The James Altucher Show

WHAT I CAN LEARN IN ONE MINUTE THAT WILL CHANGE MY LIFE FOREVER Stephen Dubner (Freakonomics) has a new podcast and it just hit #1 in the iTunes charts. "Tell Me Something I Don't Know" is the name of it and it's about to change my life. He came over to play backgammon and I asked him about it. He told me he became a journalist because it was an easy way to start talking to people. He said, "If I ask people to tell me something I don't know," then I often learn new things and it keeps the conversation going. My mind blew open. I'm tired of freezing up. Feeling too paralyzed to talk. I'm a shy introvert. This will help unfreeze me. For everyone I meet, I will try to learn something I don't know. I'll simply ask them. This will be my new habit. --- I listened to Dubner's first podcast of the new show. I learned something new from one member of the audience. First off, it's a hard podcast to create. Listen to it. There are three panelists. There's a fact-checker. And there's 100 people in the audience. I've never heard of a podcast like that. It's crazy to put that much work into a podcast! To be creative, go beyond what everyone else says is crazy. And to be crazy, go beyond what everyone else says is creative. Creativity is a lose-lose proposition. You're crazy and you're lost in the woods. But if you aren't creative, you're stuck in traffic with everyone else. Someone on the show said something I didn't know: when you sleep, the nerve cells in your brain constrict, allowing spinal fluids to wash right through and clean up the proteins that often attach to nerve cells in the brain to cause Alzheimers. I learned about five new things on that very first episode. I went to sleep that night in anticipation. Spinal fluids washing through my brain, giving my cells a much needed bath. --- If I can ask everyone, "Tell me something I don't know," I'm going to learn from everyone. It adds up. It compounds. It will give me more knowledge and help me be less shy. I hope. "Tell me something I don't know". ------------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.

He died. He was giving a speech, sat down, and the next thing... he was dead. They called an ambulance. They got paramedics. They did that thing. They brought him back to life. But his body didn't like living. He died again. Eight more times they used machines to convince the machine in his body that we call a heart, to come back to life. Please come back to life, the machines said to his heart. And finally his heart decided to stay. After that, things changed. Like they often do when we die at the age of 47. "There are three things," Chip Conley, now the head of hospitality for AirBnB, told me, "a job, a career, and a calling." "I had been building and running hotels for 20 years. It was my calling to be in the hospitality business. I built over 50 hotels. But it was starting to feel like a job." "When I died, I realized I couldn't do it anymore. I had to go back to my calling." Within a few years he had sold his business. He had nothing left to do. "I had faith in my calling, though," Chip said. "Something would happen." And it did. It did. Adam wrote me. He was my Airbnb host. I've been in 4 different Airbnbs that Adam owns over the past three years. So we knew each other. I only live in Airbnbs and I know many of the regular hosts in New York City. "I'm having a special guest in the apartment right downstairs from you," Adam wrote me. "He's the head of all hospitality for Airbnb. Would you like to meet?' Yes, very much so. I had spent 90% of my life in Airbnbs over the prior three years and just about 100% in the prior year. In 2014 I even wrote an article, "10 Ways to Improve Airbnb." Adam made the introduction. Chip Conley, the man who had died a few years earlier and sold his hotel business, responded. "Should I bring a bottle of wine?" he said. He came upstairs and we started to talk. "Brian Chesky, the founder of Airbnb, called me and asked me if I wanted to be the head of hospitality. Airbnb was a tech company, it wasn't used to being a hospitality company." "When I ran 50 hotels, hospitality was my main focus." "For each hotel, I had the hotel managers come up with five adjectives for what that hotel would be." "Maybe the adjectives might be: funky, hip, modern, clean, rock & roll." "Every employee, even the housekeepers, would keep those adjectives in mind in whatever they did. And, if possible, we even made sure the five senses the customers would experience in the hotels would match the five adjectives." "This is a great idea," I said, "You can even apply ideas like this to writing a book. Or even building a career for yourself. What five adjectives do you want your life, or the objects you create, or your relationships, be used to describe it." "Absolutely," Chip said. So he went to Airbnb to start creating an atmosphere of hospitality among the hosts. He had found his way back to his life's calling. I had felt it. Since 2013, Now I live in them. Now they are home. All because Chip died. "How do you find your life's calling?" I asked him. "What did you love doing when you were 6, 8, 10 years old," he said. "Like I had one friend who even at 6 was making mudpies as if they were real pies. Then she became a lawyer but was always unhappy." "So she quit being a lawyer and is now one of the biggest pastry chefs in the world." "For me, I was always pretending to run a restaurant in my house. I always wanted to be in the hospitality business." I thought back to when I was ten years old. I was writing short stories. And when I was 12 I even wrote an article in the newspaper interviewing politicians. You find your interests from back then and see how they age into the current day. "Find the thing you did where you lost all sense of time while you are doing it," Chip told me. "Remember the equation from Victor Frankl's 'Man's Search for Meaning'," he said. "Despair = Suffering - Meaning." "Find the things that bring you meaning.... See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

http://ryanholiday.net/dear-dad-dont-vote-donald-trump/ ------------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.

JOKE Last night I wrote down six things I wanted to do today. I kept number six blank. "JOKE" was just a reminder to start this post with a joke from Jon Macks... "If you live in Florida, ya know, God's waiting room..." "If you're Jewish, like me..." Those are just a few lines from my interview with Jon Macks. He was the top writer for "The Tonight Show" with Jay Leno. He wrote 100 jokes a day. That's half a million in 20 years. He's written jokes for President Obama, Bill Clinton, John Kerry and monologues for Steve Martin, Billy Crystal, Whoopi Goldberg, Chris Rock... and wrote the book "Monogluge: What Makes America Laugh Before Bed." But before comedy, Jon did political consulting. "I realized I could do one thing 300 nights a year: politics or perform. And I chose politics." He somehow transitioned and reached the heights of a dream career in comedy. I wanted to know his secret. I also wanted to know how to be funny... 1. Association Joke: I asked Jon how to run for Congress. "Anti-Washington, anti-establishment is what's working right now," he said. I'm not running for Congress. But, the night of this interview, I went to an open mic. So I ran some headlines by Jon. And he wrote jokes on the spot. Headline: "Trump Refuses To Say He'll Accept Election Results" Jon: "The Toronto Blue Jays lost yesterday. They're refusing to accept the fact that the Cleveland Indians are going to the world series." This is an association joke. You look at what else is happening. Then marry the two. 2. Rule of 3's: This is Billy Crystals joke: "Donald Trump reminds me a lot of hurricane season. He starts out with a lot of hot air, spins out of control, by the first week of November he's completely gone." The rule of 3's is this: Set up your joke. Start with a fact or an idea. Then expand on the idea by listing three qualities. The third is usually unexpected. That's your punchline. 3. Look for the oddity Jon said, "Most normal people-and I put comics as 'not normal'-most normal people walk into a room and go, 'This looks like a great party.'" But a comic asks questions. "Who shouldn't be here?" "Why are they serving bacon cheeseburgers at a Jewish event?" Go beyond business as usual. Look for the oddity... in contracts, your conversations, your habits. Try to find the light in life's eccentricities. Or the bull... in shit. 4. Find "your kind of people" and bring them together Every day, I practice what I call "emotional health." I spend time with people who lift me up. And I try to lift them up, too. Not with words. But with interests. We hold space for each other. And leave room for the juice in our brain to squeeze out. It's a different kind of lemonade, but it's ours. And we like it. That's all that matters. Seinfeld calls comedians "his type of people." As if they have different brains than everyone else. So I asked Jon, "What is it? What is the comedian?" He said, "A comic will go on stage and either say something we haven't thought of, or something we all thought of in a way that is really unique, funny and brings us all together." 5. Move forward Jon was traveling about 250 nights a year doing campaigns. His third kid was just born. And he had a choice: be a dad or "be someone calling in once a week." Lots of people make this choice. Money is involved. Fulfillment is a factor. The stress of making the "right" versus the "wrong" decision. Jon went with his gut. "I figured I'd take a break from political consulting, and I never went back." He had a 13-week contract with Jay Leno. That turned into a lifetime... Before podcasting and writing, I worked on Wall Street. When everything crashed, I fed people chocolate. I wanted to bring people together. Maybe that's number six. ------------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... See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

I can't tell you the secret to selling half a million books. Or half a million anything... Every day, business changes, the world shifts on its axis and your skin peels off a little bit. New cells are generated and with each blink, your eyes are rehydrated. "I'll admit, if there was some formula, I'd do it again," he said. Without new experiences, your soul rots. And your book or product or whatever you're trying to get rich quick off of smells like garbage. But people will buy garbage. Because we want new experiences. Ask any child. They'll give you an honest answer of why they like coloring or skipping rope. "I don't know... It's fun?" People wonder what they love. Instead of loving to wonder. Chuck Klosterman grew up in a town of 500 people. He became the number one literary critique of pop culture... before the Internet. Now anyone can research anything. And you don't have to own the Encyclopedia Britannica. Or wait for the library to be open. A lot of people I've interviewed say there's a big luck factor to success... "But I don't think that's as true with you," I told Chuck. He doesn't believe in luck. "The biggest factor is chance," he said. "What's the difference between chance and luck?" Luck: "Luck almost implies like a leprechaun is, sort of somebody is making this happen." "In many ways, it seems like certain people are luckier than others," he said. "I think what that really means is that when they were given chances, they elected to pursue them, as opposed to step away from them. And that kind of creates the illusion of luck." Luck is an open door. Chance is the willingness to step through. When I feel stuck, I don't create a new business overnight. I begin with a pen and a waiter's pad. I carve out a new perspective. I write 10 ideas. Whether the ideas are good doesn't matter. Reinvention, freedom and success are the results of movements. Not the "right movements." Just movements. Unattached, meaningless movements that hopefully fill your day and fuel your heart. "Everything I've liked, I liked in totality," Chuck said. "I wanted to almost be inside of it." Focus on nothing. Or everything. Let life reveal itself to you. Then you won't need luck. Because you'll have something much more valuable: perspective. Skill: When he started, Chuck needed motivation to write. Now he's a dad. And he writes every day. "I make myself do it," he said. His first job was with the local newspaper in Fargo. He wrote a 16-page insert called "Rage," meant to address Generation X. "At the time, my hope was that, maybe, if I do a good job as a reporter and I put in the time, I'd be able to publish a book, or maybe two books in my 50s or something." He thought he'd work as a reporter who might have the ability or the luck or the chance... Chance: "There were 23 kids in my graduating class. I remember the teacher would ask questions. And nobody would say anything," Chuck said.But he knew the answers. He thought everyone knew. "I just assumed everyone growing up felt this way-everybody felt very singular and alone. You had this world inside your mind. And there was the world outside of yourself where you just kind of goofed around, talked to people, and made small talk, but in your mind you had your own kind of world." Then Chuck went to college. "I was amazed to find a handful of people who were just like me, who listened to Mötley Crüe but also wanted to talk about it, and didn't just want to say, 'It rocked.'" Connection changes your mental identity from alone to alive. Chuck's second book, "Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs" sold half a million copies-more than his other eight books combined. "The only perspective I have is my own," Chuck said. "There is the conscious experience, then there is the unconscious experience. Some of those merge when I'm writing." Mystery... Chuck's latest book asks a hypothetical question that no one will know the... See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

"I know you've made tens of millions of dollars in various areas of life," I said. "Tell me how you did it." "Hmm." He scanned his memory for money. And landed in 1969. "I put all my possessions in the back of my Mustang and drove to Washington, D.C. I figured if I got $5,000, I could hitchhike my way through South America... but more importantly, Africa." There are about 220 countries on the planet. Doug Casey has been to 160. "I believe in the Latin phrase, 'Mens sana in corpore sano.'" "Sound mind, sound body..." "It means you actually have to go out and do this crap. You have to do it." "Why?" "Because maybe you'll find out the meaning of life." A) Don't be a plant "Unfortunately, most people are born in one place and then live in or near that place for the rest of their lives acting like plants, but I don't think acting like a plant is a good survival strategy for a human." B) Create your own currency Everybody says the Federal Reserve printed money. And devalued the dollar. Everybody's wrong. I asked Doug, "What do people mean when they say the Federal Reserve printed money? I think there's a common misconception around this." His answer: they buy assets and credit back the banks. They don't physically print money. And they don't create value. Doug goes places, meets people, asks them to do things either with him or for him. He values the people he's met, the money he's made/lost and the lessons he's learned. Honor your experiences. Money isn't the currency of life. Living is the currency of life. C) Where do good ideas come from? They say you need to see/hear something at least seven times to remember it. I don't know who said that. I wish I could say it was Ogilvy. I've talked about idea sex 100 times. Here's 101. Good ideas are like babies. Each one is new to the world. (Unless we're living in "The Matrix"... skip to [23:00] for this part of the interview... Even Elon Musk has thought about the likelihood of "reality" actually being "base reality." The chances are "one in billions," he said.) But for now, human babies come from human sex. Sex = creation. And it's the same for ideas. Take two ideas. Combine them. Now you have a new idea. Repeat. This is idea sex. "I wanted to be a paleontologist," Doug said. "Why? Dinosaurs! Every kid likes dinosaurs... But I took it seriously. So, geology background... Then I got interested in money. Put geology and money together and you've got the mining business-which is actually a better way to lose money than to make money-but the good news about the mining business is that they're the most volatile stocks in the world. And still are..." D) Read science fiction "It's a much better predictor of the future than any of the think tanks." E) Try new things I'm writing a children's book. Doug's hobby is nothing I've ever heard of before. He tried taking over a country. "Oh yeah," he said... as if he forgot. "How did I get started in that? Oh yeah, I know what it was." Doug has had 50 lives. He's dined with presidents, made millions, gone broke, wrote books, traveled to war zones, scuba-dived, practiced martial arts, he owns his own research company. And more. But the strange part is he seems to string them all along. Instead of switching from experience to experience, he piles them together. It's not clean. It's not organized. It's human. ------------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... See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

