Motivation

Posted on by

I stumbled across this YouTube video of Gary Vaynerchuck of Wine Library TV giving a presentation at Web 2.0 Expo. At first I just thought the guy was a dick, and he even calls himself that at one point in the presentation, but it turned out to be a fascinating 15 minutes of video. Gary essentially says what I have been saying, i.e. make sure you love what you do, work hard, and things will work out, but he says it in a much more succinct, hard edged way than I do. Check it out, and I think you will see what I mean:

-Jeff Tunnell, Game Maker
Make It Big In Games
Follow me on Twitter

22 thoughts on “Motivation”

  4. YouTube videos time out if you don't watch them soon enough after you to go the page they are embedded on. The video still works, I just tried it.

  5. Having been a security software gun slinger for 10 years and hating 89.5 % of the crap that came with that work and being from the east coast this speaks to me, on many levels. “fear is the mind killer” awesome quote, number one inhibitor for progress for certain, I know that’s my Achilles heel, the irony is once you dive in its not so scary.

  7. OK, that was good for anyone who still hasn't uncaged their mind. I like the way Jeff presented it better back in the early days of Garage Games though ;)

    More or less there's a switch in everyone's mind and only they can flip it. In 2003 I decided to be self-employed and I flipped my switch. Since then I've worked my fingers to the bone installing, sanding, and finishing hardwood floors by day and I've busted blood vessels in my eyes staring at my monitor by night. Slowly but surely I've shifted from having to do floors to only needing to develop games.

  11. As much as I live on the Internet I can't believe I had never heard of the guy. Once I saw this video I did go over to his site and check out all of his personal blog plus his Wine Library TV videos. They are great.

  14. Hey Jeff, first time posting here. Really enjoy all the commentary, thanks for this. I’ve been watching Gary for about a year, and there’s no doubt he loves what he does. In fact, he even states that he eats dirt to broaden his palate.

    He reminds me of Jim Cramer (who he’s had on his show before). Cramer wrote a book called confessions of a street addict. I think the word addict applies to most of the best in any industry: weight lifters, singers, golf, etc. And although addiction can lead to greatness in some things, it doesn’t bode well for relationships outside of work.

  15. I just spent half my day listening to Gary's vlogs as I work. This guy says some shockingly profound stuff. Definitely diggin his advice.

    Thanks for pointing him out Jeff!

  16. After watching this video I was reminded of a book I recently read titled “Talent is Overrated”. I think the speaker and the author of said book are coming at the same problem from different angles. Personally, I think that what these people have to say is pretty obvious, but what's more interesting is what it takes to become a world-class game developer. That is, what separates the world-class game makers from the rest of the pack?

    I wrote something in response to this post and my question which you can read here: http://www.anotherearlymorning.com/2009/01/reac…

  18. I kept waiting for a bombshell to drop and I feel like I never got it. I suppose if anything, it was good to hear that 7pm-2am is enough time to get something accomplished as all of us with 9-5's have to deal with that and it's good to hear that you should focus on what you love. I have certainly wasted enough of my time working on projects I hated.

    Overall though, I really felt those 15 minutes could have been summarized in a paragraph or two. Not one of the better videos I've seen.