Nice Guys Finish First: How to Maximize Joy Over Money
The GaryVee Audio Experience
Gary Vaynerchuk
4.8 • 18.3K Ratings
🗓️ 17 March 2026
⏱️ 59 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this episode of the GaryVee Audio Experience, I sit down with Maryam Banikarim to discuss the paradoxes of my public persona, how I define success, and why I believe the most important conversation happening in society is around self-worth. I reveal how being an immigrant shaped my lack of fear and why I believe "nice guys finish first" in the long run. We also dive into my personal "kryptonite"—the inability to give kind candor—and how overcoming it changed my organizations and personal life. Maryam and I get deep into a shared fascination: the crisis of "late adulthood" in society and how modern parenting contributes to angst and entitlement.
You'll learn:
- Why I view business as a sport
- Why "historical pattern recognition" is the blueprint for my "predictions"
- Why I believe the biggest issue in society is not technology, but the lack of "self-esteem and insecurity" in the younger generation.
- Why I prioritize maximizing joy over maximizing money.
- Why I think forgiveness, of others and yourself, is the most underutilized tool for emotional health.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Social media was very easy for me to understand. |
| 0:02.0 | It was cable television. |
| 0:03.0 | It was the television was shit on when it was invented. |
| 0:05.0 | The radio is primary. |
| 0:07.0 | AI is scary? No, it's not. |
| 0:08.0 | It's the same thing we did with electricity. |
| 0:10.0 | Like, I use history as an incredible beacon |
| 0:13.0 | to understand nothing's different and everything's different, |
| 0:16.0 | but I think people lead with fear, and I lead with optimism and history. |
| 0:20.0 | And I reflect both internally about my |
| 0:22.6 | journey but also externally about the human journey and that becomes the data points that I make |
| 0:26.8 | decisions on. This is the Gary Vee audio experience. I am so excited to have you here. I know that |
| 0:34.5 | the audience is going to be particularly excited. You and I met when you were at the early days of starting Vayner Media. Yes. And while I was not a client, |
| 0:42.2 | and I think this is an important thing, when I called you when New York was having a difficult |
| 0:46.5 | time and we pulled together to try and help the city and said, Gary, we need your help. Will |
| 0:51.4 | you give us a PR team to help with the moment for Broadway? |
| 0:55.7 | Without hesitation, you said yes. |
| 0:58.6 | And so, you know, that's a rare thing. |
| 1:01.2 | Because it was not a transaction. |
| 1:02.6 | It was just a relationship, and you didn't have to say yes |
| 1:05.3 | because it's not like I'd been a paying client of yours for years to come. |
| 1:08.8 | And I think it's such an interesting story |
... |
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