"Terrorists have moms," he said. Jeffrey Schilling was kidnapped in the Philippines and held hostage for 7 and a half months. The terrorists said they were torturing him. But Chris Voss didn't fall for it. Chris is a former FBI hostage negotiator and the author of, "Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It." "Find a way to mention his mother's concern for him," Chris' boss said. "I remember thinking, 'That's the dumbest idea I ever heard. A terrorist is going to care about this guys mother?'" "But my boss had great insight. And I didn't see any downside to it. So in the middle of the negotiation I said, 'Ya know Jeff's mom is really worried about him.'" "What happened next?" I asked. "This murderous, sociopathic terrorist said, 'His mother knows about this? You tell his mother he's OK.'" Months later, Jeffrey came home. Some hostage negotiation tactics won't work in business or with your wife. But these 5 tactics will... 1. Use the "hand-cuff method": Use this line when someone yells at you: "I can't hear you when you're yelling at me." The logic simple. People yell when they want you to listen. But if you eliminate their reward (being heard), then they have to comply. And you'll never get yelled at again. 2. Push past threats: "People who make threats always leave themselves an out," Chris said. But the truth is they need you. If you're not talking, there's no deal. They could lose out on a sale, a new employee, or millions of dollars. "The point of a negotiation is to find out how much money is on the table," Chris said. "You have to push the other side as far as they'll go... without insulting them." 3. Gain the upper hand 100% of the time: "You can gain the upper hand by giving respect first," Chris said. Which a lot of people are afraid to do... "But that's exactly why you gain the upper hand," Chris said. 4. Become less busy: Rest is the new hustle. "Anytime you slow down to do things more deliberately, you save time." Chris calls this, "The delay that saves time." 5. Show fearlessness Fear can be useful. But not in a negotiation. "Showing fearlessness is a great way to inspire confidence in you from the other side," Chris said. Forget what you have to lose. And focus on the reward. I can't afford to lose all my money again. So if you're on this list... don't listen to this interview: A) you're related to me B) you work with me C) you want to sell me something Everybody else is welcome. The negotiation tactic used against Mark Cuban [49:36] Find out the negotiation tactic I use personally [42:08] How to avoid the most dangerous negotiation [4:58] ------------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.

Jewel was broke and homeless, but she still turned down a million dollar check when she was 19 years old. Jewel was broke and millions in debt after selling 30,000,000 albums, and built back from scratch when she was 30. Jewel has switched genres, written music from folk to pop to country to even children's music. She wrote a children's book. I love Jewel. Abused from the ages of 5 to 15. Moved out of the cold barn she was living in at 15 to live on her own. And three years later she was homeless. "I didn't want to be a statistic," she told me she was afraid when she was 15. "I looked around at other girls who were in my circumstances and things went from bad to worse" And yet... she ended up a statistic. She realized this when she was 18, living out of a car, and attempting to stuff a dress down her pants in a store so she could steal it. When I was 18 I feel I was privileged. I had no real worries. I was "suburban lucky". Luck ruined me and made me complacent. I never would have made the good decisions Jewel ended up making. That's why I love her. That's why I'm glad she came on my podcast. I'm sure she's done 100s of interviews to promote her new book, "Never Broken", an excellent book. But I wanted to break her down. I wanted her to laugh. She was so smart and serious. Trust me: I got her to laugh. A) HARD WOOD GROWS SLOWLY Why did a homeless girl who sang for pennies in a cafe turn down a million dollar offer? "Hard wood grows slowly," she said. "I saw that as a kid. The soft trees would break. The hard trees would grow and live forever." She said: I knew I wanted to grow for a long time in this business. I also knew we were still in the grunge era and I was not grunge. If I took a million dollar deal, I read that I would have to pay it back. I was afraid I wouldn't be able to and I would be dropped by the label and that would be the end of my career. In fact, my album didn't do well the first year. But then went on to sell over 10,000,000 copies. They didn't drop me because I was just that girl they paid twelve dollars for. You have to think long-term instead of short-term always. -- She was 19. I do NOT think I would have made that decision. I think I would have made the wrong decisions. How does one take such a long term view at such a young age. I think it was the ten years she had spent developing her skills, singing in bars all over Alaska, preparing for this moment. Confidence is really difficult to develop. I don't know if I have it even now. But I'm going to remember this lesson on the next business decision I have to make. B) REINVENTION IS NON-STOP Jewel has written children's books, gone from folk music to pop to children's to country. She's been a rancher. She's been homeless. I asked her, "You had the benefit of really cultivating your talent from ages 5 to 15. You sang with your dad at gigs every week. "Do you think someone starting from scratch at 50 can do this?" "Absolutely," she said, "Reinvention never ends. It's every day. Pursue what you enjoy and move towards it and there will be opportunities." I look at my own life today. I'm about to finish a children's book. I'm looking into TV. I'm working on a novel. I have other business things. I don't know if any of them will work. But I know if I don't keep trying I will slip back into whatever hole I constantly have to dig myself out of. There are two days to start something new. When you are five years old. And today. C) CREATE ART FOR YOURSELF I said these words: "So when you were talking to Neil Young..." What funny words to say to someone, I thought at the time and told her. Neil Young told her: don't ever write for radio! Meaning: don't write for the masses, write for yourself. I asked her, "isn't there a tension there? Like what if you write for yourself and then nobody likes it? Don't you want to write something that people like?" She said, "We all have... See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

You're either horrible or miserable. Woody Allen has this joke in "Annie Hall." He says, "Life is divided into the horrible and the miserable. That's the two categories. The horrible are terminal cases. You know? And blind people, crippled... I don't know how they get through life... It's amazing to me. And the miserable is everyone else. So you should be thankful that you're miserable. Because that's very lucky... to be miserable." I guess I'm one of the lucky ones. We complain about getting older or not having a passion, etc. "In relatively recent history-we're talking the 1980s and later-we got convinced into believing we all have a capital P 'Passion,'" Cal Newport said. Cal's a tenured professor at Georgetown. And majored in computer science. So did I. Fact: You can't pre-test a fetus to see what its passion will be. Passion is not in your DNA. I wasn't born to podcast. Or write. Or be a father. I was just born... And I have eyes. So I see what other people are doing. I have ears. So I hear who's winning. And then my brain asks, "Why am I here?" "People believe if we look inside ourselves and discover what our passion is, we'll be happy. I studied this question in the book and that's not how it happens," Cal said. "Passion comes later." First you have to "become so good you can't be ignored..." 1. Start with an interest Steve Martin reinvented stand-up. He told jokes without punchlines. And let the tension linger. He didn't start with a passion for comedy. You start with an interest. I never thought, "Interviewing prostitutes at 3 a.m. is my passion." But I got good at it. I was curious. And I'm still asking questions today. 2. Build career capital Cal did a study. He found a database developer who became too good to be ignored. And used that as leverage. "She got into the computer industry with no background. At every stage, she said, 'What would be valuable here?'" Now she spends 4-6 months working in her cubicle job. And the other 4-6 months in Thailand. Acquire career capital. And leverage it. This is how you get autonomy in the workplace. "It's what lets you get a sense of mastery," Cal said. "It's what makes you get a sense of impact, and this is where passion actually comes from." 3. Focus on rare and valuable skills The first food truck was a pretzel stand. It had wheels and food. Now Michelin-star chefs have food trucks and pop-up shops. They didn't learn how to make pretzels. Or follow the trend. They used rare and valuable skills to innovate the market. I built websites in the '90s. That was my first company. But as soon as I heard my eighth-grade sister was learning coding in school, I sold the company. Coding was no longer rare and valuable. And competition was about to explode. Control competition and you'll control the market. 4. Get to the cutting edge of an industry Mastery leads to passion, not the other way around. You weren't "born" to invent the next iPhone. Nobody was. Even the people inventing the next iPhone weren't born to invent the next iPhone. "Innovations don't come at the very start of your journey." You have to get to the cutting edge, learn what's missing, identify room for growth and innovate. 5. Do deep work Deep work is the process of becoming great. "It requires hard, hard focus and pushes your skill to its limit." It's what you do to become the best in your field. And discover holes in your organization. Or in the planet. It's how you create ride-sharing, social networking, Google maps underwater. Cal says how at [16:04] 6. Or don't... I asked Cal, "Do you think most people actually want to be really good at something... Or do most people just want more time off to just do nothing?" I don't set goals. Or evaluate my growth. If I can support the growth of other people, cheer them on, smile and say, "Congratulations on getting up today," then the window gets bigger. Maybe success isn't... See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

If I can tell my children to read one post of mine, it would be this post. Influence is how they will navigate a world of uncertainty. Robert Cialdini is the most influential person in the world. And by that I mean, he wrote the book, "INFLUENCE", which sold 3 million copies and defines the six critical aspects of all influence. Now he has a new book, "Pre-Suasion", going 10x deeper into the concepts of persuasion. I got him on my podcast so I can ask the 1000 questions I have. Small story from the book: If you name a restaurant "Studio 97" instead of "Studio 17" people are more likely to tip higher. If you ask a girl for her phone number outside a flower store (triggering feelings of romance), she is more likely to give it to you than if you ask her outside a motorcycle store. And 500 other stories. The environment is just as important as what you say. Before the podcast began, I gave him a book as a gift: "The Anxiety of Influence", a history of poetry. What would poetry have to do with influence and marketing? In all art, since the beginning of time, artists have built on the work of the artists the generation before them. Beethoven depended on a Mozart to be a Beethoven. Picasso depended on a Cezanne. Without Michelson, there would be no Einstein. But poets, for some reason, would deny being influenced. "I never even read Ezra Pound," shouted one poet at a critic. Poets want to be seen as original. NOBODY is 100% original. This is the anxiety of influence. Almost all of our decisions and even creativity are outsourced to the people around us who influence us: peers, teachers, religion, parents, bosses, etc. Our personality is our own particular mishmash of influences. How we deal with that anxiety, how we RECOGNIZE the influences, learn from them, build from them, is the BIRTH of all of our creativity. Let me summarize the seven aspects of influence: - RECIPROCITY - if you give someone a Christmas card they will want to return the favor - LIKABILITY - make yourself trustworthy. For instance, outline the negatives of dealing with you. - CONSISTENCY - ask someone for a favor. Now they will say to themselves, "I am the type of person who does James a favor". - SOCIAL PROOF - if you are trying to get someone to do X, show them that "a lot of your peers do X". For instance, if you are at a bar and you are a guy trying to meet women, being your women friends and not your guy friends with you. - AUTHORITY - "four out of five dentists say.." - SCARCITY - "only 100 iPhones left at this store!" - UNITY - you and I are the same because: location / values / religion / etc I've used each of the above in business. They work. They will make you money. The entire purpose of language is to influence. We are not strong animals. We are weak. The language of influence saved us. Probably a word like, "Run!" was the first word spoken. A word of influence. And it worked. I'm still running from the things I fear. So speak to influence. Don't speak to call a flower yellow. Speak to breathe spirit into an idea, to be enthusiastic, to convey emotion, to influence. This is the only way to have impact with your unique creativity. I gave Robert the book as a gift ("reciprocity"), assuming we would have a great podcast. And we did. But then I thought later, I can't even remember how Robert got on my podcast. I highly recommended his book in the podcast and even in this post. As he got into his car after the podcast in order to go to his next interview, I started thinking, "Hmmm, who influenced who?" ------------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... See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

