Some books just kick ass; and some really suck. Gary Vaynerchuk's new book kicks ass like Muhammad Ali; with a whole lot of word-weaving finesse and then a champion's beating. Beginning with the title: #ASKGARYVEE One Entrepreneur's Take On Leadership, Social Media & Self-Awareness. Which then continues with the sub-title of: And Winning Marketing, Venture Capital, Arbitrage, Digital Media, Influencers, Company Culture, Start-ups, Attention, Content, Management, Empathy, Legacy, Parenting, Family Business, Crushing, Storytelling, Thanking, Jabbing, Right-Hooking, Hustling & The New York Jets.
That's a lot of talk to be backed-up and Gary delivers.
I guess you should know how I judge a book first, to have some inkling of whether my opinion even matters to you. Content is king, just like online; if you're going to take up my time and keep my attention there better be some value in what you're telling me. And what is valuable? Information that is going to make me think, help me, my family or my business and most importantly be motivational enough to actually initiate action in one of those areas. Or it could just be entertaining; because I like to laugh. It just absolutely, positively, must not be boring, uninformative or a waste of my time!
As far as entrepreneurial books go, and I've read them all, often the self-absorbed "hustler" authors tend to err by leaving you waning with regards the informative action-items to bang the motivational drum to death. Not Gary Vee. He genuinely does not give a s**t what you think about him and is purely passionate about passing on what knowledge he's learned to help the next guy out. Yes, really. I love that he also starts the book out with a 3rd person bio-story of who the heck he is and why his opinion is worth a crap.
What blew me away about this book, and kept my attention from cover-to-cover, was simply this: Gary networks like a madman and therefore has a plethora of knowledge about a wide-variety of topics and they are all timely and business-forward thinking. He consumes so much information and has such a large community of followers and contributors that he masterminds with, seemingly by osmosis while sweating at the gym with his trainer and cameraman, ok TMI - but, that IS how he just keeps bringing value. Granted, like my banter here, this book reads like a late-night talk show; a half-million short segments of direct questions being commented on and move on! It is a YouTube series in print and when you reach the end you feel your mind has expanded with a wealth of information and some new curiosities.
Scribe Vaynerchuk's newest book is his fourth venture in putting ink to the page of indelible thoughts worth offering for absorption in your mind and a slot on your shelf of bestsellers. His first three were each insanely ahead of their time and are entrepreneurial cornerstones for any serious entrepreneur or hustler to be. They are unique in that they entertain while educating with, though strongly opinionated, truly thought-provoking facts. This book is no different and in fact even more-so.
You can and should go buy a copy right now (are book reviewers supposed to say that?) which you can do right here: on Amazon.com and as Gary Vee himself would undoubtedly say "Hurry the f**k up already!"
Book reviewed by David Lee Jensen, bestselling author of The Naked Interview: Hiring Without Regret.