Last week, I had the honor to interview social media superstar, Gary Vaynerchuk. A man who really needs no introduction, he’s one of the most influential internet celebrities out there with over 800,000 followers on Twitter!

He’s also the star behind Wine Library TV, an online video blog about wine that attracts over 90,000 views a day, as well as the author of the forthcoming book, Crush It: Why Now is the Time to Cash In on Your Passion.

While the interview was pretty short, Gary was able to deliver some one-line golden nuggets (which he’s known for). So check it out

You can either listen to the audio version below or read the transcript. Enjoy

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(some mild profanity)

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Stanley: Gary, start off by telling us a bit about yourself. Have you always been invovled with entrepreneurship/business/marketing from a young age?

Gary: Absolutely. At the end of the day, it’s a DNA play, right? You are who you are. I was selling lemonade in seven different lemonade-stand locations before I understood what business was. I was always selling baseball cards and other things of that nature.

So I’ve been on this kick from day one. It’s who I am, it’s in my blood. I’m a story teller. I love to tell stories about brands. I love to tell stories, period. I like painting pictures through the words, and that’s what I do.

Stanley: Do you think entrepreneurship is in the blood?

Gary: I do in a lot of ways. I definitely feel that people are born with some level of entrepreneurial skills, some more than others. For me, it’s definitely a big part of who I am and part of the way I interact and view the world.

Stanley: How did you first get involved with your father’s business with Wine Library?

Gary: He dragged my ass to the store! I had no choice! I was made to work at the store, and that was fine. I didn’t love it at first, I cried a lot. But at the end of the day it was what it was and I started getting passionate about wine. So even though it started off a little rough, because I wanted to run my baseball card business instead, it definitely ended up being a good thing.

Stanley: What did you initially do at Wine Library before the whole Internet thing?

Gary: I basically stocked shelves, then eventually became a cashier. Then I made signs and finally started selling wine on the floor to every customer that walked in, so I was a sales person.

Stanley: What was the experience like and how do you think it would eventually help you when you came to create Wine Library TV and get involved with e-commerce and social media?

Gary: Retail is hard—12 to 15 hours a day, seven days a week. This helped made all of this work much easier. It made me tougher and created a thick skin for business. It’s given me a work ethic and is definitely a foundation of my skill.

Stanley: How did you first get involved with e-commerce online?

Gary: I was in my friend’s dorm room, sophomore year of college. They dialed up the Internet [makes sounds of a dial-up connection] and the next thing I know is I see this shit. In an hour, I’m trying to sell baseball cards while all of my friends were trying to hook up with girls on the Internet.

Once again, entrepreneur glasses, right? You see something and you view it as a business. That’s what I did, it’s part of who I am, it’s how I roll, and it’s what I ended up doing. Immediately, I started pitching my dad for a year to build WineLibrary.com as a retail Internet website.

Stanley: What was the site like in its early stages?

Gary: A piece of shit. It was classic HTML garbage. I couldn’t ship yet to different states, so it was more informational. Slowly, but surely, we started getting into e-commerce and 1999 was when we started really pushing the envelope.

Stanley: Before there was social media, what marketing and promotional strategies did you use to help grow the business?

Gary: Traditional media—newspapers, magazines, radio—all of the things that have people’s attention. Now that’s all changed and all the eyeballs are heading in one direction, and that platform is the Internet, whether it’s mobile, streaming, video or written words. It’s the playing platform for the brand building business.

Stanley: How did you first get into social media?

Gary: I feel like, in a lot of ways, YouTube and Flickr were two of the early sites that made me realize how people communicated. In 2002-03, I started to see that blogging was very fascinating. I just started seeing different opportunities and things going on.

Obviously, for myself, Twitter in late 2006 was a huge opportunity. Facebook was out and I knew about it, but it was more for college kids and I didn’t want to be the creepy old guy selling wine. I feel like probably in 2004-05 I started dabbling with Flickr/MySpace and things of that nature.

Stanley: Did that prompt you to start your video blog, Wine Library TV?

Gary: My developer started watching ZeFrank, the show, and that was a big early video blog hit and I realized that it was really cool. I thought what he was doing was really neat and it gave me the idea to do a wine version with my own style.

Stanley: How did you start? Did you just get a camera and start talking?

Gary: Yes. That’s basically it. I just knew that it was what I wanted to do. I knew I wanted to be involved in the trenches, I wanted to create engagement and that’s what I did.

Stanley: What do you think was the key that got Wine Library TV to take off and go viral?

Gary: I think it was good content and a massive amount of market hustle on the back end. That combo is the combo for success. That’s what I did.

Stanley: Content is king, but sooner or later, no matter how much effort you put into creating the content, there’s got to be some promotion to get it out. What was your promotion?

Gary: I always say content is king and marketing is the queen, and she runs the household. My plan was to just get in the trenches, answer every e-mail, live in forums, leave blog posts. One step at a time. It’s a marathon, it’s not a sprint. That was it.

Stanley: What are some obstacles you faced when you first got started with the video blog?

Gary: I have no idea. It’s not how my brain works. I’m sure there were plenty. Maybe the wine industry wasn’t ready for that kind of style, but I just kept plugging along and hustling and never really looked back.

