Reinvent Yourself

by James Altucher

Find a pain inside of you. Tease it out. This is hard. This is art.

PERSEVERANCE

He described to me how he took the rap style from the ‘80s (“I used inflection in my voice instead of just speaking”), a song from the ‘70s (Stevie Wonder’s “Pastime Paradise”), the gangster rap that was getting popular in the early ‘90s out of Compton, and combined them to create “Gangsta’s Paradise.”

I like that song

MENTORS

Coolio saw what was happening to all the people around him. He would read, he would write, he would work on his rapping, every day, so the same thing didn’t happen to him.

If you want to be the best, you have to do it for love.”

“I have to make sure I protect my money. I have kids, family.”

TRANSFORM HATE INTO LOVE

When you learn to use that grammar to learn one language, you can also apply the same techniques to learn to be a success in new areas.

But during the interview with Coolio, I leaned back against the wall and just listened and blurted out questions whenever I was curious and wanted to learn more rather than force it.

They have a deeply personal emotional anchor they can tie their work to.

“If you think about something three times in a week, you have to write it.”

A SENSE OF WONDER

IT HAS TO CAPTURE YOU from the first sentence.

*YOU HAVE TO TELL A STORY. A simple list is no good. Nobody is going to believe “10 ways to make a million dollars” if you don’t tell your personal and painful story about how you made it.

HONESTY.

If you don’t let it flow, it will be trapped inside, it will mutate, it will kill you. Every day, create.

“The most important thing in life,” she told me, “more important than anything else by far, is friendship.”

BE THE ONE PEOPLE TURN TO

HONESTY

PERSISTENCE

DISCIPLINE

recommend Céline’s “Journey to the End of the Night.”

He totally wrote as if he were speaking to you.

“What a joy it must be to be a truly great writer, even if it means a shotgun at the finish.”

TRY TO GET THE PEOPLE WORKING FOR YOU TO BE MORE SUCCESSFUL THAN YOU

But give them the chance to be as successful as you and they will take that example to the people below them.

BE VERY LOW KEY

ONLY DO THE ESSENTIAL

Violence could bring in a whole new set of problems. Better to take a loss and move on and now worry about it.

ASSUME THE WORST

“I always knew I was going to go to jail,” Rick said. But he wasn’t going to sit around and wait for it to happen. He owned over a dozen houses so nobody knew where he was.

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

“When I was young I asked the most successful person I knew how I could make some money,” he said. He looked down for a few seconds. Looked back up at the audience. Paused. “I asked the wrong person.”

Find something you are super excited about and know that at least another 100 million people can be super excited about it.

Either start a company in that space or invest as much as possible

If things smell, get rid of them. If things are frothy, sell. DON’T BREAK THIS RULE.

Engage the customer.

watch ‘Shark Tank.’”

NOT EVERYTHING IS AS IT APPEARS

you show that people are interested and that your product is special,

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

Kevin O’Leary is famous for this deal. He waits for the other sharks to say “I’m out,” and then he knows he’s the only possibility left for the entrepreneur.

If they say “no,” then no problem, one out of 10 will say “yes” and he just has to wait it out.

Kevin takes charge of the auction, makes it an “all-or-nothing” deal and again places himself in a “can’t lose” situation.

Join forces with other people so the man is forced to give u it

KNOW WHAT YOU ARE GOOD AT

GET ADVICE WHEN YOU CAN

If you don’t get the deal, learn what you did wrong, and modify your product, modify your approach, or just start a new business.

WHO CARES?

No matter how good or bad the product, it will get a lot of attention and an onslaught of orders. Make sure your website is ready for it, and be thankful for the free publicity.