Mindset, patience, and creativity: Gary Vee and Big Sean on living well

Executive overview

Most people chase success to mask insecurity — the money, the status, the following count — rather than loving the game itself. The result is impatience, entitlement, and a happiness that depends on things going their way.

The antidote is self-awareness: recognise what you actually want, separate external outcomes from internal state, and take radical accountability for both. Creativity, communication, and positivity are practical tools — not aspirational ideas.

The moment you stop chasing the trophy and fall in love with the game, patience becomes the natural path to your ambitions.

Patience and the trap of chasing the wrong thing

• People want success fast because they're chasing a trophy, not the game that earns it
• Success sought to disguise insecurity will never satisfy — it's a dopamine hit, not fulfilment
• Loving the process naturally slows you down in the right way
• Happiness and external outcomes are two separate things; conflating them makes you bitter
• Adversity is the foundation of success — not an obstacle to it
• "Man makes plan and God laughs" — humility about outcomes is a superpower
• Fear is false evidence appearing real; asking "and what if I went back to zero?" breaks it

Self-awareness and accountability

• Self-awareness is the prerequisite: you can't fix a skew you can't see
• The algorithm reflects where your attention already is — you control that
• The world isn't selling you something wrong; you're choosing to buy it
• No politician, no circumstance grants you the control you already have
• Blaming technology for anxiety misses the real driver: over-coddling and entitlement

Creativity is not a special category

• Everyone is creative — lawyers, accountants, parents; you are creating your experience
• "I'm not a creative person" is self-sabotage disguised as self-knowledge
• Creativity starts with listening, not output; most content comes from reading what the audience sends back
• Selfless creation — rooted in what others need — outperforms selfish creation
• Expression has no wrong form: waves, sand, trampolines count as much as music

Big Sean's book Go Higher and the path to writing it

• Inspired by guardian angels: a grandmother who was a Black female WWII captain, a mother who supported rapping at 11 in Detroit
• Jay Shetty reframed the obligation: not everyone has those guides, so share the practices
• Deaths of Kobe, Nipsey Hussle, family members made "do it now" visceral, not philosophical
• The book distils practices from spiritual mentors, musicians, and military veterans into usable tools
• Spiritual practices act as armour: what used to tear him down now bounces off

Social media as the golden era of free attention

• Seven platforms hold a dominant share of human attention — and posting is free
• Followers no longer determine reach; content itself gets distribution now
• This window will close: wearables and new interfaces will shift the game
• Most people rationalise non-participation with philosophical objections (algorithm, shadow bans) rather than skill gaps
• The skill is real and hard; Day Trading Attention is the tactical manual for it

Parenting, balance, and the cost of over-coddling

• "Work-life balance" is the wrong frame; harmony and chapters are more accurate
• You don't remember 99% of what your parents missed — stop pre-loading guilt
• A judge in Singapore realised her absent mother had shown her how to live, not told her
• Eighth-place trophies were well-intentioned and deeply damaging: they teach kids to fear losing
• Your relationship with losing is the direct correlation to your happiness
• Kids need skinned knees, fear, and unstructured adversity — zoo animals don't survive the wild
• Communication to children about why you're absent works; they want you to be happy

Positivity as a neglected competitive advantage

• The world has a stunning number of good people — negativity just markets itself better
• Bad airport experiences go viral; held doors don't — we are selective amplifiers of the negative
• Posting positivity is not self-promotion; it is a practical contribution to the collective mood
• Good people staying quiet is what makes the noise feel like the truth
• One piece of positive content, given how algorithms now work, can reach far beyond your follower count