I didn’t pay attention to the obstacles. I just kept my eye on the prize and that was it. I’m building something here, a lot of people won’t get it, that’s fine. I’m very hungry to succeed, build a viewership, a culture, a movement. That’s what I try to do.

Stanley: You talked about hustle and I’ve heard you mention that before in your keynote speeches etc but what do you really mean when you say “hustle”?

Gary: I mean that most people underestimate work and I think that’s a huge mistake. It blows me away that people don’t realize how much of the overall success is based on working extremely hard. That, to me, is a huge missed opportunity for a lot of people and I continue to try to talk about it, to open up people’s minds to: “It’s not going to happen in one day. You’re going to have to work really hard and that’s the bottom line.”

Stanley: I think it was Diana Rankin who once said, “It takes 20 years of hard work to become an overnight success.” Would you agree with that?

Gary: I think there’s a lot of truth to those kinds of statements. On some level, it matters on your skill set, but at the end of the day, absolutely.

Stanley: Would you say that the first time being on the Conan O’Brien show was a tipping point for your business?

Gary: I think it definitely didn’t hurt. It built a lot of street cred on the Internet for me. It was almost what happened on the Net that day and the next day that was maybe more important. Because there were so many link backs, so many people watched it and passed it on. That kind of stuff.

Stanley: How did you get on the show in the first place?

Gary: They cold emailed me. They said, “We’re the Conan producers. We’d like to have you on. Are you interested?” I said, “No.” Just kidding! I said, “Absolutely!” and that was it.

Stanley: Do you think traditional, mainstream media is better or do you prefer social media? Which one do you think is more effective?

Gary: Whichever one gets you more eyeballs. I think new media is more cost effective than traditional media, but there are still a lot of eyeballs watching television and that has value. At the end of the day, it’s always going to be eyeballs. We’re all in the eyeball business, and I continue to try to be in places where there are eyeballs and I can get some work.

Stanley: Which would you prefer: Getting on the front page of, let’s say, The New York Times or the front page of Digg or StumbleUpon?

Gary: Probably The New York Times. I used to say Digg or StumbleUpon but the fact of the matter is the traffic is not necessarily relevant or sticky. Maybe StumbleUpon more than Digg, even—and I love Kevin Rose and I love Digg—but my experience has been that The New York Times has such brand equity that it leads to other opportunities.

Stanley: What do you mean by brand equity?

Gary: What I mean by that is, to me, brand is everything, like every single person’s brand, every single consumer products brand. Everything you’re protecting and everything you’re trying to build is “the” brand. Even though The New York Times is not a good business anymore, the brand still has a lot of power. So an endorsement on the front page still means something, even though the business itself is far less exciting than, say, the opportunities that StumbleUpon has in front of it.

Stanley: How instrumental do you think Wine Library TV has been to help grow Wine Library into a $60 million business?

Gary: It’s been a huge factor, especially because, as I phased out of day-to-day retail with Wine Library, it’s become more and more important that the social media aspects have picked up the slack. Before, I was the driving force to the business. Now it’s social media itself, and the show itself. It’s made me scale.

Stanley: Do you see Wine Library TV as a marketing tool to help sell wine or to enhance the brand. Or is it both?

Gary: It was strictly built for one reason: For me to be able to build brand equity that would lead to other entrepreneurial opportunities. It was never about selling more wine. It was always about changing the culture of wine, creating good content and discussion in an industry that needs it.

Stanley: What was the biggest mistake you’ve made and what did you learn from it?

Gary: I don’t know. There’s something inside me that doesn’t allow the ability to really digest negativity or what I’ve done wrong. I’m sure I’ve done a million things wrong. I don’t really learn necessarily from doing things wrong, or maybe I do and I just don’t dwell on that, even to a point of being aware of it. That’s it. I don’t even know what else to say. It’s the way I’m built; I just don’t know anything different.

Stanley: You have about 700,000 followers on Twitter. What do you think is the right way to interact and engage with your followers?

Gary: I think one of the important things is to be authentic, whatever that means. I use Twitter quite a bit as a messaging tool to people about what I’m doing, how I’m doing it—different things like that. I do a lot of my interaction on email and instant messenger and DM.

I don’t publicly add people a whole lot. Other people do. I just think it’s different for everybody. I think you should work at the rate at which you’re comfortable, instead of the way I do just because I have a lot of followers.

Stanley: Do you think listening is important?

Gary: Listening is the whole game—that’s business. It’s all about listening and then giving. Nothing else matters. Your point of view is irrelevant. You need to have the pulse of society and what they want, and then you have to basically execute what they’re looking for.

Stanley: Do you ever monitor your brand by typing your own name on Google or Twitter search?

Gary: Every single day! It’s absolutely what I do. It’s the game.

Stanley: Wouldn’t some people call that egoistic or narcissistic?

Gary: I’m sure, at some level. I just think it’s more about paying attention to and caring about what other people are saying. To me, it just comes down to: If you’re listening, you have the ability to execute and give people what they want.

I think way too many people don’t listen, and if they think I’m looking up my name for vanity, they’re just not aware of what’s actually going on here.

Stanley: Do you think social media tools have been effective for corporate brands, like Dell? Do you think they’re using Twitter correctly?

