just wants to work work work. And what they miss is for me, my work is my happiness.
It's my hobby. But no level of financial success is worth your health. Yes, hard work matters. Nobody achieves anything special without work.
You can't hope to be successful. It's like working out. You're not going to lose weight unless you exercise and eat properly. Period.
Same with work. You can't just get there. It doesn't require lower work. However, it's a very, very important time in the world right now because we're very fortunate.
Right now, the world is spending a lot of time demonizing social media, which I understand. I understand why the world is doing that. But there's always the other side. And the other side is people are learning things that we would never learn without it.
We're the first generation that here's a million different voices, not the right. The media in the 1970s in Japan, in America, in Russia, in China, in Australia, you heard two or three voices. And all of it. So, well, million voices means is yes, there's a lot of bad things you can hear.
But you're going to hear a lot of great things. You're going to not hurt otherwise. And that's up to you. To the point of head of teas and with three, even the short two-year window, we've seen extreme highs and extreme lows.
You know, I secretly, not in this would be wrong. I want to be very careful when I say this. It's not going to enjoy these last couple of months. More than a year ago, a year ago, I've universally praised the last 100 days far less.
I don't enjoy that. First of all, I definitely don't enjoy if someone's upset or hurting or things of that nature. But to me, there's something intriguing about building something meaningful. When you build something meaningful, how many people here are parents that have children raised hand of children?
Can you ask that? Yeah, yeah. You know what children, there's up centers down. Well, the one I thought.
I got a few points. Because it's the most meaningful thing. OK, so that's how it goes. Same with building difference for me.
I'm not building difference for yesterday. But four price was a year ago with four prices today. I'm building it forever. And so I'm OK with the ebbs and flows.
You know, when you're building something meaningful, people are judging it every day. But that's a judging of meal before it's been cooked. And so I'm enjoying the process of building doing this more challenging time. Because during this challenging time, a lot of the people that don't have the stomach for it are going to leave.
And that's more opportunity for the people that have the stomach. God willing, I live a long life. I'm 47. I'd like to be here for at least another 47.
Hopefully a little bit more. But I'll probably take 47. But after 57, more years, you know, for me, when I started B-Friends, I said, I'm going to build something that's like, I'm talking about this in front of my ambition. So I go away.
I was hoping on me to set me straight. I know that these characters can make the world a better place. I know that I, as one percent, over the last 10 years, making content, have brought a lot of value to a lot of people. Yeah.
You know, you have to be kind of a little happy. You know, I'm talking about this. You know, some sleep in the background. So you have to go on.
So you have to take that. So you'reup for that. So then you're up for the young. You're up for the young person.
They don't want that. You're up for that. Who is there to do? Who is there?
They don't want that. You're up for that. Who are you? He is like, he has a monkey.
He's a pig in the pocket. He's a pig. He's a pig in the pocket. Let me tell you the drug and what I want everywhere.
I'll tell you the drug right now. But you want to have my choices gratitude. Thank you so much for joining me. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. I know you're in.
You know. What do I have? The advantage I had was I grew up with very little, but I was very happy. I mean, this is our total, we're just, they need something.
You know, you didn't have any right? So, what is it? What is our total? That's what you're talking about.
You know, get away from me. That's it? And so for me, I know that happiness is not money. So I'm grateful for everything I have.
Everything. Not the fancy things I have now. Everything I'm most grateful for is the people I love are healthy. After that, I think the troll, everything else.
You know? It's true. True. Are you filming this live?
Definitely. People are the graduates who do deep down, you know. This is a culture. It's funny, I'm a marketing company.
So I've been friends, but I also went to everything we're getting company and we have an office here. And I was just with 15, 20 of our employees. And one of them asked me about how I felt about Japan. And I explained, 47 grew up in New York, New Jersey, you know, a grew up in the liquor business and built a very big liquor business.
And so even 20 years ago, we were selling more Japanese with these and more snot, even most people in America. So I've always had that connection. But then on top of it, I've always loved comic books and video games and sneakers and streetwear. So Japan has always been a very on a pedestal culture.
