My Dream - Akira the Don, Gary Vaynerchuk

Today’s guest is one of the world’s leading marketing experts and living proof

that the American dream is alive and well

If you’re willing to work your face off

Life starts

In being born in Belarus

In the former Soviet Union

I came to the US

When I was three years old

We were very, very, very poor

I lived in a studio apartment with eight family members

And my dad and my mom

As you can imagine are very much my heroes

My dad worked every hour of his life

Being a stock boy in a liquor store

I was a very entrepreneurial kid

I was day trading attention from a young age

I had six lemonade stands

When I was seven years old

And I would spend all my time

Trying to figure out what tree and what pole

To put the signs on

Because I was watching people drive

And trying to figure out what signs

Yes, I was a very sick child

When I was 12 and 13

I was selling baseball cards which were very popular

In the United States at the time

And I was making one to two thousand dollars a weekend

Selling them

In the malls

Which was great and I was rich for a young kid

And it was fantastic

But then my career changed

My dad dragged me into the liquor store

And I hated it at first

But luckily, I realized that people collected wine

I was into collecting sports memorabilia

That was my passion, that was the connection

And I decided

That I was gonna jump into my family business

Open up 4,000 liquor stores across America

Sell the franchise one day

And buy the New York Jets

'Cause that is my dream

Buy the New York Jets

American football team

That is my dream

Buy the New York Jets

American football team

In 1994 I was in my dorm room in college

My friend came over to me

He brought me into a room

It was the first time I heard, «coo-coo-ch»

Which was the Internet

I was very excited about it

I didn’t know what it was

I said something stupid like «Is this the information superhighway?»

I looked at it

This was 1994

I literally stood there

And watched people on the Internet for five hours

It was that crazy

It was just that insane

It was so new

And when I finally had my turn

To go on there

When I finally had my turn to go on there

Within 20 minutes

I landed on a message board

Where people were trading and buying cards

Baseball cards

And I realized, «My God, I can do business on this thing»

2x (Chorus)

'Cause that is my dream

Buy the New York Jets

American football team

That is my dream

Buy the New York Jets

American football team

You two stand up

You two stand up

Let’s clap it up for these guys