Saving, investing, and self-awareness: GaryVee Q&A with high school entrepreneurs

Executive overview

Most young people spend to look good instead of building a financial cushion. Saving first creates the optionality to invest — that's how early bets on Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr were funded on a $50k salary.

The bigger theme across every question is self-awareness: knowing which medium suits you, whether college fits you, whether entrepreneurship is right for you.

The prerequisite to every good financial or career decision is honest self-knowledge.

Saving vs investing

• Saved $10k/year on a $50k salary by not spending on status
• Early savings funded angel investments in Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr
• Always maintain a rainy day fund — investing and saving are not mutually exclusive
• Most 20–30-year-olds fail here: spending to project an image, then panicking when income drops
• Find your own balance between liquidity and deployed capital

Investing principles

• Invest in things you actually know and use — brands, businesses, products you understand
• Lululemon, Netflix, Tesla rewarded young investors who understood them as customers
• Crypto and NFTs carry extreme speculation risk; 99% of tokens will go to zero
• Stock market is safer default than NFT markets for most people right now
• Chasing tips from others without personal understanding is the core mistake

Content creation and media

• Focus on free platforms — TikTok, YouTube, Instagram — where barriers to entry are zero
• Both long-form (streaming) and short-form video will keep growing
• New platforms will emerge; decentralized social networks on blockchain are coming
• Match format to your natural strengths: camera, writing, voice — all have outlets
• Self-awareness of how you best create matters more than chasing any one platform

Blockchain and AI

• Deepfakes are the most urgent emerging problem — AI-generated video of anyone saying anything
• Blockchain's biggest near-term use case is proof of provenance: verifying what's real
• The NFT speculation wave is not where the real blockchain opportunity lies
• Getting educated in AI and blockchain technology is the high-leverage move for young people
• Becoming competent in the space beats speculating in it

VR and the future

• VR is inevitable; people currently in high school will live inside it
• Could reshape where people live, how meetings happen, and how influence works
• Expect new influencer ecosystems to emerge natively inside VR environments
• Zoom is the halfway point; VR makes geography largely irrelevant

College and education

• College is right for some — structured environments, clear career pipelines
• Forcing the wrong person into college and into debt is the real disaster
• In 10 years, maybe 70% of a class goes to college instead of 100%
• Schools banning ChatGPT are "forcing kids to ride horses after the car was invented"
• The question isn't college vs no college — it's whether it fits who you are

Building a public profile

• Putting yourself out there is an opportunity, not a requirement
• It only works if you're actually good — visibility amplifies quality and mediocrity equally
• Real costs exist: public criticism, loss of privacy, constant scrutiny
• Introverts and private people are not making a mistake by staying off social media
• Gary didn't know he loved teaching or public speaking until he started doing it at 34

Advice to a 16-year-old self

• Being genuinely kind to everyone — regardless of social cost — pays long-term dividends
• If college isn't right for you, lean into work ethic and natural talent instead
• Entrepreneurship is fashionable now; many people are better suited as operator number two or three
• Know what you actually want, not what parents, teachers, or culture expects
• Self-awareness is the real competitive advantage