09/12/2019 James Altucher's answer to How does one succeed at life?

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How does one succeed at life?

James Altucher, Author, entrepreneur, podcaster, wall street investor
  Answered Aug 11, 2018 · Author has 957 answers and 80.8m answer views
Originally Answered: How does one succeed at life  ?
I had millions of dollars from selling a business and then I lost it all. I lost home. I had the
IRS all over me.

Then I lost my family. Then all my relationships fell apart.

My friends and family from the year 2000 no longer talk to me. I take that back. One friend
from the year 2000.

I built back up. Built another business. Sold it. Bought another house. Then lost the money
and lost the house. Lost my friends.

I changed my definition of success.

This is my new definition:

CONNECTION: Being with people I love who love me. NO TOXIC PEOPLE. For
better or worse, I have a “one strike and you’re out” policy. We wear this bag of
skin for only so long.

COMPETENCE: Find the things I love, get good at them, even a little bit, every
day.

FREEDOM: When I do something I don’t want to do, I feel resentment, I don’t do

a good job, people get upset, and I lose track of who I am. If you don’t make the
choices in your own life then someone else will and the results won’t be as good
for you.

This is hard to do.

It’s not about “ building good habits”.

I put that in quotes because so many bullshit self-help writers think it’s about habits.

A “habit” is “make the bed” or “brush your teeth every day.”

And it’s not about goals.

Again, many self-help gurus say “have big goals”. “Think big or die small”. Blah blah.

This is BS also. If all you have is a big goal you’re guaranteed to not make it.

When I was going to shoot myself in the head I started to figure out what was important
to me. And ever since then I’ve had success.

In the past few years I’ve written many bestselling books. I’ve built an almost $100 million
in revs. business that’s still growing. I have great friends that I love. My family is better than
ever.

I have a podcast that’s had over 70,000,000 downloads. And, my biggest achievement: I’m
a Top Quora Writer for five years in a row.

I’m in control of most of the decisions of my life. And I’m ok with the decisions I have no
control over (it’s raining today, for instance, so I have a raincoat).

I have a cough today but I’m carrying cough drops. I hope it gets better.

But I don’t care. I’m looking forward to going to the hex game cafe later and playing board
games.

I’m sick of interviewing billionaires and world champions.

So boring. They all say the same things. But they speak the language of success. I’ve
learned so much by interviewing them.

None of what they say is a surprise. But actually putting it to work and seeing the results
right in front of me is proof that these ideas, these processes they put in place, have

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worked for them.
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They’ve worked for me also.

But I think I’m a little lazy. I like to bingewatch TV also.

A) VALUES:

What do you stand for?

I ask this to people and they say stupid shit like, “I want to help entrepeneurs succeed”. Or,
“I want to help people communicate better.”

I don’t mean to be harsh. But really check yourself to see if anyone gives a shit about what
you say.

For me: I want to be honest with the people around me. I want to do the things in life that I
love (and that changes almost every day).

And when I say I will do something: I overpromise and then deliver.

That beats out the people who think they are smart by “underpromising”. That’s the
strategy of a loser.

I want to be healthy and creative. I want to entertain.

I want to raise children to be good adults.

I want desperately to not care what people think about me. I want to treat people with
grace and respect and not care about the consequences.

If I help myself, share how I do it in an entertaining way, then I can hope for the best.

Oh, and whatever I am interested in: I want to be a threat.

B) PERSISTENCE

If you improve 1% a day at the things you love, then very quickly you find obstacles.

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1% a day equals 3800% in a year when compounding.
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How do you improve?

“Plus, Minus, Equal”.

This was told to me by the greatest ultimate fighting champion ever: Frank Shamrock.

Find your Plus: a mentor or group of mentors, even if they are virtual (an author, someone
on Youtube, etc).

Find your Equals: people who are moving up the chain with you that you can compare
notes with.

Find your Minus: people who you can teach to. If you can’t teach, then you don’t
understand what you’re supposed to be teaching.

(with former MMA world champion Frank Shamrock)

Business is a great example. Some people are great at building a one million dollar
business. But at ten million in revenues, there are a different set of problems. And at
$100,000,000 there is a greater set of problems.

Success means viewing problems as opportunities for solutions.

In business, relationships, family, friendships, writing, art, etc.

If you don’t have problems to persist through then you’ve stopped getting better and life
will get worse.

C) PATIENCE

I’ve asked 400 of the most successful people in the world what they did when they were at
their worst.

How did you survive?

Almost always the answer is: WAIT.

Keep being healthy. Keep writing down ideas. Keep being honest and helping friends and
doing good.