Gary: They’ve sold $2 million worth of stuff, right? The funny thing, and I think it’s very fascinating is that I don’t understand, in any shape or form, Stanley, how people don’t understand that the game is changing. Platforms and media consumption have fundamentally changed and eyeballs are shifting. Everything has changed.

When television fall in the next three years, everybody will understand. It’s just laughable to me to even think that people would debate that social media is not good for everybody, from the lowest point of the individual to the highest point of the biggest company in the world.

Stanley: Do you ever plan on taking Wine Library TV to mainstream media?

Gary: It’s conceivable, but it’s going to have to be a really, really sweet deal and I’m not sure if anybody is ready to go there.

Stanley: What trends do you see in social media in the future?

Gary: More transparency, more interaction, more connection between users.

Stanley: What advice do you have for young entrepreneurs who are getting started in business, Internet marketing and social media?

Gary: Passion! It’s all about passion. Find the stuff you like the most and execute.

Stanley: Speaking of passion, why don’t you tell us about your upcoming book, Crush It?

Gary: I basically wrote, in my opinion, the blueprint of how to go about finding your passion, thinking about why your passion could be monetized, and the details of how to do it. I think I looked it at a very high level and I brought it to the very low level.

So I was at 50,000 feet swirling in the air and then ground level. I think that’s the important thing. Never be caught in the middle – never. I think you’ve got to look at it from the biggest level and then find out how to do it and execute in the trenches.

Stanley: I’ve got a question from Twitter: “What would you do instead of online video were to vanish or be banned today?”

Gary: I would be doing exactly what I’m doing right now, which is building VaynerMedia, building out other Internet properties. I’d leverage the written word if that communication was available. I would just adjust.

At the end of the day, I’m not emotional about anything. It comes down to one thing: Whatever the platform it is that’s executed and whatever is working, I’m going to figure out how to use it.

Stanley: A new platform which is really hot right now is mobile. Do you plan on going mobile any time soon, like with an iPhone application?

Gary: It’s the new playing field – the end. I’ve got to be a part of it and we’re looking at it very heavily. We’ve been slow to the game. I had an iPhone app that’s 90% done. I bullshitted and I haven’t executed. I deserve to lose if I do lose, but we’re looking at it very heavily.

Stanley: What are some future projects you have with regards to going mobile?

Gary: Corkd.com is my social wine network. We’re looking at mobile and we continue to view every single thing that’s going on in the world as a mobile play. Mobile has to be part of every strategy. If it’s not, it’s not a basic, smart decision, in my opinion. Mobile is a must – a requirement.

Stanley: You’re obviously a very passionate and confident person. Where do you get the confidence that one day, all of this will pay off? What drives you to succeed?

Gary: I come from a humble beginning as an immigrant. I’ve got a great family life, amazing parents. I’m massively competitive DNA-wise. I want to achieve big things. I feel a huge sense of responsibility for all the luckiness I have.

Stanley: Gary, thank you very much for taking the time out to do this interview. Do you have any final comments or let people know where they can find you online?

Gary: My final comment is I appreciate your hustle to get me on this interview, Stanley, and I wish you nothing but the best.

Stanley: Where can people find you?

Gary: No I’m good. I’m sure they can find it. I’m promoting myself plenty. I’m sure you’ll link it up and mention it. The bottom line is if I’m putting out good shit, they’ll find me and that’s what I’m focused on.

Stanley: I also want to plug your book Crush It: Why Now is the Time to Cash In on Your Passion. When is that coming out?

Gary: October 13, 2009.

Stanley: All right. People can preorder the book on Amazon or Barnes & Noble, I believe?

Gary: IndieBound, lots of different places, absolutely.

Stanley: Thanks again, Gary, for taking the time to do this interview. We really appreciate it.

Gary: Stay well.

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You can check out Gary’s blog over at http://www.garyvaynerchuk.com and follow him on Twitter @garyvee

This is a guest post by Frank Angelone.

Tell me if you haven’t heard someone say this, “I need money!”  I think we all have heard this before because to survive we do need money.  Let’s keep in mind though, even all the money in the world can’t buy happiness.  I know that sounds cliché, but it’s a good mindset to have especially if you run your own business.  You may be the type of person who has all the money in the world, but dissatisfied with your life.  That’s not something anyone wants to deal with.  Although, wouldn’t it be great if we could have both.

You definitely can have both happiness and money; this all goes into how well you sell yourself.  Even though you are making money on the internet and may not ever get to meet your viewers or buyers, you still want to sell yourself effectively.  Now, when I say sell yourself, I don’t mean say, “I’m the best and this is why you want to follow me.”  That’s the absolute wrong way to sell yourself to run an effective business.  When I say selling yourself effectively, look at it as if you are on a date.  When on a date you are trying to show someone the kind of person you are.  Relate this to your business!  By implementing this strategy and showing an interest in your customers or viewership you can develop strong relationships.  It will make them want to come back and see what else you have to offer.  I think you can see how this ties back into meeting someone because it’s the same principal.

By showing people you care and selling yourself effectively your business will translate in more money.  Not only that, but you will be happy as well because you know your business environment is a positive one.  I believe marketing is probably the most vital piece in becoming a successful internet entrepreneur.  Without marketing, there’s not many ways to make money online.  With how many ways to market ourselves on the internet, like Twitter, we have the tools available.  Now, it’s time to go out there, find them, and implement them into your business.