I had to stop trying to get ahead. There are 8 million people in New York City. And 7 billion in the world. That's 875 New York Cities. You can't get ahead. Information is compounding. Technology is growing exponentially. Nothing is predictable-except maybe your expectations. But not your success. I used to complain. Now I pivot. "There is no try," Yoda says. Hans Solo didn't believe he could use the force. Trying is just a form of doubt. "Do or do not," he said. When I was 23, I tried figuring out how long it would take me to make a million dollars. I just bought computer. It was the first thing I bought with "hard-earned money." Fast forward 25 years and I've thrown all my stuff away. And I've stopped trying to get ahead. I want an F in effort. And an A in not giving a shit. I'm writing because I'm writing. Not because I'm trying to write. People make this mistake all the time. If you say, "James, what can I do to help you?" you're doing two things right and one thing horribly wrong. Right: you're good-intentioned (maybe) and you're not hurting anyone (again, maybe). But here's where you're wrong... And I've done this before too. I've tried to be a good boss, a good employee, a good investor, but for all the wrong reasons. There's only one good reason: you want to provide value. If you don't want to add value, you're not helping. You're hurting. Growing up, when my family argued, I'd ask, "Can I say something?" "Will it help?" my father would say. I didn't answer. Offering ideas is not valuable. You have to give the "how." Say what you're going to do and list the steps. That's where your idea list comes in. I've started and ran more than 20 businesses. And I can tell you one thing for sure: when I did it for money, I failed 100% of the time. Here's the test... before you do anything, ask yourself this one question: "Do I want to add value?" -- "That's how I got Mark Cuban to come on my podcast," I said. Jenny Blake started a podcast. She came on my show to ask what works. And what doesn't. It would be brilliant strategy... Except it's not a strategy. It's genuine. And that's why it works. She asked to interview me and provide value to you. Jenny's an ex-Googler. I wrote a blurb for her book. So did Cal Newport, Seth Godin, and a few other people I owe return emails to. I wrote, "To pivot well is the difference between millions and failure. Former Googler and entrepreneur Jenny Blake (one of my favorite human beings) dissects the pivot, how to do it, and how to do it right." I can't tell you the right way to pivot. I'll leave that to Jenny. I went on her podcast as a guest host. And she came on mine to dissect my brain. Reorganize it, and give you all the milk. Listen now to learn how I make money, keep it and grow it [12:39], how I got Mark Cuban on the podcast [41:48] and more... - the exact steps I'm taking to pivot in my career right now [6:09] - if and when it's the right time to pivot [8:29] - How I currently make money and diversify my portfolio [13:53] - How to do what you love everyday [16:16] - The 9 experiments I did before creating a stockpickr.com, which sold for $10 million [19:50] -The best and worst way to network [38:38] - What my day-to-day looks like [47:39] ------------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... See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

By the time you finish reading this, everything I'm about to tell you will already be over. What you choose to do with it is up to you. Caleb Carr was beaten as a child. His father, Lucien Carr, was an Ivy League boy, friends with Jack Kerouac, William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg. They were the rebels of society. Known as The Beat Generation. But Caleb reminded me of their other legacy... "My father gets arrested for murder. Jack gets arrested for accessory because he helped hide the weapon..." "And then Burroughs, of course, shoots his wife down in Mexico." "My father's murder case gave their movement a type of darkness and gravitas it wouldn't have otherwise had." --- "All of these cycles, all of these abusive things are cyclical," Caleb said. His father didn't get the help he needed. He didn't get the help he needed. "It's one of the reasons I never had children myself." I didn't understand at first. Caleb has the awareness. He understands the cycle. So I asked, "Don't you think if you had children, you would have been able to hold yourself back?" "I simply could not trust that," he said. --- As adults, we look at our lives and question what happened and why? We pick at our scabs and then wonder why we're bleeding. What's done is done. And how you choose to live with it is your legacy. So Caleb writes. And between the intersection of abuse and history, he found relief. Caleb's latest book, "Survivor, New York" begins with "The Curse of Knowledge," It's the idea that once you know something you can't unknow it... pain, loss, grief. No pain heals without air. Eventually, the bandaid gets soggy. And the cut below turns green. That's when I start reading. Caleb's books are the air. Keep reading to learn three lessons from the brilliant, historical novelist, Caleb Carr. Two will give you relief. One will not... 1. History can save you. A lot of people write thrillers. But Caleb wasn't sure how he'd set himself apart. But he found a simple solution. Training + Interest = Success Caleb is a trained historian. He has an interest in serial killer novels. And now he's a bestselling author. He writes historical thrillers where characters like Theodore Roosevelt and Alexander Hamilton rescue neglected children from serial killers. 2. Pain reinvented is freedom. Caleb needed to write... (as all writers do). But he didn't want to write a memoir like his father's pack. He tried it once. "I found the experience incredibly creepy." So he found fiction. Caleb said he's not depressed but feels "intense melancholia." "It's a dark, dark place you go." "Are you able to function with it?" I asked. "Oh yeah," he said, "that's when I work." 3. Always end on a cliffhanger Every unresolved problem in my life is a cliffhanger.Cliffhangers keep the story going. They create chaos. So I just stay curious. Caleb told me the warning signs of a serial killer: childhood violence, torture against animals, fires. "I loved starting fires," he said. "I set my house on fire when I was four years old. It was the only time my father didn't hit me." I later asked if he has sociopathic tendencies... "functional sociopathic tendencies." "Ummmm..." He was thinking about it. ------------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.

One good story can save your life... (literally). Jordan was taken, strapped to a chair and kicked around. First in Serbia and then again in Mexico. But you already knew this. Here's what you didn't know... I was taken too. Or at least it felt like it. Everyone reading this has talents. And you want to express those talents. Maybe you feel taken too. You want to choose yourself but you don't know where to start. The first step is simple... get a teacher. I want to be that teacher. Why? I don't know really. I've experience so many opportunities that bring me joy. And new ones still come up. When I got rid of my apartment, strangers all over the world offered me warm meals, friendship, places to sleep. And the emails still come in. They offer to feature me in their books, on their websites and podcasts. Jordan Harbinger says "Always be giving." So that's what I try to do. I want to give back. And hopefully you can experience some of the joys I've had too. So take my advice... Self-publish your story. Books are the new business cards. They create new opportunities and expand your mind. I became a bestselling author. Now I'll tell you how you can too. That's why I'm releasing a special bonus interview. You'll hear how my friend Jordan charmed his way into a better life. And how you can too using my "ultimate checklist before self-publishing." This is my personal checklist that I used to become a bestselling author. This is how I escaped. The cage is unlocked. It's up to you to walk out. Listen now ------------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 can learn a lot from a sociopath. How to be charismatic, charming, convincing... They know how you think. "That's the mindset we want," Jordan Harbinger said. He was kidnapped twice. Once in Serbia. Once in Mexico. He talked his way out both times. "We knew there was a problem," he said. "The cop gets in my face and says, 'In your country, can you walk around with no identification and no passport? Tell me the Goddamn truth.'" Jordan was in Serbia teaching refugees English. "Yeah, we don't need any form of identification at all," he said. The cop turned to his friend and in Serbian said, "I guess they really are free over there. I had no idea." They didn't know Jordan spoke Serbian. He ended up in a basement. Pipes were sticking out of the wall. There was no water for miles. Wires were everywhere. And Jordan was tied to a chair. They threatened to burn his eyes with a cigarette. The guard had a club and rakia, a homebrewed liquor. Jordan talked his way out of going blind and into having a drink with his kidnapper. I always say advice is autobiography. Now Jordan's made a career teaching ultimate survival skills through his podcast, "The Art of Charm." I asked him, "How can I be more likable?" "I think you're very likable..." Later he said I have "an un-punchable face." And I agreed. When Jordan was single, he saw a girl texting on the train. There was no cell service. I tried guessing what he said to her, "'I didn't get your text, can you re-send it?'" "No, no that's a great, pick-up line, but I wanted to disarm her. So I said something like, 'Are you gonna write the whole book on your phone?'" I asked him the top 5 takeaways from his podcast. He said everyone's decision-making process is different. "Everyone gets to the top differently." Jordan's interviewed world leaders like General Hayden, the former head of the NSA and CIA, Super Bowl MVP Hines Ward, and 500+ more. They all have stories. We all do. You could even self-publish yours. That's what I did. My life changes every six months. Maybe yours will too. I even wrote a guide called "The Ultimate Checklist Before Self-Publishing." You can get the checklist now (for free). Write a book. Sell it for 99 cents. And email me when you get your first sale. I'll tell you even more about this on Saturday. I'm doing a special bonus podcast with Jordan. You'll hear his two kidnapping stories and you'll learn about the 20 steps I took to become a best selling author. (If you don't want to miss it subscribe now.) But for now here's Jordan's top 5 takeaways from "The Art of Charm." ------------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 at a restaurant with this beautiful, thick-cut bacon. The kind you use a knife and fork on. It had fat running through it. And I felt that feeling when you fall in love in junior high school. My friend AJ Jacobs is going to prove bacon is the the path to immortality. "I am very skeptical of health gurus," he said. "You can find a study to support anything." I want him to find that study so I can eat bacon three times a day. And live forever doing it. I'd spend the rest of my life experimenting. That's how AJ lives his life. Every year, he does a new one. Then he writes about it. Most of our lives are lived in our head. Creation is when it leaks out. He's written four New York Times bestselling books. And he's the editor-at-large for Esquire. But you don't need permission. These four words will give you ultimate freedom to do anything you want: "It's just an experiment." Forget the gatekeepers. Just play. AJ has done hundreds of experiments. He learns from them. So do I. Here are 3 lessons I learned from AJ's hundreds of experiments: 1) Filter negative thoughts I believe in authenticity. But I don't believe in saying everything you think. If all the pain we created was just an accident, misunderstandings wouldn't need explaining. AJ stopped gossiping. He had to. It was part of an experiment. "There's a 1-800 number that Orthodox Jews have. It's like a suicide hotline, but for gossip." "How many people call that number a year?" I asked. "I don't know. I called it and found it very helpful." He said his brain is lazy. Mine is, too. I have to watch it. It takes a lot of effort to clear out negative thoughts. But when AJ's brain realized certain thoughts were being filtered, it stopped generating those thoughts. "I started thinking more positively about people." Some people don't know they're negative talkers. Or negative thinkers. Your brain is Jurassic Park occupied by predators. If you take care of yourself and filter them out, positive thoughts will filter through. Good people will want to be around you. The landscape will change. And new opportunities will come. But if you get the urge to gossip, call the hotline. 2) Practice radical positive honesty AJ and his wife ran into some of her college friends at a restaurant. They said, "Oh, we should all get together." But AJ didn't want to. He was doing an experiment where he was being radically honest 100% of the time. "I had to say what was on my mind, which was, 'You guys seem nice, but I just have no desire to ever see you again.' "How did they react?" "As you might expect, they were not overjoyed." "Did your wife yell at you?" "Yes, absolutely, she yelled at me. In one sense it was effective because we've never seen them again." "I don't know how she stays married to you." AJ laughed. And we still got lunch after the podcast. Now he believes in radical positive honesty. I told AJ I'd try it. "Give it a shot. You're very handsome," he said. He was lying. 3) Don't overlook anything One of the top 3 moments in AJ's life was with Chrissy Teigen. I already knew the story because he called me immediately after interviewing her. They were talking about religion and she randomly asked if he read "The Year of Living Biblically." She didn't know he wrote it. "The Bible says you should say thanks all the time. I took it literally," he said. It was one of his experiments. "I would press the elevator button and be thankful it came to the first floor. Then I'd get in and be thankful it didn't plummet to the basement and break my collarbone. It was a very bizarre way to live, but it was also wonderful because you realize there are hundreds of things that go right every day that we totally take for granted." ------------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... See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Beautiful women with laser boobs. If you asked me "What's Playboy's future," that would've been my guess. But then I spoke to Steven Kotler. I asked him, "When are we going to start 3D printing houses and cars?" This was 7 or 8 months ago. But I was too late. China 3-D printed ten homes in two days. And they were cheap. $5,000 a home. Then they 3-D printed a mansion. And a five-story apartment complex. The future is rich in possibility. "We're here," Steven said. "It is really really real." "Today, for the very first time in history, pretty much anyone can have a global impact," Steven said on today's podcast. So I asked him, "If I'm sitting in my cubicle or I'm driving to work and I'm listening to this, how can I improve my life?" He told me about a woman in her 30s who graduated from Harvard, lived with her parents and couldn't get a job. So she disrupted the $256 million a year cosmetics industry. She combined a standard inkjet carton with a 3-D printer. With bio-degradable ink, she can print any type of makeup in any color. Then Steven told me how we're colonizing space. "One of the reasons we're not in space yet is because it costs $10,000 a pound to get something out of Earth's gravity well. It's really expensive. We need to be able to print in space." "My next book," Steven said, "not the one I'm writing now, but the one after that will be about the 4 enormous exoduses that are happening in this century. One is in virtual reality. Another is gonna be in space." "What's the other two?" "One is gonna be climate change migrations." "Meaning we're leaving earth?" "I don't think we're leaving Earth." "What's the fourth exodus? "I actually think the fourth is into our own subconscious... in our own mind," he said." He called them "interior states of consciousness" or "inner-space." Steven wrote some of my favorite books, including "Bold: How to Go Big, Create Wealth and Impact the World," which is also byPeter Diamandis, the Chairman and CEO of the X PRIZE Foundation. Bill Clinton said it's, "A visionary roadmap for people who believe they can change the world." Steven also wrote Tomorrowland, which shows you all the ways science fiction is coming to life. So far no laser boobs. But anything is possible. ------------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.

