The Only Thing That Makes Me Happier

I was ashamed of everything. I moved about 100 miles away so there was no chance I could run into anyone I knew.

I didn’t have a job. It was snowing every day. I never left my new, tiny home because I was afraid I’d cry outside. Like my dad when he had become depressed 15 years earlier. 

I had no infrastructure inside me to find hope.

I’d lock myself in a small office. My tiny daughters occasionally knocked on the door, a ball in their hands. “Daddy, do you want to play?”

But then something happened.

I couldn’t sleep at all. I was too anxious. So at 6 a.m. I’d go to the local cafe. One day someone brought a Scrabble set.

A few of us started to play. Soon it became a regular thing. Who were they? Nobody. All of us, nobody.

First one game, then two games were going.

I had zero friends from the disaster I had left behind. But after Scrabble, sometimes one or two of would break off and we’d take a walk around the Revolutionary War ruins that littered themselves around town.

What was there to talk about? Scraps. Mistakes.

We all had been degraded and humiliated by people better than us. We were afraid.

—

I can’t believe the things I shared. The things she shared. He shared. They shared.

A friend listens. A friend is curious.

A friend doesn’t judge.

A friend offers suggestions but doesn’t force their solutions.

A friend laughs.

I’m not ashamed to ask for help from a friend. I’m pretty much ashamed to ask for help from anyone else.

Sometimes I meet a new person and BAM! Magic! We don’t need to be friends for 40 years. We can’t stop talking.

Sometimes I really like people but I can also sense I can never really be friends with them. Eventually they drift away.

I miss my friends that I haven’t seen in a long time. Some friends can pick right up even if it’s been years.

Friends don’t expect a lot from me and I don’t expect a lot from them. Then… guess what? Our expectations are always exceeded 100%.

Friends share ideas with me and I share ideas with them. I have idea sex with friends and we grow idea families together.

All opportunities bloom from the seeds of friendship.

—

To be understood, you have to understand. To be listened to, you have to listen.

I didn’t know that until everyone had stopped listening to me.

Every morning at Scrabble was a little friendship party. I like those. I wish… I wish I had more of those now.

Too many people wonder, “What’s my goal?”

Too many times I’ve said, “I can’t be happy without X or Y!”

Friendship requires less naked ambition.

I wonder how many friends I should have. How many? In a city filled with everyone.

I’ve only gotten off of rock bottom by gripping onto the hands of friends who could pull me higher. New and old.

Sometimes now, I miss these moments of shame. These moments where I was shy and hoping someone would reach me.

Sometimes I miss friends I haven’t seen in a long time.

Don’t worry. Even if we never see each other again… we saw each other once.

The post The Only Thing That Makes Me Happier appeared first on James Altucher.

from James Altucher http://bit.ly/2wr8A1A via website design phoenix

Don’t: The B.S. of the American Religion

I lost a friend.

I didn’t tell her I got married. I didn’t tell anyone. I eloped. Later, I told people. 

She wrote me, “I can’t believe you didn’t tell me.” And she stopped talking to me.

It’s a cliche to say, “Then she wasn’t really your friend.” That’s not true. I thought she was one of my best friends. I was sad.

It’s a cliche to say, “People tell you who they really are. You have to listen.”

Not everyone tells me who they are. And it’s really hard to listen.

“People are really good about making your happiness all about them. She was a thief of your joy.”

But I let her. I think about it. I wish we were friends.

It’s hard to open the door and let the world in every day.

—

I’m afraid to go against the American religion.

But Warren Buffett said, “You have to say no a lot!”

And some admiral said to make your bed every day.

But what about gratitude and waking up the same time every day? And if you don’t vote, do the terrorists win?

And meditation and working out and Marie Kondo?

Marie Kondo. Marie Kondo!

What the f*ck is up with Marie Kondo?

—

DON’T Make Your Bed

When you sleep, up to a million microscopic dust mites crawl all over you.

They crawl into your mouth, your nose, and they dig into your skin. You breathe them in all night and they can trigger asthma attacks.

Over $1 billion a year are spent on mite-related illnesses.

Mites survive in moisture and humidity.

Like when a 98-degree human is sleeping in the sheets. But if the sheets dry out when they are left unmade, this will kill off the mites.

Don’t make a bed, save a life.

—

DON’T Keep a Gratitude Journal

I’ve been guilty of daily gratitude. Writing it down. I’m grateful for my kids, etc.