Because so many of the things that I've been interested in for the last 40 years of my life started here. And so I've always had a very warm, you know, my business life has dictated when I've been in the world. So I've never really spent time here. But ironically, it's one of those meaningful countries in the world and culture is in the world for the things that I'm interested in.
Yeah, I think the other thing is, I don't think this is not a Japanese thing. This is an American thing, a Japanese thing, a European thing, an African thing. Most people don't realize how connected the world is. Every person here is literally actually connected.
Obviously, Japan has a uniqueness because lying as a social platform is one of the few platforms in the world that is dominant in one place and not the rest, but the Twitter and YouTube and Instagram culture in Japan is quite meaningful. And I just don't think people understand how connected the world is. Japanese culture is inherently creative. And I think the world is becoming more creative.
I think artificial intelligence is going to take us to a place where people that are critical thinkers and creatives are to be even more valuable, not less. And so I would encourage people here to do what you've been doing and what many people have been doing and realize that their phone is the gateway to the entire universe. For real. You know, you don't need to think in just Tokyo terms.
You don't even think in Japanese terms. You don't need to think in just Asians or anything about the world. Ah, nam, so yeah, you got it. So what else do you do to go?
Only in Japan, so go on a certain day. So I'm not looking at it. I'm not looking at it. I'm not looking at it.
I'm looking at it. Because I see it. So I don't know. Yeah, I had a question.
Please, I'm not looking at it. You see it like you're full. I'm not looking at it on a hundred thousand hundred thousand thousand hundred thousand. One thousand.
I feel like Japanese people, they're just going to be happy. As fuck, you know, you guys have a best party for me and they're a safer spot. You know, every day here, right? So like I'm here.
I'm like, oh shit, this country's amazing, right? And if you get back to people, they're like, they're a busy dog, that's it. You know, you're a good guy. You know, like, you know, they're like, they're a bad dog for you.
That's because humans take what's going well for them for granted. Yeah. Yeah, totally. It's funny.
You know, people need to talk. But what do you think? That's the best party. You know, I mean.
And that goes to the point where I was saying either could work. Japan is big enough for most people's ambition. So if you just want to be big in Japan, that's beautiful. I don't think that's a bad thing.
On the flip side. On the flip side to your point. This is going to resonate. Japan's culture is so specific, which is why it's had so much success around the world, that a lot of people don't realize that it's easier for them to be successful about their trying to provide value for outside of Japan than within Japan.
And that's it depends on what you're doing. But it's a very important insight. You may find a bigger audience around the world just when you're following your laptop than in your backyard. On what you do is here is a commodity without there.
It's not. I think that's what you're doing. I think that's what you're doing here. I'm very interested in people global.
These are how I struggle because Japan's population defines crazy now. And you're talking about building something long term. I totally agree. I don't think you can't forget Japan's market is what you need to know.
But you also have to think about the population of the population for any more bad and easy size of country. Yes, Kana, that takes a long time. And for a lot of people here, that's not going to really ultimately drive them to do it. I think the biggest reason everyone here should think global is when you think global, you get more context.
You might notice something in San the media. You may notice something in Russia. You may notice something in Brazil. You may notice something in America that is not happening here.
One of the biggest reasons to global is not to extract your culture to global. It's to see an insight that's working somewhere else that you feel can work in your culture. The more context, the more you have a chance of coming up with a decision that is going to be beneficial. So I would argue one of the reasons to go global, global, consume global content, spend time outside, is potentially to impact your business here with a product or service that was working somewhere else that is not here or a tweak that can make it work here.
Great. I'm not here, but I'm not here. I'm not here either. But that's what you're going to be.
I'm not going to have my phone. And without Gary, I'm going to be with you. I'm not going to be here. So I'm going to be with you.
So this is all connected. So you have to go outside. This is all connected. So I'm going to be with you.