My blog http://socialtechzone.com is where I talk about social networks and technology and where I can talk about a topic I enjoy most.  This is also very key when trying to market yourself.  Pick a niche that you feel comfortable with and have knowledge in.  If you choose a topic that you have a vague understanding in, it will translate in the amount of money you earn.  Remember, choose what you like!

This is a guest post by Michael Gaudet.

The Power of Three (Copyright Michael Gaudet 2004)

You know how sometimes when you meet someone you have this strong ‘gut feeling’ that if you work it out, there is the potential for an amazing friendship?

The signals can include:

1) Powerful personal chemistry between you both when you immediately feel comfortable in each other’s presence.

2) A feeling of trust and respect that develops quickly and continues to grow.

3) A flash of understanding that passes between you that affirms you both have complimentary skill sets to bring to the relationship.

4) You soon discover that you both share common goals and interests.

5) You realize that there are certain unique strengths and experiences that you have that your new colleague may be looking for, and vice-versa.

6) You discover that you are both at ease encouraging each other’s ideas and fanning enthusiasm with positive body language.

7) You slip comfortably into the ‘brainstorming mode’ when discussing ideas.

Your ideas seem to mesh with a powerful ‘synchronicity’.

9)You realize that you have a lot to learn from each other and this understanding leads to deeper mutual respect.

10) Both of you find that you share information and tips that have the potential to lead to mutual enrichment, if followed up on.

11) You find that you don’t always have to agree on everything, and that you can easily bounce back from minor scuffles. Just talk it out.

12) Your discussions lead to concrete results within a certain time-frame. ( This is the most exciting thing of all and the most powerful relationship-builder!)

When you start to see the signals click, watch the relationship grow into a multi-dimensional, dynamic force. You have mutually created the potential for a new good friend!

No question about it, when you recognize that this is happening in your life, treat your new friend like solid gold. No kidding, this is not a common occurrence and once you find it is unfolding you are in a position to richly benefit as it is a mutual gain. What I mean by this is that you both have a lot to offer and this is the foundation for a life-long relationship. Do not squander this opportunity when it comes along.

Nurture it!

Michael Gaudet is an artist specializing in large historic murals. See Gallery Gaudet He has branched off into aeronautical design and invented a ‘Ring-Wing’ glider called Skyaak. To read more, visit www.skyaak.com Follow him on Twitter.

This article is a guest post from Frank Angelone. He writes at http://socialtechzone.com

I haven’t been blogging for that long.  Honestly, I have been blogging for a few months now.  Although, I am really glad it is something I decided to get involved in.  I have found a new passion in writing about social networks and technology on my blog at http://angelone.tumblr.com.  During that time I have run across blogs that have given me insight on how to make money online.  From that point on, I had this vision where I wanted to become an internet entrepreneur.  I realized becoming an internet entrepreneur is extremely difficult, but I realized that if I put my mind to it, anything is possible. The title says it all, “A Life of Persistence.”  Persistence is what can get a person through anything and when you work at something your hard work will pay off.

The advice of persistence was given to me by an entrepreneur named Chris Pirillo who has become very successful in his own right.  I believe this advice is key for any aspiring entrepreneur.  Learning how to make money online basically comes down to finding different sources of income throughout the internet.  Sounds difficult right? Well, to be honest, it is.  To find credible locations on the internet to make money, you need to do searching and read a lot of advice from fellow entrepreneurs.  They can lead you to places where you can make money.

I’m guessing at this point you are wondering, where did my first source of income come from?  Alright, you probably don’t really care where my first source of income came from online, but everyone has to start somewhere.  If you remember me saying that the best way to start making money online is to find out from an entrepreneur, well that holds true here.  Once again, Chris Pirillo mentioned a site called Expo TV to do product reviews and I have been making money doing that.  That right there is how you get your online business going and as years go by, you continue to expand your business and find different sources of income.

I would be lying if I said it wasn’t hard.  Stanley would tell you the same thing.  Some people find a business model that works for them and it blossoms quickly and others it takes a little longer.  Although, if you remain persistent, I can guarantee you, good things will come of it.  Nobody who works hard for something walks away empty handed.  I have always loved this phrase, “in order to succeed, you have to fail.”  This is 100% true because failure shows you your mistakes and allows you to correct them when engaging in a new venture.

This is the follow up post to why being a young entrepreneur rocks. This time, I’ll go over 5 reasons why being a young entrepreneur sucks:

1. You are faced with legal issues & age restrictions. You can’t get a bank account, you can’t get a Paypal account, you need to pay tax etc – many of those issues teenagers haven’t faced in their lives. You must ask your parents for permission for so many of those things which can become an obstacle.
2. You can’t network with other entrepreneurs. It’s difficult flying half way across the world by yourself and attend events with a bunch of adults. Most of the networking usually happen at a bar and you must be over 21 (in United States) to enter.
3. You have less credibility. Your customers, prospects and partners will not pay you with the same amount of respect simply because you are a teenager. You come across as less trust worthy and can potentially loose a lot of business as a result.
4. You sacrifice your social life. Honestly, teenagers should do what teenagers do – play. By running your own business, you are sacrificing your life as a teenager and missing out on a lot of the stuff. You have to balance your life with your business (which is why I’ve been doing so little with my business recently. The only thing I’m doing nowadays is blogging and twittering; I’ve pretty much stopped working on affiliate marketing, list building, information marketing, joint ventures etc side of things so that I can actually focus on school and enjoy life)
5. You have less experience. Not only in business but also in life. You are more likely to make mistakes and poor decisions. You are less mature in the way you do things and may get involved in immature arguments. The lack of experience can potentially lead to the entire downfall of your business (which is why you need to get a mentor. Don’t think you know everything cause you dont’)

In my last post, I talked about what I personally feel is the secret formula to success – it’s all about hard work combined with what you’re passionate about, then working on that for a long enough time with persistence.