Here’s what happens: It becomes a chore. And then instead of writing down things I’m truly grateful for, I get superficial just to get it over with.

Plus, “happiness” is an addiction. If you get the happiness drug every day, you need more and more to get happy.

Like with any other drug.

Pace it out. “Studies show” writing gratitude once a week and going a bit deeper will result in higher levels of happiness.

—

DON’T Vote

I’m vote-shamed every election. I never vote.

Well, I voted once. For town councilman in a tiny town of 100 voters. Three days later, I got a letter from the IRS. They found me.

Now I don’t vote.

People then tell me. “If you don’t vote, you don’t have a right to an opinion.”

People also say, “You don’t care about anything.”

And some people say, “When you don’t vote that’s like voting for [the opponent they hate that week].”

And others say, “How can you work for change if you don’t vote?”

Shut up.

First off, I don’t understand most of the issues enough to feel qualified to vote.

Everyone says, “This tariff WAR is out of control!”

It’s a war? Are guns being fired? Lives lost?

I ask one simple question: What were Chinese tariffs on U.S. goods? Nobody can answer.

I can’t even Google it. I still don’t know the answer. Hard issues are filled with nuances. But everyone has an opinion. I’m anti-opinion.

Secondly, I don’t care if I have a voice.

But I like to tell my stories. Everyone gets to choose what sort of voice they want to have.

Which is why I write. Which is why I respond to many of the emails I get based on my writing. Which is why I give talks and participate in innovations that I think will help humanity.

Part of the reason I care is because I want to make money.

When you create something that will help people, then you can make a lot of money.

I care about people but I also care about money because I want to feed my family and I’m getting older so I don’t want to work so much.

I want to stop giving time to the things I hate so I can give more time to the things and people I love.

Third, when I don’t vote, it doesn’t mean that’s the same as a vote for the candidate you hate. I didn’t vote for him or her either.

Fourth, there are many ways to work for change in life,

It’s really hard to be a good, decent person. Someone who doesn’t try to control the things they can’t control.

Someone who listens. Someone who tries to understand. Someone who is generous.

We are like a stone thrown in the water. If thrown at just the right angle, the stone will hit the ocean and ripples of the water will hit every shore.

The other day I gave a homeless person a Zimbabwe $1 trillion bill.

Every day he stands on the corner of my block and shouts all day long while asking for money.

I gave him the $1 trillion bill. He stopped shouting for a second. He was silent. He turned the bill over and read both sides.

He looked at me. He smiled. That’s change.

—

DON’T Wake Up the Same Time Every Day

Experiment #1:

I tried this once: I slept from 4–8 p.m. and from 4–8 a.m. for a month straight.

I was unemployed and running out of money and doing random things to make enough money to live. I needed to make about $20 a day at the time. I had just been thrown out of graduate school.

I wanted to be a writer. I was trying to write 3,000 words a day.

My friends all worked. So from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. nobody bothered me and I was able to write.

Then I slept. Then from 8 p.m. to about 11 or 12, I would eat dinner and hang out with my friends.

Then I’d write again until 4 in the morning. Then I’d sleep from 4–8 a.m.

Eight hours of sleep a night. I felt great and I was amazingly productive.

Experiment #2:

For a month I went to sleep an hour later every day and then slept eight hours.

So the first day I woke up at 6 a.m. The second day at 7 a.m. The third day at 8 a.m. Etc.

Mid-month I was sleeping all day and up all night.

I still slept eight hours a day and felt great. The only time I don’t feel great is when I don’t sleep eight hours a day.

Sometimes my sleep schedule was so messed up I couldn’t see my friends. But I was very productive. And other parts of the month I was able to be more social.

I had an hour extra each day and used that extra hour to write. I guess the math works out that I lost a day each month but I only look like I’m good at math.

Plus I enjoyed telling people about my experiment. That was fun.

Sometimes when the sun lifts itself above the office buildings and high rises and spills its molten lava light into the day, it’s OK to be surprised and in awe of it.

—

DON’T Meditate

Meditation is like cryptocurrencies: 95% of it is a scam.

And yes, I said that on CNBC in August 2017. Stop saying I pump shitcoins.

Take TM for instance.

TM is short for transcendental meditation, a popular cult.

Many people who loudly say they are “atheists” are still willing to pay thousands of dollars to a cult where they get their secret mantra and are taught how to meditate.

That’s not being an atheist. That’s being a sucker. Con men love you.