Then there's also taking things for granted. There's special. For example, I'm looking around right now. I have done thousands of conferences and talks like this in my life.
Thousands of conferences that I've done where there's been the in tags. I can tell you right now, looking around this room, this is the most creative in the in tags I've ever seen. I've been able to hear Drew McCharader or on their main tag or played or played with their name. For all of you, for all of you, that just feels normal.
Yes, you know, like when you look around, yes, you might have wrote this, your name, but all the people that went creative. That just seems normal to you. That's part of the culture. But I am very fortunate.
And then around the world, it is not normal. This goes back to why you don't really understand how powerful the uniqueness of the culture is and how that scales. Come on. Okay.
I'm not here. I'm not here. I'm not here. I'm not here.
I'm not here. I'm not here. I'm not here. I'm not here.
I'm nervous. You're curious. What was the first time and then I came in it all the way to it has far. So all the tools have to work with us all the way away.
See if I'd use it right? That's one of the. I really want you to look at because people like you have a great dialogue. But this is a little hard to do it.
Not bad, so bad. The how is very simple. It's not very revolutionary at this point. The world today runs on social media.
The world runs on social media. It just does. Meaning it is crazy. For whatever you want to have it, as long as you're able to produce content on the four or five platforms that matter in this country or the world, you have a chance.
That's crazy. You know, for all of us in this room that are over 40 years old, you know, that was not how we grew up. You didn't have a chance. Somebody had to discover you.
Now you're discovering yourself. You're putting yourself out there. The biggest hurdle in the world is to many people in this room value when other people think about their content. One of my favorite things about this culture is that respect is put on such a pedestal, like enormous.
And I believe that that is actually even more important today than it was 20 years ago. Because a lot of the rest of the world continues to lose its place with being respectful. However, there is a way to be respectful and still enjoy your life and be creative. And I think that is the biggest challenge.
I think that this, and this is generalizing. The culture has not figured out how to stay respectful, but be able to be an individual or be creative or be disruptive. And that is a challenge that needs to be figured out. Yeah.
You don't want to do anything. Yeah. How you say it was, look at that. What about what you're talking about?
You're talking about people. You want to do so. I'm a supporter of that. I'm a supporter of that, too.
You want to know that what we said for some matter. So I need you to do a little thing. You want to be educated. You want to know what people want to do about it.
What is the reward and capacity of that? That is what we're talking about. You want to be a person who wants to. Come and take your time.
You want to do that. That's engaging. I want to do that. Because as you were talking, I was thinking, America wins so much on innovation.
because people are cheered for when they bring things. Right? When people look at me, a lot of times people have misjudged me because I'm not complaining. But doesn't mean I'm just respectful.
I'm just being curious. You don't want to tell them they're. That's amazing. But, you know, they want to lose everything.
You know, if you can't beat yourself, why don't you put your own building right now? Yeah, people a lot of thousand year old tell, you shouldn't have to let it. Yeah. Okay.
It doesn't mean you don't respect it. It just means you don't love it. You want to say no tell that it was no last year. That's okay.
And I think the ideology, sometimes suppresses. I mean, this is one of the most interesting cultures in the world. The front facing facade versus its underbelly is one of the big extremes in the world. Come on.
Go ahead and put it in the jeepers. Go ahead and do that. Go ahead and do that. I don't know.
I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know.
I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know.
I don't know. I don't know. And if an American who's never been here knows that, you're not tricking anyone. Yeah.
They're right here. Right here. Yeah. I really want you to deliver that sentence as my matter of somebody.
Which is what I just said, which is the front facing facade versus the reality of what's happening when no one's looking is the biggest extreme in the world. If I know that, then you're not tricking anyone. You're okay. Yeah yeah.
Go ahead. Go ahead. I know. Go ahead.
Go ahead. Go ahead. Like you. Go ahead.
Go side. Just go. Just go ahead. Go side.
He's go right there. He'sWhere. He might go left. He's where he takes.
Are you happy? No, that's right. What's Art? You know, all these people are people here are artists,they're psychises.