But then something occurred to me… what is success? Achieving goals? Doing what you love? Freedom? Happiness? I went out to some of the leading internet marketing thought-leaders (during my quest to putting together my published book, eMillions: Behind-The-Scenes Stories of 14 Successful Internet Millionaires) and asked them…

“What Do You Define As Success?”

Jermaine Griggs, Founder of HearandPlay.com

“I think I’m 80 percent or 70 percent there. I listen to Deepak Chopra. Success is when you achieved where you want to be in every element of your life. Success is different for everybody. Billionaire status, that success is Donald Trump. If he ever became a millionaire, he’d be a failure to himself. But to some people, just earning six-figures is success.

So it’s all relative to different people if you will. If Bill Gates woke up with Donald Trump’s money, he’d probably kill himself. It’s all relative. If I ever went back to making $200 per month, that’d be very bad. But there are a lot of people out there who’d love to make an extra $500 per month online.

Success is all relative to where you want to be when you predetermine that this is where I want to be in every element of my life. It’s not only just money. Money is just a part of it. Now money-wise, I’ve gotten to places I wanted to be and there are other goals I’ve set for future areas of my life.

But health, that’s another part of it, and that’s something I strive to do every day. I don’t go to the gym as much. I want to go to the gym more. That’s why I said I don’t believe I’m 100 percent at the success area because I know I need to be at the gym three times a week. I’m a slim guy; I’m gaining a little weight since the marriage and the baby and stuff – most fathers know how that works. But when I get to that point, I move up in the success ladder.

Relationships – I want to make sure I have the most fulfilling relationship. I want to make sure that I don’t go down that path that half of Americans do and get a divorce. That’s a part of success. I know of billionaires who have had four wives. I don’t know them but I’ve read of their stories. There are millionaires who can’t stay married and forsake their children, who don’t have time. So success is also defined by personal relationships. I can’t say I’m the best in that area, but I’m striving to be there.

So success to me is not just financial, it’s body, it’s health, it’s soul, it’s spirit, it’s relationships, it’s every element of your life. You can be rich but if you’re Scrooge in that old Christmas Carol story where nobody likes you and you’re so grumpy, why have wealth? Why have the money if you can’t enjoy other areas of your life?

So money is just a means to do your passions and what you love, and be able to travel and things like that. I always keep that in mind when I’m stressing myself out or taking on too much. Is this really success? Or am I just on the move? Am I just busy?

Busy-ness and business, they sound the same, but they’re totally different things. You can be busy but that doesn’t mean you have a business. I’d rather have something that allows me the means to fulfill all these other areas of my life because if the money is taking care of me, yes, I can focus on family. Half of the people don’t have good relationships because they’re stressed out trying to pay bills.

Well, if I got that handle, great, I can move on. I can have fulfilling relationships, and go on vacations, and get my health, and make sure I’m not stressed out. I don’t want to be one of these people who are dying at 50 years old. So I think I’m close to there, but like my grandma would say, “I’m not where I want to be, but I’m thankful I’m not what I used to be.”“

Tom Beal, VP of MikeFilsaime.com:

“Success is different for everybody. It’s a mindset. The best definition I’ve heard is from Earl Nightingale, who said, “Success is the progressive realization of a worthy idea or goal.” That means that as long as you’re taking steps progressively each day, you’re a success. That’s the whole enjoying-the-journey concept.

To have success defined as, “I’ll be successful when I get this kind of car, this kind of house, this kind of relationship and this kind of health,” you’re setting yourself up to be not be happy in the now. I heard someone, I think it was Zig Ziglar, say, “The more appreciative you can be of the things you have today, the more things you’ll have to be appreciative of tomorrow.”

It’s an attitude of gratitude. The more things you can find in your life to be appreciative for today opens up the door for you to be more appreciative for the great things that are coming your way tomorrow. I don’t think I could be any more successful today, and that doesn’t mean there’s no adversity. That doesn’t mean there’s no chaos or difficulty. It’s just a mindset of handling that chaos or difficulty.

How can I put it? W. Clement Stone, one of the people who financed Napoleon Hill in the early 1900s, the billionaire insurance person from the 1900s, just passed away recently in 2002 at 100 years old. Whenever a problem was brought to him, all of his business associates were freaking out.

They’d go, “Here’s the problem.” W. Clement Stone would say, “That’s great.” They’d all look at him weirdly, because he would find what was great about that problem. Go and do what Tony Robbins says, “Don’t focus on the problem. Focus on the solution.”

Spend most of your time on the solution, not most of your time on the problem, because you become what you think about. If you think about problems, you’ll become a problem. If you think about solutions, you’ll become a solution. It’s the old seek and you shall find. Right now, I would say I personally feel so successful.