You don’t need to pay money to learn how to think.

Then there is meditation with “goals.”

Goal-oriented meditation is when people meditate to get a certain objective. Like “enlightenment” or “relaxation” or “law of attraction” or “positive thinking,”

I have met thousands of meditators. I’ve never met anyone who claimed to be “enlightened.”

I first meditated when I was about 13 years old. I had a goal.

Specifically I wanted to learn how to astral project my “soul” out of my body so I could invisibly watch women taking off their clothes.

Is it #MeToo if it’s invisible and in the astral world?

But that goal got me to try many different styles of meditation over the years. Everything from Vipassana style, to Zen style, to Compassion/Tibetan style, and so on.

Meditation is “brain practice.”

The brain is a machine.

There’s input (your past experiences, your diet, the present) and there’s output (a non-stop barrage of mostly annoying thoughts).

The idea of meditation is to sit there, see one of those annoying thoughts, and say, “There I go again.” Catching the firefly that lights up for a second.

You do that over and over. And why do we need this practice?

Because when we dwell on something an old ex did, or what the boss said that morning, or something a politician did, the dwelling is not very useful, or is going around and around and accomplishing nothing… we can stop ourselves and say, “There I go again,” and move on to something more productive and less anxiety-producing.

You can meditate in a second. Not in an hour. Every time you are angry at someone just think, “There I go again,” and try to not be angry.

You can do this practice all day long.

That’s meditation.

—

DON’T Think Positive

When people say, “I’m going to lose 20 pounds in a month,” they are thinking positive.

Or when they think I’m going to get that raise, this is positive thinking.

Fine.

But then expect to be disappointed, sad, and frustrated.

And you will fail. Actions are more powerful than thoughts.

I went rock climbing once. I was terrified. If you see the rock above you that you have to grab, you can’t think your way to that rock.

You have to do it.

Practice something so much you no longer have to think so hard. The right process becomes natural.

You DO instead of THINK.

The person who wins at chess is the person who looks at all the things that can go wrong. THEN considers how to win. Negative and positive.

But, most importantly, they make a move.

—-

DON’T Say Yes or No

Say yes to everything in your 20s so you can try many things.

Say no to most things in your 50s because most things don’t amount to anything

But don’t say yes to bad things in your 20s.

And sometimes say yes to family and falling in love and making friends and helping people in your 50s.

It’s all confusing. There are no rules.

I want to say yes more. But then after I say yes, I think I want to say no more.

I want to say yes and no a lot and then sort it out later.

I don’t know.

—

DON’T Be a Minimalist

I threw out all my stuff and lived in Airbnbs for years.

People say, “It must be great to be such a minimalist.”

I said, “Experiences are better than things.”

Now I have things. I don’t feel any different one way or the other.

Marie Kondo says, “Lay out all of your items, hold each item to your heart, and keep it if you love it.”

That’s a lot of work, Marie!

I don’t want to work so hard. I’d rather throw it all out.

And I don’t know if I love any objects. That seems weird to me.

I feel the exact same way now as when I had nothing: some days sad and some days happy.

—

DON’T Work Out

I asked Jocko Willink what he does for exercise. He shrugged his shoulders. “Some pushups.”

No gym? No 20-mile runs? No weights?

Between 1990 and 2007, a million people went to the emergency room for gym-related injuries. 114 died.

Between 1990 and 2007, zero people went to the hospital for reading-related injuries.

Read a book, take a walk, avoid sugar.

—-

DON’T Have Goals

Have a goal and every day work towards it.

This is a bad idea.

If you are trying to get good at something worth getting good at, then every day you will learn more.

You will get more knowledge as to what goals are worthy. You didn’t have this knowledge in the beginning. Your goals will change every day. They SHOULD change.

Have process instead. Goals are “thoughts” because they don’t exist yet. Every day DO something.

—

I’ve been pretty messed up all my life. But I try to be a good person.

The only reason I have a podcast is to ask the people I admire how they got better. Maybe I can learn 1% of what they do.

I write books not to lecture the masses from my mighty pedestal. But to tell my story. I love doing it.

And if I’m entertaining enough, maybe people will find something they relate to in my stories.

I’m very lucky. I try to be healthy. And be generous. The one thing I learned: when you help others, your average happiness increases.

But maybe that’s bullshit also. I’ll tell you when I find out. 

