I bought Gary Vaynerchuk’s first book, Crush It! Why Now Is the Time to Cash In On Your Passion, on the way to the airport today. Cracked it as we were pulling away from the gate at the Portland Jetport. Finished it somewhere over Ohio. (South of Columbus is what the captain told the flight attendant I asked—I know you demand accuracy.)
That’s no complaint against the length of the book. It may top out at 142 pages but it’s got more ideas than books three times its length.
The book now has a few dozen dog-eared pages, is filled with black underlines, and is littered w/a number of client’s names followed by exclamation points next to passages that inspired me to think about building there businesses using social media tools. (Chantal, Harbor Fish, and new person who knows she should be working with us, we have to talk.)
The book is part inspirational, part instructive, all Gary. He talks about how passion, hard work and social media tools can be used together to create an unstoppable force. He’s a walking poster boy for his line of thinking, the quintessential coming-to-America story. You can’t look at his history and think he had any advantage over you.
Through 13 chapters he walks you through how to brand yourself no matter where your passion lies. He has real life and hypothetical stories about gardeners, accountants, wine merchants and soccer players. There are chapters about how to create great content, which medium is best for you (blogging, video or audio), how to build a community, and a very short chapter—one word in fact—entitled “The Best Marketing Strategy Ever.”
In Gary’s world it’s not the size of your niche, it’s the depth of your passion.And you know what? I’m drinking the Kool-Aid. (Or maybe the Merlot.)
This book isn’t for everyone. If you’re not willing to take risks, if you’re not willing to share your passion, if you’re not willing to work hard—really, really hard—this book isn’t for you.
But if you’re entrepreneurial in spirit, I strongly recommend you run to your local bookstore or buy it here at Amazon, and soon you too will be able to Crush It!
