The Morning After: Gary Vaynerchuk’s lessons hit home for me.

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One of my favorite speeches at TECH Cocktail Conference last week was Gary Vaynerchuk, host of Wine Library TV. Other than his eloquent talk on how being a RAT (real, authentic, and transparent) is transforming business, a piece of the Q&A stuck out — and then slapped me in the face the next day.

Someone asked Gary what motivates him and keeps him going. His response surprised me. He said that he’s incredibly grateful for each morning that he wakes up without getting a call in the middle of the night about a family member, friend, or someone he loves having died, and that this fuels his trademark passion and energy.

The very next morning, I received a call at work that one of my favorite XNet customers had recently died. This man had helped me quite a bit a year ago when I bought my first Mac and, was an absolute pleasure to talk to. It shook me, because though I had enjoyed conversing with this man, I hadn’t taken the time to seek him out and build a friendship with him to the degree I had liked. I rationalized that there would be time. Obviously I was wrong.

We make our lives so complicated with everything we’re running after, trying to be, achieve, or experience. I know that I so often forget about these basics and take my loved ones for granted.

Just last night I forced myself away from a fantastic time I was having with the kind of new friends that feel like old friends–to keep my movie date with my mom. Granted, I was two-and-a-half hours late and I felt terrible for that, but at least I made it (it was a Blockbuster nite). We had a wonderful time, just the two of us as my dad was out of town.

I’m glad I kept my date with my mom.