There was a time when the only word I said was "no." I think that was the best time of my life. But I can't remember it. My memory sucks. It was "the terrible twos." A defining age. You tell your truth. But everyone says you're a terrible person. And somewhere along the way you start listening to them. They make up rules. And send you to school, where girls wear white gloves and can't blow their noses in public anymore. I guess that's why they think it's cute when babies snot on themselves. Freedom. I went to Cornell, studied computer science, got a job at HBO, went back for remedial school because my degree wasn't up to industry standards. Then I tried another job. And another job. I ended up on Wall Street. I lived there. But that didn't stop me from losing everything. I had millions of dollars in debt. Not one million. MILLIONS. I thought my only option was to kill myself. Because I knew this for sure: I couldn't obey any longer... Imagine talking to someone for years. And everything you say gets ignored. You're going to hate that person. I ignored myself. So that's who I hated... I ignored my gut. For 20 years. Your gut reveals itself every time you say how tired you are or some BS like "Happy Friday." It's asking you to sleep, quit your job, be creative. To say "no." Information is power. So even if you make decisions off influences, don't you want to know what the components of your decision are? I did. So I asked an expert... 1. What are the forces that influence me? 2. And how I can cleanse myself of the negative ones? I interviewed Jonah Berger about his research book, "Invisible Influence: The Hidden Forces that Shape Behavior." He's a Wharton School professor, a New York Times bestselling author and social influence expert. Google is one of his clients. We talked about: - Mirror neurons - "The power of mimicry" - Why I won't let my daughters win at checkers, chess or any game at all. Ever. - How to predict upcoming trends - What influences could be holding you back -And what steps you can take to be "one of the lucky ones..." I was picturing businessmen who ignore themselves everyday. Who don't drink water when they're thirsty. Who just do the same routine. They have no idea they're on autopilot. And it's killing them. They'll get a heart attack one day and never know what hit them. That was me. Until I chose myself and started doing these three things: 1. Find out your influences What's your day, week, year look like? And why? Jonah gives 20, 30, 40 examples in this podcast. He helps you figure out the positive and negative influences that are impacting your life. Things you've never even considered. 2. Check your gut Picture your insides. Your meaty heart. And the deep stream of blood keeping you alive. It knows the answers to your questions already... But you have to check-in. Because sometimes it's so quiet. It's used to being ignored. Listen and notice. 3. Then lean into it Start with small changes. Go to the bathroom when you need to. Stop eating when you're full. Linger a little longer. Give yourself space. When your gut knows you're listening, it gets louder. And more powerful. I'm still learning to choose myself everyday. And sometimes my gut disappears. But at least I know where to find it again. Listen now to hear how to identify the hidden forces shaping your behavior and create the influences in your 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!... See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What you'll learn from today's podcast: [6:58] - Who should everyone be an entrepreneur? [9:12] - How do you decide what a "rich" life is to you? [19:43] - Make $50,000 in one month with a simple site [25:03] - How to attract the right audience/customer [34:00] - Get better than anyone else in your space [43:30] - How to test your idea... before it "tanks" [54:40] - Two marketing myths you need to know [58:58] - If you want to quit your job (and start your own business)... do this step first -- I try noticing when I'm having a hard time. And if I want to ask why. If I ask, "Why do I feel like this?" my thoughts seep further into my brain. And I can't find them. "Where are you going? And why do I feel like this?" But "why" isn't the answer. "You are not your feelings." I've heard this before. It's helpful to have a degree of separation. Negative pressures take away momentum. It makes me lazy. And hungry. I don't think I'm ever really hungry. I'm just looking for a human excuse to get away from responsibility. But sometimes you have to admit where you really are. I don't have advice for you. I have something better. I have Ramit Sethi, author of the New York Times bestseller, "I Will Teach You to Be Rich" and owner of iwillteachyoutoberich.com and growthlab.com. He's been on my podcast before. Every time he's on, people want to know this one thing: "HOW can I live a rich life?" I told Ramit, "The person listening to this doesn't want to hear that it's possible to get rich. Because that's what everybody says. I want to hear specific tactics." And he's giving them all away. "There's story after story after story of people who have taken your courses and made money..." I said. "Not just made money. Yes. Of course, they made money. That's the least interesting part. A guy gets a $50,000 raise. That happens every day using my stuff." "Tell me a story of someone who's made $50,000 in one month." (Listen at [19:45]) I don't believe 99% of the advice about entrepreneurship. Because that advice is what gets you out of your heart and into your head. It makes you lost. Because you try to sell out. You try to win. You try to get rich. And you stop giving. So Ramit and I talked about a rich life. What is it? We came up with this: I can't tell you what a rich life is to you. I can only say what a rich life is to me. My "rich" life consists of four things. You just need to find what you're OK at. Because if you are OK at one thing and OK at another thing then you can be the best in the world at the intersection. But I'm getting ahead of myself. And that's how people fail. They focus on the wrong things, get lost, give up and never start again. They're at negative zero. Everyone wants to be at 100. But that's impossible. And wanting to be anywhere other than where you are right now is painful. Start by acknowledging where you are. And know that's the only true thing about this moment. Then you're out of the negative. And you have a starting place: you're at zero. Zero is the best place to be. It's where Mark Cuban, Arianna Huffington, every millionaire, billionaire, writer, rapper, author, athlete, and astronaut starts. It's where you'll start, too. And you can start right now. Just follow these two steps: 1. Acknowledge where you are 2. Trust that it's the start And then you can launch a rich life. Whatever that means to you. Listen to my interview with Ramit Sethi to stop asking "why" and start asking "how?" ------------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... See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

He denied Bill Clinton's phone call. He just lost the NBA finals championship. "I was inconsolable," John Wallace said on my podcast. "I didn't want to talk to anybody. I didn't want to talk to Bill Clinton. I didn't want to talk to my mom..." "But doesn't that make you a sore loser?" "You show me someone who accepts losing and I'll show you a loser," he said quoting Cam Newton. -- In the 90's, I walked out of my job a loser. I didn't stick with it. The stomach aches tasted like metal. I walked across the street. And played chess against a faceless man. I'll never forget him. I won that game. That's when I learned it's ok to lose. "What do you do?" Carpenter, author, server. "I'm in finance." "I'm in fashion." It's the one question we ask in New York. "What do you do?" I wander. I read. I spend time with people I love. I lost in the corporate world. But I'm winning at choosing myself. "It's one thing to give your time. It's another thing to give your money. And it's a-whole-nother thing to give both consistently. That's what I've been trying to do," John said about his philanthropy efforts. "Certain people won't do business with you if you're not giving back." I take care of myself everyday. Then I show up for other people. I ask them questions. And find out what makes them work...how they grew, shrunk, and then exploded into excellence. John said it best, "Humility turns to fire. And that fire turns to greatness." When I lost, I started over. Just like John. And now, if the president calls, I'm ready. -- Listen now to my interview with John Wallace to hear his "choose yourself" story : "From Carjacking to World Excellence." Then I hope you share yours. Email me at [email protected] ------------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.

Mick Jagger fooled around with Keith Richards' girlfriend. I wouldn't be able to work with someone after that. But maybe that's why I'm author. And not a rockstar. The Rolling Stones became a new band every 5-7 years. They were "perpetual amateurs." That's one of the keys to staying alive as an artist. Or as an entrepreneur. Or staying alive at all... "Remain the same but different." And be "open to influence," Rich Cohen said. He wrote "The Sun & The Moon & The Rolling Stones," an incredible book about the greatest rock 'n' roll band of all time, fate, creation, sex, influence and the art of reinventing yourself. It was "the gig of a century:" touring with The Rolling Stones the summer of '94. Then Rich worked with Mick Jagger on the HBO series "Vinyl." But this story isn't just about The Rolling Stones. It's about creation, corruption and reinvention. And the 9 ways you can reinvent yourself today. Listen now to hear half a dozen more stories about rock 'n' roll, fate, influence and inspiration. ------------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 party at the apartment one floor up lit lanterns and watched them fly into the sky. It's the type of lanterns you'd see in Asia. I heard her yell, "that's my journey right there! I'm going to be a mom and a doctor!" The lantern flew. "Angels! Angels!" She yelled She passed me a lantern from the balcony above. She must have laid on the ground to get her arm to reach mine. "Don't lose the wax. That's what makes it fly." My friends wrote down wishes, lit the lantern and watched it sink down to the floor 20 feet below. It burned to the ground. The ashes smelt like black popcorn. And my friends began to mourn their dreams. I left the party to read. Dr. Sanjiv Chopra gave me 5 ideas to experiment with. His brother is Deepak Chopra. They wrote the national bestseller, "Brotherhood: Dharma, Destiny and the American Dream." (highly recommended) Now Dr. Sanjiv just published, "The Big 5: Five Simple Things You Can Do to Live a Longer Healthier Life." Deepak called it "the lazy person's guide to health and longevity." I am the lazy person. When you listen to today's podcast you'll learn: 1. How to rewire your brain [13:00] 2. Dr. Sanjiv's secret to never getting yelled at by his wife [10:14] 3. What exactly influences your health [38:15] She kept yelling, "Father!" "Angels, take them away." My head got heavy while reading. The party ended. But it was still on my mind. The burnt dreams, the way she moaned to God, the connection between strangers, the distance betweens strangers... From Sanjiv, I learned tricks to live longer. And from the party I learned one trick to live fully... Never depend on a lantern to carry your dreams. Unless you're the lantern. ------------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 spoke to Kevin Kelly. He's the founding editor of Wired magazine and author of the #1 New York Times bestseller, "The Inevitable: Understanding the 12 Technological Forces That Will Shape Our Future." He's a futurist. There are only a few people I trust with predictions about the future. He's one of them. "Tracking is coming. AI is coming. Robots are coming," he says on today's podcast. The future is here. "We can mold it to make it work for us, but we're not going to be able to stop it, or be afraid of it, or be scared of it." On today's podcast, he tells you what to expect. He reveals "the inevitable." And what to do about it now. This episode is not just about what we "know" is coming in the future. It answers the one question we'll never stop asking: "Then what?" It's the question that makes us panic until we find the playground. Or the right woman. We look around, worried, unable to see the small joys. Two men sharing photos of their families. A woman leaning forward to hear her friend better. She's not alone. The trees shake and I'm breathing. Then what? More life. We trip someone by accident, make a small joke, they don't laugh and then the stock market crashes. listen to my interview with Kevin Kelly to hear 5 ways to be on the right side of the future and: Kevin Kelly's techniques to predicting the future - [4:39] How to discover where there's "a need" for innovation [16:16] Kevin Kelly's predictions for 100 years from now... and 1,000 years from now [26:08] Learn how to create a business built around the latest innovations [47:00] Find out the next biggest platform [52:50] "One of the most valuable things you could do today..." [1:02:43] Plus my latest advice for getting 7 streams of income [1:05:05] ------------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 can't imagine walking into a situation like that... handing over $20,000. "You have too much attachment to money. Let me hold this in a jar," the psychic would say. "I'll give it back whenever you ask." Then of course you never get it back. "It's a slow building of a relationship, slow building of trust," Maria Konnikova said on my podcast. "You have no idea how many times I've met people who said, 'I do not believe in psychics.... except my psychic. My psychic is the exception to the rule.'" Maria's a New York Times bestselling author, contributing writer for The New Yorker and a brilliant podcast guest. I read her book, "The Confidence Game: Why We Fall for It . . . Every Time," about the most common and dangerous con artists in history, what they plotted and how they got away with it. I got paranoid reading it. I thought she missed someone. Me. I kept thinking, "Am I a con artist?" There are 3 elements most people have in common with con artists. And a fourth element exclusive to con artists. It's the difference between Benjamin Franklin and Bernie Madoff. But before I tell you what these 4 elements are, you need to know how millions of Americans are being scammed everyday. And if you're one of them. Listen to my interview with Maria to find out the four elements of a con artist and never get scammed 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 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 used to be arrogant," I said. He didn't know. I later decided it's arrogant to call someone arrogant on your podcast. Or anywhere else. I had a lot to learn. It's a good thing we had 90 minutes left in the studio. And dinner plans after. "I'm sure other people must have told you that around that time," I said, referring to when we first met a few years ago. My podcast guest, Ryan Holiday, dropped out of college at age 19. By age 22, he was the director of marketing for American Apparel. Twitter, YouTube, and Google all use his work as case studies. Now he's 28, a writer and owns his own business. When I sold my first company, it completely destroyed me. I know where I went wrong. Ryan's new book, "Ego is the Enemy," helped explain why. In this episode, I'll tell you what I learned. And how you can avoid making the same common mistake. Consider this interview a cheat sheet. Listen now. ------------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 trying to cheer someone up. "The sun feels nice," I said. "I don't even notice those things," he said. He was depressed. But I thought I could help. They say you can't make everybody happy. But really, you can't make anybody happy. I know this. But it doesn't always stop me from trying. Six months ago, I did my first stand-up show. Now I have a new experiment. I take one photo a day. And I tell a story. But I haven't stopped thinking about stand-up. And I want to get better. So I interviewed Gary Gulman. He's one of my favorite comedians. Top two. Him and Louis C.K. I'll throw Amy Schumer into the mix. Top three. He started 23 years ago. And I've watched his Netflix series, "It's About Time" twice (so far). The best way to learn anything is to study the masters. Studying Gary taught me there are two steps to developing talent in anything: Step 1: Start somewhere Gary first tried stand-up in 1993. But that's not how he got started. Before that, he watched comedy. He repeated bits to friends and got laughs. That's how all successes start. You just do it for fun. That's how Derek Sivers started CD Baby and how AirBnB began. They were experiments. Gary only had five minutes on stage. "Back then I did impressions," he said. He did one of Seinfeld and Kramer playing basketball. But "within a year, I had decided that my impressions were not very good." That's step 2: Evolve. Doubt is a leader. It can take you away from what you don't love and into what you do love. "That's how I got on the track I'm on now," he says. If you're "good," you'll just sit back. And someone who's no good will get better. - They'll get a mentor - They'll reinvent themselves - They'll practice for 10,000+ hours - They build a love for it If the "good" ones don't evolve, they'll remain just that... good. C) Tell your story "I have symptoms of depression," he said. "I almost feel like I'm moving in slow motion. There doesn't seem to be any amount of sleep that satisfies me." I can't sugar coat it. It sounds miserable. But it's also the source of his comedy. "I guess if I didn't have a depressive view of the world, I wouldn't have the premises to go off," he said. "But at the same time, if I didn't have the depressive nature, I would have more confidence and more energy to write more and maybe expand into more acting or podcasting or writing a book." It's a balance. "On the days you get out of it, how do you get yourself out of it?" I asked. There was a long pause. "Or have you never gotten out of it?" I asked. I wanted to find out what works for him. And it came back to helping people. "Stand-up comedy gave me a lot of reward," he said, "as far as making people feel a little bit better and forgetting about their problems for a short time." He turns pain into humor, which morphs back into pain. That pain becomes a bit. And that bit becomes a laugh. You can't make people happy. But if you tell your story, maybe you can make them laugh. ------------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... See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The coffee pot at my cubicle job always smelled of fresh piss. It was probably rotting from the bright lights and manhandling. We all were. Maybe if I slept more, I would've quit my job (the right way). I would've chosen myself sooner. I'd leave the fog with clarity. That's what sleep can do for you. "This moment is all we have, and my mother always used to say, 'Don't miss the moment.'" "When you're exhausted, you miss the moment because you are just living in some fog, either of the past or the future," said Arianna Huffington, who recently published "The Sleep Revolution: Transforming Your Life, One Night at a Time." In her latest book (and on my podcast), Arianna Huffington reveals the secret to being awake and living a "fully vital, fully present, fully joyful" life. Listen now. ------------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 getting good at saying, "no thank you" to certain thoughts. Sometimes it was just conversations I didn't want to have. Like this one I'm writing. If I were sitting with you, I doubt I'd say any of what I'm about to. I guess that's why I have questions. Because maybe you know something I don't. Maybe I can learn from you. And I do. I always do. There's a formula for loneliness and a formula for connection. No matter the gravity of your sinking, we are all just inches above the ocean. When I ask question, I watch people discover answers they didn't know they had. And I feel them light up. They connect with themselves. But I pretend it's me. I asked Tony Hawk about his career. We talked about falling a lot. But I'm avoiding the metaphor about "falling" and getting back up. Because then you'll think I'm transitioning from falling to failing. And there's already enough dirty, failure porn out there. So maybe, here's something new.... 3 questions I asked Tony Hawk: (on my blog) ------------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 a unique set of advantages and disadvantages. And you'll hear a lot about overcoming difficulties in today's podcast. But these are the steps: Step 1. Find out what's different about you Step 2. Use your setback to create your skillset Step 3. Stop trying to figure it out Listen now and go to my blog for the full show notes. ------------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.

