The James Altucher Show

Comedy is brutal. If the audience doesn't know you, they WILL judge you. That's true for most things (you can't walk down the sidewalk in New York City without being judged at least a hundred times). Bonnie said you have to know your audience. I wondered "how though?" I gave an example, "Okay so do you try to figure out how old the audience is, what gender they are, sexual orientation, race, how much they drank or didn't drink, etc.?" "No, I usually just think, 'Okay, blue collar, I'll do my marriage stuff." It was that easy. That's professionalism. That's professional judgement. That's comedy. And the path to likability. Bonnie has a joke about using the GPS. "In Brooklyn I'm not going to do driving material. I have a really funny GPS joke that I can't do in the city because nobody drives. "I'm so immature about it," she said. She makes fun of the audience... They didn't ALWAYS live in the city. "Sometimes it irritates me. I'm like I know you understand what GPS is, if you saw this in a movie you'd get it, so don't just sit there like 'oh not my experience'." I learned you can lose likability as quickly as you gain it, though. And that scared me. But Bonnie doesn't care. "I like when the audience is scared for you. If they don't laugh at something I think is funny, I lash out. Sometimes we start in a love fest, then I insult them and them maybe we still end in a love fest." Her process is her art. She has hundred of jokes. "The premises just come," she said. She takes from life. The premises are there all the time," she said. "I just write whatever happens to be in front of me." Right now she's working on a joke: "what if your therapist was a Syrian refugee?" I think I did more laughing than questioning in this interview. I hope you do too. You can read my show notes here: https://jamesaltucher.com/2017/10/bonnie-mcfarlane/ And don't forget to subscribe to "The James Altucher Show" on Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcasts! ------------What do YOU think of the show? Head to JamesAltucherShow.com/listeners and fill out a short survey that will help us better tailor the podcast to our audience!Are you interested in getting direct answers from James about your question on a podcast? Go to JamesAltucherShow.com/AskAltucher and send in your questions to be answered on the air!------------Visit Notepd.com to read our idea lists & sign up to create your own!My new book, Skip the Line, is out! Make sure you get a copy wherever books are sold!Join the You Should Run for President 2.0 Facebook Group, where we discuss why you should run for President.I write about all my podcasts! Check out the full post and learn what I learned at jamesaltuchershow.com------------Thank you so much for listening! If you like this episode, please rate, review, and subscribe to "The James Altucher Show" wherever you get your podcasts: Apple PodcastsiHeart RadioSpotifyFollow me on social media:YouTubeTwitterFacebookLinkedIn See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

AJ's about to launch a TV show. A few months ago he started a podcast. He's 49 years old. And it all started because he decided to write a book on a weird idea he had. "I wonder what it would be like to live the Bible." It's especially weird if you consider the fact that he's Jewish. AJ is a living example that anyone at age 49 could've decided to do this idea. Anyone at ANY age could've done this idea. He told me to be curious about everything. "Even things you're not curious about." That didn't make sense to me. How do you do that? "Read books you don't think are interesting," he said. Explore new podcasts, watch old movies. Then observe yourself. One of the original Saturday Night Live writers, Alan Zweibel, said you need to have two heads. "The head that's having an experience and the head that's observing." That's how you find your next big idea or small step forward in your life. You peel back the layers crusted on top of yourself. You dig into fresh layers and discover something new. AJ calls is "Fun-comfortable" (it's the intersection between discomfort and curiosity). This episode teaches you how to find that intersection. Thanks for reading! Make sure to check out the show notes here: https://jamesaltucher.com/2017/10/aj-jacobs-3/ And don't forget to subscribe to "The James Altucher Show" on Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcasts! ------------What do YOU think of the show? Head to JamesAltucherShow.com/listeners and fill out a short survey that will help us better tailor the podcast to our audience!Are you interested in getting direct answers from James about your question on a podcast? Go to JamesAltucherShow.com/AskAltucher and send in your questions to be answered on the air!------------Visit Notepd.com to read our idea lists & sign up to create your own!My new book, Skip the Line, is out! Make sure you get a copy wherever books are sold!Join the You Should Run for President 2.0 Facebook Group, where we discuss why you should run for President.I write about all my podcasts! Check out the full post and learn what I learned at jamesaltuchershow.com------------Thank you so much for listening! If you like this episode, please rate, review, and subscribe to "The James Altucher Show" wherever you get your podcasts: Apple PodcastsiHeart RadioSpotifyFollow me on social media:YouTubeTwitterFacebookLinkedIn See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

"If you do not do what you love, that's on you," Gary said. Years ago, no one believed you could choose yourself. You needed gatekeepers. Now we have YouTube, Instagram. "Now it's the standard," Gary said. If you cut out all the reason why you can't do something, then you cut out all the infrastructural and financial problems stopping you. "The only thing left is your f-cking head." Gary set up this example (and this podcast is full of them): Pokemon. Imagine this is your passion. First, you blog. Then it becomes a video blog. Then a podcast. "Let's say you become the foremost Pokemon gal, 'Sally the Pokemon Gal.' You're owning it. You go to Comic-Con, you get random sponsorships on your blog. You're getting by. And then, Pokemon-GO comes out. Now you're on CNN and FOX. You're getting paid $5,000 to give a talk. The world has just walked in to you." That's key. "Everybody who's listening right now is looking for trends. They're trying to walk to where the world is now and by the time they get there, the world moved on. If you go to your thing and set a f-cking flag on your thing, the world comes to you." Read the full article (and top 10 lessons I Learned from Gary Vaynerchuk: https://jamesaltucher.com/2017/10/gary-vaynerchuck/ And don't forget to subscribe to "The James Altucher Show" on Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcasts! ------------What do YOU think of the show? Head to JamesAltucherShow.com/listeners and fill out a short survey that will help us better tailor the podcast to our audience!Are you interested in getting direct answers from James about your question on a podcast? Go to JamesAltucherShow.com/AskAltucher and send in your questions to be answered on the air!------------Visit Notepd.com to read our idea lists & sign up to create your own!My new book, Skip the Line, is out! Make sure you get a copy wherever books are sold!Join the You Should Run for President 2.0 Facebook Group, where we discuss why you should run for President.I write about all my podcasts! Check out the full post and learn what I learned at jamesaltuchershow.com------------Thank you so much for listening! If you like this episode, please rate, review, and subscribe to "The James Altucher Show" wherever you get your podcasts: Apple PodcastsiHeart RadioSpotifyFollow me on social media:YouTubeTwitterFacebookLinkedIn See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

"Life is inherently risky. We make up all of these rules in life about what's gonna keep us safe," Amy Morin told me. She's the author "13 Things Mentally Strong People Don't Do." It was originally just a list she wrote for herself. Her husband died suddenly. Just after the three-year anniversary of her mom's death. "I thought my mission in life was to teach people how to be mentally strong, and I didn't realize how much I was going to need mental strength," she said. This podcast teaches you the skills to become mentally strong. To practice every day. Make sure to read the full show notes here: https://jamesaltucher.com/2017/10/amy-morin/ And don't forget to subscribe to "The James Altucher Show" on Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcasts! ------------What do YOU think of the show? Head to JamesAltucherShow.com/listeners and fill out a short survey that will help us better tailor the podcast to our audience!Are you interested in getting direct answers from James about your question on a podcast? Go to JamesAltucherShow.com/AskAltucher and send in your questions to be answered on the air!------------Visit Notepd.com to read our idea lists & sign up to create your own!My new book, Skip the Line, is out! Make sure you get a copy wherever books are sold!Join the You Should Run for President 2.0 Facebook Group, where we discuss why you should run for President.I write about all my podcasts! Check out the full post and learn what I learned at jamesaltuchershow.com------------Thank you so much for listening! If you like this episode, please rate, review, and subscribe to "The James Altucher Show" wherever you get your podcasts: Apple PodcastsiHeart RadioSpotifyFollow me on social media:YouTubeTwitterFacebookLinkedIn See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

To me, Nancy Cartwright is the most unknown famous person. She's the voice of Bart Simpson. "When I went in for "The Simpsons", the audition pieces of Bart and Lisa were sitting right next to each other. Hers said 8-year-old middle child. His a ten-year-old, school-hating underachiever, and proud of it." Nancy's instict kicked in. "I'm like 'Oh bam bam that's it.'" She tried out for Bart. And got it. Her whole career is based off of instinct. "I read this book about writing and producing," she said. "It was an awesome book written a number of years ago. It said, 'Ride the horse in the direction that it's going.'" Her career as a voice actor became real acting and she landed roles in "Cheers," "Richie Rich," "Twilight Zone." Now she has her own production company, "Spotted Cow." ANd just released "In Search of Fellini," a beautiful film about her search for the most influential artist in her heart. "This film was probably 75-85 percent true," she said. "It's mostly true." In this podcast, Nancy tells us how she traveled alone to Italy in her mid 20's. And followed her heart and instincts ever since. We speak about how this film really comes full circle for her and gives meaning to her life. This is the journey to find your authentic self. Also thank you to Audible for supporting today's show. Audible content includes an unmatched selection of audiobooks, original audio shows, news, comedy, and more from the leading publishers, broadcasters, entertainers, and business information providers. You can read my show notes here: https://jamesaltucher.com/2017/09/nancy-cartwright/ And don't forget to subscribe to "The James Altucher Show" on Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcasts! ------------What do YOU think of the show? Head to JamesAltucherShow.com/listeners and fill out a short survey that will help us better tailor the podcast to our audience!Are you interested in getting direct answers from James about your question on a podcast? Go to JamesAltucherShow.com/AskAltucher and send in your questions to be answered on the air!------------Visit Notepd.com to read our idea lists & sign up to create your own!My new book, Skip the Line, is out! Make sure you get a copy wherever books are sold!Join the You Should Run for President 2.0 Facebook Group, where we discuss why you should run for President.I write about all my podcasts! Check out the full post and learn what I learned at jamesaltuchershow.com------------Thank you so much for listening! If you like this episode, please rate, review, and subscribe to "The James Altucher Show" wherever you get your podcasts: Apple PodcastsiHeart RadioSpotifyFollow me on social media:YouTubeTwitterFacebookLinkedIn See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