The post Don’t: The B.S. of the American Religion appeared first on James Altucher.

from James Altucher http://bit.ly/2ErFT8W via website design phoenix

An Opera Singer + Iraqi Dinars = Immortality

I asked people, “Who loves their jobs?” I was MCing a comedy show.

A few people shouted out, “I do!”

I also had a 25 Iraqi dinar bill in my pocket. From 2001 so it had Saddam Hussein’s face on it. It helps to have ex-CIA friends.

Time for shit to go down.

—

Sometimes a day goes by and I can’t even remember what I did.

What did I eat for breakfast? Who did I meet after lunch? What phone calls did I make? Who did I help?

I have no clue!

The day passed by in a flash and it’s already tomorrow. It’s already next week! It was 20 years ago just yesterday.

If l die at the age of 70, I have only 1,000 Sundays left to enjoy.

If I just follow the rules, those Sundays will just flash by. I will remember nothing.

And 1,000 Sundays will catapult me into the future in just a second, to a dark place where there are no Sundays left.

—

I was MCing the other night. You’re supposed to do a joke or two and then introduce the next comic.

That’s the script. That’s the “act.”

You have to break the script. Create an experience. Create a memory.

Each experience slows it all down. Sloooowww. Injects a moment with life.

“What do you do?” I asked one of the people who loved their job. I was ready to be disgusted. Who could love their job?

“I’m an opera singer,” she said.

Oh!

I had a 25 Iraqi dinar bill from 2001 (with Saddam Hussein’s face on it) burning a hole in my pocket.

And an opera singer sitting right in front of me.

And Steve, my podcast producer, sitting in the audience celebrating his 50th birthday.

No more jokes. No more script. I want to live forever.

And this is what happened.

The post An Opera Singer + Iraqi Dinars = Immortality appeared first on James Altucher.

from James Altucher http://bit.ly/2VosdpP via website design phoenix

Seven Things I Learned from Chess

Chess got me a girlfriend, it got me into college, it got me into graduate school, it got me my first job, it helped me raise money, it got my company sold, and it’s opened doors when previously they seemed locked to everyone around me.

People mistakenly think chess = “smart.” This is very wrong. But I took advantage of this myth.

(Bucket list moment: me with Jim Norton, GZA, Garry Kasparov and Maria Konnikova)

But all of that is superficial. Where it really helped me, where any activity that you devote your heart to for years at a time helps, is the following:

—

A) IT TAUGHT ME HOW TO LEARN

Many people play chess for years and never get better.

I have one friend I see about once every five years. He loves chess but has never once studied the game.

He plays every day. He still plays the same moves. Makes the same mistakes. All of that time spent on something he loves and he is unable to improve.

How come? Hasn’t he put in his 10,000 hours?

It’s not about 10,000 hours. It’s about 10,000 hours where you practice with intent.

You have to get a teacher. You have to study the history (go over games played by all the great players since the 1800s through yesterday).

You have to play and be willing to lose in order to learn more.

Identify the microskills (openings, tactics, etc.) and get better at them.

This is the same as anything.

You get better at sales and management by studying from the best, reading and re-reading thousands of examples, and understanding the subtleties in the history of what you love.

You get better at writing by… writing a lot and getting feedback.

B) IT TAUGHT ME HOW TO LOSE

When I first started to play, I improved my skill very quickly but not my psychology.

I wanted to think I was a talented genius. I wasn’t.

Talent is a spark that lights the fire. But the fire needs constant fuel to get bigger.

Maybe I had a tiny bit of talent, like most of us do. But I wasn’t anything special.

I started playing at a late age — 17 is very late for young chess players. But within a year I was the strongest high school player in my state.

But I was a sore loser.

One time I lost and threw all the pieces on the floor and walked out of school. Everyone was laughing. I didn’t come back to school for several days.

A few months later I was playing my father. Here I was, 17 years old, a grown man (almost), and when my father beat me I started crying and yelling at him.

Another time, I was 18 and I was representing New Jersey in the U.S. high school championship. I won my first game but lost my second game.

I trashed my hotel room like I was some kind of rock star and I was so upset my grandparents had to drive down and pick me up. I dropped out of the tournament.

I would have nightmares when I lost. The game being played over and over again in my head. I was at expert level and not quite master.

Finally, I started to care more about getting BETTER than about winning.

Process is always greater than outcome.

I started to study my losses. I would take my losses to my instructor and we would go over them.

And that’s how I went from expert level to master level.