"Imagine... If you had suddenly learned that the people and the places and the moments most important to you were not gone, not dead, but worse- had never been." I was in LA at Imagine Entertainment. It's Brian Grazer's studio. He produced A Beautiful Mind, 8 Mile, a bunch of Jim Carrey movies. He's worked with Eddie Murphy and produced my favorite TV series, Arrested Development. "I bought the book A Beautiful Mind with the thematic intention of trying to make a movie that would help de-stigmatize mental disability," he said. So he created an alternate reality. And he's done this in his own life. "You see, the nightmare of schizophrenia is not knowing what's true," the psychiatrist said in A Beautiful Mind. He was talking to John Nash's wife as she watched her husband get electroshock therapy. She loved a schizophrenic man. A brilliant man. She let me him keep his delusions. They weren't real. But what's the harm? Nothing. Unless you almost drown your baby. He won the Nobel Prize. And I cried. His mind brought him delusions but it also brought him love. Between two realities, he chose himself. I don't try to be everything I am. Because some of me is jealous. Some of me feels sad. Some of me ran out of things to say. So I become the rest of me. The side that practices difficult gratitude and improves just 1% a day. The part of me that listens. And flies to LA to be in an alternate reality. Brian Grazer says, "Curiosity propels storytelling. All stories, incidentally, need propulsion. It not only creates the story, but it gives life to energy, and energy is what stories need." It's what life needs. Or at least, my life. Brian also produced Apollo 13, another one of my favorite movies. He used his curiosity muscle to reframe the story. "People think it's about space. They thought it was about aerodynamics," he says. "To me, it was only about human resourcefulness." "Perspective is everything," Brian said. "It's everything." His perspective comes from curiosity. Which he wrote about in #1 New York Times bestseller, A Curious Mind: The Secret to a Bigger Life. I don't know where my curiosity will lead me. I can only hope it helps you. ------------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're scaring me now," I said. "Don't scare me." I was laughing. But I meant it. The news, the doom and gloom, the fear, it makes fresh air turn to vomit. Chunky streams of acid. I bet Ron Paul has thin stomach lining. We were talking about freedom. And if there's any left. I usually ignore all the doom and gloom. That's what works for me. But we talked about opportunities, hope, trends, the innovation economy. And freedom. "I don't even like politics. I did it only because I could get a voice out there telling people what was going on, what you need to do, and what the substitute has to be. Believe me, we're going to have a chance," Ron Paul says on today's podcast. Did you hear that? "We're going to have a chance..." I like that. If you pay attention, you'll see the future is already here. What does that mean for you? I don't know. Maybe you'll go to space or make millions investing in robotics. You have thousands of new opportunities to create your own wealth and freedom. And you can start right now. I'll tell you how to make money off of rising trends in today's podcast. This is rare. But you'll hear about my plan to profit in this innovation economy. I don't want to choke on my own vomit. I'm choosing myself. Voting for me. Because if I don't nobody will. ------------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'm homeless. By choice. I wrote about it. And it turned into a debate. Now I'm sharing the discussion with you. My podcast listeners and answering your questions. "Does minimalism mean having no accomplishments?" "Does minimalism mean not having a lot of possessions?" "How do you deal with kids if you are a minimalist?" "What's the first step I should take? Should I throw things out?" This isn't something I usually do. Welcome to my experiment of the day. ------------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 would've taken the money. A couple hundred million. He could've sold the business for a 100, 200 million dollars. Bill Gates wanted to buy it. But he didn't sell. I wanted to know why Steve Case, co-founder and former CEO of AOL said no to being a millionaire. "The simple answer is I really believed in the idea of the internet and believed in AOL and believed that it could change the world," he says on today's podcast. Investors said, "What are you talking about? This internet thing? Why would normal people ever want to get connected to this?" People thought he was crazy crazy. But he could see the future. That's the thing about the future. Nobody wants to see it coming. Back then, nobody wanted to connect to the internet. They missed opportunities. "It was a hard struggle for a decade before we finally broke through," he said. The future paid off for Steve Case. And now it can pay off for you. He believed they could change the world. He was right. "Six, seven years later, [AOL] had gone from a few hundred million dollars to tens of billions to then over 150, 160 billion." But he didn't stop there... The Third Wave is coming. Steve talks about it in his New York Times bestselling book, The Third Wave: An Entrepreneur's Vision of the Future. These are the opportunities you haven't missed yet. We're offering you the future. In my interview with Steve Case, you'll learn about the first wave (building the internet), the second wave (social media, community, Facebook, Snapchat... all the billion dollar companies you wish you thought of or invested in...) And finally, the third wave. The future. Listen now to learn how to master your future. Before it's too late. And read what I learned from Steve Case at jamesaltucher.com ------------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.

"Everyday is a new day." ...unless you have a routine. Then it's just "eat, sleep, shit, repeat," like they say in Billions. "Don't you want to create memories? Don't you want to build your life resume and get as much out of life as you can?" Jesse Itzler said on my podcast. He's the co-founder of Marquis Jets, owner of the NBA's Atlanta Hawks, endurance athlete, former-rapper and now he's an author. "I didn't have a resume," he says. "I didn't want to have a resume. I didn't want to work for anybody." Jesse built his life. "I had no background, no experience and I had no connections." He's self-made. I don't know who's in charge of my life. Maybe me. I chose myself. And I still do. Everyday. But I also lend my life out. At least once every 24 hours. "We're constantly dodging arrows," Jesse said. "Each arrow is time." "Routines are great, but they're also a rut," he said. "I thought wow, this is amazing. I have great balance. I have a great routine. I'm in my routine. Everything is my routine..." And he needed to get out of it. So he did something crazy, which you'll hear on today's episode. And you'll learn his tricks to becoming self-made. Then you can enjoy your life. I hope. And forget your resume too. Listen to my podcast with Jesse Itzler. Or read my notes here: 6 simple steps to becoming self-made on jamesaltucher.com ------------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 no idea. None of us did. Until now.Everything I've done for the past two years is unfolding before me.I interviewed Dr. K Anders Ericsson. You know his work. He discovered the 10,000 hour rule.The rule that says if you do 10,000 hours of "dedicated practice" you can master a field. But what we've been lead to believe is false. And it's finally being corrected. Today. Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise uses thirty years of research to reveal what we never knew before, including:What you're truly capable of, how you can achieve it, and where to start. I started this podcast two years ago. And I just realized what it's actually about. Everyone I interviewed has one thing in common: peak performance. They excelled in their field. They're the smarter person in the room. They mastered their craft. Go to jamesaltucher.com for 7 things I learned about how to become a PEAK performer ------------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.

Before writing this, I closed my eyes. I allowed myself to rest. I went from, "think, think, think" to nothing. And nothing felt good. Nothing worked. Nothing is my success. Today. I used to have another kind of success. I was a hedge fund manager, web developer, producer, investor, corporate employee, CEO, writer. I still do some of these jobs. But not because "they" tell me to. I look back and see desperation. I was desperate to secure my future. My income. My relationships. There was always a risk of getting fired. I knew my then-wife could decide she didn't love me anymore. My kids could, too. I was shrinking. Physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually shrinking. I thought if I was miserable, "they" would help me. They didn't. I bled out on the floor. And then I chose myself. Now I do the daily practice. I experiment. I find what works for me. And I write about it. Because advice is autobiography. But something is still stopping me. And, if you've read to here, I bet there's something stopping you. If you learn one thing today, I hope it's this: experiment everyday. The steps are: Experiment. Pay Attention. Experiment And if it doesn't work out how you imagined, then you'll have a better story. I got evicted last week. The same day, I did this interview with Charles Duhigg. You'll hear it in the podcast. Charles is a Pulitzer Prize winner and the author of two New York Times bestselling books, The Power of Habit and Smarter Faster Better: The Secrets of Being Productive in Life and Business. Renting doesn't work for me. But I tried it. It was a successful experiment with a failed result. I'm finding what works for me everyday. Charles says that's what the most productive people do. They cycle through systems. Charles cycled. He wasn't always smarter, better, faster. "I would come home every night and tell my wife, 'If this is what success feels like, sign me up for failure.' It was killing me," he says. "It's very easy to lose sight of the 'why,'" he says. "[We] lose track of why we're doing something, how it links up to our deepest values or our biggest aspirations... what we actually want to do with our life." This interview might teach you something about experimenting, or focussing, or motivation. Or it might teach you nothing. But, nothing is a lesson, too. ------------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.