"Life is tough...and it's also miraculous." T-Boz and TLC sold 70 million albums, becoming the bestselling girl band ever in America. Along the way they declared bankruptcy, she battled sickle-cell anemia, the death of one of their bandmates and best friends, a brain tumor, everything. She's 47 today and beat two life sentences the doctors declared on her. People say, "Well, she sold 70 million albums! That's success!" When you do your absolute best today, even though you know tomorrow everything can change - that's success. I had T-Boz on the podcast to celebrate the release of her new memoir, "A Sick Life" which I highly recommend. REINVENTION IS EVERY DAY TLC sold 70 million albums and is the #1 selling girl band in America. But to stay creative, T-Boz and her bandmates, Left-eye, and Chili had to constantly develop music that stayed fresh and relevant. 15 years after they started, they released their 5th album REMEMBERING THE ABOVE I always say "Reinvention is every day" ever since my book, "Reinvent Yourself" came out. But I'll be honest, just as hard is remembering every day that "reinvention every day". The straight and narrow and supposedly easy path is constantly whispering to me to follow it. But don't. IDEA SEX Other groups were R&B, other groups were rap, other groups were funk. How do you be the best? T-Boz (funk) + Left-Eye (Rap) + Chili (R&B) = TLC = 70 million albums PERSISTENCE Sickle-cell anemia is debilitating. You're not supposed to live. The blood cells don't want to deliver oxygen to the rest of your body. The pain is incredible. T-Boz's brain tumor took three years to recover from. The death of her best friend and band-mate took 2 years to recover from. Going bankrupt after selling tens of millions of albums forced her to start from scratch. Reinventing in a constantly changing music business is the downfall of many artists. For their last album, TLC even used Kickstarted to fund it as opposed to a record label. Success is about reinvention and persistent every day. IF YOU'RE AN ARTIST, KNOW THE BUSINESS A lot of creatives don't want to read the contracts or fine print. TLC didn't read it as well and ended up making almost no money on their first 30 million albums. At one point they even held up music legend, Clive Davis, at gun point, asking, "Where's our money". They went bankrupt and had to start from scratch. Don't outsource your financial well-being and the security of your family to others. SICKNESS AND PAIN No matter who you are, life is going to happen. "Life is tough". T-Boz had painful sickle-cell anemia since birth and often had to be hospitalized mid-album, mid-tour, mid-whatever. "When I was seven they told me I wouldn't live past 30. I'm 47 now." "They told me I couldn't have kids. I have two now." "When they did brain surgery, they told me I might never sing again. I'm on tour now with our latest album." Then she lost her best friend and band-mate, Left-eye, to a car crash. She was depressed for two years. Then she had a brain tumor that required surgery and three years of physical therapy to recover from. "I still can't whistle," she told me. "Try," I said. So she did. She couldn't whistle. "I can't move the muscles on the left side of my mouth." But throughout the podcast she laughed. "And I'm going back on tour tomorrow." CREATIVITY HAS MANY OUTLETS T-Boz has written songs, performed them, did the choreography for TLC's videos, conceived of the videos, written a book of poems, written movies, and now this memoir. People sometimes say, "I can't be creative". Or, "I don't have the talent". Or "I can do X, but not Y". Not true. Creativity is a muscle. Find some small way to be creative every day and the muscle gets developed. For me, today is the first day I'm going to try to do standup in the same day at two different clubs. I'm scared. Find one thing scary and challenging and creative every... See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Ken Follett is a well-known Welsh novelist who specializes in writing spy thrillers novels and has sold over 160 million copies worldwide. Before he became a novelist he was a reporter for the London Evening News and was a Deputy Managing Director for a small publishing house, Everest Books. In his spare time he wrote novels, but he wrote a dozen before finding success. Eye of the Needle, his eleventh book, was his first successful novel published in 1978. His novel The Pillars of the Earth was on The New York Times bestsellers list for 18 weeks in 1989. This novel has been so incredibly popular all over the world for many years. In 2007 it became the #1 most popular choice on the Oprah Winfrey Book Club and returned to The New York Times bestsellers list at #1. Follett's newest novel, Edge of Eternity, is the final novel of his Century Trilogy and available today! ------------What do YOU think of the show? Head to JamesAltucherShow.com/listeners and fill out a short survey that will help us better tailor the podcast to our audience!Are you interested in getting direct answers from James about your question on a podcast? Go to JamesAltucherShow.com/AskAltucher and send in your questions to be answered on the air!------------Visit Notepd.com to read our idea lists & sign up to create your own!My new book, Skip the Line, is out! Make sure you get a copy wherever books are sold!Join the You Should Run for President 2.0 Facebook Group, where we discuss why you should run for President.I write about all my podcasts! Check out the full post and learn what I learned at jamesaltuchershow.com------------Thank you so much for listening! If you like this episode, please rate, review, and subscribe to "The James Altucher Show" wherever you get your podcasts: Apple PodcastsiHeart RadioSpotifyFollow me on social media:YouTubeTwitterFacebookLinkedIn See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Marcus Lemonis is a self-made millionaire, serial entrepreneur and the front man of CNBC's popular series, "The Profit". Since an early age Marcus has always had an entrepreneurial spirit and passion. When he was twelve he started his own lawn mowing business to generate enough money to open a candy store. After he graduated college, he started in automotive sales and managerial positions which ultimately led him to get involved in the camping and RV business. Today he is the CEO of Camping World, a company specializing in products and services for RV owners. On "The Profit" Marcus lends his expertise and experience to help struggling businesses get back on their feet. Since the show premiered in 2013, he's invested $50 million of his own money into the businesses featured on the show. On each and every episode Marcus uses his 3P formula, People/Process/Product, to analyze the pitfalls and how to improve the product and process. Marcus' charm, results driven attitude and passion for people has left an impression on the entrepreneurial industry that can't be matched. Start watching "The Profit", today! ------------What do YOU think of the show? Head to JamesAltucherShow.com/listeners and fill out a short survey that will help us better tailor the podcast to our audience!Are you interested in getting direct answers from James about your question on a podcast? Go to JamesAltucherShow.com/AskAltucher and send in your questions to be answered on the air!------------Visit Notepd.com to read our idea lists & sign up to create your own!My new book, Skip the Line, is out! Make sure you get a copy wherever books are sold!Join the You Should Run for President 2.0 Facebook Group, where we discuss why you should run for President.I write about all my podcasts! Check out the full post and learn what I learned at jamesaltuchershow.com------------Thank you so much for listening! If you like this episode, please rate, review, and subscribe to "The James Altucher Show" wherever you get your podcasts: Apple PodcastsiHeart RadioSpotifyFollow me on social media:YouTubeTwitterFacebookLinkedIn See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Jim Kwik is a leading expert in memory improvement, brain performance, speed reading and learning. But before he became the expert, he suffered a brain injury. And that made it really hard for him to learn. "If knowledge is power than learning is a superpower," he said in this conversation. He's figured out how to increase his brain power and memory. And now, you can learn the tricks that he's taught to high profile clients like Elon Musk, Nike, Virgin, Will Smith, and more. His online courses have helped students in over 100 countries. He's the founder of Kwik Learning and host of "Kwik Brain" podcast. Unlock your brain's power NOW. And enjoy this episode. ------------What do YOU think of the show? Head to JamesAltucherShow.com/listeners and fill out a short survey that will help us better tailor the podcast to our audience!Are you interested in getting direct answers from James about your question on a podcast? Go to JamesAltucherShow.com/AskAltucher and send in your questions to be answered on the air!------------Visit Notepd.com to read our idea lists & sign up to create your own!My new book, Skip the Line, is out! Make sure you get a copy wherever books are sold!Join the You Should Run for President 2.0 Facebook Group, where we discuss why you should run for President.I write about all my podcasts! Check out the full post and learn what I learned at jamesaltuchershow.com------------Thank you so much for listening! If you like this episode, please rate, review, and subscribe to "The James Altucher Show" wherever you get your podcasts: Apple PodcastsiHeart RadioSpotifyFollow me on social media:YouTubeTwitterFacebookLinkedIn See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Paul Shaffer has lived through five decades of music. He got his first big break was he was hired on the spot by Stephen Schwartz to be the musical director in Toronto's production of "Godspell". The cast included Martin Short, Gilda Radner, Eugene Levy, Andrea Martin and Victor Garber. The show was a huge hit and launched Paul's career. Paul was a featured performer and a musical composer for the first five years of Saturday Night Live. But he's best known for being David Letterman's sidekick and musical director on _The David Letterman Show_ for over thirty years. He got to play with some of the most popular musicians of our generation including Bob Dylan, Mick Jagger, Tina Turner and Ringo Starr. You can read his memoir _We'll Be Here for the Rest of Our Lives_ or listen to his newest album "Paul Shaffer & The World's Most Dangerous Band". ------------What do YOU think of the show? Head to JamesAltucherShow.com/listeners and fill out a short survey that will help us better tailor the podcast to our audience!Are you interested in getting direct answers from James about your question on a podcast? Go to JamesAltucherShow.com/AskAltucher and send in your questions to be answered on the air!------------Visit Notepd.com to read our idea lists & sign up to create your own!My new book, Skip the Line, is out! Make sure you get a copy wherever books are sold!Join the You Should Run for President 2.0 Facebook Group, where we discuss why you should run for President.I write about all my podcasts! Check out the full post and learn what I learned at jamesaltuchershow.com------------Thank you so much for listening! If you like this episode, please rate, review, and subscribe to "The James Altucher Show" wherever you get your podcasts: Apple PodcastsiHeart RadioSpotifyFollow me on social media:YouTubeTwitterFacebookLinkedIn See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Brandon Webb served as a Navy Seal for almost ten years. He decided to leave. He was burnt out and he wanted to watch his kids grow up. And he's had a philosophy since he was thirteen, if he's not enjoying what he's doing he's going to find something different. When he left the military he got into real estate, then he got four years into a business that failed and then after all that he got divorced. He had hit the bottom. But he learned how to pull himself back up. He started a blog as a passion project and turned it into a very profitable media company. Today, he is the CEO of the media and E-commerce business, Hurricane Group, Inc. which focuses on military news and entertainment and outdoor products and clubs. He is a New York Times bestselling author of The Killing School and The Red Circle. Look for his newest book, Total Focus that is now available. ------------What do YOU think of the show? Head to JamesAltucherShow.com/listeners and fill out a short survey that will help us better tailor the podcast to our audience!Are you interested in getting direct answers from James about your question on a podcast? Go to JamesAltucherShow.com/AskAltucher and send in your questions to be answered on the air!------------Visit Notepd.com to read our idea lists & sign up to create your own!My new book, Skip the Line, is out! Make sure you get a copy wherever books are sold!Join the You Should Run for President 2.0 Facebook Group, where we discuss why you should run for President.I write about all my podcasts! Check out the full post and learn what I learned at jamesaltuchershow.com------------Thank you so much for listening! If you like this episode, please rate, review, and subscribe to "The James Altucher Show" wherever you get your podcasts: Apple PodcastsiHeart RadioSpotifyFollow me on social media:YouTubeTwitterFacebookLinkedIn See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Geno Bisconte is the most hilarious, high energy person I've ever met. He finds humor in almost every single sentence and he's always in a good mood. He's been a stand up comedian for more than fifteen years, headlining and hosting some of the most popular comedy clubs in New York City. He's written for the Comedy Central Roasts, featured on multiple radio shows and was a cameo in HBO's series Crashing. Every week he hosts his own podcast, In Hot Water with Aaron Berg on compoundmedia.com and his newest album, Uncle Geno Is Amazing is available to buy now on iTunes. ------------What do YOU think of the show? Head to JamesAltucherShow.com/listeners and fill out a short survey that will help us better tailor the podcast to our audience!Are you interested in getting direct answers from James about your question on a podcast? Go to JamesAltucherShow.com/AskAltucher and send in your questions to be answered on the air!------------Visit Notepd.com to read our idea lists & sign up to create your own!My new book, Skip the Line, is out! Make sure you get a copy wherever books are sold!Join the You Should Run for President 2.0 Facebook Group, where we discuss why you should run for President.I write about all my podcasts! Check out the full post and learn what I learned at jamesaltuchershow.com------------Thank you so much for listening! If you like this episode, please rate, review, and subscribe to "The James Altucher Show" wherever you get your podcasts: Apple PodcastsiHeart RadioSpotifyFollow me on social media:YouTubeTwitterFacebookLinkedIn See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Alex Blumberg is the founder and CEO of Gimlet Media. Before this, he was an incredibly successful radio journalist. He won multiple awards in the industry. Alex hosted and produced popular NPR shows, "Planet Money" and "This American Life". When he saw the new industry of podcasting booming, he risked it all and reinvented himself. He started his own company. Today Gimlet Media oversees and produces multiple podcasts at one time. Visit gimletmedia.com to discover a variety of new podcasts you can start listening to today! ------------What do YOU think of the show? Head to JamesAltucherShow.com/listeners and fill out a short survey that will help us better tailor the podcast to our audience!Are you interested in getting direct answers from James about your question on a podcast? Go to JamesAltucherShow.com/AskAltucher and send in your questions to be answered on the air!------------Visit Notepd.com to read our idea lists & sign up to create your own!My new book, Skip the Line, is out! Make sure you get a copy wherever books are sold!Join the You Should Run for President 2.0 Facebook Group, where we discuss why you should run for President.I write about all my podcasts! Check out the full post and learn what I learned at jamesaltuchershow.com------------Thank you so much for listening! If you like this episode, please rate, review, and subscribe to "The James Altucher Show" wherever you get your podcasts: Apple PodcastsiHeart RadioSpotifyFollow me on social media:YouTubeTwitterFacebookLinkedIn See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

After a long journalism career, Chris Anderson became the curator of the TED Conference in 2002. Since then he has expanded the conference to cover all topics including science, business and global issues. He introduced the TEDx initiative, giving licenses free of charge to local organizers who want to put together their own live event. In 2016, Chris published his book, "TED Talks: The Official TED Guide to Public Speaking". It's an insider's guide to creating an unforgettable talk. Listen to thousands of free TED Talks on ted.com and follow Chris on twitter @TEDchris. ------------What do YOU think of the show? Head to JamesAltucherShow.com/listeners and fill out a short survey that will help us better tailor the podcast to our audience!Are you interested in getting direct answers from James about your question on a podcast? Go to JamesAltucherShow.com/AskAltucher and send in your questions to be answered on the air!------------Visit Notepd.com to read our idea lists & sign up to create your own!My new book, Skip the Line, is out! Make sure you get a copy wherever books are sold!Join the You Should Run for President 2.0 Facebook Group, where we discuss why you should run for President.I write about all my podcasts! Check out the full post and learn what I learned at jamesaltuchershow.com------------Thank you so much for listening! If you like this episode, please rate, review, and subscribe to "The James Altucher Show" wherever you get your podcasts: Apple PodcastsiHeart RadioSpotifyFollow me on social media:YouTubeTwitterFacebookLinkedIn See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Noah Kagan was fired from Facebook. He was employee #30. "I think they made the right decision to fire me," he said. "One of the big realizations I've had in the past few years is that people need to stop fighting their natural skill. My sweet spot is getting things going. My sweet spot is promoting products I love. That was the lesson learned. What I was strong at was not what Facebook needed anymore." He wrote about it in his free ebook "How I Lost 170 Million Dollars: My Time as #30 at Facebook". I asked him "how does the average person know what their strong at?" That's what we talk about in this interview. Today, Noah is the CEO of sumo.com, appsumo.com and kingsumo.com. I use these sites to grow and market my business. He also hosts a great podcast, "Noah Kagan Presents" and writes for his blog, okdork.com. 3 min - Noah first came on my podcast 2 years ago. He gave me a challenge: go to a coffee shop and ask for 10% off. The cashier was confused. "You want what?" "10% off," I said. And I didn't give a reason either. My face was emotionless. She asked her Dad. "We don't do that," he said. I could feel myself about to throw up. I was going against the normal social protocol. And endangering my life. Any time you step out of your comfort zone and risk being thrown out of the tribe, it signals a reaction in your brain: fear. But now it's much easier. I do challengers almost everyday. Noah does too. And he shared them on his podcast "Noah Kagan Presents." We talk about more challenges you can do in this interview. 6 min - "I've been experimenting with habits and figuring out how to focus on the essentials," Noah said. "That's where I'm really starting to explore." He gave me an example. "Look at your phone right now. What apps have you not used in the last 6 months? Delete them." He does this with relationships, business, everything. "It helps me realize what really matters," he said. And appreciate more of the people and places and things he interacts with. I did a similar thing about a year ago, but in a much more macro level. I got rid of everything I owned. Except 15 items. Noah asked me what I miss. "Nothing," I said. I lied (by accident). A few special things came to mind. But, more importantly, it's been a year and I haven't replaced it rebought anything I threw away. 9 min - After I got rid of 40 years worth of stuff, I had nowhere to live, so I started another experiment. I threw myself at the mercy of my friends... 10 min - Noah says he doesn't want to hate his week so he did a week of nothing. "I had no meetings, I had no one to be around and I was alone for a week." He started at point zero. And added back the essentials. "What things really matter in my life? What places? What people?" 11 min - I told Noah what I learned from getting rid of all my belongings... 13 min - "People think of dieting only in health, but can you have a diet in friendships? Look at all the things that are weighing on you," Noah said, "and start having a diet." 16 min - Noah was the 30th employee at Facebook. "Why were you fired?" I asked. He told me about the guy who fired him. "He's rich," he said. "But I think they made the right decision to fire me. One of the big realizations I've had in the past few years is people need to stop fighting their natural skill. I call it their sweet spot and my sweet spot is starting out." Facebook didn't need that skill anymore. So they got rid of him. I wanted to know how the average person finds out what their sweet spot is... 19 min - Noah recommends trying these two strategies to find what you're really good at. 24 min - I tell Noah one of my signature jokes from my stand up comedy... 27 min - Noah told me about his mentor, Jonathan Coon. He founded 1-800-Contacts and funded the movie Napoleon Dynamite. He has a strategy to "reduce friction in his life." He goes to the same restaurants and overtips... See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Ramit Sethi is a bestselling author, personal finance advisor, entrepreneur and author of "New York Times" bestselling book, "I Will Teach You to be Rich". He's taught thousands to manage their personal finances and how to become rich on his website, iwillteachyoutoberich.com. He's been featured in ABC News, CNN and the WSJ. ------------What do YOU think of the show? Head to JamesAltucherShow.com/listeners and fill out a short survey that will help us better tailor the podcast to our audience!Are you interested in getting direct answers from James about your question on a podcast? Go to JamesAltucherShow.com/AskAltucher and send in your questions to be answered on the air!------------Visit Notepd.com to read our idea lists & sign up to create your own!My new book, Skip the Line, is out! Make sure you get a copy wherever books are sold!Join the You Should Run for President 2.0 Facebook Group, where we discuss why you should run for President.I write about all my podcasts! Check out the full post and learn what I learned at jamesaltuchershow.com------------Thank you so much for listening! If you like this episode, please rate, review, and subscribe to "The James Altucher Show" wherever you get your podcasts: Apple PodcastsiHeart RadioSpotifyFollow me on social media:YouTubeTwitterFacebookLinkedIn See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Ramit Sethi is a bestselling author, personal finance advisor, entrepreneur and author of "New York Times" bestselling book, "I Will Teach You to be Rich". He's taught thousands to manage their personal finances and how to become rich on his website, iwillteachyoutoberich.com. He's been featured in ABC News, CNN and the WSJ. ------------What do YOU think of the show? Head to JamesAltucherShow.com/listeners and fill out a short survey that will help us better tailor the podcast to our audience!Are you interested in getting direct answers from James about your question on a podcast? Go to JamesAltucherShow.com/AskAltucher and send in your questions to be answered on the air!------------Visit Notepd.com to read our idea lists & sign up to create your own!My new book, Skip the Line, is out! Make sure you get a copy wherever books are sold!Join the You Should Run for President 2.0 Facebook Group, where we discuss why you should run for President.I write about all my podcasts! Check out the full post and learn what I learned at jamesaltuchershow.com------------Thank you so much for listening! If you like this episode, please rate, review, and subscribe to "The James Altucher Show" wherever you get your podcasts: Apple PodcastsiHeart RadioSpotifyFollow me on social media:YouTubeTwitterFacebookLinkedIn See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Mark Manson is a writer, blogger and author of the "New York Times" bestseller, "The Subtle Art of Not Giving A F-ck". Visit his blog, markmanson.net, to read some of his best articles on self improvement, dating and relationships, culture and life choices. 2 mins - I tell Mark why I didn't initially want him in the show... and why I changed my mind 4 mins - Mark and I first met at a friend's poker game. then I ran into him a few weeks later. But I didn't remember meeting. "Hi I'm James," I said. Then I remembered. And I realized he was the guy from the poker game... the guy who's name I kept trying to figure out all night. "I just thought you were a chill guy," Mark said. We laughed. That's how I'd like to start all new moments in life. With a laugh. 8 min - Mark says where he got the inspiration to write his bestselling book, "The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck" 10 min - We talk about what "giving a fuck" actually means. And how to decide what's worthwhile. "I joke around with a lot of people," Mark said. "I say I wanted to write a book about values...but I knew if I wrote a book about values no one would read it. So I put the F word everywhere. Because essentially what giving a fuck is is you are deciding what you care about. You are deciding what you value in your life." 12 min - So then I ask Mark how you get started? 14 min - We talk about people pleasing. And self absorption. "It's very common in the self help world to say, 'Be true to yourself and follow your feelings.' That's nice and everything, but if I went out to 6th Avenue and started peeing on the corner just because I feel like it..." I interrupted. "Is that your true passion? Peeing in 6th Ave. That's your truth?" "Yes this is my truth at the moment..." Then he got serious. "We live in a society. We're inner-dependent on each other in many ways. So there's tension between what you yourself want and what's also good for the community around you. And that's hard. I think a lot of people suffer because that balance has gotten out of whack too far one way or the other. Either their constantly people-pleasing or they're constantly selfish and self-absorbed." 15 min - I feel everyone starts out people pleasing. And adulthood is when you cross into being more independent. Not necessary self absorbed, but the part of your brain that works to increase your livelihood and sense of survival kicks in. And the struggle is to let go of the "people pleasing" aspect. The part of you that needs approval. I still struggle with this. "Choosing yourself" is choosing to give yourself the stamp of approval. I try this everyday. 17 min - Mark sold drugs when he was 13. Someone told the principal and he got kicked out of school. Six months later his parents got a divorce. 22 min - So I asked, "What do you think your parents could have or should have done differently in this situation?" 28 min - There's a trick to having a good relationship, he told me... it's sort of an equation. Or a scale. 31 min - He fell into a "bottomless pit" of approval. He chased every woman on campus. And learned the rules of attraction. He told me about the really sleazy pick up lines he'd use. "Does that stuff work?"I asked. "It attracts really insecure women," he said. And that led to his dating theory: you end up attracting what you put out. 33 min - He took what he learned about dating to build a coaching business. 35 min - We talk about Tucker Max's books and how they're often taken the wrong way. 41 min - Mark started traveling and living off his online business. He got serious about his writing. 43 min - Mark explains the attachment theory 45 min - He read "The Four Hour Workweek," by Tim Ferriss. And based his nomadic life around it. But traveling forced Mark into avoiding intimacy. He kept leaving friends behind. And later learned what he really wanted... 47 min - I asked Mark, "When did you start... See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