They're YouTube and they use your doctor aside for me. And what I think when I saw you with a different. I was like the United States, I was like the American, I was like the American, I thought, I thought, I thought, I thought, I thought, I thought, but what, you know, let me just start creating a green. Let me do your menu and all the different manufacturers, right?
I'm like, oh shit, this is like connecting people. It's not going to fucking picture that you're fucking drooling, I can't share. But, but, but, and I'm at a chip, can just be signed up to World Health Japanese creators, or I'm not just. I'm just, first of all, the most similar to what I said earlier about literally the last day, the facade of respect and proper versus what happens after hours, is the same as having a T-weight.
The last year when everyone's a community, community, community, it was a community. People want to take money. Thank you, my dear. And the least likely you'll come to the same now as maybe you and you and you and you, and a couple of people you know, I was saying that when everything was hot.
And so, but that's okay, because the truth is, it can be about community if the leaders of the project want it to be, right? Vcon, the conference I threw that made you were here, but too, that is community. Like I've been spending all year for what's about happening in May again, that is a true community event. Even the people that are most disappointed at me will always say bye to me for the others.
And so, you can build community. This right here, right now, this second. I don't need to be here. I don't have to be here.
I want to be here because I love it. Yeah. So, here's what's most interesting. When you sell a spider man, when you sell a power ranger, when you sell a Pokemon trading cards or that hat, the company doesn't know who owns it.
The company does not know, but I know. I know. Or I have the ability to know when I in a beat and create something like Burn Island that some of you may know here, that enables me to do things. I could if I wanted take a series two NFT from the friends and say if you burn it, then you can do this or that.
I don't know that he has that common sense count. Oh, I know. But I definitely know if he has the common sense count, the right. And what I knew when I went all in on NFTs two years ago was basically how real this all could be.
I definitely did not think the extremes of the high and the extremes of the low would be this extreme in this short period of time, because even I continue to underestimate people's short-term greed, even I, who's pretty good at this. So, that is been interesting. And that's why I myself am not in a perfect spot because I got my own self caught up in excitement of what was happening. But that doesn't take away from the long-term truth, which is what you observed when you came is true.
When we have Comic-Con, when we have Disney World, when we have these things can bring people together. But again, the affirmation of using who owns something on the block. This is why the blockchain is profound. Anything can happen with the asset around the world.
And yet still, I can create an execution, a great affirmation of who owns it. That is a really powerful tool for community building and gives the power to the creator. If she or he chooses to always bring value, for me, that is the only thing that allows me to have peace of mind. Even the most disappointed in me because they bought the top and now it happens.
The people that bought on NFT continue even at this point. But series two know, that's a lot of fucking people. That's a lot of stress for me. That's everyday.
I think about that. What gives me peace of mind is I have time to do the right thing. Now, a lot of people won't believe me and they'll sell. And they won't be there for when it's good again.
But I can't control people's actions. I can keep speaking to what I do every day, which is I am committed to this project. Many of the projects from just last year have already sold or abandoned their products. I'm not gonna do that.
I would argue that if you want to jump in, you should not do that. If you're gonna do it, do it because your info along the decision that I made that was smart was, oh, this is gonna have ups and downs. It's early. I was old enough to know how I went one web to work.
So I knew that if I was gonna go into it, let me build something I actually wanna build forever because I'm gonna need to build forever to win this otherwise vulnerable to timing. Everything that somebody has to say about the friends of board, April CoolCats, or any project is just based on today. They were sent something different six months ago or 12 months ago and they'll see something different six months from now. When you're an operator of the project, you can't be caught up in that because you'll be crippled.
You need to just be building value. It's hard for me to sit right now and be criticized or ridiculed or questioned on my morals. But I have to bear down and deal with that pain because for me to actually create value it requires work and business development and time. And so I'm building every day.
