How to Succeed in the Workforce After Graduation | GaryVee 2024 NYU Commencement Speech

The GaryVee Audio Experience

Gary Vaynerchuk

Business, Marketing, Entrepreneurship

4.8 • 18.1K Ratings

🗓️ 23 May 2025

⏱️ 16 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This is my 2024 commencement speech at NYU Stern — one of the most important talks I’ve given.

I break down what graduating students actually need to know before entering the real world. This isn’t about hype or theory — it’s about the mindset and clarity you’ll need to succeed in a tough job market and an even tougher business landscape.

We talk about:

Why adversity early in your career is a good thing
How to stop letting other people’s opinions control your decisions
The problem with participation trophies and fearing failure
Why self-awareness and patience matter more than your resume
How to build a career you won’t regret at 80

If you’re a recent grad — or about to become one — this is a message you need to hear.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	I know a lot of you are graduating college, high school.
0:02.5	This is the greatest commencement speech ever given by a human being
0:07.3	according to my mother.
0:09.1	I gave it very recently a year ago at NYU.
0:12.1	I hope you listen to it.
0:13.1	I hope you like it.
0:14.1	I hope it brings you value and most of all I hope you pass it on to a youngster that needs
0:18.1	to hear it.
0:20.0	A lot of transition in the air.
0:22.0	Seems like everybody's moving on.
0:23.9	Congratulations to you too.
0:25.5	And all of you are about to move on.
0:27.2	And I think the thing that I want to most talk about
0:29.6	is all the misconceptions
0:32.2	and the things that aren't true
0:34.8	about the business landscape that people talk about. And more importantly,
0:38.9	how deeply excited I am for all of you. See, the biggest lie that the world says is there is so much
0:47.9	more positivity and opportunity and hope out there than is being sold to us on a daily basis.
0:55.0	I thought a lot about what I wanted to talk about here today, and ironically, it all came
0:59.3	together in the back room when I got to speak to so many of the esteemed guests here.
1:05.0	We talked about a bunch of different things, misconceptions, misunderstandings, and there are many. But the first thing that I want to make sure all of you understand
1:13.6	is that no matter what I, they, they say,
	...

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