DO SOMETHING YOU LOVE, TO BUILD A LIFE WORTH LOVING "I was shot twice by the time I was 13," Wally told me. "I owned six guns. Everyone I grew up with then is dead," he said. He then walked back to his side of the ping pong table. He took out his iPhone. Using his iPhone as the racket, he served the ball. He beat me 11-0. "Ok," he said, "everything you are doing is wrong." ------ The way I held the racket was wrong. The way I stood with my legs was wrong. The way I hit the ball and then the way I followed through after the hit was all wrong. The angle of my wrist was wrong as I waited for the ball to come to my side was wrong. The way I held the racket at a slight angle to the table was wrong. My backhand was all wrong. The way I had grown up and lived my life was mostly wrong. He kept streaming shots at me non-stop. "No, no, no," he said. "No! Go up!...No!...Close the racket...No!...Use the other foot to shift weight...No! No!" So we stopped. He came over to my side of the table. He was looking down. I was afraid he was thinking, "why am I doing this?" He stood behind me and grabbed my arm and moved it up as if I were hitting the ball. "See!," he said. "Like this. Like this." I wanted to be friends. ---- I've been playing ping pong for 40 years. I had a table as a kid. My dad and I would play every night. We would play for hours. And during the day, my friend Jonathan and I would play matches up to 100 every day. I thought I was good. Now, after taking lessons for several months, I realized that 100% of what I had been doing for 40 years was wrong. Everything. I was good enough to beat people who grew up with a ping pong table. But I was really bad. "When I went to North Korea," Wally told me and then he started laughing, "those players were scary good." ---- Wally started playing ping pong. Someone saw his skill, and, as these things go, sent him away. In order to come back you have to go away. He went to Germany to study ping pong with pros. Pretty soon he was the best. "I've played every sport," he told me. "Wrestling, basketball, boxing, tennis, paddle tennis. Ping pong is the hardest. "You have to think of everything. For instance, there's 1000s of ways to serve. And there's so many things to think about when you return the ball. You have to think several moves ahead." Wally has seen me play chess. "It's EXACTLY like chess. But also physical." We were having a three hour lesson that day. It ended with me doing a backhand-backhand-forehand-forehand, then forehand at the other end of the table - then random. Then start over. He shot 100 balls at me one after the other. "Again! Again! Good! No! No! No! Close the racket! You're crossing over when you follow through. Just go up!" Ugh. I had too many bad habits. I kept doing them. How do I stop the bad habits? 40 years of bad habits are hard to get rid of. It's like being afraid to say "no" after 40 years of telling everyone "yes". We took a break. "Why did you go to North Korea?" "I like to do things that are BIG. Every year I want to make sure I do something really big. Really special. "I saw the North Koreans were listing a tournament so I applied and I got in! I was the only non-Asian there. "Once I got there they took my phone. I had no way of getting in touch with the outside world for ten days. Couldn't call my wife. If something happened there was no proof I was even there. "So I just played ping pong. And they were GOOD!" ---- "Not only were the better than me," he said, "but the entire crowd was cheering for them and booing constantly at me. "So I decided, forget this. Let's have fun with this. Let's make crazy shots. Let's jump up and down after every point. Let's get the crowd laughing and jumping with me. I focused on the crowd. "At first they were surprised. And then they started laughing with me. They were cheering me. I was losing but it didn't matter. We were... See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Shawn Stevenson, host of The Model Health podcast said, "In the lab, they found anti-depressants in the New York City water system." Anti-depressants! Ok, no problem. I'll drink tap water. Save on therapy costs. In NYC everyone has to go to therapy. It's a requirement. "This week my therapist said..." "There's also these other chemicals in water.." and he was about to list them for me. "No no no," I said. "Shhhh!" I put my hands on my ears. "I'm good. Don't need to know more." Shawn is obsessed with health. Every week he interviews the best people in the world on health. He's interviewed hundreds. And now I get to ask him for this BEST advice. Don't abuse what he tells you, James! Shawn was 200lbs overweight. He could barely get from room to room before collapsing with exhaustion and pain. He was diagnosed with an incurable spinal condition called degenerative disc disease. His spine was deteriorating to nothing. The way an old person leans over and over until they collapse dead. "You have the spine of an 80 year old," the doctor told him. "The doctors told me to wear a back brace. I kept getting worse. The doctors kept telling me nothing could be done. I was losing hope. Losing the will to live." So he chose himself. He CHOSE his health. He studied every aspect of health. He created the #1 podcast on health, The Model Health Show. He read everything he could. He changed his diet. His doctors told him don't bother. He exercised. His doctors said it won't help. "You're going to die of this." --- When he came on my podcast, he looked like a man in perfect health. He was muscular, glowed with health, had energy. He was something maybe I will never say. "I'm feeling great every day," he told me. And then he started dropping the most amazing health tips on me. I felt overwhelmed. Do I have the discipline to do all of this? I've had many health experts on my podcast. If you don't have physical health, it's 1000 times harder to be a success. The body feeds the mind and the heart. The body reduces stress. The body contains the basics for everything you want to do in life. You are alive in your whole body. Not just your brain. Not just in your bank account. The entire body has to be nourished and loved. For some strange reason he asked me to be on his show as well. I was really grateful he wanted to talk to me about how my own lifestyle improved my health. But more importantly, he came on my show and I was able to drill HIM with questions. Not that all doctors are bad. But I couldn't believe some of the things Shawn had to tell me. I list some of them on this infographic. I already thought I knew things about sleep, water, movement, exercise. I thought I already knew things about how health worked. About how health led to success. But he broke it down one step further. I needed that. I now live by it (we actually recorded this podcast about two months ago) and the results have given me enough energy to create new opportunities in my life that I would not have been able to do before. I have a formula now: 1% more health equals 100 more possible opportunities. Shawn! I'm grateful you broke your stupid hip when you were 20 and got Spinal Degenerative Whatever and gained 5000 pounds. I'm grateful the doctors told you you were going to rot and die. I'm so happy you collapsed, half dead, under the weight of your own bloated body. I'm really happy you almost died. Just don't do it again. ------------What do YOU think of the show? Head to JamesAltucherShow.com/listeners and fill out a short survey that will help us better tailor the podcast to our audience!Are you interested in getting direct answers from James about your question on a podcast? Go to JamesAltucherShow.com/AskAltucher and send in your questions to be answered on the air!------------Visit Notepd.com to read our idea lists & sign up to create your own!My... See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Shane Snow is a well known journalist, entrepreneur, co-founder of the content technology company, Contently, and bestselling author of "Smartcuts: The Breakthrough of Lateral Thinking". You can find his writing in "Wired", "The New Yorker", and "Fast Company" and a dozen more top publications. ------------What do YOU think of the show? Head to JamesAltucherShow.com/listeners and fill out a short survey that will help us better tailor the podcast to our audience!Are you interested in getting direct answers from James about your question on a podcast? Go to JamesAltucherShow.com/AskAltucher and send in your questions to be answered on the air!------------Visit Notepd.com to read our idea lists & sign up to create your own!My new book, Skip the Line, is out! Make sure you get a copy wherever books are sold!Join the You Should Run for President 2.0 Facebook Group, where we discuss why you should run for President.I write about all my podcasts! Check out the full post and learn what I learned at jamesaltuchershow.com------------Thank you so much for listening! If you like this episode, please rate, review, and subscribe to "The James Altucher Show" wherever you get your podcasts: Apple PodcastsiHeart RadioSpotifyFollow me on social media:YouTubeTwitterFacebookLinkedIn See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Jason Calacanis is an angel investor, serial entrepreneur, writer and blogger. He is the founder and CEO of inside.com. Listen to Jason's podcast, "This Week In Startups", interesting stories from the world of entrepreneurship. ------------What do YOU think of the show? Head to JamesAltucherShow.com/listeners and fill out a short survey that will help us better tailor the podcast to our audience!Are you interested in getting direct answers from James about your question on a podcast? Go to JamesAltucherShow.com/AskAltucher and send in your questions to be answered on the air!------------Visit Notepd.com to read our idea lists & sign up to create your own!My new book, Skip the Line, is out! Make sure you get a copy wherever books are sold!Join the You Should Run for President 2.0 Facebook Group, where we discuss why you should run for President.I write about all my podcasts! Check out the full post and learn what I learned at jamesaltuchershow.com------------Thank you so much for listening! If you like this episode, please rate, review, and subscribe to "The James Altucher Show" wherever you get your podcasts: Apple PodcastsiHeart RadioSpotifyFollow me on social media:YouTubeTwitterFacebookLinkedIn See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

