Reinvent Yourself

by James Altucher

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.

Five years and you need to start learning new skills, practicing new efforts, trying on new careers for size.

As the director Tom Shadyac (who gave all his millions and moved into a trailer park) told me: “Happiness is based on the world ‘happenstance,’ which refers to something outside of yourself.” You need to find well-being from within.

So reinvention is: *Defining freedom in different ways (reducing expectations, increasing sources of income so no one source controls you). *Improving relationships. Plus, minus, equal: Finding mentors to teach you. Finding the next generation to teach. Finding friends who build you up and challenge you. This is your “scene.” Everyone going through reinvention needs a scene. *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.

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

Also, quantity is important because there is never just one thing you have been placed on this Earth to do. Life is a buffet and not a fixed-price meal. Speaking for myself, I like to sample.

Believe it or not, sometimes it’s just as good (often better) to read all of their materials rather than be directly mentored.

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

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.

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

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

The key to the Tao of Louis C.K. is to not expend extra energy on things that don’t matter, things that you can’t change, things that you’re being stupid about, things that won’t be issues a billion years from now.

You always have two choices. Be anxious, or find joy in the situation in front of you. Why waste any seconds of a preciously small life being anxious and afraid?

Doing my best in any situation is all I can do. If I worry about it while I’m doing it, I won’t do my best. The next day I will do my best also. If it doesn’t work then OK, it’s a perfect opportunity to learn. As Mac Lethal said to me, “Nobody remembers your bad stuff, just keep working at it and you’ll put out good stuff and that’s what they will see and remember.”

I think every outline has already been written. But each human has a unique fingerprint.

There’s magic in taking what’s been done a billion times before and doing it your way.

Add your twist to it

Kobe Bryant, one of the greatest basketball players of all time, has an incredible world record: he’s missed over 13,000 shots—more than any other player in professional basketball.

He’s one of the most scrutinized athletes because of this, but no one can deny his legacy. If you want to be the best, you have to take the most shots!

What five adjectives do you want to describe your life, or the objects you create, or your relationships?”

“Find the thing you did where you lost all sense of time while you are doing it,” Chip told me.

But sayings are fun to say and hard to live.

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

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

One thing I know for sure is that feeling entitled to anything will automatically put a ceiling on what you get out of life.

Today everyone wants to “go viral.” They want the Internet to make them an overnight success. But sometimes you just need to work insanely hard and go to the people. One at a time, face to face. “Viral” often is a disease you want to get rid of. But “connection” can lead to lifelong benefits.

Don’t let someone tell you can’t do XYZ because there’s no money in it. “People used to tell me, ‘Don’t be a teacher, you can’t make any money doing it,’” he told me. But now he says he’s a teacher with the largest classroom and the most amount of students. Every day, don’t try to jump into another box. Just try to think a little bit more outside of the box society has put you in.

Since you were young, your dream was to become a teacher. Well, this is hour chance to do so with a larger classroom than you ever envisioned!

Wayne said to me, “The number one regret of the dying is ‘I wish I had the courage to live the life I wanted rather than doing what others wanted of me.’”

Ultimately, if you want to make a TV show, don’t rely on the gatekeepers. Take a camera. Make a YouTube video. Make 100 YouTube videos. Now you have a show. All by yourself.

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

You never know what you find when you experiment. But it’s always fun and scary and good practice for getting out of the comfort zone.

My theory always in any career is that it takes one to three years to do the studying required. About two years before you are making any money at the new career. Three to four years before you are making a living from it and five to six years before you are killing it. But it requires persistence each day.

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.

“The media only writes about the sinners and the scandals, but that’s normal, because a tree that falls makes more noise than a forest that grows.”

Many studies have shown that when you compliment children on “growth” versus specific accomplishments, they perform better in the long run.

Seth Godin has great advice about speaking at conferences: If you speak at a conference, either do it for free because you love it, or charge FULL RETAIL.

He said that the U.S. jail system spends $45,000 a year per prisoner but refuses to buy prisoners books. These are the books he recommended: *As a Man Thinketh by James Allen *Awaken the Giant Within by Tony Robbins *Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill *The Richest Man in Babylon by George Samuel Clason

Learn from other people—mistakes, money, momentum, motivations, whatever it takes. Fill in the M.

“I look at the number of times the entrepreneur has failed,” he said. “I don’t want them to have their learning experiences on my dime.” “I have to like the person,” he said.

He said, “Being broke is temporary but poverty of mind is permanent. You have to avoid poverty of mind.”

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

I asked him, “Do you get nervous if one of your videos gets less views than others?” He gave me valuable advice: “Nobody remembers your bad stuff. They only remember your good stuff.” I live by that.

We define our lives from our imagination and the things we create with our hands.

I want to get more comfortable with being uncomfortable.

This is a simple chapter. How to make $1 million. I am absolutely sure the same techniques that worked for Mimi and Alex can work for anyone. I had them lay it out step by step.