He didn't have permission. But he did it anyway. And one day Elon Musk called him. "He was either going to make life really horrible on me or he was going to cooperate with the book" said Ashlee Vance, author of the New York Times bestseller and Wall Street Journal's "best books of the year," Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future. Ashlee did 200 interviews before Elon agreed, proving permission is not a starting place. I wish I wrote the book. But I didn't. My "quest" is different. Instead, I mastered curiosity. I called people and recorded. I did a ton of research. I read every book, article, interview and watched every talk. I've spent 10,000 hours interviewing and more than 10,000 hours preparing. I didn't need permission. And neither do you. Here are 5 ways to bypass the gatekeepers: A) Master something Like anybody, Elon is smart in some things and probably stupid in others. But he mastered his interests. Mastery is learning 90% of everything you could learn about a subject. You can't reach 100%. I hope that's comforting. Explore your interests. Combine them and you'll find what works for you. Then improve 1% each day. Along the way, you'll master it. B) Make your own decisions Elon doesn't let people make decisions for him. They'll choose wrong. And he knows it. If you choose for yourself you will choose yourself. C) Play for pay I remember my childhood. Some of it. I read comic books and Dear Abby. Now, at 47? 48? I search for "superhero" stories. And I get to be Dear Abby. "Ask Altucher." Every Thursday at 3:30 PM EST, I have a Twitter Q&A. I answer texts and emails from strangers. 203-512-2161 I answer Quora questions and co-host a podcast with my friend, Stephen Dubner. He wrote the New York Times bestseller, Freakonomics. I wonder if he read Dear Abby growing up, too. We answer questions with questions. But before all of this, I worked in finance. I did what "they" wanted me to do. I got lost. Elon did, too. "He just got swept up in the internet for a little while," Ashlee says, "and then once he made a ton of money (from PayPal), the light went on and he just said, 'Now I can go chase everything I've ever wanted to go do.'" "Elon appears to have some kind of calling to go save humankind," Ashlee says. "When he was 12, he designed a video game that was exactly that concept." But at one point, he changed course. We all do. We forget play. Now he's saving humanity. D) There are always problems When I interviewed Derek Sivers last week, I said "You can always disappear from your problems." And you can. He did. But then what? Derek spends a lot time answering emails and giving advice. And Elon is exploring electric vehicles and life in space. Everyday, I have a choice: find new problems or help others with theirs. Create problems or solve them. When I help people with their problems, I forget about mine. Sometimes. Elon sees extreme problems and extreme solutions. All his basics are covered. He's doesn't worry about his boss or the mortgage. "The weird thing to me," Ashlee says, "was that [when] you started talking [to Elon] about mankind being wiped out, he wells up with emotion." Suffering graces all life. There are always problems. "What I saw with Elon is that he's very clear-eyed. He meditates on what he thinks is important and has a absolute devotion to pursuing these goals" "He gives you a sense of urgency in your life. Maybe I'm just getting older," Ashlee says, "When I finished doing the book, I sat back and I said, 'I need to be much clearer about exactly what I want to do with my life.'" I don't have the same problem as Ashlee or see the same problems as Elon Musk. And I'm grateful. E) Be on the right side of history You only have a certain amount of energy each day. Don't waste it fighting the inevitable. "Going against Elon is the equivalent of going against Steve Jobs these days and you... See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The most powerful currency in the world is not what you think. Not anymore. We're turning to a new economy with two powerful currencies. And you have an opportunity, right now, to build a more fulfilling and rewarding life. I'm going to tell you what these two currencies are and how to leverage them successfully. I'll tell you what works for me. But before I do, I want to introduce you to Derek Sivers. He's an influential thinker, speaker, entrepreneur and the zen master of entrepreneurship writing. If you're starting a business, you have to read his book, Anything You Want: 40 Lessons for a New Kind of Entrepreneur. It's in my top three. Derek built his business, CD Baby, around doing people favors. It became the largest seller of independent music online, with $100M in sales for 150,000 musicians. Derek later sold CD Baby for $22M and gave the proceeds to charity. "If you focus entirely on others the world seems to reward you the most," he says. That's one of the two most powerful currencies today: favors. But there are limits. "You have to serve others within the limits of what you're able to sustainably do. You can't do something that makes you absolutely miserable," he says. That's choosing yourself. I got a lot of ideas from interviewing Derek, which is the other currency: ideas. But you already knew that. Derek moved to New Zealand. He takes 3-day hikes, spends 30 hours a week with his family, and answers thousands of personal emails asking for his advice. He wrote a list of his priorities and said "I don't want to do anything else right now. (No more interviews or speaking at conferences until further notice.)" This is his last interview for awhile. I'm grateful he chose me. Chose us. And chose himself. I encourage you to write him. And listen to this interview. Share what you learned. I wrote a list -- 7 ways to a "make a killing" and master the new economy. Because Derek quoted Kevin Kelly, futurist and founder of Wired. He said, "We should focus on making a living, not on making something huge." Derek changed it to "It's about making a living, not making a killing." To me, that's success in the new economy. 7 ways to a "make a killing" and master the new economy: A) Leave in the cracks Derek was listening to Sheryl Crow. But he didn't know it was her. Her voice cracked. And she got his attention. "That little fault is what made me like her," Derek said. B) Admit your faults I know I'm bad at a lot of things. Derek gave an example. When I interviewed Ramit Sethi, I admitted I forgot to read something. And I wasn't totally prepared. "To me it kind of seems like a brilliant way of asking the world to love you," Derek said. And maybe it is. Everyone wants love. How sad is it that we, as humans, contemplate hiding ourselves? We have two choices: be yourself or fear being yourself. C) You can always disappear from your problems But do you want to? Did Kurt Cobain kill himself because he was too famous? Or because he got everything he wanted? And didn't know what to do with it. We always want things. Happiness, love, appreciation. But then do we ask for the right things? Raises, promotions, more responsibility, less freedom? You can choose f-ck you money and f-ck you problems. Or you can focus on happiness. That's what Derek did. He had a company, CD Baby. It's basically the original iTunes. People said he'd get a lot of money with an IPO. But he didn't do it. "What's the point of making money?" Derek said, "It's to be happy." "And if it would make me unhappy to have so much responsibility then I'd rather not make more money. I'd rather just focus on the happiness." D) Do more favors Anyone can do this. Derek started by selling old CDs online. He made money right away. So people asked for favors. Can you sell my old CDs? He said yes. And it spread. Friends of friends asked. Then strangers and soon he had a profitable business. But... See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

If I didn't listen to my pain, I'd be dead. I've interviewed hundreds of "successful" people. When they look back, they see two things: struggle and a story. These are hero stories -- choose yourself stories. Directed by pain, they found passion. Because they listened. I was alone, on the floor, broke, desperate, hopeless. I ignored the pain. I wanted to die. And then something shifted. But you don't need to hit rock bottom to be successful. You just need something that ignites you. "There's a moment, a chemistry, where people find a spark... something inside you triggers greatness," said Terry George. He wrote and directed the award winning film, Hotel Rwanda, and the upcoming film, The Promise, about a love story during WWII's genocide. "I'm not interested in suffering," he says. But he is. "I'm interesting in alleviating it." He grew up Catholic during Ireland's struggle for civil rights across a divided nation. "I got beaten up in playgrounds and shit like that. There was definitely a sense that you were not welcome to put it mildly." "That was was my education," he says. He never thought about turning something horrific into a movie. But that's exactly what he did. Through film, he connects us to human frailty, vulnerability and fear. He calls it "a universal language." That's the art of suffering. ------------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.

Fifteen percent of you won't like this interview. "I like that," he says, "I like being doubted." But I don't doubt Gary Vaynerchuk. And that's why I'm giving away 100 copies of his brand new book, #AskGaryVee: One Entrepreneur's Take on Leadership, Social Media, and Self-Awareness. The details are on my podcast. Gary will be the first to admit that he doesn't know everything. But he knows everything about everything he knows. "I talk emphatically and with enormous bravado about the things I know and understand," he says, "and I hedge and punt things I don't understand." Gary is transparent. Authentic. Self-aware. And successful. So successful that I dont even like introing him. He wants you to win. And I do, too. "When you understand yourself, you're able to navigate the world," he says. But navigating is hard. I have more misunderstandings than understandings. That's ok. Because it allows me to be curious everyday, do this podcast, write and read three, four or five books a week. "Self-awareness is the single best attribute anyone can be gifted with," Gary says. But people don't know if they're self-aware or not. "Don't live life hoping and wishing you were something. Start for the first time in your life actually deciding what you are and navigating around that," he says. Listen to my interview with Gary. Get to know him. And yourself. So you can navigate the world and get your intro. Whatever that may be. Listen now for your chance to win his new book. I recommend it. Resources and Links: Read Gary's new book, #AskGaryVee: One Entrepreneur's Take on Leadership, Social Media, and Self-Awareness Get your morning motivation from Gary every monday. Sign up on this website www.garyvaynerchuk.com Follow Gary on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram & Snapchat (garyvee) Subscribe to his YouTube channel to watch The #AskGaryVee Show Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook: How to Tell Your Story in a Noisy Social World by Gary Vaynerchuk Crush It!: Why NOW Is the Time to Cash In on Your Passion by Gary Vaynerchuk The Thank You Economy by Gary Vaynerchuk ------------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 never thought about sex with Barbara Corcoran. I still don't. But she brought it up. We were talking about entrepreneurship. And she said how old she was when she lost her virginity. Twenty-three. I wanted to know how she turned a thousand dollars into a five billion dollar company. Then: $1,000. Now: $5,000,000,000. I wanted to know how she founded The Corcoran Group, the largest company in real estate. And how you become the type of entrepreneur Barbara Corcoran chooses on Shark Tank. I'm going to tell you how to get Barbara's investment. If that's what you want. But not everyone is meant to be an entrepreneur. According to Barbara. "I found a real difference between the superstars and everyone else," she says. And I agree. That's why I wrote The Rich Employee. Entrepreneurship isn't everything. But it can be. Barbara reviews thousands of investment opportunities. And most hear "no." She says you have to have "a nose for entrepreneurship." That's how you get a "yes," from Barbara Corcoran. But before you start doubting yourself, take the test. You'll find out how in this interview. Jump to [39:25]. It's scary. She says, if you weren't born with "it," (the nose for entrepreneurship, the "innate intelligence,") then "you shouldn't be an entrepreneur in the first place." And you need specific characteristics: A) Handle rejection. You can't cry. Or feel sorry for yourself. The top people in Barbara's company made four million dollars a year in commissions. They took hits. Just as many as the others. Or more. "Because they were trying for more," she says, "But the real difference was how long they took to feel sorry for themselves." Get over rejection. And try again. B) Conserve energy. Monitor yourself. Just notice. I feel tired. Why? I'm not motivated. I'm drained. Burnt out. Why? Your energy leaks out. Through fear, regret, negative people, bad situations. Conserve it. Refocus. And put it to good use. C) You shouldn't quit your job I ran my side business for 18 months before quitting my full-time job. I had eleven employees. But I'm not special. Really. Because that's what all of Barbara's "successful" entrepreneurs do. They keep their jobs. D) You need to be "hungry, mean and insecure." "That's been my track record with the businesses I've invested," she says. You need to have something to prove. But nice is ok for me. I'll take nice. E) Daydream. "Vision is daydreaming and seeing yourself in a role and seeing what your business is going to become," she says. Picture it. Use your imagination. Escape into the dream. She says, "I don't know any entrepreneurs who don't visualize." Listen to today's episode. Are you really an entrepreneur? Maybe you don't know. But after listening to today's podcast, you will. Resources and Links: Follow Barbara on Facebook & Twitter Watch her on Shark Tank Read her book Shark Tales: How I Turned $1,000 into a Billion Dollar Business ------------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... See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