When Patton Oswalt, one of the top comedians over the past several decades, was going through the worst experiences of his life this past year, he wrote an entire post about one joke Gary Gulman made. ONE JOKE. Oswalt starts off: "This is...so perfect." I like the pause in there. LIke there are no words so he had to notch himself down even though it doesn't express exactly what he wants to say: ... "so perfect". He analyzes Gary's joke and why it's so difficult to do a joke like this (nobody sees how the sausage is made, they only see the final joke after years of perfecting). Patton closes with: "Thank you Gary Gulman. I know a lot of my shit's gonna get angry these next four years, but it's stuff like what Gary's doing that reminds me I gotta make sure it's funny first. Angry doesn't change shit. Funny disarms the horde." Gary is one of the best in the world. And no matter what area of life you want to improve in, studying in detail someone who is among the best, will up your game. It ups my game. I am infinitely frail. I fall apart at the slightest resistance. I sometimes can't handle it. I sometimes can't handle failing. I don't always believe you learn from failure. But studying the best, makes my brain feel good. Like it's being nourished. And that often gives me the strength to persist. For the past five months I've been going up on a stage 2-3 times a week and performing standup comedy in front of an audience. Often the other performers are people who were on the Colbert Show the night before. Or just released an hour-long Netflix special. So I have to up my game all the time. I want to be "one of them". And I don't want people in the audience to be able to tell that I'm different. Plus, I get scared to death. I am honestly so scared I am about to cry every time I am about to go on stage. Even if I'm going on stage to perform just five minutes of jokes. Five minutes is an eternity. What I realized, and will save for a future post, is that there are at least 20 or 30 (and probably much more) "micro-skills" that I could not have possibly imagined when trying to get better at standup comedy. I've been public speaking for 20 years. Is it that different? Yes. Which is why I had to have Gary Gulman on the podcast. One of the best in the world. I said above "five minutes is an eternity". Gary told one joke on Conan in 2016 that lasted six minutes. One joke where (and I measured it) he gets laughs every ten to fifteen seconds throughout. He uses every skill in the comic's toolbox. And probably many more that I haven't been able to understand yet. I printed up the joke. I gave it to Gary. I said, "I want to analyze this joke word by word." The first thing he said is, "This almost depresses me". "How come?" "It took years to write this joke. And the others that I came out with around then. It's so hard. Sometimes I can't' even get up because it's so hard to do this." What follows is one of my favorite podcasts. We cover his career, the techniques he learned and how he learned them. We cover the depression and anxiety and fear that goes into building any career out of excellence. We cover the micro-skills. No matter what you do in life, the one who masters all the master skills of your field of endeavor will be the one who rises to the top. How do you identify those skills? How do you master them? And we analyze this joke. To see the joke, Google: "Youtube Gary Gulman Conan States". It's his 7/13/16 performance. Watch it first. Here are some things I learned: Part A) DELIVERY 1. COMMITMENT The whole joke is about the states and how they were abbreviated. Gary walks out on stage, "I just wanted to recommend a documentary to everyone and then I'm going to go." Everyone laughs. No one believes him. But he's totally COMMITTED to the joke. In the podcast he says, "I'm bragging, really. Because I know I have something in my pocket that... See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Alex Berenson had the dream job. But he was unhappy. And perhaps it even scarred him in some ways. He switched it up. To his true dreams. To the dreams he had for himself since he was a child. I want to do this. First off, Alex has written 11 bestselling thriller novels. Alex knows how to get the reader to turn the page and ask, "What happens next?!" This is an unbelievably hard skill. But it's not the most important skill when you are moving into your dream job. I will tell you the most important skill. And Alex explains more clearly how he did it when we are in the podcast. The most important skill is to have this weird sort of "active arrogance". Here's the gap: The best in your profession have skills, experience, and they know how to sit down and DO something every day. The beginners: they WANT to do something. They PLAN to do something. They SAY they will eventually do it. They THINK they have the skills they need. But they never do it. The ones who succeeed. They have the arrogance to think they can just simply sit down and do it. .Despite not having the skills. Despite being total amataurs. They simply sit down and DO IT. By doing it, you LEARN the skills, you DO the job [a first novel in Alex's case], and you get better. DOING is the only way to succeed. Most poeple stop before this point. Alex didn't. And thank god. Because his 11 bestsellers have been lifesavers for me. A way for me to dream. A way for me to escape. Here's how Alex did it: [6:25] - Create your own universe "In 2003 and 2004, I went to Iraq for the paper," he said (he worked at The New York Times). "The war had ended, supposedly... we deposed Saddam. Most reporters go during the 'active phase,' so The Times said any cub reporter could put their hand up and go. So I put my hand up." Then he came back and realized he had stories. And John Wells was born. Alex has written 11 bestsellers. All page-turners. I wanted to know what made him start writing thrillers. I've always thought of writing fiction. I still wonder if that's what's next. Here's what he told me, "In my universe, nobody lies to me. They can lie to each other, they can even lie to themselves, they cannot lie to me." [11:00] - Some luck goes unnoticed "Coming back to the states was a shock," he said. "The wastefulness of this country really smacks you when you've been away for a while, certainly in a place like that." "What do you mean? What's an example?" "I think the example that struck me is the electrical grid." We take it for granted that the lights go on. And then use them like crazy. I live in NY. The lights are always on. It doesn't matter what time. And I never think about it. "American is a place of abundance," Alex said. "I guess that's a good thing. It's better to be rich than poor but realize that 80% of the world is never going to live in conditions anything like this. It really does just smack you in the face to realize how lucky we are and how little we realize that." [12:00] - Choose yourself I asked Alex if he thinks we're becoming complacent as a society. "Thats a real fear," Alex said. There are two sides. One side is if you give people everything will they stop wanting to work? Will they say they have enough. And give up. But then the other side is you work so hard and go nowhere. "The flip side of that is if you make the system so unfair that nobody believes hard work can get you ahead, they're not going to work either." And I think that's why work should be more than a paycheck. There has to be a vision. And following that vision is how you choose yourself. [15:00] - Have a little arrogance Alex said a lot of reporters want to write novels. He was one of them. But there's something that separates those who write from those who don't... "I did something arrogant," he said. "I wrote a novel." So I wondered if that's... See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Ryan Holiday, stop writing books that are just for me! With "Perennial Seller" you just answered an obsessive question I've had for years: What makes something, someone, some product, some art, withstand the test of time? What is the magic sauce? The secret formula? What makes something sell a million copies a year (music, art, books, products, etc)... forever? I want to know. I'll try my best to summarize our conversation and your book but people should buy the book for your 1000s of examples: BE COUNTERINTUITIVE If you write what everyone else is already thinking, then nobody needs to read your work, or use your product. They already have it. It doesn't matter if you are 50% better than anyone else. Nobody understands how to judge that except the experts in your field. And those experts don't care about you. They might even hate you. Create your own field. And be 1000% the best in that field. DON'T TRY TO COMPETE The 100th person who writes a "50 Shades of Grey" style book, or a disco pop EMD album can...MAYBE...get 1% of the audience. If you find an underserved audience, you can get 100% of it. There's an important side effect of this: IF YOU ARE DOING SOMETHING FOR THE MONEY...YOU LOSE. Because the rest of the world is competing for that dollar. Money is a side effect of creativity, quality art, creating something unique, and building your marketing into that art. VALIDATE THE IDEA Test out sample chapters. Release songs on YouTube. Keep iterating. Keep digging for your authentic voice. In comedy, it took Louis CK 20 years of telling jokes before he found his voice when talking about dating and parenting. Don't look for LOTs of fans at first. Look for the hard-core fans. The ones who will stick with you while you go on this crazy ride. The ones who will share. What my prior podcast guest, Kevin Kelly, calls "The One Thousand True Fans". DON'T GIVE UP IF YOU DON'T WIN ON DAY ONE Ryan told me that "Smokey and the Bandit" beat "Star Wars" at the box office the same weekend they both opened. I did not know that! It almost seems like blasphemy to me. John Grisham only sold a few thousand copies when he first published "A Time To Kill". Only much later did it sell millions. Catcher in the Rye had a slow start. Now sells a million copies a year. The best works of art and the best products have to fight the masses to find their right audience. But when they do, the audience will reward them. Write or create what is unique to you, find the 1000 true fans. The ones who are hard-core and love the value you bring. And serve that market over and over. That divides the winners from the non-winners. TELL A STORY THAT IS PERSONAL TO YOU "Choose Yourself" could have been another ranty personal development business book ("Blah!"). Instead I wove in a personal story of struggle and loss and pain. Pain that changed me and still does every single day to (hopefully) lesser extent. This is what makes a story both unique (it's my story) and universal (everyone experiences pain, everyone wants to solve it). Too many people play a persona ("my life is perfect so let me teach it to you") and that's inauthentic. TELL A STORY THAT RESONATES WITH EVERYONE Star Wars is a perfect example. It's the 'arc of the hero'. A boy who struggles, encounters problems, faces them, lives forever. I.e. Jesus. Krishna. Buddha. Star Wars is a sci-fi western (great example of "idea sex") where he innovated on the graphics but used a story that was basically "Focus grouped" for thousands of years. Thousands! So he stuck within the rules of a genre (actually several that he combined) but also made it uniquely his own. This is the key to successful art. Telling a story that is personal to you AND resonates with everyone is very difficult. It takes practice. It takes marketing. It takes listening. That's why these are the items that become perennial sellers. It's worth... See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Scot Cohen is the best networker on the planet. I have never seen anything like it. And he used that skill to make tens of millions of dollars, not only for himself but for many others. I wanted him to explain, in detail, how. But first: I'm sorry, Scot. I am really, truly sorry. I am horrified at my behavior. A year of bad behavior. Imagine: you owe someone a phone call and you say to yourself, "Ok, I'll call tomorrow". And then tomorrow you say, "Well, maybe tomorrow". And then you delayed so much you feel awkward about calling. Because you know you have to apologize and you hate confrontation. Stupid, right? Let's make this even worse: the person you have to call back has been incredibly generous to you. In fact, he let you stay in his apartment for three months for free. You've worked together for 14 years and he's one of the most successful investors in NYC. And then you did this for no reason. I'm an idiot. --- The day I threw out all of my belongings and gave up my apartment I was sitting in a restaurant with my one bag and I called Scot Cohen. I said, "I'm just sitting in this restaurant." "Where are you going to live?" "I have no idea yet." I coudl've just stayed in a hotel. But for various reasons I was feeling a bit down. I just wanted to sit in the restaurant. I had no idea where I would live. "Come on over," Scot said. "Stay here." And so I did. For the next three months I stayed in one of Scot's several apartments. I invested in Scot's hedge fund in 2003. We've worked together on and off for 14 years. He's one of the most successful hedge fund managers I know. He's made tens of millions, invested in dozens of companies that went up 1000s of percent, and I am glad that, in my own small way, I was able to help him in several situations. . When you build your network over years, over decades, and your network is made up of good people, they help you out. They let you move in their apartment. You work on deals together to make money. You meet each others girlfriends who become wives. And then sometimes you let them down and you have to apologize. So I did. On the podcast. This is how stupid and awkward I am: I hadn't seen Scot in a year. I had stupidly avoided his calls. And so I said, "come on to the podcast and that's where I will apologize". And then, I said, step by step we will break down and figure out 1. HOW YOU BECAME THE BEST NETWORKER I HAVE EVER SEEN 2. HOW YOU USED THAT SKILL TO MAKE TENS OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS Scot came to NYC with nothing. But he had a skill that is worth tens of millions at the highest level. It's networking at a level I've never seen before or since. ----- One time, a year earlier, I was sitting in his apartment. Scot rushed in, changed into a suit and rushed out. It was Sunday night, 8 o'clock at night. He was rushing from tennis with one hedge fund manager to the wedding of one of his investors. That's how he made himself so successful. He networks seven days a week. I just sit around and fall asleep early. I asked him on the podcast how he did it. How can I do it? How can anyone do it? We broke down his story: 1. Self awareness "Do self-work," he said. "Really try to dial in on who you are and where you want to go, because if you don't have that right, you're never going to be able to get off first base. "This is fundamental. It takes a while. You've got to have patience to play this out, so give yourself the time. You're not going to get a quick fix. Nothing's going to happen in three months, or a year. It's going to take years. So get that fundamental work done on yourself first, and then you can start growing." 2. Keep a diary Scot told me to write down where you want to go. "If you don't write stuff down, how are you going to go anywhere? You're not going to remember where you came from." "I think it's really important... See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

She was my partner in crime. Farnoosh recently hosted her own show on CNBC. She also has a super popular podcast. And she's a successful book author and all around writer. But to me she's more than that. From 2006 to 2008 we did videos together every day. We would meet on Wall Street, a video guy would tape us talking about whatever we wanted to talk about, and then we'd send that video out onto the interwebs. The day the first iphone came out we went to the Apple flagship store near Central Park. We interviewed the people who were waiting on line all night. A homeless guy started to pick on Farnoosh. Not that I am so brave but I didn't want to seem unmanly so I stood in between the man and Farnoosh and asked him to please go away. He lifted me up and threw me to the ground. And then he went away. That was a fun story that I wanted to share. But more...Farnoosh is a textbook example of how a career can be made and be a success. She had a fulltime job learning skills she loved and then mastered: financial markets, writing, video, multimedia, communication, and the business of business. While at the full time job, she wrote a book on the markets: YOU'RE SO MONEY. From that, she no longer needed thestreet.com and diversified her sources of income by writing for many outlets, going on various TV shows, starting her own show, writing more, starting a successful and profitable podcast, and many other activities. And ten years later, we still find each other doing videos together or podcasts, or articles, or whatever. Building a career is like knitting a tapestry. It's small thread by small thread. It takes years. It becomes beautiful. And it's something you can fall into when it's done for comfort and security. That tapestry becomes your network. A career is not what you created today, but the networks you built up today that will create unexpected opportunities for you ten, fifteen, twenty years later. As an example: I just did a deal with a friend of mine I began working with twenty years ago. Every day I see these opportunities. And I'm horrible at networking. Farnoosh isn't. But there's another reason I wanted Farnoosh on my podcast. Farnoosh is great at interviewing. And I wanted her to interview me. I find when I am a guest on other people's podcasts I always find new ways to say the things I want to express, new ways to say what I've learned from my guests and my experiences. Who better to interview me than the person who has been interviewing me for almost a dozen years. "I came prepared," she told me. Because she wanted to find out what you don't see on Google... Here's what we talked about: The rise of entrepreneurship and the rise of "gurus." Farnoosh asked me, "Who should people trust?" But really, it doesn't matter. Anytime you "study" entrepreneurship, it means you're not DOING entrepreneurship. It's great to have ideas. And it's fine to read one business books (TOPS), but then that's it. Get in the mud and starting doing. - listen at 7 minutes Farnoosh asked me, "Do you remember the first time you used the internet?" It was before the web. I logged into a news group and could talk to people from Norway about Star Wars. Besides the phone, it was the first time I spoke to someone without being in the same room... It was 1986. And then the web started. Hypertext came in. And I thought it would be used for storytelling. But then it became huge for commerce. Then she asked me, "What's next?" - listen at 19 minutes Mentorship and finding your inner circle - listen at 25 minutes Evolution, willpower and the access economy - listen at 36 minutes My daily schedule (the morning is my "maker" hours, in the evening I manage several businesses and at night I have fun. I do comedy.) - listen at 38 minutes Is it better to focus on one thing and enjoy the subtleties of what it takes to be the best in the world at something? Or diversify?... See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

"Have a spirit of adventure, the desire to learn something new, be an explorer and never get too comfortable." ------- "Imagine this room is filling up with poisonous gas," Tim said. He's looking straight at me. "There's two doors behind me, one window and one to either side." He points exactly where everything is, even though he's still looking straight at me. "We have several choices," he said, "I can pick the locks of one of the doors. I can break down the doors. I can smash one of the windows and we can climb out. We have three minutes until we die. What do we do?" Tim is aware of everything around him. Which is probably why I started off the podcast with: "We have nothing in common." "We're 30 seconds into the interview and we're already disagreeing," he said. It's a creative challenge to figure out how to relate with each person I meet... He's a US Army Special Forces sniper. He's been to Iraq and Afghanistan. He's an MMA fighter. And has multiple black belts. I have zero black belts. I have negative black belts. I haven't been to war. And I'm not trained to kill people. I can't shove someone without looking funny. So we have different instincts. "I remember every moment of every gunfight I've ever been in," he said. "And there are things that wake me up at night." "Like what?" "In the movies, saving your friends and killing a bad guy is a high-five moment, right? No. You just took a human life. That is something that echoes with you through eternity." He told me about the decisions he had to make every day. And how his dad's words rang in the back of his head, "Just because you can, doesn't mean you should." There were four people in Tim's unit. Each had a different job: communications, medicine, explosives, tactics. Tim was tactics. "Weapons tactic expert," that was his job title. He constantly had to assess whether or not to fire. Because the situation was never clear. Innocent people could be in the same room as the man with the machine gun. "He was shooting at my teammates. He had a machine gun in the window." And Tim didn't know what (or who else) was on the other side... Then he asked me, "Do you throw the grenade?" I didn't know. My instinct is to run. "Run? The bullets are 175 grain and travel at 2,800 feet per second. Do you run 2,800 feet per second?" He threw the grenade. "Did you ever find out what was behind that window?" "Yeah... the moment the grenade goes off and all you hear are women and children screaming and crying. I stayed up for a week with the women and kids that were in that room. We fight until the fight is over. But then we revisit and give them the best medical care that we can in the field and transport them to the best hospitals that we have access to. That's the most beautiful thing about US Army Special Forces, 'The Green Berets.' We want to do everything by, with and through the indigenous people." I can't imagine. And not being able to imagine, is what we have in common. It's when you try to find the bridge where two people can meet that I learn the most about the people around me. Here's what we talked about... Shortcuts: - [12:20] - We talked about his childhood. I wanted to know if fighting is inherent. He says it wasn't. Although, he did learn how to fight when he was young. His brother and friends always threw him in the pool. "Were you traumatized?" I asked. Tim had the mindset that he could get stronger. And he planned to throw them in the pool someday. All 9 of them. But in between sports and horsing around, Tim's Mom brought in balance. She enrolled him in piano lessons. I didn't ask if he still plays piano. I don't know if he still has this balance. But it's worthwhile to try to create it in your own life. To lose your stresses in the concentration of a new art, a new practice. [27:12] - "War is horrible. Period. It's where we see the most unimaginable... See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In my podcast Charlie and I talked half the time about getting past anxiety. And half the time about this: [14:00] - Charlie's time working for Tim Ferriss, doing a virtual internship with Seth Godin, and marketing Ramit Sethi's New York Times bestseller. He told me how he pitched his heroes (and how he suggests you can too) [23:00] - We talked about getting paid to do what you love (and how the first step usually means doing what you love for free). If you want a job you love, it (usually) has to start free. That's how you build the skill. People in low-level jobs are essentially paid to move away from their dreams. It's up to you to move toward your dreams. Charlie said, "You're brought into school where your spontaneity and impulses are muted. You're forced to work on stuff that is not that interesting to you... I think that's why it is so important to work for free because you have to tap back into what matters to you." [52:00] - Then we began talking about anxiety. ------------What do YOU think of the show? Head to JamesAltucherShow.com/listeners and fill out a short survey that will help us better tailor the podcast to our audience!Are you interested in getting direct answers from James about your question on a podcast? Go to JamesAltucherShow.com/AskAltucher and send in your questions to be answered on the air!------------Visit Notepd.com to read our idea lists & sign up to create your own!My new book, Skip the Line, is out! Make sure you get a copy wherever books are sold!Join the You Should Run for President 2.0 Facebook Group, where we discuss why you should run for President.I write about all my podcasts! Check out the full post and learn what I learned at jamesaltuchershow.com------------Thank you so much for listening! If you like this episode, please rate, review, and subscribe to "The James Altucher Show" wherever you get your podcasts: Apple PodcastsiHeart RadioSpotifyFollow me on social media:YouTubeTwitterFacebookLinkedIn See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