And it's one thing that's a very big challenge right now for a lot of the operators in these projects because I used to building in silence. When I was building Vayeria and I had to be bad years, that was just pain for myself with myself. But there's no way for me outside telling you what to do not want to do with this in that. You might be incredibly pathetic to the community and the people that involved that want you.
You're gonna be respectful of that. But you have to find the balance of what you're trying to achieve and especially for me because I'm a meaningful trackwriter, I've been successful. I do more confident today than I did a year ago. Not less, more.
But I, you know this and you know this and some, you know this, I'm not as loud about it because I want a quick speculation. That's why I learned last year. The louder I am, the more likely I get a quick speculation. Which doesn't really cause this, the disappointment.
So I'm just better off doing what I need to do and build. But that's what this world allows you to do for me. It's like I'll give you a good example. I'm gonna go very very.
But I want to hear this as I hope it helps them. For me, it's so fun that I can do an execution in two years that says if you have a series one V-frame and the evolving series two, because in series two I gave everybody a series two. If the answer is one, but that's something where it was coming out of the design of my shadid drawings. I like it.
I like it. And you know that's very powerful that you can see because of the way we build our website where you can actually wallet even if you transfer it. And I can still tell that it was yours the whole time. To be able to promote, you know, Marvel, Pokemon, DC, Hello Kitty, they can't be very hard for them to reward loyalty.
They can't see it. They can see it. They can see it. They can see it.
They're stored. The fact that I can see every person that's never sold or series one or series two and then create a special FTE for that character for the very small group. And that's so cool. That's so powerful.
These are things that pre the blockchain we can never imagine. So for all the people here that are thinking about creating the way we can dream, the way we can create, the way we can reward these collectors is pretty powerful. And you know, I just view this as the early, early, early, early, I don't 99% of the people outside of this room in Tokyo, in New York, in Los Angeles, in Stockholm, in San Paolo, in Moscow. 99% of people haven't even done throughout their head around what an FTE is.
You have a small group on Discord and Twitter, and I mean tiny, tiny, tiny, we have 8 billion people in Earth. You're talking about tens of thousands of people that are navigating and think like this is it, this is the rules, this is not the rules. We're gonna be done to think about writing the rules. So very early, which requires a lot of empathy, a lot of patience, a lot of compassion, there's a lot of eyes and lows.
But the creativity, and this goes back to bringing a full service to Japan, the creativity that the blockchain and NFT specifically can do that can unlock the creative of the world is profound. And I think as people as it's been for me and other people, this lasts six months, in six months, it's gonna become normalized. It's gonna be like this is now what it is, and the lessons that all of us have learned from me to you, to you, to you, the lessons we've all learned. We'll make the next cycle more healthy, and then that's what will be more healthy, and that's how this is gonna work out.
Like it's just very beautiful to be involved with something that we early on, but it comes with a lot of highs and a lot of lows, and I think we're all now again front. Yeah, it's like, crampling all that for that. Oh my God. So, you're a, this is for example.
So I love Japan more, what you see Japan. Yeah, so why this trip is very exciting for me is, it's been a place that I've spent on my list forever. Now that it's between the fact that this next three to five years is extremely important for the friends and that Vayner X and Vayner Media are growing here, to me, I feel like I have to be here at least twice a year going forward. Oh, that's so good.
I've heard this a lot, I know this every three times. You may have. Oh, great, so you're talking about me. I'm here, it's hot.
You know what? What does it mean all day? Thank you. Oh, buddy.
Are we here? You're here. So, the lucky level responds to the email, but not here. Yeah, it's your trip.
Oh, I believe you're doing the Vayner. I think, you know, this is a big, big, big time. We need, because the reason I find it all years, I think the vendor will have 50 years. And you say, awesome, that's the exact way.
I say, you know, that why is it working? I don't know. Why do I think the last few sets, I think business with that culture? I listen.
Me not being here often is just a serendipity of my business life. You know, for example, if I had seen an illiter business, the explosion of Japanese whiskey and saki would have probably brought me here twice a year for buying trips, that's just serendipity. But as a culture, both from a popular culture and creative standpoint and from a psychological thing about how I've been speaking about today on your day of high pay attention, I watch. What I do for living is watch the world.