We could talk about Sir Richard Branson who has just recently been interviewed by Joe Polish. He’s a billionaire. Congratulations. I am in no stretch of the imagination anywhere near being a billionaire, but I don’t know how anybody could be happier or more fulfilled than I feel right now in the midst of all the adversity.

There’s some adversity that I’m going through right now, relationship-wise, my mother just passed away two weeks ago.  There is adversity everywhere you turn, but I still have an attitude of gratitude. Life is going to throw you curve balls and life is going to test you and surprise you. When those surprises come, how do you handle it? You have the option to approach it in a proactive manner or a reactive manner.

I’ve had some recent things happen for which I could not have been more shocked or surprised that they happened, but they did, and you can’t change the past. You can only handle the situation based on where it is. Today, that’s what happened. That’s the way I agree. Now what? It’s up to me to become the architect, to design how you want to handle that adversity.”

Gary Ambrose, Email Marketing Expert

“I am really not sure at this point exactly what you could say success is. It is different for every person – that is obvious. For me, I am not to the point where I would like to be yet, not by a long shot, because I am still working. I don’t want to be working, I want to be retired, or at least to the point where I am out of the stressful part of business, meaning right now, a lot of the main decisions and processes and things still fall to me. I don’t have a large enough team that I can count on to really develop a lot of the things in my absence.

But, for me, what I really consider to be successful is to get to the point where I have a very steady recurring revenue stream coming in and I am able to take more time off than I spend working. That is not the case now, but I am getting there.

For example, this past year, 2007, I have spent seven-and-a-half weeks on vacation outside of my house. So I am starting to move in the right direction. I have taken a week’s vacation to Vegas and a week’s vacation to Jamaica and a week to Turks and Caicos and I am going on a cruise, and I was just in New York for Thanksgiving to see the Macy’s Parade up there. Seven-and-a-half weeks of vacation isn’t bad.

But it is still not enough. For me, I don’t think I will really consider myself to be successful until the point where I am working less than I am working now. And I am not quite there yet.”

Willie Crawford, Internet Marketing Guru

“I think I have achieved success. To me, success is probably above all things being happy with what you’re doing. It is having a choice in what I do. So many people do jobs they do not want to do. They get up and they go to work at jobs they hate, and they do it because they have to. The work I do, I do it because I want to, and I do it when I want to, and where I want to.

My typical day, if I wanted it to be, would be to get up and take my laptop with my wireless Internet card, and go sit on the beach all day. If I want to do that, I can. I can run my business from the beach, because of wireless Internet and satellites and things like that. So to me, it’s about having choice.

A part of that comes from when I was in the military. Soldiers get told what to do. You have some choice, but mostly you were given orders, and although it was a military career, I learned not to like being told but I like having choice.

For me, success is having choice, and it’s also being happy with what you’re doing. So many people do jobs because they need the money; they don’t do them because they enjoy doing them.”

Michel Fortin, Top Online Copywriter

“When you use the word success, success is actually an event if you define the word success, which is basically when you achieve something. When you achieve something successfully, that is a success. When you label someone a success, you can’t just label it on an achievement or an event because you’re labeling a person. So for that person to be a “success” is to me a person who constantly achieves, who constantly reaches goals. Here’s my definition of what a success is:

You can be a type-A personality, you can go out there and achieve many goals and you can therefore be perceived as a success, but if you focus only on those goals, you might fail in other areas. You might fail at home, in your marriage, in you relationship with your kids. You might fail even in other areas of your business because you’re so focused on achieving. To me, that’s not a success because you’re also failing just as much, or at least you’re not succeeding at things that really matter.

To me, a true success is a person who achieves what they want. I think the best definition of success is something Bob Dylan, the famous singer, said, “Success is waking up in the morning and going to bed at night and in between you did what you wanted to do.”

That’s success. That’s what I consider not only what success is but me being a success because I’m doing right now what I love to do. I love copywriting. I love online marketing. I love business. I love consulting and coaching clients. Because of that, I truly believe that I’m a success. The fact that I made millions of dollars is just a byproduct of doing what I love to do.

There are a lot of people out there who say, “You have to have a passion. You have to love what you do.” Some other people say, “No. You have to find a market that wants something and you have to give it to them.”

I think it was John Reese who said at one time, “Having a passion for a specific market is not going to define your success.” I said, “Right, but the fact that you, John, like to go after markets is a passion in itself, is it not?”

That fact that you are passionately looking for markets who want a product and you give that product to them, even if you’re not passionate about, let’s say, e-books on how to grow better tomatoes, but you went out there and tried to find a market that had a need and you found out that people wanted to buy an e-book on how to grow better tomatoes. That’s a passion in itself.

I’m positive that John – and he can back me up on this – is doing right now what he loves to do. All the top marketers out there who are successful are usually those who do exactly what they want to do. They are passionate about what they’re doing, they do what they love.

That could be anything and everything, even if it is just working on the business that works passively so they can enjoy more time going out surfing or golfing, that to me is still doing what you love to do. That to me is still a success because you did what you want and that’s what I do and that’s why I consider myself a success.”