You have five minutes to kill. That's it. Those five minutes can make or break a career. I don't think I would be able to handle the pressure. I've done a lot of public speaking. And now I've tried standup. For the past three months I've been going up once or twice a week. It's difficult. I thought 20 years of public speaking would help me. It doesn't. It's the Hunger Games on that stage. So Fred Stoller is my hero. He was a standup comic 30 years ago, then he was a writer on Seinfeld, then he's been a guest start on 60+ TV shows including Seinfeld, Friends, Everybody Loves Raymond, Scrubs, and every other show I can think of. He's sitcom history. And he wrote all about it in three excellent books, including his latest, "Five Minutes to Kill", about his five minutes on the 1989 HBO Young Comedians Special and what happened to the specific performers of that show. So I asked, "If everybody thinks you're so funny, then why didn't you have your own show?" But I wasn't the first person to ask Fred this... He asked himself the same question throughout his career. So did his mom. And it hurt his self-esteem. He said, "When I used to headline as a comedian, I'd feel sorry for the people lining up waiting to see me... like I was their weekend." Now he's entering a new world. He's writing. And learning how to embrace "this weird guy that I am... who got lost finding this place." He's learning how to express himself with his own voice. He reinvented from standup to writing on the best sitcom ever. Then he reinvented again to appear on all the TV shows he's been on. Now he's 59, and he's reinventing again. He's a writer. His books are excellent. Reinvention is not something special people do. It's not something for only a few. Fred has been frustrated and also exhilarated down every path he's chosen. Reinvention IS the goal. Not a pathway to it. Reinvention is a habit. It's what we do every day to bring out the fire inside that constantly wants to express itself. That's why I wanted to speak to Fred. Not because he wrote "The Soup" episode of Seinfeld. But because he's still doing what he loves to do. And what he loves to do is constantly changing. ------------What do YOU think of the show? Head to JamesAltucherShow.com/listeners and fill out a short survey that will help us better tailor the podcast to our audience!Are you interested in getting direct answers from James about your question on a podcast? Go to JamesAltucherShow.com/AskAltucher and send in your questions to be answered on the air!------------Visit Notepd.com to read our idea lists & sign up to create your own!My new book, Skip the Line, is out! Make sure you get a copy wherever books are sold!Join the You Should Run for President 2.0 Facebook Group, where we discuss why you should run for President.I write about all my podcasts! Check out the full post and learn what I learned at jamesaltuchershow.com------------Thank you so much for listening! If you like this episode, please rate, review, and subscribe to "The James Altucher Show" wherever you get your podcasts: Apple PodcastsiHeart RadioSpotifyFollow me on social media:YouTubeTwitterFacebookLinkedIn See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

I was afraid before interviewing Jocko. I think it was instinctual. His body is seven times the size of mine. I pointed at the cover of his new book, "The Way of The Warrior Kid. "See this kid," I said. "That's me right now." I like to overlap somewhere with my guest. Like a story we both can share and laugh about. With Jim Norton, for instance, we grew up together. With Garry Kasparov we were both chess players. And I also worked on Deep Blue for a while, the computer that would ultimately defeat him. But with Jocko...what? I felt intimidated. He was like this superhero that had conquered the world and everyone respected him and I felt like the nerdy little boy I was in junior high school. So I started talking. "I can't do a pull up. And I've never been in the battlefield... obviously. Or I would look completely different. You were the commander of your SEAL unit and you had to make life and death decisions. But out of that, you cultivated all of these leadership lessons." He listened. That was nice. Then I asked why he joined the military. (And stayed for 20 years.) But he flipped the question back to me. (He has a podcast, too. So he knows how to drive an interview.) "Ever since I was a little kid, I wanted to be in combat," he said. "Why?" "Well... what did you want to do when you were growing up?" he asked. "I guess I wanted to write and interview people." "Well, there you go." I don't think my brain fully realizes that I'm doing what I dreamt of doing as a kid. Jocko made it sound so simple. "Well, there you go." We're not all lucky with everything we do. Jocko is lucky. I am lucky. But some of his friends didn't make it back from war. Doing is the step forward. But sometimes it worthwhile to just pause... long enough to hear the words. "Well, there you go." We began the interview... ------------What do YOU think of the show? Head to JamesAltucherShow.com/listeners and fill out a short survey that will help us better tailor the podcast to our audience!Are you interested in getting direct answers from James about your question on a podcast? Go to JamesAltucherShow.com/AskAltucher and send in your questions to be answered on the air!------------Visit Notepd.com to read our idea lists & sign up to create your own!My new book, Skip the Line, is out! Make sure you get a copy wherever books are sold!Join the You Should Run for President 2.0 Facebook Group, where we discuss why you should run for President.I write about all my podcasts! Check out the full post and learn what I learned at jamesaltuchershow.com------------Thank you so much for listening! If you like this episode, please rate, review, and subscribe to "The James Altucher Show" wherever you get your podcasts: Apple PodcastsiHeart RadioSpotifyFollow me on social media:YouTubeTwitterFacebookLinkedIn See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Jim Norton is the reason why I do podcasts. First, he's a world-famous comedian, recently released a one hour special on Netflix, has been on shows like "Louie" and "Inside Amy Schumer" has written two New York Times bestselling books and has appeared on countless radio shows and podcasts. But just as interesting to me...we grew up together. The first day Jim moved into town we were in fourth grade. Rather than keeping his mouth shut like anyone else just moving into town he immediately started making everyone laugh. Day one we were laughing so hard I thought my stomach was going to break. We all said out loud that day (Jim doesn't remember but I do), "you should be a comedian". And he did. He did! I like when my podcast combines the personal and the professional. Combines my own story with the story of someone achieving peak performance in an area of life that I love. Comedy is not just about making people laugh. And being a standup comedian is not just about "standing up" in front of a crowd of people and telling jokes. Comedy is about observing the hidden truths in life that everyone knows but nobody has ever quite articulated. And standup is about how to articulate that truth in such a way that people feel momentarily unsafe and confused (the setup), and relieved (the punchline). But that's only one theory of comedy. There are many. And so I wanted to try it for myself. I've been doing it now a few times a week for two months. It's hard! It's the most difficult thing I've ever tried to get good at. So I asked Jim, who has been doing it all of his life, to come on the podcast. Here are some things I learned: Make Mistakes - listen at [8:08] I told Jim I was afraid to bomb. To tell a joke and have nobody laugh. "Bombing is what we learn from the most," Jim said. "It's not about how to avoid bombing. You will fall flat all the time. It's about getting up after that." "I left myself no safety net," he said. "I started when I was 21. I didn't have a diploma. I got a GED three years after I got sober. I have no high school diploma... So I knew it was going to be this or nothing." Sometimes to survive the biggest pains on the way up, you have to fly without a safety net. You have to fall. The way to hit the top tier in any area of life is to figure out where the line is, and go beyond that line. If you aren't failing, then you aren't trying to be unique. You aren't going to be the top tier. Find Time to Laugh at Yourself - listen at [14:45] Comedy is about connection. You tell something about your life, something honest and true and usually uncomfortable. The comedians job is to transform your pain. Like an alchemist. "I make fun of myself," Jim said. "I give my own personal examples, but I think if I'm doing that at least I'm being truthful and I'm not coming from a place of thinking I'm better than that guy... like who am I?" They laugh because it's a safe way for people to experience their own demons. You can get close enough to the shadows of your life without the fear of being overrun by guilt or shame. It's a chance for us all to be a little more human, a little more honest and a little more free. The Umbrella Theory - listen at [28:50] Jim just started writing another book. He's on TV. He's touring. He's got a radio show (Jim Norton and Sam Roberts on Sirius), he has a podcast. He works with incredible talent. And is always looking for new material from his own life. "You can't just be lazy," he said. "I talked to Chris Rock recently and I know it sounds like I'm name dropping, but I'm not. "That's a total name drop," I said. "But I didn't mean it like that..." We talked about Chris Rock's career. He stopped touring. He hadn't been on the road for seven years. But yet you still hear his name all the time. He's hosting the Oscars, testing out material at clubs, etc. To succeed in any area, right now list all the things that... See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

HOW TO DISCOVER THE SECRETS IN LIFE The best things in life are born from coincidence. I am a firm believer in this. A year ago I was flying back from California. I started talking to the guy sitting next to me. Turns out he had worked in almost every branch of government related to intelligence and diplomacy. Now he runs his own private intelligence company. He has information about every government in the world. He is paid a lot of money to reveal and analyze that information. But when we were on the plane, for basically four or five hours I asked him everything I could and got the most incredible detail about the state of affairs in the world. I'm almost afraid to reveal what we spoke about on the plane. Everything from "how to catch a liar" to "What is the Nigerian government specifically doing about oil prices" to "Will Trump win?" (and his answer turned out to be stunningly accurate). Then...a lost touch with him. He was just a guy I sat next to on the plane for a few hours. We got off and went to live our separate lives. Until now. His new book is out: "Warnings" written with uber-diplomat Richard Clarke. What is he warning about? Everything. Where are the hidden potential catastrophes around the world. And how can we live with them. And how can we avoid them. And how can we figure out the warnings after these? He answers, he analyzes, he proves, and he does it from his 30 years of experience uncovering these things for the US government and now, through his company, for other governments and large institutions that can afford him. The key is: "that can afford him". Because now he comes on the podcast and just like the coincidence of meeting him a year ago, he answers all of my questions again about his book. About the "Warnings". I love when coincidence intersects real life. I saw his book, remembered him from our interaction, and we had the best time on the podcast. Read the book, listen to the podcast, and don't ignore the coincidences in your life. (But he is.) R.P. Eddy is the CEO or Ergo, one of the greatest super intelligent firms in the world. Governments hire him and his firm to spy on other governments. "Hopefully, I wasn't too indiscreet," he said, referring to the time on his plane. I told him not to worry. "If you're not arrested by the end of this podcast, then you're okay." In his book, "Warnings: Finding Cassandras to Stop Catastrophes," R.P. covers all the major world catastrophes that could've been predicted and prevented: 9/11, Madoff, Fukushima, the financial crisis, AIDS, climate change. If we can learn to predict these, or at least learn how to figure out how the correct experts are, then a lot of pain can be avoided. Experts warned us. But no one listened to them. R.P. calls these people "Cassandras." The name comes from greek mythology. Apollo (a god) wanted to sleep with Cassandra. She refused. So Apollo cursed her. "She could foretell any future disaster. She could see it in vivid color," R.P said. But the curse was that no one believed her. So she burned to death in a terrible attack. (An attack she knew was coming...) These people exist in real life. And R.P. wants us to notice them. So R.P, and his coauthor, Richard Clarke, started "The Annual Cassandra Award." They're giving away cash prizes (up to $10,000) to motivate people to find and nominate a true "Cassandras." This is the formula for spotting a "Cassandra..." How to detect a truth-teller (listen at [55:25]) The "Cassandras" featured in R.P's book are experts in their field. They have been for years. He told me about Laurie Garrett, the head of global health for the Council of Foreign Relations. She's the first person to ever win the Polk, the Pulitzer and the Peabody. "She foresaw the rise of HIV/AIDS when she was a radio reporter in San Francisco," R.P. said. "She saw these men dying of a disease called 'gay related immune deficiency,'... See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

His platoon was counting on him. He couldn't come back a failure. Brandon had been deployed to the Middle East four times. He'd seen the ugliness and destruction war had caused. And now he was being sent straight to sniper school. This is one of the most stressful jobs as a Navy SEAL. He would have to learn how to make quick decisions. Hard decisions. "The only easy day was yesterday," he said. "That's our motto." Brandon is one of the most accomplished sniper teachers of his time. He changed the system. And implemented positive reinforcement, which allowed him to see firsthand how having a good "mental mindset" propels people into success. In his memoir, "The Red Circle" and his newest book, a New York Times bestseller "The Killing School: Inside the World's Deadliest Sniper Program," Brandon shows you exactly how to train for a "champions mindset." He uses mental management strategies: visualization, positive self-talk, solution-based thinking and so on. He is the master of his own fate. And now you can be too... -- Here's what we talk about: [6:08] - I don't normally do this. But this time I gave away the "table of contents" of what I wanted to discuss with Brandon Webb: - I wanted to cover Brandon's ideas on war- discuss the issue of teaching people to kill people (to me, this is the elephant in the room)- Brandon was one of the first deployed to Iraq. So I wanted to ask about his ups and downs going to war, coming back and going to war again -"Obviously, I don't want to learn how to be a sniper" I said, "but what I really want to talk about is peak performance." Both of Brandon's books to talk about this, especially his section on "mental management." I wanted to learn what tools and habits I need to do today to make myself a master of my own fate. That's essentially what this show is about... becoming the master of your own fate. "Choosing yourself." [30:16] - I needed to know. Islam itself. What is the fight? Is this really a fight of religions? I asked Brandon why radicalism has spread so quickly in the Middle East. He pointed out the economics and the gap between rich and poor. "The social and political situation is not very good... Saudi Arabia, for example, has a very elite royal ruling class but the working population is very poor." He said people join the fight because they need a cause. They need to belong to something. A military is a tribe. I get this question all the time. "How do I find my purpose?" Some people find their purpose in a fight. In a mission. In a cause... Brandon explained that the people who join these radical groups, or any group, were probably suffering in life. And they wanted to fill a hole in their life. They wanted what any human wants: a feeling of belonging. That's the powerful force pulling them in. When Brandon was 16, his dad threw him off a boat in Tahiti. Brandon had to find his way back. And eventually he joined the military, became a Navy SEAL and then became a special ops sniper. There were 23 of them and 220 tried out. The question he gets most often is one of ignorance, "How many people did you kill?" But that's not what it's about for Brandon. And maybe that's what separates good from evil. He continued to tell me how radical governments incentives people to join "the cause." He said they pay you to become a martyr. I couldn't believe it. "Is that true?" I asked. "Yeah," he said, "As a state sponsor of terror, Iran is funding and fueling the conflict in the Middle East, especially with Israel." And the Internet makes it worse, too. Brandon tells me how... [59:03] - Brandon was training people to be peak performers in incredibly high stake situations. It wasn't just target practice. Someone would be shooting back. He expected each and every one of his students to perform at a perfect level. Eighty and ninety percent was no longer acceptable. I wondered how you could teach someone... See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