So I agree with you, I think there is incredible upside for the message that I'm passionate about, what we'll bring as a human being, or through the characters. And by the way, for example, on the flight here, on the flight here, I probably spent four or five hours on character development. Right? So I spend a lot of time because, you know, because of the unusual energy project, most energy projects have a character and there's a lot of variation of a word of women, a cool character, a hoodie, and there's just rareties.
Vayner is a universe of many, many, many different characters. So it's different. So I have a lot of work to do for character development, because at the end of the day, people ask me this a lot as you know, in this world, the difference can be successful, but what does that mean for me as an entity holder? Well, Spinerman is successful, and people that own Spinerman in the comic book are in a very good place.
And I view Vaynerman as a collectible that has utilitarian capabilities to it, if I want to give it a blockchain. My number one job is the people who are all fall in love with these characters. It's my number one job. So anyway, the telephone is like here, I was working on the characters.
Who, right now, what I'm working on, is establishing the voice of every character. Oh, right? Every here knows what people choose sounds like. Right?
You know what sounds like word of uncertainty or what happens? So I'm doing that right now. So it's really fun. I also am very fortunate.
I'm creating the least during the era of artificial intelligence. So I'm able to create the voice, but not be reliant on an actor. I'm able to create the voice, but at any rate, it'll be the voice. It's very powerful, very cool.
I'm working on it. Anyway, long story short, on the flight here, back to thinking about Japan as a market. One of the characters that I have is called Curious Crane. And on the flight heroes, you know, and we talked about it around you in this talk.
One of the things that I've left to see more in Japanese culture is understanding the power of curiosity, because I think the comfort of becoming when you get older is the culture. And I think being curious is what unlocks the opportunity. So when I'm in the flight here, in my notes, I'm in the notes. I need to be more important than Japan.
The players, I mean, I need to develop that character more seriously here. Oh my gosh. And so, you know, I'm really excited about that. And, you know, I think just being able to be thought of a weird message, resumes.
All the messages, universal, but every culture, every gender, every race, every country, every region, has moments in time. The American that I lived in today is different than the American that I lived in 20 years ago. China is a very different place culture than it was even just 10 years ago. And so these have been flow.
And so I'm excited about that. And I literally happened 12 hours ago on a plane where I was like, you know what? Going to Japan, when I think that I observed is a very big lack of curiosity for existence. And maybe this character, the curious queen, maybe I need to be very focused on that in Japan for that reason.
And that's something I'm looking forward to doing over the next few years. So I think we'll be there again. What the hell, how about a V-high? So let's see.
What? So we would be fine. Let's do it here. Yeah, only one of the best.
We thought you were fine. And you just kind of didn't even go. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So yeah, these crazy things are so incredible.
So tell me what that's kind of different than you're going to be doing this year from here. And these are where we're going for that people go. It's a lot of fun. So I'm excited.
A couple of things are going to be different. Number one, last year was the programming was very heavily went through very much at a flat education. This year, I thought it was super important to broaden out the subject. So there's a lot more business and more getting broad talk.
So the content's different. I know that some of you make very close attention already the speaking line of is pretty epic. This week, we're announcing a whole nother batch. That's really, really crazy.
So I think the quality of speakers from top to bottom are dramatically stronger. The activations on the field are much stronger than last year. The app is built in a way that is going to really encourage more interaction. But really, the thing that I'm most focused on is if you remember the opening keynote last year, and talk about it being like summer camp.
Like you come back and see your best friends at the exam age. And so I really, less walking the stairs, there's the way we're performing it, is it allowed for people to bump into each other more encouraging any activations, a lot more interacting with each other, because that's like the hard going to be back. That people that went last year, the relationships they never so high. So evolution of content, evolution of like walk patterns and serendipity, and much stronger brand and micro activations that are not just the content of the stage, are three heavy focuses.