I'd rather be an alien. I'd rather be myself. Than be liked. It makes sense... why you'd want to be liked. Think about it. From an evolutionary standpoint, when you're liked, you're safe. You're in the tribe. People protect you. But now, I'd rather be an alien. I don't want stress. I don't want to worry, "Do I fit in?" There are consequences to being liked. You start compromising. You stop taking risks. You follow the herd. You get stuck in a crappy job at a fluorescently lit cubicle. Where they can watch you. You stop taking risks. You wonder, "Is this ok?" Ok to who? Not you. Not the only person who matters. I'd rather be an alien. If I'm an alien, I can act like I just landed here. And I'm not supposed to know if I fit in. I'm forced to be myself. No trying. Just forced. I can surrender. My guest today, used to be in a tribe. I won't say it's the worst one. But it's bad. Turney Duff is the New York Times bestselling author of, The Buy Side: A Wall Street Trader's Tale of Spectacular Excess, where he tells the truth. He bleeds. "Look, chances are people aren't going to like me after I tell the story, so at no point am I ever, ever, ever going to try to get the reader to like me," Turney says. But that wasn't easy. Because he spent his whole life trying to be liked. "I've always had this 'Nobody loves me' syndrome. I had this fear of ordinary, fear of being normal." On Wall Street, Turney was a trader. But he wasn't just trading stocks. He traded sleep, health, relationships, money. All of it for drugs. He was afraid. He'd go to hotel rooms and snort cocaine by himself. But nothing was enough. He made $2 million dollars a year. He thought, "If I could just make three million dollars a year, all of my problems would be solved." But before that he said, "If I could just make fifty thousand dollars a year, all of my problems would be solved. All of them." He wanted to be a journalist. But he traded. A lot of people trade. Maybe you traded. But it's not too late. You can choose yourself. There are three things you need to know to choose yourself. And I got these from my interview with Turney. He'll show you. He'll prove to you it's not too late. I believe in you. Three steps to (finally) choose yourself: 1) Don't try to be liked. When Turney wrote this book, he knew people would stop liking him. Or hate him. He told it anyway. And it saved his life. That's what saved my life too. Bleeding on the pages. Telling my truth. Listen at [2:35] to learn how to cure something in yourself too. 2) Want less. Wanting more hurts. Because you trick your brain into believing you don't have enough. And start feeling sorry for yourself. Instead of grateful for what you do have. So I want less. Listen at [6:28]. Turney explains why wanting more destroys you. 3) Build up your gut. We have instincts. And our bodies speak to us. But we're good at ignoring it. The pain. We think stomach aches are just stomach aches. But it's an accumulation abuse. Stress. Worry. Fear. You have to listen to your body. Notice the pain. Turney says, "I became successful on the trading desk because I had great instincts, and I used my gut. Along the way I lost that." Listen at [51:50] to hear how he got his gut back. After everything, I ask him, "Has it worked out?" "I'll tell you this..." Listen here for my interview with Turney. You'll learn how to choose yourself. And you'll hear how Turney did it himself. How he turned his back on his tribe, his drugs, his money. It took him most of his life. But he did it. You can too. ------------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... See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

I don't want to be afraid. But I am. I'll explain why. But first, I want to introduce you to Adam Grant. He has the solution to my problem... And maybe your problem, too. Adam is the youngest tenured and highest-ranking professor at the famed business university The Wharton School, a writer for The New York Times, and the New York Times bestselling author of Give and Take: A Revolutionary Approach to Success. In researching his new book, Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World, Adam met with today's most successful and innovative entrepreneurs. Why? To get answers. "We have a ton of guidance on how to generate ideas," he says. But what about after? What do you do? Originals teaches you how to bring new ideas into the world. And really, there's no grand theory on how to be "original." But there are tricks... And Adam discovered some patterns among today's most successful entrepreneurs. He spoke to Google's co-founder, Larry Page, Warby Parker's founders and CEOs, and thought leaders like the renowned writer, Malcolm Gladwell. From Gladwell, Adam learned the most powerful technique to induce creativity. From Larry Page and the Warby Parker guys, he found a common thread. Hint: don't quit your day job. But, more on that later. I'm going to tell you the top three things to be "an original." They might surprise you. But first, I want you to know what else you'll get from today's podcast: How to get into a flow state (even during tasks you don't like) [51:32] Should you plan your procrastination? [25:20] The most powerful techniques to immerse yourself and bring creativity into your life(including Malcolm Gladwell's library trick) [20:06] Why the hell Adam Grant didn't invest seed money in Warby Parker and become a billionaire [8:38] An ode to the idea muscle: why it's more important to have quantity over quality ideas [28:19] Ok so here they are. The top three things to become "an original:" 1) Induce creativity First unlearn. Then learn... We've all internalized things we need to question. That's what adults do. We make up rules and reasons. We draw lines instead of pictures... tell "facts," not stories. But why can't we play with our food? Or stand on the counter? Kids think. Kids create. And we can get back to that too. We just have to unlearn. And then re-learn. "This comes back to our idea of broadening your experience and your knowledge," Adam says. "You need to step outside of your field in order to see what you should be challenging." Immerse yourself in new domains. Go beyond work... beyond your office... beyond the usual. Personally, I dabble in a lot of things. I play games. I write. I read. I'm involved in lots of businesses. And I recently tried stand-up comedy. "I've just pursued things I'm curious about," Adam says, "and then unexpectedly, they turn out to have bridges between them." That's the key to learning. Do something new. Do a dare of the day. It's good for your creative health. 2) Don't quit your day job (yet). Give yourself time to build your business. It worked for me. I tell why in this episode. Listen at [21:31]. And be conservative. It's one of the best ways to be original. "I was stunned actually," Adam says. He read this a "nationally represented study of American entrepreneurs." "People who did what you did, James, and kept their day job are 33% less likely to fail." 3) Propel your ideas forward Doubting your ideas can be paralyzing, so eliminate self-doubt. According to Adam, a lot of originals said, "Look, you could fail by starting a business that flops or you could fail by not starting a business at all, and I don't want to be in that second category." Listen at [22:09] to get actionable steps to fight self-doubt. Listen now. And let's stop being afraid... Together. Resources and Links: Read Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World by Adam Grant Listen to my last interview... See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Ask the world this question, and you'll drown in failure. You'll lose. Anything you take, anything you earn, will be foul. I bet you've asked this question before. Maybe everyday. Maybe all your life. "How can I get?" How can I get rich? How can I get happy? How can I get more? There's no return on getting. It leave you with nothing. Or worse than nothingness. Emptiness. But there's another way. It's simple. And it works for me I'm going to tell you how to earn your worth. It works for me. And it works for my podcast guest, Russell Simmons, "the third richest figure in hip-hop with an estimated net worth of $340 million." He gets. He told me a story. "That was my first realization that hard work turned into something," he says. "I had never been on a plane. I had certainly never been out of the country, and landing in Amsterdam they're like, 'Mr. Simmons what would you like?' I'm like, 'Oh shit Mr. Simmons.' That was a revelation. I was a grown man I could get things I wanted." But not all his life. He grew up in Queens. "Hollis, Queens and 205 Street. Frank Lucas was on our corner and so that was the heroin capital. The neighborhood went down very quickly," he says. "Obviously every kid took a lot of drugs." He was 13. Joined a gang. Sold drugs, "had some experiences," and escaped. Now he's the chairman and CEO of Rush Communications and the co-founder of Def Jam, the record label famous for spotting Beastie Boys, Jay Z, Kanye West, Rihanna and 100 others. Since 1984. I wanted to know how he got here. And how he became one of my heroes. "I didn't discover hip-hop," he says, "hip-hop discovered me." Opportunity found him. He was at the center of that universe. He grew his opportunities. He spotted talent, formed partnerships, and became an entrepreneur. He learned a lot. You might expect to hear "he hustled." But mostly, he gave back. "This idea that you have to trade with the world or manipulate the world to be successful is wrong headed," Russell says. Contribute. "If you look at your own history of success it's because you contributed to success," he says. It's works for me too. I give writing. I get readers. I give interviews. I get advice, entertainment, a network, new friends, a memory, and experiences I would never get if I didn't give. And giving can be simple. Write emails to people you admire. Surprise someone. Do something that makes someone else's life better. Give ideas. Say thanks. "You have to be comfortable in your seat, and life's only goal is to be happy and comfortable in your seat," Russell says. "From that space the universe unravels and it attracts everything. You become a greater giver because you're focused on giving and you're not fearful of the world. You become a contributor." "Anyway I'm out of cocaine now. Just so you know I've been vegan and I've stopped taking drugs almost thirty years ago," he says. That's why I got to have him on my podcast. He wrote a book, The Happy Vegan: A Guide to Living a Long, Healthy, and Successful Life. I got to go to his apartment to interview him. It's an incredible book. I learned a huge amount reading it. I'm not a vegan. But I'm strongly considering it. Listen to today's podcast. You'll get you ideas. Ideas about how to change different industries (food, farming, the drug industry). And you can start giving. You'll learn how to contribute. Give. And why it's important to your success. "Good givers are great getters," Russell says. This interview will get you thinking. You're going to learn how to "get." I'll give you the starting step. Stop asking, "What can I get?" And start asking, "What can I give?" Listen now. Resources and Links: ReadThe Happy Vegan: A Guide to Living a Long, Healthy, and Successful Life by Russell Simmons Read Success Through Stillness: Meditation Made Simple by Russell Simmons Read Super Rich: A Guide to Having It All by Russell Simmons Follow... See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

I don't diet. It's a distraction. My rule is simple. Don't eat when you're not hungry. But that's not always easy. Nothing is always easy. With diet, you have an internal argument. Willpower versus cravings. So what do you do when the voice in your head won't stop? You struggle. Your mind plays ping pong. Eat it. Don't it. One bite. No. Yes. Ok. Damn it. Only one side wins. Willpower or cravings. I'm going to tell you how to make willpower win. How to make that voice go away. And this will do a lot more for you than just help you lose weight. It will give you better brain function. Make you pay attention better. Give you more energy. You'll feel better. I'll tell you my secret. But before I do, I want to introduce you to a Silicon Valley investor and tech entrepreneur, Dave Asprey, who spent two decades and more than $300,000 hacking biology. When hunger stops interrupting you, "then you have more capacity to make better decisions somewhere else in your life," Dave says. He hacked hunger. And now he's sharing his solution in Bulletproof: The Cookbook: Lose Up to a Pound a Day, Increase Your Energy, and End Food Cravings for Good. Which I'm giving away for free here It works like this. But don't quote me. I'm not a doctor. Except I do play one on Twitter. When your body burns fat or sugar, you get energy. But "We're wired to only burn fat or only burn sugar," Dave says. One or the other. If your body could burn both at the same time, you'd get double the energy. Or triple. I don't know exactly how much. But I felt like Superman. I wrote an entire book in one weekend. And Superman felt like Superman, too. Brandon Routh, the guy who played Superman in 2006 wrote the foreword to Dave's book. Because it works. But we're all different. What works for me might not work for you. For me, the distraction is gone. The voice that says, "I'm hungry," stops. So you don't overeat. Your satisfied. And focused. "One of the three big urges that interrupt you all the time stops interrupting you," Dave says, "and then you have more capacity to make better decisions somewhere else in your life." You have more energy to do what you love. To read, write 10 ideas, start a business on the side. "I would happily weight 20 lbs more if I got better brain function, if I could pay attention better if I had more energy, if I felt better, but it turns out that when you eat to get enough energy into the body, you just effortlessly lose weight without willpower," Dave says. Get your brain back, your willpower and insane amounts of energy. Be like superman. Listen now. Resources and Links: Get Bulletproof: The Cookbook: Lose Up to a Pound a Day, Increase Your Energy, and End Food Cravings for Good Read his first book The Bulletproof Diet: Lose up to a Pound a Day, Reclaim Energy and Focus, Upgrade Your Life Follow Dave Asprey on Facebook & Twitter Visit his website bulletproofexec.com ------------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... See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

He self-medicated. He covered stories in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza. He went to Iraq six or seven times. When he got back, he was depressed. He was 32 years old and had never touched hard drugs before. But it became the thing that made him feel better. Millions of people were watching. The red light was on. And right there, in the middle of his live segment, he had a panic attack. I'm going to tell you how to deal with stress. I'll tell you what works for me. But first, I want to tell you about my guest, Dan Harris. Dan is an anchor on "Good Morning America" and "Nightline." He's also the No. 1 New York Times bestselling author of 10% Happier: How I Tamed the Voice in My Head, Reduced Stress Without Losing My Edge, and Found Self-Help That Actually Works - A True Story. After the book came out people had questions. So he also created an app called "10% Happier." It teaches users easy "judo moves" to have more creativity, feel less stress, and be happier. It helps you surrender. Be self-aware. Focused. "The events that led up to my panic attack were a case study in mindlessness," Dan says. "Going to wars without thinking about the consequences, getting depressed and not knowing it and blindly self-medicating." I wanted to know what pushed him over the edge. "The one-word answer is cocaine," Dan says. "The more complicated answer is I arrived at ABC News when I was 28." He was insecure. He worked with big names like Diane Sawyer and Barbara Walters. He wanted to be successful. "My Jewish father has this expression, 'The price of security is insecurity.' I really embraced that," he says. The pressure never let up. He demanded more of himself. But why do we make it so hard for ourselves? Many people have gone through this slow-motion panic attack. Including me. It's the stress of daily living. Something bad happens to you. You lose a job or get a divorce. Everyday wear and tear picks at you. Stress happens over time. And if you don't notice it, it builds. The voice in your head becomes meaner. Angrier. More resentful and regretful. Energy is wasted. Your creativity dies. Your idea muscle atrophies. And you're at the bottom of the funnel dreaming about retirement. But instead of imagining a better life later, retire. You can retire a little bit every day. Breathe. Feel your chest fall. That's retirement. It's a fantasy. I'm going to tell you how to make it real right now. But before I do, let me tell you what you'll get from today's podcast: a) Learn How to Have More Ideas Dan says, "When you ask, 'What is boredom like? What does this feel like? Where am I feeling it in my body? What's the taste of it in my mind?' That is curiosity." Curiosity produces creativity. And ideas. You'll learn how to make room for curiosity. b) Distance Yourself From Stress Dan teaches you how to notice stress and see your problems clearly. You'll learn to separate yourself from it. And relax. Essentially, you're becoming a scientist of your own inner reactions. A scientist is not his experiment. The same way humans are not their reactions and emotions to things. Those are separate. You'll learn how to separate yourself from stress.c) Be 10% Happier "First of all, 10% is just a joke. You can't quantify happiness," Dan says. "I came up with that as a bullshit answer to a friend." But being a little bit happier is better than being a little bit miserable. But you have to practice. You're practicing becoming aware of the angry voice that comes up and reacts. So you can be calm. Ok, now here's Dan's secret to dealing with stress: meditation "Let me just say outright, because as soon as you bring that word up, some high percentage of your listeners are like, 'All right, I'm done with this podcast. Meditation's bullshit. I don't want to do it,'" Dan says. He thought that too. "The book is really the story of me coming to terms with... See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