I still don’t like to lose. I hate it. It’s the worst feeling. But I never let a good loss go to waste.

The only way to learn is to study something you never knew before.

Losses are the maps that point you to what you never knew before.

C) I LEARNED TO COMPETE

We like to think that life is not a competition. That everything is abundant.

The reality is, to get good at something, you have to be better than others. You have to stand out.

I used to shake before every tournament. I was so nervous I always felt sick.

And if I started to lose a game, I’d feel sick and I’d lose.

Then, I started to switch mindsets.

I would spend more time at the board. I would focus. I would look down every variation.

I became a better player by learning how to be mischievous when I was losing. By learning how to kill when my opponent thought the hunt was already over.

By learning how not to give up when all hope was lost.

D) PARANOIA WILL DESTROY YOU

Chess is about being paranoid.

When your opponent makes a move, he’s not your friend. He’s your predator. He wants to kill you.

So you look at every possibility. How is he trying to kill you? What is your worst-case scenario?

Much later when I was managing money for people, I was always worried about the worst-case scenarios.

When I was dating women I was also worried about the worst-case scenarios.

I was too paranoid. I was thinking too much that everyone was a predator.

It’s true that everyone is self-interested. This is how people survive.

But I learned to hone it in real life. OK, here’s where I should paranoid. And here’s where I should relax.

E) IT TAUGHT ME ABOUT ADULTS

For the first time ever, I had friends who were not my age. I had friends of all ages and races and economic backgrounds.

One language united us — the language of chess.

One time I was in Buenos Aires at the world famous chess club where Fischer beat Petrosian, where Alekhine beat Casablanca.

I don’t speak Spanish and the guys running the club didn’t speak English. But my friend told them my chess rating, and they ushered me right in.

I played games against the Argentinian junior champion, who was there, and we got the full tour of such a historical place.

Since I was a kid, I would go to Washington Square Park at the southwest corner, where the chess players have played for 60 years.

 

When I was younger it was mostly drug dealers and prostitutes hanging out there.

But there were also chess players and backgammon players and Scrabble players (Scrabble more in the northwest corner).

Ultimately I crossed many barriers that a “civilian” life would not have allowed me to cross.

Perhaps this is the thing I am most grateful for.

It’s not just chess.

When you get good at anything, you learn the language of mastery.

F) IT TAUGHT ME HOW TO TAKE ADVANTAGE

Everyone thinks chess players are smart. It’s a cultural myth.

It’s not really true. There are smart ones and some that are very stupid.

But because of the myth around chess and IQ, I have been able to maneuver.

When I applied to college, my grades were very poor.

But my interviewer was a low-ranking chess player. So I helped him analyze some games for the entire hour of the interview. I then got into college.

When I applied to graduate school, every place rejected me except the one school that was working on the world’s best chess computer. Guess who my office mate became?

When I applied for a job, all of my interviews went bad. I didn’t know the answers to anything. I went outside in my hot, stuffy suit that didn’t fit and called my girlfriend. “Looks like I’m not good enough for New York.”

I then went to play in the park right next door where tables were set up.

I beat the first person I played — a strong master. When I was done, I looked up and my boss’s boss’s boss was watching.

“I never saw anyone beat Ylon before,” he said. And we took an hour-long walk around the park talking chess and internet and TV and everything.

I got the job.

20 years later almost to the day, Ylon Schwartz, the guy I played in the park that day, came on my podcast and we discussed poker, of which he is now a champion.

—

Chess has meant everything to me. I love it. I’m not the best at it. I’m just good enough to be better than most others.

But you can have these results with anything you love.

When you love something, instant community builds around you to protect you. You become something much bigger than yourself.

We get better in a group. In a “scene.” No matter what your passion.

No matter what I have been interested in life, I quickly find my scene.

AND G) I make sure that scene has PLUS, MINUS, EQUAL

PLUS: people better than me that I can learn from.

EQUAL: people in the trenches with me.

MINUS: people I can teach.

For me, chess, business, writing, investing, comedy, programming, has done that.

I get passionate, I begin to learn, I find my scene. I learn to learn.

I no longer throw pieces at the people who beat me. I no longer even study the game. I’ve chosen to focus more on writing, podcasting, business and other things.

But it’s inside of me and will be forever. Even, unfortunately, the paranoia.

The post Seven Things I Learned from Chess appeared first on James Altucher.

from James Altucher http://bit.ly/2DVvWQX via website design phoenix

The Ultimate Guide to Going Broke

I was so happy. In 1995.

