Reinvent Yourself

by James Altucher

All my life, I had tried to be creative, but I kept trying to force that creativity into something that would generate money instead of just being creative just for the sake of it.

Only be around people you love and who inspire you.

I always say it first has to come from within: physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual health. I.e., write down 10 ideas a day. Be around good people. Be grateful, etc. But you also have to look at an important data point: the IRS says the average multi-millionaire has seven different sources of income.

All the people I’ve ever had on my podcast—200 successful artists, billionaires, astronauts, athletes, writers, entrepreneurs, inventors—have reinvented themselves over and over.

Habits. It’s the 5x5 rule. You are not just the average of the five people around you. You’re the average of the five habits you do, the things you eat, the ideas you have, the content you consume, etc.

Society is crossing the event horizon. The black hole is the coming war of “Us vs. Them.” This war will be fought in elections, in your bank accounts, in your career, in your relationships, in the streets.

Learning never stops. Many people die at 25 but are not put in the coffin until 75. The learning stopped for them early.

I am not available 99.9% of the time. But I always make myself available for people who I look up to as mentors.

One of my first realizations was that mentors are never as perfect as I initially think they are.

sometimes it’s just as good (often better) to read all of their materials rather than be directly mentored.

Some people suck all of the air out of a room and they don’t realize it about themselves.

So there are different levels of engagement: reading, sending emails, taking courses, meeting in person, meeting in person every day.

It’s OK for someone to be a mentor for a day. Napoleon Hill interviewed Andrew Carnegie for one day and after that considered Carnegie a mentor for life. The mentor that ultimately influenced one of the top-selling books of the past 100 years: “Think and Grow Rich.”

Why do they hate me? A poor mentor can’t handle when the student goes sideways or higher. A good mentor will, with his last breath, push you to the top of the mountain, even at their own personal risk.

Your legacy is not what you do. It’s what the people who you teach do.

Sometimes when I’m in a meeting or at a dinner, everyone is laughing and talking but I feel a shadow come up inside of me. It starts in my stomach, where the butterflies are. It then crawls through my heart, gripping it, whispering, “Shhhh…” when the heart protests. It climbs through my neck, freezing the muscles in my jaw and eventually clamps over my head.

This is it exactly !

The environment is just as important as what you say.

NOBODY is 100% original. This is the anxiety of influence.

The entire purpose of language is to influence. We are not strong animals. We are weak. The language of influence saved us.

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.

He wrote an excellent book about negotiation called Never Split the Difference. I recommend it.

You always want to get more information in a negotiation with as little commitment as possible on your side.

Ask “open-ended questions” starting with “how” or “what.” Ask a lot of them. Be prepared in advance with your “how” questions.

“Nobody wants to feel powerless. If the negotiation is not going your way you can say to them, ‘Sounds like there’s nothing you can do.’ “This will make them feel powerless. They will say ‘no’ to that and now they will try to do something for you to prove they are not powerless.”

Don’t be afraid to go silent. Mirror and then have the confidence to go silent. Nobody wants the negotiation to end. They will keep talking and give you more information. Your goal is you want to get them talking as much as possible. The more information you have, the better. And the more likely they will negotiate against themselves.

When I was a kid, I used to complain I was bored to my grandparents. I could’ve been more curious about them. Then they died.

Whatever opinion you have, just sit back and smile and rest a little bit. The problem you are worried about will get solved. Or it won’t. Chances are there’s nothing you can do either way. So enjoy the bacon.

Blaming and complaining are draining. They never solve future problems and they only drain away energy from this moment.

Only forward motion works. A superhero doesn’t blame. A superhero flies through the sky and saves lives. Action!

“Try many things. One thing I realized is that quantity equals quality. People think it’s one or the other but it’s not. When you have a quantity of ideas and things you are trying, you will find quality.”

When you compare, you despair. When you are humble, you learn. When you get curious, you get better.

“If I had only focused on big successes,” he said, “then I would be disappointed most of the time. You have to focus on the small successes and make sure to celebrate them.”

“Continually investing in the success of others is what will eventually lead to success for yourself.”

A good follower observes the leader, trusts his suggestions, and then ties his own success to the success of the company.

Wayne says that if something isn’t working in his life, he always tells himself, “It must be because I haven’t used enough determination or I haven’t been fearless enough or I haven’t been willing to do whatever it takes to make it happen.”

Improving (or not improving) 1% a day is not even noticeable. That’s why it’s so easy for people to say, “Nothing is happening,” and inadvertently cost their lives 1% a day. Focus on that 1% improvement and everything changes.

“You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.”

Integrity, humility, and doing your best are by far the most important considerations when evaluating whether to work for someone.

By the way, for my friends who write non-fiction books: I’ve seen people write best sellers to non-sellers, but the ONLY way that I’ve seen serious money being made by authors that I know (even for the bestsellers) is by either doing speaking tours after the book comes out (far exceeding whatever they got in advances) or by selling information products that complement the value they deliver in their books.

“How can it be that it is not a news item when an elderly homeless person dies of exposure but it is news when the stock market loses two points?”

We no longer need those shortcuts as much. There aren’t that many lions in the street. But the brain took 400,000 years to evolve and it’s only in the past 50 years maybe that we are relatively safe from most of the dangers that threatened earlier humans. Our technology and ideas have evolved but our brains can’t evolve fast enough to keep up with them.

LOL!

“Nothing comes to a sleeper but a dream. Our dad used to say that.”

Thinking keeps the adventures of life bottled in your head. Action makes you a hero.

If I spend my life aiming for that 1% improvement every day then I may never be the best in the world at anything. But I know I will be the best “me” at everything.

But it takes me out of my own worries and anxieties for a split second. It doesn’t require faith but a tiny amount of surrender. Ask this every morning about your friends, your lovers, your employees: how can I help them just a little bit more, with the simple resources I have?

Make sure you are the most excited user of your own product.

My only guidance for the people who are going on the show, or for anyone who pitches any investor, is to carefully study every aspect of the background of the people you are pitching.

Here is what the sharks (or any investors) want to really understand: Do you have a great product? Do you know what the size of your market is? Do you have some sense of a business model? And, in some cases, do you have big breasts?

Sell the dream. Better not to have sales unless you are going to blow them away with your sales numbers.

Get value out of every deal aside from the money. Money won’t save or help your business for more than a short time. But the right deal and connections will make or break you. So while they are playing around with the dimes, make sure you collect as many nickels that they may have left lying on the floor.