Well, you've spoken with a good idea. I don't want to worry about it. I can't. I'm going to worry about it.
I can't. I can't. I can't. I can't.
I'm wondering if you want that. I mean, we hope you're eating this. If you want the USA, you're. But I think the most fun part is going through the journey.
When I hear that, it's so flattering. But equally, my brain goes into, even you said earlier, I'm like, I'm a guy. I'm a guy. Or I'm going to be like, it's not super crazy.
On the flip side, when you do reach a level of demand or interest or awareness, for me at least, I enjoy the journey more than getting there. So in a lot of ways, building a presence for V-Friends and for myself in Japan is like a real pleasure. Like, I'm excited about it. And more importantly, I ask myself this a lot.
And you've said it a couple of times here. And I'm excited to spend time with all of you going on. Pay attention to what's resonating as much as anything else. I ask myself, I feel like I'm going to sleep tonight.
I'm going to say myself, huh? I wonder if this is one of those things where this is such an important market for my message that the timing needed to be right. And either 70% of the body were God or me subconsciously knew to not come pretty mature until I was ready. I'm a much stronger foundation today to scale this message that I was 10 years ago.
And so I'm just very grateful. And I will never forget this night, because this is the first public thing I've ever done in this beautiful country. And I just thank all of you for being here. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you. Hopefully. Thank you.
But grab my hand and your hand, please. Take care, guys. Take care, guys. Take care.
Take care. Just keep out of your hand. Take care. Take care.
I'll hear your hand. You know what, and I'll give you a hand. What about what they're taking? You guys are here the day.
What are they still going to learn? They're going to learn? They're going to learn. Hey, if you're in what you're saying, right?
I love it. I love it. What's up? I don't want to go to that.
I think the most important thing to teach is the elimination of fear. I think fear is the biggest poison that children. I think parents use fear on children to make them do what they want. And so I do think critical thinking is incredibly important.
But I think if you were able to build self-esteem, confidence, and if you're able to have your child not be scared to fail, then you will have a very happy child. You can have all the skills in the world, but if you're scared, you're finished. So for me, the meaning of life is that you're not going to be able to be selfless selfishly. I want to be happy every day.
I want to do what I want to do. I want to do what I want to do. And then selflessly, I, for me personally, I realized that the way I communicate resonates with many, many, many people. And I find that most people that communicate in the way that many people listen to communicate for their needs.
And it's very important for me to use my voice to communicate to bring value to others. Here's what I would say. Entrepreneurship. True entrepreneurship.
You're going to learn by doing it more than being about it. You can learn more than being about it. You can learn more than being about it. You can learn more than being about it.
You can watch all my videos. You can go to university. Entrepreneurship is like exercise. You have to do it to actually get it.
On the flip side, a lot of people think that when I make videos, America has a very, very different university system than most places in the world. In America, the university system is very, very, very negative for the person, because most Americans, most go into debt when they go to university. Unlike most of the rest of the world, where university is very low cost or provided for you in America, it's a business. It's very expensive.
And because every parent pushes their kids to go to university, a lot of parents can't afford to pay for university. So the child goes to university and they don't want to, and they collect very big debt, not $5,000, $8,000, $100,000, with very high interest. So when I make videos and say for a lot of you, you don't have to go to university. It's a very American reality, first of all.
But it is a global thing. Here's what I would say. I was the worst student. I was the most self aware that I was an entrepreneur, but I went to university because I love my parents and they wanted me to.
I treated as a vacation. It was a poor year of vacation. And I knew that the day I left, I was going to work very hard. And it was true.
For four years at university, I did not record it all. I played video games. I played basketball, I played spades and dice. And I had a great time.
And like your friends were happy. So you could go to university and make your mom happy. Because even when you're at university, you're going to be a very young man. The other thing is you're also going to meet people.
I had university that like be interesting. Part of the things about there is no right answer. Everybody here has a different thing. But it is okay to do things to make your parents happy.