I almost changed forever the entire way people define relationships. The word "commitment" would have a new meaning. More babies would be born. I'm thinking BIG. Sometimes you want to try an idea and you don't let yourself think about money. If an idea is good, money is a side effect. Ideas are the real currency. I met a brand new couple for breakfast. J and K. They told me they just had the "going steady" conversation. "How'd you guys meet?" "J-Swipe". Or something like that. I forget. It was an online dating app. "What does 'going steady' mean when you are both in your 40s?" I asked. J was in his 40s. K wasn't. I wondered if 'going steady' meant that he gave her a ring or something. There's only so many more 'going steady's you have left in you at that age. They both pulled out their phones. They were looking at each other's phone and then showing me. "We deleted all of the dating apps on our phone," she said. But they were both peering at each other's firm. They needed confirmation. Hmmmm! Idea: The "Going Steady" App Both sides of the couple sign in to the app. Then they select the other person. Then when both sides select each other, the app deletes all the dating apps on their phone. If they ever download a dating app again, the other side gets notified by email. Or if they "de-select" each other from "Going Steady" then both sides get notified by email. Simple! Extras: - Notify FB and Twitter that they are "Going Steady" - Keep track of anniversaries, gifts, places they go, significant memories, etc. - Notify friends of anniversaries, etc. BOOM! The next day I wrote up the "spec", which was actually just similar to what I wrote above. I logged into freelancer.com. I opened a new project and cut and pasted my Spec in there. It was weird to read prior chats I had had on the site. Since the last time I had uploaded a project in there was in 2006. A customer service representative popped up a window and asked if I need help. I said, "Sure, why not?" Meanwhile, within ten minutes I had about ten people bid to do my project. I included in the Spec that they had to not only complete the app in 30 days but upload to the Apple store, the Google Play store, and do basic marketing for me. People were bidding from China, India, and Kenya. The average bid was $1000. I chatted with each one of them to make sure they understood what I was asking. My basic test was this question: can an app on Android and Apple detect and delete other apps on Android and Apple? The customer service representative recommended a developer as well. This developer cost more than $1000. More like $3500. That's ok. I just wanted a good job done. A small price to pay to change the future of evolution. I asked this developer the same question. Some of the developers would not upload to the stores or do any marketing. I crossed them off. Others didn't seem to understand my question about detecting other apps on the phone. I crossed them out. I didn't want any communication problems with people from the opposite side of the world. Finally, the recommended developer said, "I know you can do this on Android but not sure on Apple. Let me research." Five minutes later he came back. "It's impossible to do this on Apple." We tried to figure out a work-around. Like if the device owner gave permissions, etc. But there was no work-around. "Ok," I said, "thanks for your help." End of idea. End of project. Total time it cost me: 45 minutes, from writing the spec, logging into the site, creating the project, talking to the developers. Total money: I paid $29 to have a customer service representative help me. Success? Failure? Neither. It was an idea. I did the execution basics to see if I should pursue further. It didn't. But I learned a lot. What it would cost to make an app, I learned a bit more about the Apple store, and I went through the process of trying to find a developer.... See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Shortcuts - [5:40] - I asked Garry, "What separated you from people just as talented?" He interrupted. Finally! I found my match! "Wait, wait wait, slow down," he said. "'As talented' is a stretch." He said he was lucky. His upbringing made him a champion. "I was born in a family where chess was part of the culture. My father and mother usually spent their winter nights looking at the newspaper chess sections, solving problems. Also, I was born in the Soviet Union so when my talent was discovered, I had an opportunity to be taught by semi-professionals. Then professionals. The framework for my talent to be discovered and to be polished was there." He said, "You may call that luck, but the talent was quite unique." That's how you become a peak performer. You have to pursue your talent and get a little lucky. But it's never just luck. "As soon as I discovered chess I started moving very quickly." He beat the kids his own age and older. By age 12 he was the Soviet junior champion. Peak performance comes from talent, luck and an ability to move up in the ranks faster than your competition. How do you do that? [11:44] - I feel like I'm always trying to figure out my life. I'm always planning. Because I think if I subtract X from my life, add Y, and multiply by 100, I'll be happy. Garry told me how he takes a step back. He said you need to see the big picture. That's why he started drawing all his chess matches. After each game, Garry drew the board, he looked at what happened and he saw where he went wrong. "I could feel at at every game, I was getting better," Garry said. "I was learning." That's why I write everyday. It takes my mind out of the equation. I get to see what I'm doing. And how my life is. I stop making moves. And I just breathe. Then I see clearly. The key is to create a ritual of reflection. Writing, drawing. Do something that let's you see the board. See your life. [27:40] - Sometimes Garry had ten steps planned out. Other times, nothing. Garry said, "In the cases where you don't have a clear preference, go with your natural instinct." [34:55] - Garry was beat by Deep Blue, IMB's "genius" computer. It was the first time a machine beat the human brain at chess. People said it was a revelation. And the end was near. The same thing happened when ATM's were invented. Everyone thought bank tellers were going away. .And before that the elevator operator was eliminated. People went on strike. "This is a normal development of technology," Garry said. "If you have something really disruptive, it means it kills jobs before it creates new jobs." Sometimes jobs are replaced. Sometimes they're not. As humans our biggest shortcoming is that we let our fear precede any real threat. Machines don't have fear. But they also don't have the ability to dream... "We all do have fears," Garry said. "The question is how do we handle it... I want people to not be afraid of this progress because there are so many things we can bring back if we start dreaming again. By the way machines cannot dream. Even in sleeping mode." -- Also, if you like today's show, subscribe! Then you won't have to check back and you'll be first to hear new episodes. Thanks! -James ------------What do YOU think of the show? Head to JamesAltucherShow.com/listeners and fill out a short survey that will help us better tailor the podcast to our audience!Are you interested in getting direct answers from James about your question on a podcast? Go to JamesAltucherShow.com/AskAltucher and send in your questions to be answered on the air!------------Visit Notepd.com to read our idea lists & sign up to create your own!My new book, Skip the Line, is out! Make sure you get a copy wherever books are sold!Join the You Should Run for President 2.0 Facebook Group, where we discuss why you should run for President.I write about... See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Jon is paralyzed from the neck down. He couldn't crawl. "My mom noticed I was dragging my legs," he said. The doctors said he'd die at age two. But he felt like he had something to contribute to the world. So he became unstoppable. He started writing for free. "I couldn't be paid," he said. If he earned a decent income, Jon would lose his Medicaid. His reputation as a writer grew. So he started consulting. And made 30,000 dollars in 24 hours. "At first, I charged $99. And 300 people signed up." He raised his prices. Then built online courses that taught people how to guest-blog and started another "premium" consulting service. "I made half a million dollars in 9 months," he said. The work lets him pay his own health benefits and live life for himself. Now, Jon Morrow is the CEO of SmartBlogger. He helps bloggers increase traffic, improve their writing, and make money. Jon believes any limitation can be overcome, although not easily. His story continues to inspire thousands around the world. Shortcuts - [23:00] - Jon told me how he developed a sense of self worth. Hear how he did it. - [26:25] - "When I got into kindergarten, another kid called me disabled, and I said, 'What does that mean?' And, he started laughing." Jon's teacher came over and said, "You don't know what that means?" He didn't. So he asked his mom. She thought about it and said, "It means you can't do something as well as someone else. But it also goes the other way." She said, "Everyone in the world can't do something as well as someone else..." So everyone in a sense is disabled. Jon focussed took inventory of his skills. Then he mastered them. Learn how you can hone your abilities, too. - [29:00] - Jon had twelve job offers after college. But he couldn't accept any of them. He had to keep his medicaid. And if he exceeded $700 per month, the government would take it away. So he found a loophole. He worked for free. Then years, later Jon asked for favors and ended up making half a million dollars in just 9 months. Find out how he initially did it here. - [1:11:50] - Jon was paralyzed from the neck down. He needed to reconstruct his reality. "I can only move my facial muscles," he said. He would've went crazy. But he made a new plan. "I started listening to audiobooks and podcasts 4-8 hours a day." His goal was to spend more time listening to inspirational stories, than he actually spent in his own life. I needed to understand, "Why was that your goal?" He said, "If you spend the majority of your time in worlds where people are accomplishing incredible things, all of a sudden that started to seem normal to me." Listen how Jon reconstructed his reality - [1:16:20] - Jon said, "A lot of people are under the assumption they can get whatever they want without trading something that they have. And that's just not the case." When he hears a success story, he looks for the price. What did they sacrifice? Money? Sleep? Time? Relationships? Everything has a price. But how do you know what price you're willing to pay? Jon tells you how. -- Also, if you like today's show, subscribe! Then you won't have to check back and you'll be first to hear new episodes. Thanks! -James ------------What do YOU think of the show? Head to JamesAltucherShow.com/listeners and fill out a short survey that will help us better tailor the podcast to our audience!Are you interested in getting direct answers from James about your question on a podcast? Go to JamesAltucherShow.com/AskAltucher and send in your questions to be answered on the air!------------Visit Notepd.com to read our idea lists & sign up to create your own!My new book, Skip the Line, is out! Make sure you get a copy wherever books are sold!Join the You Should Run for President 2.0 Facebook Group, where we discuss why you should run for President.I write about all my podcasts!... See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

I remember sitting at my cubicle job looking at people wondering, "Why? Why are you here? Why are you doing this?" I asked a friend once, "Don't you think this job is meaningless?" He said no. And then I knew what I had to do. I had to quit. And I did (eventually). First I spent time building up my own business on the side. I don't know if I've ever really believed in myself. I just knew I didn't want the life I had. Sometimes believing in yourself just means you don't believe in what you're doing right now. And you have to change. Sara Blakey felt this way, too. She woke up one day, looked at her life and said, "I'm in the wrong movie." Now she's a self-made billionaire entrepreneur. But my friend Ryan Deiss said believing in yourself is possible. And I wanted to know more. He started his first business in college. And made $100K in revenue the first year. He sold eBooks online. "I had books on pretty much any topic," he said. One was about baby food. Then he partnered with mommy bloggers and sold it to their readers. (That's the formula for a great strategic partnership. Create something useful. Find someone with an untapped audience. Someone who's talking to the people you want to talk to but who isn't not offering what you have to offer.) Now, years later, he's the founder and CEO of DigitalMarketer. He's a transformer. He teaches people how to build profitable online businesses. He walked me through it. He told me about digital marketing. And how people use these skills everyday to start and grow their own businesses.. Here's what he said.. ------------What do YOU think of the show? Head to JamesAltucherShow.com/listeners and fill out a short survey that will help us better tailor the podcast to our audience!Are you interested in getting direct answers from James about your question on a podcast? Go to JamesAltucherShow.com/AskAltucher and send in your questions to be answered on the air!------------Visit Notepd.com to read our idea lists & sign up to create your own!My new book, Skip the Line, is out! Make sure you get a copy wherever books are sold!Join the You Should Run for President 2.0 Facebook Group, where we discuss why you should run for President.I write about all my podcasts! Check out the full post and learn what I learned at jamesaltuchershow.com------------Thank you so much for listening! If you like this episode, please rate, review, and subscribe to "The James Altucher Show" wherever you get your podcasts: Apple PodcastsiHeart RadioSpotifyFollow me on social media:YouTubeTwitterFacebookLinkedIn See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Over the past five years, I've seen Ryan Deiss rise from a quality entrepreneur to one of the biggest names in Internet marketing. He's the founder and CEO of DigitalMarketer and anybody in the internet marketing space knows Ryan Deiss. He emailed me at 4am. He said, "I realized the promise that was made to millenials-- the same one that was made to me, and probably the same one that was made to you-- "Go to college. You'll get a good job," simply isn't true anymore." The old promise is no longer true. But there's a new promise.... We're going back to a society where mastery matters. And grades don't. But still....most parents want to send their kids to college. Have them waste the four years, and even the money. Get into debt. "It will pay off," they think, even though the data shows incomes for people ages 18-35 have been going straight down for 25 years. So how do you grow? Invest in yourself. Shortcuts - [7:42] - People say you go to college to learn how to be an adults. "The best place to learn to be an adult is to go and get a job," he said. "You can socialize around peers in the workforce. I met my wife in college. I'm thankful for that, but I think to call your first couple of years college the place where you learn to be an adult is mildly absurd." - [17:45] - Ryan told me the top two things he looks for when hiring a candidate... and it's not a college degree. - [18:07] - Learn how to add value and move up in any job. - [25:18] - Ryan has four kids. Sending them to college would cost over a million dollars. But he said he would do it. But he has a few conditions: they have to get a job or internship. They need to test the market. And see if that's really the right fit for their lifestyle. Hear Ryan's advice on how to go through college the right way. - [28:44] - "I think if we acknowledge that a college degree is not a prerequisite to success or happiness in life than we will not as parents, or as kids, or as educators, or as employers, determine that it is a necessary requirement," Ryan said. We talked about the financial burden on kids and parents. It's not the best decision to go to a "four-year-long summer camp to find yourself." There are other options. - [32:21] - One alternative is an internship. Or apprenticeship. "I believe business owners like myself, like you, (people who hire people), I believe we should carry more of the burden of education on our backs," Ryan said. "If we're willing to make that investment, we'll recruit and retain some of the smartest people in the world." I was confused. "What do you mean by burden of education?" I said. "Will you take actual time and money to be part of someone's educational process?" He said "yes." -- Hey James here. Thanks so much for listening. If you like the show, subscribe! I have a new episodes every week. ------------What do YOU think of the show? Head to JamesAltucherShow.com/listeners and fill out a short survey that will help us better tailor the podcast to our audience!Are you interested in getting direct answers from James about your question on a podcast? Go to JamesAltucherShow.com/AskAltucher and send in your questions to be answered on the air!------------Visit Notepd.com to read our idea lists & sign up to create your own!My new book, Skip the Line, is out! Make sure you get a copy wherever books are sold!Join the You Should Run for President 2.0 Facebook Group, where we discuss why you should run for President.I write about all my podcasts! Check out the full post and learn what I learned at jamesaltuchershow.com------------Thank you so much for listening! If you like this episode, please rate, review, and subscribe to "The James Altucher Show" wherever you get your podcasts: Apple PodcastsiHeart RadioSpotifyFollow me on social media:YouTubeTwitterFacebookLinkedIn See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Dave Asprey is the creator and bestselling author of "The Bulletproof Diet." He biohacks health. And discovers innovative ways to live longer, lose weight, increase brain function and evolve better. My brain isn't hacked (yet). So I needed to talk to Dave. We did a podcast and I asked him "how do you evolve better?" Shortcuts: - [14:00] - Energy is scarce. We get tired. So I asked Dave what he does specifically to enhance his energy levels? - [21:40] - Aging is scary... Dave told me what he takes every day to slow down the aging process. This is importance because the environment is affecting how we age. We live in WIFI dense areas. We're constantly stressed. Our diets fluctuate and so on. "We call it aging. Over time, your ability to power your body goes down, and that doesn't have to happen. It is within your control to fix it," he said. "You can tell the battery in your body to recondition itself and you can give it a better power source. Or you can let it slowly grind down..." - [39:50] - I never know what to eat. Once time I went on an all fruit diet. Another time I fasted for three days and passed out while playing ping pong with friends. Dave told me what to eat and what to avoid. He even told me which foods are worse than cigarettes. - [44:40] - "I like to go all in," Dave said. He told me exactly what he does from the moment he wakes up. - [53:00] - I asked Dave, "What do we do to evolve better?" He told me how to take charge of your body and manage stress. -- Hey James here. Thanks so much for listening. If you like the show, subscribe! I have new episodes every week. ------------What do YOU think of the show? Head to JamesAltucherShow.com/listeners and fill out a short survey that will help us better tailor the podcast to our audience!Are you interested in getting direct answers from James about your question on a podcast? Go to JamesAltucherShow.com/AskAltucher and send in your questions to be answered on the air!------------Visit Notepd.com to read our idea lists & sign up to create your own!My new book, Skip the Line, is out! Make sure you get a copy wherever books are sold!Join the You Should Run for President 2.0 Facebook Group, where we discuss why you should run for President.I write about all my podcasts! Check out the full post and learn what I learned at jamesaltuchershow.com------------Thank you so much for listening! If you like this episode, please rate, review, and subscribe to "The James Altucher Show" wherever you get your podcasts: Apple PodcastsiHeart RadioSpotifyFollow me on social media:YouTubeTwitterFacebookLinkedIn See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The cocaine made his throat close. "I was about to die". He wanted to be an actor. He wanted to be creative. He had dreams. And working real-estate for his father wasn't one of them. "I didn't want to come down," he said. "Why'd you do it?" "I really wasn't happy with myself," he said. "I believe it was because I wasn't my authentic self doing what I really wanted to do in my life." "Nepotism got me the job." And it was killing him. He was suffocating. Now Scott Steindorff is the producer of "Empire Falls," "Chef," (one of my all time favorite movies), "The Lincoln Lawyer," "Love in the Time of Cholera," and more. He's worked with Paul Newman, Jon Favreau, Robert Downey Jr., Matthew McConaughey, Scarlett Johansson, the list goes on. The other day he called me, a few days after we shot the project, to tell me about brand new projects he was working on that were different than anything he had done before. He is constantly testing the limits of his creativity. I wanted to know how he became his "authentic self." How did he go from being depressed and self-medicated to a successful and happy movie producer? I wanted to know because I don't think we ever really know. I think part of self-awareness is never quite getting there but always moving (hopefully) in the right direction. And creativity is something that needs to be constantly reinvented. Once creativity stays the same, it is no longer creative. Scott found a way to constantly be creativity. I want to learn how. "It's not easy at all," he said. "You have to do the leg work." "What's the leg work?" I asked Here's what he said: Step 1: FIND OUT WHAT YOU'RE CRAVING These are the two types of cravings: a) Depletion: Your body needs something. It can be water, a vitamin or mineral or a change. That's where reinvention comes in. b) Addiction: I felt powerless. I was addicted to money. More was never enough. Then I left Wall Street. Because they were the supplier. Scott wanted euphoria. He craved it. "I grew up wanting to be a skier and an actor and here I was in an office making money," Scott said. "I started craving that feeling of euphoria and excitement and passion for life." So he started doing cocaine. "Nobody knew I had a problem," he said. " I would do it by myself. So when I checked into rehab, it was a shock to my family." The patients had to drink some type of alcohol until they threw up. "By the second day, I said to the doctor, 'This isn't working for me. I'm a cocaine addict not an alcoholic." He thought they'd try something new. He thought they'd help. No. "Well... leave," the doctor said. "There was a shift in my consciousness. I went to my room. I cried uncontrollably for 24 hours. All the stress and pressure left me and from that moment on I haven't used for almost 33 and a half years." "What do you mean the stress left you?" I said. I couldn't imagine. He told me it just left. No explanation. He just saw his own choice. And he took it. I think most people don't know what they really want in life. We talked about adapting. And I said it seems like you have to surrender and be okay with the changes... even while you're depressed. "Isn't depression a lack of your expression?" he said. I never thought of it that way. Maybe I'm filling one need with sand when I really crave water. Step 2: ASK QUESTIONS I'm not in a 12-step program, but I want to understand who I am as my authentic self. So I asked what can I do right now? "Ask yourself questions," he said. "How Am I feeling? How do I feel about myself, do I love myself, am I feeling less than? Do I feel guilt?" "But what if you're lying to yourself?" "You can't lie to yourself," he said. "You're just denying the truth. If you're listening to this, it's coming to the surface. Don't push it down." Step 3: ACT IT OUT It's easy to come up with ideas. It's harder to act on them. I always say, actions are more important... See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