"I remember it like it was yesterday. It was Good Friday, 1989, at 3:30 in the afternoon. It was 37 degrees outside. I stood outside the Colosseum Mall, a mall in Jamaica, Queens. It's pretty popular. Just shivering with a bag of hats. I sold $800 worth of hats in an hour," Daymond John tells me. $800 an hour. That's "the power of broke." Before FUBU (a $6 billion global apparel company), before Shark Tank, and before Obama chose him as the Presidential Ambassador for Global Entrepreneurship, Daymond John worked 18-hour days driving a delivery van. And he wasn't making money. His paychecks covered overhead - the cost of his van, gas, and maintenance. He worked to make money, and he made money to work. "When I took that to FUBU, I started saying, 'If we're not making money, it's not worth doing anything,'" he says. It's not failure. It's experience. "Other people call it failure. I won't call it failure. It's part of the process," he says. You need to take every single "failure" and bring it forward. You're on the floor. And broke. Learn from it. Money is the byproduct of energy, effort, and strategy. "Before you have any business, you're supposed to take inventory of yourself," Daymond says. "Assets and liabilities can be time, energy, education, friends, location, way of thinking." You have to take inventory of yourself. His new book, The Power of Broke: How Empty Pockets, a Tight Budget, and a Hunger for Success Can Become Your Greatest Competitive Advantage is not Daymond's story. It's your story. And mine. It's about how you're going to get up, get experience, and get money. These are stories I learned from. The power of broke is "the common thread between all of us," Daymond says. It's about how you can learn from your mistakes and profit off your potential. Take advantage of that. Listen to my interview with Daymond. Here are the top 3 things you can only learn by listening to today's podcast: - "That is the most important thing about running a business," Daymond says. "If you don't have that, I don't care how much money you have. You can't buy your way into it." (at 5:35) - I ask Daymond: What are the first steps? What if you're listening and saying, "I got born at the wrong time," or "I'm in the wrong town"? What if you're hungry? And you want to hustle, and you've got the power of broke, but you don't know what to do with it? (at 21:59) - How do you know when a business will be successful? Because it sounds too romantic - the power of broke. Find out how to leverage your resources for success. (at 32:51) Listen now. Resources and Links: Read The Power of Broke: How Empty Pockets, a Tight Budget, and a Hunger for Success Can Become Your Greatest Competitive Advantage by Daymond John Read Display of Power by Daymond John Read The Brand Within by Daymond John Follow Daymond on Facebook, Twitter & Instagram and visit his website ------------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... See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

I was always good at making money. I was also good at losing it instantly. I always went broke... Now I know why. What was I was doing wrong? I'll tell you. Because I bet you're making the same mistake. But first, I'll tell you how to make money. More money than you thought was possible. Listen to this episode. You'll hear tested and proven strategies to get rich from Ramit Sethi, the NewYork Times bestselling author and founder of iwillteachyoutoberich.com. He grew his business from a dorm-room blog into a multi-million dollar online business. And now he started a new company, GrowthLab, to teach you how to do the same thing-start and grow an online business. Ramit is a trainer. He'll make you hustle. "It's like looking up at a skyscraper and saying 'How am I going to build one of those?' Well you're not. You're going to start by walking in the lobby," Ramit says, "That's what you're going to do on day one." You can't get rich without putting in the work. I've set goals. None of them came true. But five or six other amazing things that I never could have predicted happened instead. Goals require plans. You're going to get rich. How? You want to lose weight or start a business. How? Ramit will tell you. He'll turn your goals into achievements. Actually, you'll do it, with his help. Consider taking his courses... One teaches you how to triple your salary. Which is like heroin. According to one of my other podcast guests, Nassim Taleb. Taleb said the three deadliest addictions are 1) heroin, I don't remember the second one, and 3) a steady salary. How can you feel motivated when you're prostituting yourself everyday? What did I learn from Ramit? It's less about what I learned, and more about what I feel capable of doing every time I listen to him. Fear is a debilitating idea. Replace fear with motivation. You'll be amazed at the results. I need motivation to eat well, write everyday, do the daily practice. And I start over everyday. Because motivation isn't as constant as your to-do list. But with Ramit's plan, you'll get systems in place. Systems that manage your money and organize your time, and take care of all the things draining you dry. "If you're going to put in work, why not be positive, try to improve yourself, improve your relationship, make more money," Ramit says. I haven't taken his courses. But strangers email me saying they're great. That they've tripled their income. I don't know why they tell me that. I get a lot of strange emails from strangers. Skip to 40:12 on my podcast. You'll laugh. Trust me. You shouldn't go a day without laughing anyway. I'm going to tell you why I went broke. You'll hear it in this episode. And you'll learn how to clean up your life. You'll get systems... you'll get a plan. And, thanks to Ramit, you'll learn how to be rich. Listen now. Resources and Links: * Ramit is giving away his Ultimate Guide to Making More Money on his website * If you're looking to start and grow your online business, go to GrowthLab.com * Listen to my last interview with Ramit Sethi here and watch this video from 3 years ago where we talk about our hate mai * Hear my last interview with Ramit Sethi here * Follow Ramit on Facebook, Twitter & Instagram and follow I Will Teach You To Be Rich on Facebook Read Ramit Sethi's New York Times bestselling book, I Will Teach You to Be Rich ------------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.

For billionaires, every exchange has a winner and a loser. That's what producers David Levien and Brian Koppelman tell me. They've made some of my favorite movies: Rounders, Ocean's Thirteen, Solitary Man. Now, they're coming out with 2016's most talked about show: Billions on Showtime. You can learn a lot from them. David and Brian are producers, creators and risk takers. If you want to create, listen to today's episode. You'll see how important it is to follow your curiosity. That's what David and Brian did. Sometimes starting something is that simple. Since they were kids, David and Brian were fascinated by two things: power and wealth. They wondered, "What makes a billionaire unique?" They had a question, an idea, and conviction. "We were all the f*ck in," Brian says. They had dinner with a bunch of billionaires. It sounds like it would be a lot of fun, but it wasn't. David and Brian were manipulated, belittled, and snubbed. But they were mesmerized. I'll give you one story. It's to tempt you to download this episode. Because I really think you're going to get a lot out of the interview. You'll hear their stories - the behind-the-scenes of 2016's most talked about show. You'll get motivation to write, build, and be creative. You'll hear about how a partnership is born. And you'll learn why people knowingly make the wrong choices. And maybe, you'll make the right ones. Whatever those are... the right choices for you. Ok so one story before you press play: Over dinner, David and Brian met with their first billionaire. It cost more than $2,000. He racked up the price and made them suffer. "There was clearly a power dynamic," David says. He acted like he wasn't thinking, but "billionaires don't just accidentally stumble along and amass great fortunes," David says, "He was showing us that he was no sucker. And we were." Before that night, "I've never thought, 'Who's gonna win the dinner?'" Brian said. If you've watched the trailer, you know what this guy did - "What's the point of having f*ck you money if you never say f*ck you." And they felt it. Morally, David and Brian believe in loyalty, honor, and ambition. And that you can balance these things. But not everyone does. Some people believe nice guys finish last. This interview reveals how to get inside the mind of billionaires. It might make you sick. Or it might make you hungry. Listen now. Resources and Links: * Watch the trailer for Showtime's Billions here * Check out my last interview with Bryan Koppelman here * I also highly recommend Bryan's podcast The Moment * Follow Bryan on Twitter and visit his website * Also check out David Levien's book, Signature Kill and read an excerpt here * Get my favorite movies: Rounders, Ocean's Thirteen, Solitary Man and The Girlfriend Experience ------------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 can't make everyone happy. Really, you can't make anyone happy. The sooner you accept this, the sooner you can let go of control, shame, or whatever your parents did to you, and start having sex. Or happiness. Whatever you're searching for. I'll explain. My guest today, a seven-time New York Times best-selling author, Neil Strauss, has written books on Motley Crue, Marilyn Manson, and pornstar Jenna Jameson, before exploring the pickup artist scene. Sex was all around him. He was immersed in the seduction community, but Neil couldn't find love himself. No woman would kiss him. He grew up a loser, and couldn't get a girlfriend for most of his life. Now he's happily married. But between marriage and being a loser, he had a lot of "pleasure fantasy experiences." Meaning, he learned how to pick up women and started having crazy sex orgies. One after another. And then he just stopped, and the sex parties ended. I wanted to know why. What made him decide he couldn't handle it anymore? But I'll get back to this. In his first book, The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists, Neil gives you easy tools you can use to have confidence. He teaches you how to feel like you're in control of a social situation. Neil was so busy having sex, he didn't have time to get back to his normal life. Personally, I don't think I'd like that. I would just constantly be jealous or insecure, to be honest. But back to happiness. Which I don't even like to talk about really... We put too much pressure on ourselves to be happy. You can't be happy all the time. And when you are happy, it should be special. But Neil had a good friend to help him refocus. "You need someone in your life who can reflect yourself back to you so you can see yourself a little bit," he says. His producer and close friend, Rick Rubin, said, "Look, you got everything you wanted in The Game. Why are you still not happy?" That's when Neil started looking for the truth. In his book, The Truth: An Uncomfortable Book About Relationships, Neil shows you how he gave up control. The book is about beliefs. "It's so hard to recognize your beliefs, let alone change them, because you're living with yourself." But behaviors are easier to change. That's what he teaches you in this episode. You'll learn how to feel healthier emotionally. When your personal life is together, you're much more capable of achieving bigger things, accumulating wealth, and feeling less stressed and worried. Neil says, "There's always a reason for what you're doing, and if you don't know the reason, then maybe you're living an unconscious life." And if you're just curious about the sex, then there's something here for you, too. ------------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 know why I wrote Choose Yourself. But you don't know how you got here. How did you get here, on my email list, my website, Facebook page, Twitter? Do you want to know why you're following me? I'm going to tell you. I'll tell you my secrets to building an email list, a customer base, an audience. I'm going to tell you how I got you here. There are specific tactics I use. And you can use them, too, for your business or blog or anything. But I'll get back to that. First you need an idea. And there needs to be a demand for that idea. Next, you should be wondering, "Is my idea any good?" Probably not. Or maybe it is. You could be much smarter than me. Most of my ideas don't lead to anything. But a few have. Like StockPickr, the company I built and sold for millions before almost destroying myself and wanting to die. If you're an idea machine, you already know how to come up with ideas. Scaling an idea is more challenging. Results don't just appear. You need traction. You need to grow and acquire new customers. My guest today, Gabriel Weinberg, author of Traction: How Any Startup Can Achieve Explosive Customer Growth and CEO of Duck Duck Go, is the king of results -- search results that is. That's what Duck, Duck, Go does. It is a search engine and it's stealing millions of customers from Google. It takes some sort of voodoo mastermind to figure out how to beat Google at their own game. Gabriel challenges the status quo. He's part of that rare breed of people who believe nothing is impossible. Now DuckDuckGo is pretty huge. But why would anyone want to challenge Google? That's what I wanted to find out. And I'll tell you why in a second. But let's get back to my secret. In 33 minutes and 22 seconds, you can know my preferred method to scaling your business. Or you can just skip to the 33:22 mark in today's interview. You might be surprised to find out how I scaled Choose Yourself - how I got traction. But if you're not looking for shortcuts, listen to the whole interview. You'll get an all-inclusive, complete breakdown on how to sell and scale your best ideas. Gabriel goes over every marketing tactic, nineteen to be exact. If you're resourceful, you can use them to start building your wealth for the New Year. And in his book, Gabriel and Justin Mares give you marketing tips from the masters, including Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, Reddit founder Alexis Ohanian, Kayak founder Paul English, and more than a dozen others. Listen today to hear Gabriel break down the best tactics for every stage of your business. You'll also hear why he wasn't happy with Google, and how he started today's superior search engine, in addition to how you and thousands of other people got here. And how you can start selling and scaling. Ready, set... (duck, duck) go. ------------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.