It is okay. But you don't necessarily need it to be a successful creative entrepreneur. On the flip side, a lot of people are not successful. Entrepreneurs are creatives when they decide to be.
In some countries like the US every day, more and more companies do not require a university degree. Japan is still grounded in a lot of tradition. And I think it is more required. Four people can be an online company.
I have no idea. First, we don't require a college degree anymore. That's going to be more common. So I think the whole world will go there.
But I think it's a very individual answer. If you're an entrepreneur and you're a creative, you're not going to, you're not like being a doctor or a lawyer, or you really need university. But I think a lot of kids now demonize university, because a lot of entrepreneurs speak about it. But it might be a wonderful thing for you.
And you're still going to be plenty young to be able to do your things. You just have to make a personal decision. And by the way, you're only 15 now. You make change in mind three times, six times, ten times.
Before you get to make that decision, that's okay too. The other thing I'll tell you, which is a left field, very different conversation. I think one of the biggest things that kids need to learn is how to deal with inconvenience. So one of the reasons I kind of like a lot of entrepreneurs or creative people to go to university for their parents is I want them to go through four years of being inconvenienced.
Because right now, the world's biggest problem is that a lot of people struggle with any level of inconvenience. And so one of the unique things about going to university for your parents, not for yourself, is your building tolerance to do things that you don't want to do. And right now, the world is struggling with being good at that. I just said that I like making up every day and doing what I want to do, E 5% of my day is doing shit I don't want to do.
The macro I'm doing what I'm doing what I want to do, but the micro of the day, I'm doing unlimited things I don't want to do because I've built up the tolerance to be inconvenienced or eat shit for six months to achieve the bigger mission. The world has made it very good for kids now. We're really soft on inconvenience. We don't like when kids cry.
We don't like when kids are upset and everyone's got very soft. So one of the unique things about your journey is believe it or not, going to university for your parents, have your own discomfort, might actually prepare you for entrepreneurship more than anything else. You have to understand, like this, to think there's a right answer. I say it all the time, like people think they're going to make the right decision.
There's an idea how it's going to work out. I usually use the example of me not investing in Uber, literally one of my best friends. Literally the three months prior and the three months after I'm investing in all sorts of dumb shit, I pass out investing on Uber twice. And if I wrote $50,000 check, we'd been $500 million.
And so it's very easy to say, my God, this was a terrible decision, but in my mind, I'm too happy as I sit here with you right now to think it was a bad decision. And if I made that decision, my life would be completely different. And then the way I like to tell the story is maybe it would have brought me to a different speech or a different conference or a different meeting. And maybe I was paying attention when I was crossing the street and I got hit by a car like a dent today if I invested in Uber.
People are pessimistic. They think the decision they made that didn't work out because it's easy to see that they didn't work out. They don't take into the complexity of life. You may go to college at university and you don't want to, but you might meet your best friend in the whole world.
And that person might go on to become Elon Musk. You know, and so you just don't know. You really don't know. And so for all of us, whether it's university or having children or moving or changing your job, humans are so silly.
Once you make a decision, you can't develop that decision anymore. You have no idea how that would have changed your life. Every restaurant, every building, every meeting, everything, you're like a different driver. And we should look it out, specifically not pessimistically.
Why did you decide to work with the Gicious Portarity? I think I said this earlier to the team. I think a lot about what do we not know today that every human being in 50 years is going to know. Today, every one of us here know certain things about the heart or cancer or whether or medicine that 100 years ago nobody knows.
And I always say myself, what are we doing right now right here right now? That in 70 years, every person is going to know and we have no idea. And my favorite one, my favorite one that I think about is intuition. I believe today, as we sit here today, there is very little knowledge and very little respect, even less respect.
There's very little knowledge and even less respect for the stomach. We think about the brain. We know our brain. But the second thing that runs our life is this brain and nobody talks about it.
And I need no way. And so I have come to realize I listened to this second brain more than I listened to this brain. And it has served us me very well. And so I was talking about sorting the team earlier on like how I think intuition is underrated.