I tried to ruin Ryan Holiday's life. Fortunately, I failed. I told him to start an agency, build it up, sell it for 10 million dollars and THEN start writing books. "It's a good thing you didn't listen to me," I said. But I was wrong. It turned out he took my advice. "It made me super unhappy and it cost me a bunch of friendships," he said. "But it's not your fault. I know there are a lot of things that could make me money, but what I really like is writing. That's what I want my life to be." "So what if you don't know what you want your life to be?" I asked. "What should you do?" "That's the essential question," he said... A) SELF-WORTH IS NOT NET-WORTH Most writers die penniless. I can't think of a profession where I can name as many suicides as writing. I'm jealous of the people who don't write actually. Making business deals and going to work is so much more profitable than trying to tear your soul apart and put words on a piece of paper most people won't read. There's only one writer in history to become a billionaire. (J.K. Rowling, if you're reading... come on my podcast!) So why does anyone do it? I don't know. I do it because it's what I would do if I had nothing again. It's what I would do with everything. It's the one thing that makes me feel like I am going places without moving. B) VICTIM OR HERO Everyone wants to be the hero of their own story. I do. But I chose victim for years. I lost everything and I wanted the world to pick me back up. I'm not mad at the world for leaving me on the floor. I'm grateful. Because it let me pick myself up. It let me choose myself. "Stoicism is a practical philosophy and it works," Ryan said. "Define 'works'." "At its core, it says you don't control the world around you. You control how you respond to the world around you." He told me about the two most prominent practitioners of Stoicism. One was Marcus Aurelius, a Roman emperor. He had all the power in the world. His favorite Stoic was a slave, Epictetus, who was banished from Rome by a past emperor. "You have extreme wealth and power using the philosophy, and it's helping them," Ryan said. "And then you have extreme adversity, difficulty and powerlessness using the philosophy and it's helping them. To me, that's working." C) LOOK FORWARD TO THE BAD THINGS People are losing their jobs. And they're afraid. I asked Ryan if the Stoics have a practice for fear. He said, "The Stoics call that amor fati, which in Latin means 'a love of fate...' You look forward to the bad things because they were made just for you." D) MAKE YOUR JOB IRRELEVANT This is the key to all advancement in life. Make your job irrelevant. Burn the bridges behind you. "You should be trying to make your job or your role irrelevant because what you're actually proving is that you know how to do things, you know when something is working, and you're able to come up with the next thing," Ryan said. "When an employee comes to you and says, 'I know my job was to run this marketing department, but over the last 6 months I've automated X and Y. I've hired someone who's incredibly talented, sales are up X percent and I don't have that much to do.' Your boss doesn't go to their boss and say, 'Well how do we get rid of James?" They go, "James is f**king killing it.'" "That's how you work through or up an organization," he said. "No one says, 'Your book was so amazing Ryan, we don't need anymore books from you.' They go, 'What are you writing next?'" E) DON'T BE AN ADDICT I was listing the pillars of Stoicism. I wanted to know if I understood. So I said, - Integrity, (universal integrity, for example: never lie to get what you want) - Fairness (Help the people around you. Even if it hurts you. If it helps someone more than it hurts you, it's just.) Then Ryan jumped in. "Temperance," he said, which means don't be an addict to some other force. Don't be an addict to anything. F)... See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

"You and I both know what happened to you 18 months ago," he said. "If you don't write about it, you will die as an artist." Tucker's sold over 3 million copies of his books. I know I'm going to have to listen to him. Maybe later. ----- I've known Tucker many years. I can safely, say, I've been in the trenches with Tucker. We've both started businesses since then, published books, invested together, and cried (well, I did) together since we've met. In one of the worst personal disasters of my life, Tucker was there. He was there for the beginning, middle, and end. I always ask myself 'who is in my scene'? What's a Scene? I consider it: - the people I learn from - the people who I can count on - the people who challenge me to work harder and rise to my potential (and I can do the same for) - the people I can call when I am confused or troubled, and the people who are there for me no matter what. Ask yourself: Who is in your scene? --- Without a scene, it is much harder to succeed. Ask Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, Jack Kerouac, Andy Warhol, Sara Blakely and many many others who have risen to the top of their fields throughout history. Tucker and a few others have been in my scene for years. So I visited him. Talked reinvention, writing, and his current business success. Here's the top five things I learned: A) THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN PEOPLE WHO SUCCEED AND PEOPLE WHO DON'T "No one has ever replicated anything I did because they looked at the surface. They didn't actually understand the underlying input." "What do you mean by input?" I asked. "People look at my writing and they say, 'I get drunk, I fall down, I yell curses... I'm going to write really arrogant things. Then I'll get the same attention Tucker Max gets.' But that never works." "I was opening my soul," he said. "I was being honest. Anybody trying to mimic me forgot the honesty part." That's the work. That's the input. "If you want to boil it down, people who succeed are worried about input. People who don't succeed are worried about output." ---- B ) DIFFERENT > BETTER Spaces are getting crowded. Anyone can blog. Anyone can make a youtube video. Self-publishing is growing. And they're handing out podcasts at all the major international airports. More and more people are getting creative. More creativity = more competition. So how do you stand out? Micro-tribes. "I'm talking about being different, which is not the same thing as being better," Tucker said. "When I started writing, I wrote emails for my friends and my only measurement for whether the emails were good or not was whether those nine guys thought it was funny. There was no arguing. If they did, it was good. If it didn't, it was bad." This reminded me of how Craig from Craigslist built his company. Started out with an email, with the sole intention of providing pleasure for his friends. Provide benefit for the few, and then you can scale to provide benefit for the many. Tucker found his micro-tribe. And it grew. Because his did this... --- C) TELL THE TRUTH People send me articles all the time, "Can you read this?". I read one the other day. "How to survive a breakup" But the author left out his story. Advice is autobiography. Don't give me advice from the mountaintop. Tell me the story of the struggle. Of how you were the very reluctant hero, who was called into action for better or worse, who climbed the mountaintop, who now has the knowledge. Your story is the only test: Are you original? "I'll give you a super simple trick to being original," Tucker said. "Tell the truth. The hard truth that everybody thinks and nobody says." --- D) ASK YOUR QUESTION Last week I did seven podcasts. I probably asked 1000 questions. So I asked Tucker, "What's the skill? How does one become a good writer?" He had one answer: Self-evaluate. Tucker asks himself three questions: Am I what I think I am? Am I who I want to be? Am I good at... See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

I have a rule. After every podcast, I write down 10 things I learned. I don't know if anyone else does this. Do you do this? Some people make illustrations. They send me what they've learned. It's a creation of a creation of a creation. A drawing of a podcast of someone's life. But I broke my rule. It's been over a month. And my brain is digging for the lessons from my interview with the creator of Wordpress. I think I have Alzheimer's. Matt was 19 years old when he started Wordpress. It was 2003. Now Wordpress.com gets more traffic than Amazon.com. The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times both use Wordpress. I use Wordpress. I wanted to know if it's still worth the time and effort to make your own site. He said it is. That's how you break out... "We're trying to revitalize the independent web," Matt Mullenweg said. He's 33 now. "It's not like these big sites are going anywhere. They're fantastic. I use all of them, but you want balance. You need your own site that belongs to you... like your own home on the Internet." This is part of Matt's code. Not Wordpress's "code." Matt's like a robot. I mean that as a compliment. There are many signs of this: language, ability, he's very exact. I had to interrupt. He was talking in code. And it was my job to translate. He said, "If I send you a unit of work..." "I don't mean to interrupt," I said. "I'm a little bit of an interrupter. So I apologize in advance, but you talk in a very code-like language... 'a unit of work.' How about 'a task?' That works as well." He laughed. And thanked me for translating. The podcast continued. He told me about his personal code (again, robot). People have values. Geniuses and other advanced forms of life have "code." So here's Matt's... A) Measure what's important to you. Matt wrote a birthday blog. He does this every year to measure what's changed. It lists how many books he's read over the past year, countries he traveled to and so on. He's very specific. It's a measurement of his personal freedom. He can see where time went. And if he chose himself. "You cannot change what you don't measure," Matt said. So this year, I wrote a birthday blog. B) Own the work you do "Other sites provide space," he said. "They provide distribution in exchange for owning all of your stuff. You can't leave Facebook or Twitter and take all of your followers with you." That's why he recommends having your own website. It's yours. Not Facebook's. Not Business Insider's or Huffington Post's. It's yours. When I first started jamesaltucher.com, I picked a template, posted a blog, shared a link on Twitter and within 3-4 minutes I had traffic. C) Ignore concern Matt dropped out of college and moved to San Francisco when he was 20. "Were your parents upset?" "They've always been supportive," he said. "But they were concerned." That didn't stop him. He had direction. And when you know where you're going, you don't ask for directions. Sometimes I feel like I'm driving with the wrong address in my GPS. And Siri won't stop re-routing. So what I learned from Matt: Reroute yourself as many times as it takes. Reinvent. Put someone else's concern for your wellbeing on your gratitude list. But don't let it stop you. Don't let it get in the way of your code. D) The myth of loyalty When Matt moved and started his first job, he made more than his dad did. "I got an amazing salary," he said. I kept wondering if his parents were upset. I don't know why. "Were they upset?" He said no. Again. But then he explained. "Learning spreads organically." And when he moved, it helped spark possibility for his dad. "He worked at the same company for 26 or 27 years. He more than doubled his salary when he left. It made me so sad. I never want anyone to be in the situation my dad was in," he said. "He gave the loyalty of decades and they didn't... See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