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But don’t force anything in your career or life.
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Henry Winkler (the actor who played “The Fonz” on Happy Days in the 70s), told me during
his NINE dark years of no acting that the worst thing he could have done was force it.

Instead, he kept his network alive. He learned how to produce and direct. And gradually he
got back into acting. Last season, on “Barry”, he helped that show get 13 Emmies.

When you thrash, you crash.

Just be quiet. Don’t move too much. Be calm. Be patient.

Life rewards the patient.

(me and “The Fonz” at the comedy club, Standup NY, I am part-owner of).

D) READY. FIRE. AIM

Sara Blakely, the wealthiest self made woman in the world (she created Spanx) got her first
big order and had only a few weeks to deliver.

The problem: she didn’t have a manufacturer.

So she found one. She was lit on fire and had to put that fire out.

So many people plan plan plan. Analysis paralysis.

Have the idea. Get the order. Then figure it out.

Want to swim. Get thrown in the water. Don’t drown.

Have a story. Write it down. Then edit the grammar and make a second, third, fourth draft
of the story.

Richard Branson didn’t buy 10 airplanes and then start Virgin Air.

He called Boeing, convinced them to LEND him a plane for a year. Then got a route from
the US to England. THEN started Virgin Air, which he sold for billions.

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(Sara built Spanx (example in the image) into a multi-billion business without any fashion
experience. She just wanted to help women feel better)

E) OBSESSION

When you love something, you’ll WANT to do it in every spare moment.

You’ll read about it. You’ll watch videos. Get mentors. Talk about it with friends. Study the
nuances. Start trying it for yourself. And on and on.

The one who is obsessed will beat out the person who is not obsessed.

Why? Simple: the person who is not obsessed will NEVER know the nuance and subtleties.

I once started a business that combined my interests in writing, investing, and

programming. All my prior obsessions.

Three months into developing my idea I realized I had a ton of competition. But I could tell
they weren’t obsessed. They weren’t a threat.

I got millions of users with a month.

I sold my company for $10,000,000. They all went out of business.

Nobody can beat an obsessive.

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(Sasha Cohen told me only obsession is what got her a medal in the 2006 Olympics)

F) TALENT SEX

Scott Adams, the creator of Dilbert, told me, “I’m pretty good at drawing, but not the best.
I’m pretty good at writing, but not the best. I’m pretty funny, but not the best, and I’m
pretty good at business, but not the best. But I’m probably the best at the combination.”

Which is why Dilbert is the top selling syndicated cartoon strip and Scott is probably worth
over $100,000,000.

When you get pretty good at a lot of things and then combine them: you’ll be among the
best in the world at the intersection.

List your talents. Start figuring out how to combine them.

(Dilbert)

G) VISION

Don’t read the news. Read a lot of books by smart people. Here are some starting points:

Sapiens by Yuval Harari

The Evolution of Everything by Matt Ridley

Antifragile by Nassim Taleb

Zero to One by Peter Thiel

Tiny Beautiful Things by Cheryl Strayed

Thinking in Bets by Annie Duke

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Look around the world. Don’t listen to the people who are screaming and yelling and
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Think realistically about what you love doing: where will it be five years from now?

For instance, is the 2 party system in America going to last? Will TV shows still be 30
minutes or 60 minutes? Will bookstores exist? Will Uber still exist? Will AI be doing
surgeries?

Have a vision for where the world is going. Or wait for one (see above). Vision is the
mother of invention.

H) PERSUASION

Every successful person I know, knows how to persuade.

Robert Cialdini’s book “Influence” is the Bible of persuasion techniques.

BUT, Vision + Obsession + Health makes it easy to persuade others.

I) EMPATHY

Rule #3 of improvisation is: “Make your scene partner look good.”

Nobody gives a shit about you. Stop caring so much about what people think you.

Focus on how to make the people around you look good. Then the world around you will
look good. Then the center of the world around you will look good.

I mean..you.

J) PROBLEM SOLVING

1. get a waiter’s pad

2. every day write down ten ideas

Within six months you will be an idea machine. People will throw problems at you and you
will be able to solve them trivially.

This is a super power. And with great power becomes great responsibility.

On the TV show “Crashin”, Pete Holmes asks the famous comedian Whitney Cummings,
“Can you give me advice? What does it take to succeed?”

I love her response. First she said, “I can’t tell you. There’s no answer.”

And he begged. “Please just tell me one thing “

She said, “The star is the person everyone else wants to be friends with.”
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About the Author

James Altucher
  Author, entrepreneur, podcaster, wall street investor
Lives in New York City

95.6m content views

473.9k this month
Top Writer
2018, 2017, 2016, 2015 and 2014

Session Host
Feb 2017

Published Writer
Fatherly, HuffPost, and 19 more

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