Digital marketing mogul Gary Vaynerchuk, who co-founded Resy and Empathy Wines, told Page Six he grew up “poor as f–k, but, “everything was rainbows.”
When we asked “Gary Vee” about his childhood at the 15th annual Pencils of Promise gala, the motivational speaker who immigrated to NYC from the former Soviet Union as a boy told us, “My mom made it awesome… I did not have all these pressures that gave me all this gray hair. I was a kid and I had the best mom of all time, and everything was rainbows, but we were poor as f–k,” he said.
The family later moved to New Jersey where Vaynerchuk worked for his dad’s wine business before launching a direct-to-consumer wine label that was bought in 2020 by Mondavi owner Constellation Brands.
“The reason I am a happy person is because I know I was happy with nothing,” he said.
The CEO of Vayner Media and bestselling author said on the gala’s red carpet that money is not the key to happiness.
“There are unlimited amounts of people that live in houses with no money and aren’t happy,” he said. “But if I told you how many kids have nothing but money — and rich parents — but are deeply unhappy.”
He says that keeping a small circle kept him grounded as he became more successful.
“I have always had a small group of friends,” he told us. “I have more acquaintances now, but the tough part about working all the time is that you have no time for any of that s–t anyway.”
Pencils of Promise helps kids gain access to quality education globally. At the event that raised $1.2 million, honorees included Robert and Dana Hamwee, Natasha Graziano and Matt Britton.
Stars including Debra Messing, Doug E. Fresh and Ja Rule were also given awards.
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