She said, I am an introvert but had to develop tricks to fake being an extravert because of where I worked. I said, Do you think everyone in LA is an extravert? She said, I don't know. Maybe they are all faking. We were at a party. I had been sleeping but a friend called me up and said "you have to go this party three blocks away from you." So I did. Why? Because why not? Sometimes you know to say no. But to surrender to the moment, if nobody is getting hurt, sometimes you say yes. I went. It was crowded and I knew some of the people and some of the people I didn't. I didn't know her but we were introduced. "You have to ask her for [X} favor," the introducer whispered to me. But I never got around to the favor. I said, can you tell me some of the tricks? I asked because sometimes I feel I don't really know how to live and look like a normal person. Sometimes I like being home and writing and reading all day because that passes for human without me having to see, or touch, or talk to anyone. When I go outside, I often feel unhinged. Like I could float away. So I wanted to know. She didn't tell me at first. Please. Ok, she said, sometimes I would do what I call a "dare of the day". I would do something that I might be scared to do or was out of my comfort zone. I said, like what? She didn't want to tell me. Please. She squinted her eyes at my face then touched my cheek and rubbed her fingers together as if pulling something off my face. I would go up to people, strangers, and pretend to pull a wisp of hair off of their face. That would freak me out, I said. Both doing it and having some stranger touch my face. I would do all sorts of things like that. Ok, I said, I want to try this. Start me off. Tell me more or tell me what I should do tomorrow. She said, I can't. She made a motion with her fingers around her head the way people do when describing someone who is crazy. She said, Now that i've told you this your mind will start working on it. Tomorrow you will wake up and your body will know what to do. She told me the rest of her story, which was fascinating. Stay tuned for the podcast I hope she agrees to do. Then I went home. I woke up and I was upset about something that had happened earlier the day before. My friend Amy then had advice: go and eat pancakes and bacon and photograph it so I know you are eating. You have to prove it to me. I went. I ate. I photographed. Then my body knew what to do. I walked outside and there was a man and his daughter. I held up my hands with palms out, non-confrontational and said, "Good morning!" and they smiled and said good morning back. I started walking home. I saw a couple holding hands. Palms out, Good morning! And you [the girl] I love your blue hair. And you [the boy] I love your jacket. A pretty girl crossing the street. Good morning! She turned away and angled away from me as she walked past. I guess it might be taken the wrong way sometimes. Maybe it might not be attractive. I said to a guy opening up his store. Good morning! He smiled. Hey, good morning, guy. I said it all the way home. I got home. I didn't feel down anymore. The sun was coming in. I started to write. First I wrote the girl from the party and told her what happened. She wrote back (i'm going to paraphrase), don't record your dares. That's why I was hesitant to tell you the dares I did. Ok, other than this one, I won't. She said it will take a few weeks to figure out your boundaries on dares. Both personal and physical. She said, don't dare anyone else to do this. I didn't understand her reason. But maybe it would affect the way I did my own dares. SO DON'T DO THIS. I wanted to leave the party but I had one more question. What did you do after you were working in LA for so long as an assistant. She said, I went to get a PhD in Robotics at [best school in world for Robotics]. She laughed and I think she said, maybe that... See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Ben (of Ben & Jerry's) was in the room. He needed a logo. Debbie Millman just started her agency. She was competing against the best ad agencies in New York City. She lost. So she moved on to Burger King. "Why do you think you lost?" "We didn't have insurance," Debbie said. "We didn't have the big, global brand experience to show them." "I'll never forget this," she said. "When we got to Burger King headquarters, we got into a fairly small elevator with the Senior Vice President of Market Research. The door closes. He looks at us and says, 'Don't get your hopes up.'" This is important. Because Debbie Millman never describes herself as an entrepreneur. But she's the perfect example. Entrepreneurship is about putting your all into something, getting rejected and going back into the next room. Data is taking over. Data is replacing thinking and driving the direction of the future. Data sells confidence. And that's what the brands wanted. Burger King tried changing their logo 7 times in the decade leading up to Debbie's success. So she did focus groups. And studied eye-tracking on the original logo. "We wanted to know what people thought," she said. "We wanted to get a sense of why this was so beloved?" "People do not read first. First and foremost, they see color. Then they see numbers, then shape, and then, if you still have their attention and they understand what you put in front of them, then they will read." A logo is a message. Even if you don't read it. You can recognize logos visually without reading. Our brains know. Then we choose who we belong to. And that's our tribe. Debbie was changing the face of an iconic brand. And change causes fear, which strikes up all the stress hormones in our body. "In order for us to create an identity that was evolving from the original, we had to keep some of those iconic elements." You're original. As a baby, you were a blank canvas. No logo. No brand. No name. And no identity. Then you went to school and made friends and things happened to you. Someone asked me, "who will you always be? Who's James? When you're 4, 14, 24, 34, 44, 84, what parts of you will always be there?" That's what Debbie had to figure out with her brands. She did it with Tropicana, Star Wars, and eventually, she won Ben & Jerry's over too. But after all of this data, all of this color, all of this branding, at the heart of it is the essence of who you are. What is the logo of your heart. Debbie figured out hers. And created her life around it. Figuring out who we are is the key to having an impact all over the world. That's what Debbie taught me on this podcast. That's what I try every day to create in my own life. ------------What do YOU think of the show? Head to JamesAltucherShow.com/listeners and fill out a short survey that will help us better tailor the podcast to our audience!Are you interested in getting direct answers from James about your question on a podcast? Go to JamesAltucherShow.com/AskAltucher and send in your questions to be answered on the air!------------Visit Notepd.com to read our idea lists & sign up to create your own!My new book, Skip the Line, is out! Make sure you get a copy wherever books are sold!Join the You Should Run for President 2.0 Facebook Group, where we discuss why you should run for President.I write about all my podcasts! Check out the full post and learn what I learned at jamesaltuchershow.com------------Thank you so much for listening! If you like this episode, please rate, review, and subscribe to "The James Altucher Show" wherever you get your podcasts: Apple PodcastsiHeart RadioSpotifyFollow me on social media:YouTubeTwitterFacebookLinkedIn See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Tony Robbins stopped by on his birthday. And then he started causing problems. Like he does. "I realize you're high energy," the audio engineer says, looking at Tony, "but when you bang the table it sounds like the whole room is shaking." In 220 podcasts, it's the first time the audio engineer had to interrupt in the middle. "Oh, ok, no problem," Tony says. "I don't want to stop the passion," the audio engineer says. "Don't worry, I'll be good," Tony says. Then the audio engineer went back outside. Tony kept slamming that table. Outside the room, people thought he was going to climb over the table and beat the S**t out of me. But it was all good. BUT... I felt like I had to keep the energy level high. So pretty soon we were both yelling back and forth. He was there because of his new book, "Unshakeable". But we spoke about maybe 1000 topics. Not just the financial world. So let's get right down to it. What did I learn? - EVERY YEAR (on average) THE STOCK MARKET WILL FALL 10% This is great for newspapers. They say, "The world is ending!" and they say it EVERY SINGLE YEAR. And yet it never does. It never did. Even in 2008. The world did not end. The market is at all time highs right now. The key with Tony's book is he shows these statistics not so you can make money off of them but so you DON'T PANIC. Markets move. Ignore the news. - BRING IT Before the podcast I said to Tony, "let's do a fun outtake". I wasn't sure he'd say "yes". We videotaped it (it's on my instagram). He BRINGS IT. It's so much energy I almost had to stutter out my planned line ("I can't see your face on Skype, only your chest"). And when we did the podcast, I felt like I had to yell and really UP my own energy level at least three levels higher just to keep pace with him. I don't know how he does it. SO....! I asked. How do you do it? I want that energy also. Please? - DON'T ASK HOW, INSTEAD ASK 'WHY!?' He finally said, "Enough with the 'how-to'. Don't ask 'how-to' questions". He said, "Ask What and Why?" What is the Result. Why is your purpose. "Why are you getting out of bed in the morning? And what are you going to do about it? "Motive matters and brings energy". He said, "I love lighting people up." That, he said, gives me the energy. When I later found out his schedule, not only was he booked every hour that day with different news sources (he started the day by ringing the bell at the Nasdaq) but IT WAS HIS BIRTHDAY. He brings it. - TRADE YOUR EXPECTATIONS FOR APPRECIATIONS This is critical for well-being. Don't expect the world to provide you with happiness. Every time you find yourself slipping into an expectation, change it in your head into an "appreciation". Find the things you appreciate. Then take ACTION. "It's like a practice," I said. He banged the table. "Exactly!" - MODELING I said, "how do you learn new things?" He said, "Modeling." I said, "Well, I imagine you look great walking down a runway at a fashion show but seriously." He laughed and said, "Look, when I went to write the Money book and then my new book, Unshakeable, I didn't just sit around reading the paper. "I went out with a video crew and interviewed 50 billionaires about how they invest. "I watch what they do. I study how they think. And I see if I can break it down into chunks so that anyone can follow their process." In my last podcast with Tony, two years ago, he described how he learned how expert Marines improve their firing skills even though he had never fired gun before. He described almost the same process then. For me, I know this works. When I want to write, I always read first. When I want to do public speaking, I watch standup comedians (and singers) first. I want to figure out how the best people in the world do something so I can do it 1/100 as good at the very least. When I need energy now, I picture Tony Robbins smashing... See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

My ancestor from 70,000 years ago was smarter than me. He knew every plant, mushroom, animal, predator, prey in a several mile radius. He knew how to make weapons. He knew how to capture something, make it edible. I can barely order delivery. And as far as weapons, they say "the pen is mightier than the sword" but I don't think a tweet is. My ancestor also knew how to adapt to new terrains, how to handle strangers who could be threats, how to learn who to trust and who not to trust. I wish I had his skills. Not only that. Archaeological evidence says his brain was bigger than mine. And bigger is better. To make things worse, another animal made the entire human race its slave. Wheat domesticated us. It forced us to stick around for the harvest, horde up for years when the harvest might be bad, go from a life of a diverse diet to basically all carbs all the time. And it turned us from hunters to farmers. But it's not all bad. And the news is actually very good. Probably the books I've recommended most in the past five years was "Sapiens" by Yuval Harari. And not only me: it's Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg's top recommendation. And now Yuval has a new book, "Homo Deus" - i.e. where are humans heading? If Sapiens explored the last 70,000 years of human history, "Homo Deus" takes the trends into the future. What will happen next? The answers are fascinating. And I had even more questions. I couldn't believe I was finally talking to Yuval after reading "Sapiens" so many times and recommending it on every list and giving the book to all of my friends. And then finally reading "Homo Deus". What made humans the only animal to spread across the entire globe? What was special about us? How did we go hundreds of miles into empty water to find Australia for instance? I would never take that risk! And then survive and flourish in a completely new ecosystem, just like we did in North America. "Fiction," Yuval told me, and describes in his book. "We created elaborate fictions for ourselves: 'nations', 'corporations', 'religion', 'crusades', and perhaps the most successful fiction: 'money'. So I could use a dollar and some stranger in China can use a dollar and we can trust each other enough to do a transaction." So what's next? "Homo sapiens are going to evolve again." Yuval said, "Technology is taking us there and technology is evolving much faster than we are." I still can't believe I spoke to him. Five years ago I took his course on Coursera. I was thinking, "how did this guy get so smart?" And now I was talking to him. And, like I said, the news was not bad. Here's what I learned: 1. The economy needs you to invest in yourself "There's a change in the nature of the economy from a material based economy to a knowledge-based economy. The main assets in the past were material like gold minds or wheat fields," Yuval said. "These are the types of things you can conquer through violence." That's how we got California. The US invaded and absorbed their wealth. But you can't invade and absorb knowledge. China isn't going to take over Silicon Valley and absorb all the wealth. "Today, the main asset is knowledge," he said. The only good investment you can make for your future is the investment you make in yourself today. Hone your idea muscle, build a network and a library of mentors, make a commitment to do one healthy thing a day. Because the health of your body impacts the health of your brain. I try to improve 1% a day. That's it. That's how I invest in myself. 2. Explore Internal realities vs. External realities Resources today are different. They're abstract. Yuval said, "The source of wealth in California today is knowledge, in the mind's of engineers and technicians and CEOs. And you just cannot conquer it by force." That's one of the reason's why Yuval says, "You see a decline in international violence." The other reason: weapons are too powerful.... See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Imagine going on a swing as high as you can. Then going higher. Then going so high you loop around. I get scared thinking about it. Sergey Brin, the founder of Google, did it the first time he tried. Steven Kotler and Jamie Wheal were training people at Google how to get into the state of FLOW. Sergey volunteered. What is Flow? The state where your brain and body loses all sense of time and you retreat into this perfect area of creativity and productivity. A state where Steven and Jamie have spent years trying to hack and re-create at will. And this is what they've done. I was talking to Steven Kotler, who's been on my podcast a few times and Jamie Wheal. They co-authored "Stealing Fire: How Silicon Valley, the Navy SEALs, and Maverick Scientists Are Revolutionizing the Way We Live and Work." It's sort of a sequel to "The Rise of Superman" all about "flow" in action sports. Steven said. "It's the moments of total absorption where you get so focussed on the task at hand that everything else just disappears, action and awareness merge, your sense of self disappears, time passes very strangely and all aspects of performance, mental and physical, go through the roof." But when I read it I thought, "Where are the chess players?" Where are the creatives? Programmers get into flow. Musicians, athletes, artists, all sorts of people get into flow. The question was "how?" I am selfish. I wanted to know for myself: HOW? So I read "Stealing Fire." It's about all the ways you can get into flow and other "optimal states of consciousness." It teaches you how to step outside yourself, have a 500% increase in your performance, functionality, creativity and have satisfaction. I had to find out, what are the triggers to get into flow? They said "risk." "Life or death?" I asked. "You need risk, but it's definitely not physical risk," Steven said. "The brain can't tell the difference between social fear and physical fear." Steven and Jamie figured this out when they went to Google to experiment on Sergey Brin's brain (Google's founder). They built a swing that loops 360 degrees around and covered him in EEG sensors. You'd have to pump your legs and use all your strength to gain the physical and mental momentum to go in a full circle. "My ten year old daughter crushed it," Jamie said. "She did 35 loops in 60 seconds, which is nudging the world record." Only a few people actually made it all the way around. Sergey's one of them. It takes intense focus. You have to overcome your fear and stay in the moment. You have to use risk to your advantage. "Anything that drives attention to the current moment drives flow," Steven said. It's not just swings. It's not just "smart drugs" or "extreme sports". On the podcast, Steven and Jamie give a range of techniques and ideas for how to get into flow. I want in. I want in ALL of the time. They have a quiz on their website (flowgenomeproject.com) that tells you your "flow profile." Over 50,000 people have taken it. On the first company I started I once disappeared into my office and programmed for about 24 hours straight. Completing a month's project in one day's time. We kept that client for life, even when we sold the company. Flow not only feels good, creates increased productivity and brain function, it's also a key skill to compete. I hope I can get back to that state again. Today. ------------What do YOU think of the show? Head to JamesAltucherShow.com/listeners and fill out a short survey that will help us better tailor the podcast to our audience!Are you interested in getting direct answers from James about your question on a podcast? Go to JamesAltucherShow.com/AskAltucher and send in your questions to be answered on the air!------------Visit Notepd.com to read our idea lists & sign up to create your own!My new book, Skip the Line, is out! Make sure you get a copy wherever... See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

I want to be a Jedi Knight. The idea of surrendering to some "force" greater than oneself. The idea of being in touch with some essence that can bring out my full potential in way that I could never possibly understand. When Cass Sunstein, genius economist (author of "Nudge", 40 other books, does Nobel-prize level research) wrote "The World According to Star Wars", I knew I had to talk to him. I reached out to everyone I knew, found a way to get ahold of Cass, who wasn't doing any interviews on the book, and managed to book some time with him. I've written many times before about the effect Star Wars has had on my life. But I was also interested in the phenomenon of Star Wars, a topic Cass writes about. In particular, why was it a hit? George Lucas is the living breathing manifestation of "idea sex". He takes concepts that worked in the past, meshes them together, and knows the combination will work. For example: think of a blonde-haired young man who has to reluctantly save the world from an evil galactic empire, uses laser powered swords and blasters, and meets a beautiful princess along the way. If you think "Flash Gordon" you'd be right. What you might not know is that George Lucas tried to buy the rights to the old TV serial "Flash Gordon". He wanted to make the movie. He was rejected so he made Star Wars. Or you might think Joseph's Campbell's "The Hero With a Thousand Faces", which George Lucas studied religiously before writing the script to Star Wars. Or you might think...any of a dozen influences George Lucas had and meshed together. His idea: to take the familiar, provide his own twists, and release. If the old influences were hits and he just changed one aspect (make a Western a Space Opera) there's a good chance he would have a hit. Cass Sunstein explores: what makes a hit? What makes a failure? What makes something a hit after it's been dead for years (example: Herman Melville's "Moby Dick" didn't sell at all while he was alive and is now considered one of the best-written books of all time). This is a topic I am obsessed with. Combine that with the topic of "Star Wars" and now Cass Sunstein has written a book I am obsessed with. We found a room to hide in and we spent the next hour laughing and swapping notes on the relevancy of The Force in today's world. We didn't talk economics, world history, behavioral psychology or any of the topics he is one of the best experts in the world in: We talked about what makes stories go viral. We talked about how much we enjoyed this cultural hit that changed generations. We were two kids talking about our favorite movie. ------------What do YOU think of the show? Head to JamesAltucherShow.com/listeners and fill out a short survey that will help us better tailor the podcast to our audience!Are you interested in getting direct answers from James about your question on a podcast? Go to JamesAltucherShow.com/AskAltucher and send in your questions to be answered on the air!------------Visit Notepd.com to read our idea lists & sign up to create your own!My new book, Skip the Line, is out! Make sure you get a copy wherever books are sold!Join the You Should Run for President 2.0 Facebook Group, where we discuss why you should run for President.I write about all my podcasts! Check out the full post and learn what I learned at jamesaltuchershow.com------------Thank you so much for listening! If you like this episode, please rate, review, and subscribe to "The James Altucher Show" wherever you get your podcasts: Apple PodcastsiHeart RadioSpotifyFollow me on social media:YouTubeTwitterFacebookLinkedIn See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.