Eight family members rotated through a studio apartment in Queens when Gary Vaynerchuk's family arrived from the Soviet Union — a country he compares to present-day North Korea. Getting out meant giving up everything they owned. His mother hid a piece of jewelry in his stockings to smuggle it past customs. He was three. They landed with a couple hundred dollars, eventually settled in New Jersey, and his father, Sasha, took a job as a stock boy in a liquor store, the business he would later build from $3 million in revenue to $60 million.

The son was selling lemonade at seven and trading baseball cards at 14, well enough to outsell adults. He was also a terrible student, by his own account, grounded after every report card. What kept the grades from touching him was his mother, Tamara, who praised him for being kind rather than for anything he accomplished. In this conversation with David Begnaud, he talks about her, about what it took to leave the Soviet Union, and about the knitted Jets jersey she made him when the family couldn't afford a real one. He intends to hang it in the stadium when he buys the New York Jets, with a plaque underneath: from a boy that couldn't afford a jersey to buying the whole damn team.

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ABOUT THIS PODCAST:
The Person Who Believed In Me is hosted by David Begnaud, founder and CEO of Do Good Crew and often called "America's storyteller." In each episode, David sits down with world-class guests to ask one simple question: Who believed in you before the world did? Big names. Honest stories. Relatable takeaways. Different paths — same question.

David is also a CBS News contributor and host of the weekly segment Beg Knows America, which airs every Monday morning.

Host: David Begnaud

Guest: Gary Vaynerchuk

Executive Producer: David Begnaud, Olivier Delfosse, Justin McGoldrick

Booker: Sully Bloch

Director of Photography: Foster Parks

Live Production Technician: Joseph Gabay & Will Whitley (Statik Creative)

Social: Kylee Anderson, Maxim Trofimenko, Gracie Pekrul

Theme Music: Slipstream

Post-Production: Longwave Digital & David & Luana Co.

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