Stu Mclaren, Affiliate Management Expert

“I think different people define success in different ways. For me, it’s being able to have the freedom and flexibility to be able to do what it is that I want and when I want. I feel that I do have that. I’m very fortunate.

I live out in the middle of nowhere. I live in a small town about an hour and a half south of Toronto. It’s called Port Dover. Nobody’s ever heard of Port Dover. It’s out in the middle of nowhere but I have high-speed Internet access here and that’s what enables me to do what it is that I do. It’s very peaceful and relaxing and I have the flexibility to be able to run errands when I want to run errands.

I just recently got married so there were a lot of errands to be run when you’re putting on a wedding but that’s the beauty of it. I could do what it is that I wanted to do because I wasn’t strapped to particular timeframes or anything of that nature. So having that freedom and flexibility, to me, is a huge success.

Now, I want to grow my business much more than it is right now. I think that’s part of every entrepreneur’s desire is to be able to successfully grow their business. For me, it’s a matter of being able to do what it is that I want to do, have the freedom and flexibility to pursue the things I want to pursue.

My latest goals and ventures really have been guided by my wife because she has a real passion and desire to help children, particularly educate children, in rural communities of third-world countries. We’ve been working together to develop a charity called World Teacher Aid, and the concept is where we generate revenue to be able to fund the salary of a full-time teacher for these rural communities in third-world countries.

She’s taken me all over the world and we’ve stayed with families in El Salvador, Thailand etc, where these kids just don’t have the opportunities that we have available to us all over the world. What’s magical about that is you really become appreciative of the opportunities that we have and that the Internet provides.

Every year we do a fundraising campaign. Last year, we had many great people on the call. John Reese, Armand Morin, Alex Mandossian, David Frey, and Mike Filsaime all collectively came together and we raised just over $17,000, which we were able to take down to a particular community in El Salvador.

My wife, Amy, and I went down there and spent some time with them and helped buy supplies for their schools. We gave to two orphanages and sent 59 girls to school for the year. It was a real magical moment. I think, for me, success is being able to generate revenue, generate sales, and then guide those profits accordingly to those who are less fortunate and maybe don’t have the opportunities that you or I have.

You’re going to see a lot more of what I do is guided by that where we’re looking to take what we do and apply the same principles to building a charity that is run with a different mindset. We don’t want to depend on donations for the charity because when times are tough, donations dry up and that’s not really a good business model for a charity that’s looking to flourish and grow.

What we want to do is be able to create a business model where this charity can fund itself and can grow itself by the products that it provides, of which the sales and revenue go towards funding the different causes that we’re looking to fund. For me, that is success, when you can be in a position to be able to generate revenue and the guide it to the different areas that you want to contribute to.

We’re getting there. We’re not where we want to be. We just started this charity. It came as an idea. It came as a last-minute concept that Amy thought of. We pulled together a very successful fundraising campaign. It exceeded all of our expectations the first time around. Now we’ve seen the potential of this.

It was just last minute and we pulled it together and it went really well, but imagine what would happen if we did this, this, and this and improved this and added that. What’s going to happen is that the process will continue to grow and flourish and that’s going to allow us to be able to contribute to more and more people and offer people more opportunities.

That, to me, is success – having the freedom and flexibility to do what it is that you want to be able to do and then ultimately being able to generate revenue at will and guide those resources accordingly to people who perhaps wouldn’t have the opportunity to be able to do it themselves.“

Steve Renner, Internet Marketing Expert

“Everybody has their own virtual report cards to what they see as success. To me, success really can be translated in a couple of ways. Number-one is money. If you’re successful, you’re making money. That’s the bottom line. To a certain degree, one certain degree or another, you have money coming in. That’s a sign of success.

But money is not everything. Another part of success is having the freedom. That’s what I really like about the Internet business is that it’s free. I’m free. I have freedom to do whatever I want. If I want to pick up and decide to go to Hawaii tomorrow, I can go do it. If I want to travel or if I want to take the day off, I’ve got that freedom.

If I want to go jump in my car and drive across town and have lunch with somebody, or whatever I want to do, that, to me, is success - just to have the freedom to do whatever I want, the freedom to be able to do nice things for your kids and not to have to worry about how you’re going to pay your bills and those kinds of things. To me, that’s success, and the freedom that goes along with it and the peace of mind.”

Rosalind Gardner, Affiliate Marketing Queen

“It is really not about the money, although money helps. But what money really buys is freedom and being able to quit my job and not be dictated to about when I had to appear at work and just being able to take off when I want to and being able to spend more time with my family and friends.

If somebody shows up at the door and I happen to be in the middle of writing an article, so what? I can always make the time for the more important things in life like having coffee with my friends and that sort of thing. That for me is the true definition of success.

The other component for me, too, is having eliminated doubt and fear about being successful because once you overcome a number of obstacles, you realize that it doesn’t matter if you make mistakes. So just not being worried about what tomorrow will bring in terms of business, finance.

So what if tomorrow you only make whatever? You’d figure another way around it and you know you are going to make more the next day or you bring your earnings up or whatever. Just get rid of the fears and especially with doubting yourself. There is no place for that in business.“

Andrew Fox, Super Affiliate

“What I would define as success is whatever you are happy with. If you want a $20,000 car or you want a $200,000 car, whatever is your own personal goal. Happiness is not related to the size of money, it’s just whatever your personal goal is. I have some friends who say they want to be rich, and other people who just say, “I want to be able to afford to pay my bills comfortably and provide for my family and have a comfortable lifestyle.”

