Earlier this month, VICE Media Co-founder and CEO Shane Smith was honored alongside Jay Pharoah at a ceremony held by The Opportunity Network, a New York City nonprofit that prepares talented, low-income students for college, facilitates paid summer internships and teaches them how to build professional networks.

In this video, the brilliantly bearded media maverick dispenses words of wisdom on the rich rewards of making mistakes, what he sees as great business opportunities and where the future of media is heading. Given that VICE has disrupted and domineered digital and TV journalism as we know it for the past few years, it might be worth your time to pay him some mind.