It’s whatever your personal goal is, if you can achieve that. Everybody’s level of success, you may achieve it. It could be: Do you want a $10 million yacht? Do you want your own private jet? Do you just want a nice house and a happy family and a content life? It’s whatever your own personal kind of success. It’s different for every person.”

What The Twitter Community Defines As Success

Now that we now what success means from those industry experts, I then asked the exact same question on Twitter. Within just hours, over 20 replies flooded in. Many of which were FANTASTIC replies that worth gold (follow them if you like what they say):

	itcn @stanleytang To me, success can only be measured by setting a goal, and then meeting or exceeding that goal, whatever that may be.
	1davidn @stanleytang Contented is my one word answer defining success.
	timage @stanleytang Success is a direction, not a destination
	leplan @stanleytang Success is getting to marry a rich man or a beautiful girl
	davidtensen @stanleytang Success is best defined in hindsight – when attitude is best tested.
	mjhawkins @stanleytang Success is knowing your limitations and having people on your team that are ’smarter’ than you so you can accomplish your goals
	linda3dots @stanleytang I define success as finding joy in being yourself and doing what you are passionate about. When work = play, success follows.
	Aboundlessworld @stanleytang Success is having the courage to follow your dreams.
	karimpirani @stanleytang When one achieves complete and total happiness and fulfillment in one’s personal life…that is MY definition of success
	BecomingTheBest @stanleytang Being the authority, dominant figure and the expert in the chosen niche. The smaller and more focused the better.
	ianandbecky @stanleytang success = acheiving your goals and beyond.Simply not giving up no matter how hard it might seem
	marcpsummers @stanleytang making clients happy, having clients renew year after year, keeping on top of latest trends are three things I class as success
	jjkane @stanleytang being faithful to your values (incld faith), your primary human committments, and being a source of stability and hope
	darreguin @stanleytang Achieving the goals your set. However the trick is, there will always be more so they turn you from success to successful.
	jeanettejoy @stanleytang Success is sharing love doing what you want, when you want while making world better. Can’t go wrong when you start with love.
	melikbilge @stanleytang Success is to do something, and later be able to appreciate that you did it, and how you did it
	passionomics @stanleytang while success certainly does have unique definition to different ppl, i tink happiness is d universal aspect
	WebWealthMaster @stanleytang great question, as it is a very personal and unique definition for all of us!
	kamylynn @stanleytang being happy with all facets of your life =)
	WebWealthMaster @stanleytang Family, Friends, Contributing to collective Joy quality of Life of Others fulfilling personal destiny of Higher Awareness.
	strategicsense @stanleytang success is relative, Stanley. Success is reaching your own goals and setting new ones, all as individual as people.
	catlover_eg @stanleytang To be useful for others.
	KingofSway @stanleytang The Success God reveals through us, when we get out of his way. I call it Success Anonymous ™ Stage Hypnotist Simone
	redacebluzman @stanleytang I define success, in a business sense, as getting paid to do something you’d normally be happy to do for free.

Now we’re back to the question… so what is success? Every guru and Twitterers seem to have different responses. Is it Goals? Passion? Money? Happiness? Success is relative. It’s different for each and one of us. For me, it’s about passion. It’s about being able to do what you love. That’s success to me.

So what’s success to YOU? Leave a comment. Would love to hear

Yesterday, I took a random sentence from a recent interview I conducted for my school’s newsletter and posted it on Twitter. Little did I know by today, the quote has spread like wildfire through Twitter and feel it’s worth a place on my blog:

“You can come up with the greatest idea in the world, but if you ultimately don’t take any action, then nothing is going to happen.” – Stanley Tang

Feel free to share.

For those of you who don’t know yet (and weren’t following me on Twitter), I’m currently starting a new charity with a friend of mine called RevoCreativity. It’s going to be more of a local project here in Hong Kong (unlike my other sites which are targeted to USA) and we’re basically going to hold concerts and events, sell tickets and get sponsors for it for charity, and promote art and music etc.

Personally, I’m pretty excited about this as this is just another example of following your passion and giving back to society. I’ve been an artist pretty much since I was a little kid and won numerous art competitions; I’ve also been playing the piano since I was 6.

Anyways, today, we met up with Philip, who is a local graphics designer. We were suppose to hire him and pay him money to help us create the logo for our charity/website. I was planning to just outsource the design works to a graphics designer on the internet but I guess it’s better to meet them in person

We’ve told them our plan, what we were going to do etc. I guess he was extremely touched by our stories and the fact that we were just two 16 year olds trying to make a difference, and he ended up doing the logo design for us for free.

Just goes to show that when you ask, you will receive. People will be willing to help you out for free if you have a good STORY (just like how I got onto the frontpage of Apple Daily)

Watch this video:

Although this is a mockery, it still raises the question: Does the law of attraction in The Secret really work?

Feel free to comment on your feedback.

Stanley Tang

[tags]law of attraction, the secret[/tags]

An inspirational video from TED about the true meaning of success. Apply these and it will help you in your internet marketing!

[tags]success secrets, internet marketing strategies, internet marketing[/tags]