I was pre-ambition. I’d get into work at 10 a.m. Sneak out around 4 p.m.

I had a one-room apartment and my only piece of furniture was a foam mattress.

It was summer and I had no air conditioning. I had no sheets for the mattress. So by morning every day all of my sweat would be absorbed into the foam of the mattress.

If I woke up in the middle of the night and went to the bathroom, the roaches would scurry away and I’d hear the klik-klik-klik.

I’d leave work at 4 p.m. and go play backgammon all night with my friends at Steinway Billiards in Astoria.

I had a crush on a waitress and would write notes on $2 bills when I paid for my meals. I was creepy and she never responded.

It was the best time in my life. I never saw any of these people ever again.

—

I started a business. I started to sell my friendship to the highest bidder. My clients.

Clients don’t care about your product or service. They can’t tell the difference between you or your competitors. So I got every client for my first business by selling my friendship.

And bribery. But that’s another story.

I was scared all the time.

What if I couldn’t make payroll? What if our biggest clients realized I was a total fraud and fired me? What if my key employees quit? What if my partners were talking behind my back?

I had no confidence. I thought I had to fool everyone all of the time in order for them to like me.

I started spending less time on the things I loved in order to spend more time on the things I hated.

That is the worst kind of spending.

And then the second worst: selling my friendship for money.

All my friendships were based on money. All my success came from lack of confidence.

That’s a bad start.

—

Then I made tens of millions of dollars. Cash. Lost it. Made it again. Lost it. Made it again. Got divorced, lost my home, lost my money. Made it again. Lost it.

Learned a lot. Too much. I wish I hadn’t learned so much.

I spent 20 years going broke over and over again. I hope it doesn’t happen again. I can’t take it anymore.

THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO GOING BROKE

A) THINKING YOU ARE SMART

Every day I wake up and say, “I am stupid.”

Some people call it “beginner’s mind.” As if to fool themselves.

But I know the truth. Whenever I think I’m smart, I lose money.

When I think I’m stupid, I get curious, I get help, I help others, I make money.

Stupidity is a super power when you use it right.

B) VALUE

Not understanding how to value something. Studying similar deals, similar sales, etc. Everything has a value. Even if it’s intangible. Come up with a formula for valuing things. Even time.

C) VOLATILITY

Not understanding the volatility of income streams. Even a stable salary is not so stable.

But business or investment income is filled with uncertainty.

And friendships and love can be volatile as well.

D) LEAKS 

Bad relationships, alcohol, addictions, need for validation, etc. These will always cost more time and money than one thinks.

Every day, today, I have to be aware of my leaks. Keep them in check.

E) EGO 

The best way to make money, save money, and be a good person is to start off the day saying, “I am stupid. I know nothing.”

E1) DELUSION

Not knowing where your money is and where it’s going (setting aside for taxes, etc.).

F) SPENDING

I.e.., if you have $1 million and can make a safe 5% on your money, why spend 10% on a car when you can spend 0.5% on Uber per year?

People spend on big items: houses, college, car, etc. And then they try to save by not going to Starbucks.

Don’t let the myths of society rule your spending.

G) NOT UNDERSTANDING RISK

Every investment and every bet must have an unfair advantage.

Even Buffett refuses to bet $1 on a golf game because, as he says, “I don’t want to break discipline”.

Good investors don’t take risk. They mitigate risk. Good entrepreneurs don’t take risk. They mitigate risk.

Success is about going where others PERCEIVE risk but you learn to reduce it.

H) DIVERSIFICATION

Not just in stocks, but in all investments: stocks, private deals, loans, etc. and even how you invest your time (all work and no play).

I) BEING A DICK

Every day help others make money or achieve their goals.

Even one–two “helps” a day adds up to 730 a year, adds up to a lot of people who want to give you unfair advantages back when you need it.

J) NOT LOOKING AT THE WORST CASE

Divorce. Disease. Depression. Business failure. Economic cycles. A one-year deal might turn into a five-year deal. A trend might not work out. Etc.

80% of the time, the worst case happens. Deal with it.

K) POSITION SIZE

People don’t believe me when I say this. But the less you invest, the more you will make.

Sleeping well, with less anxiety, is the best investment you can make.

For me, the smaller I invest, the less I have to think about an investment. Which means I can let it ride. The key to wealth is letting good investments ride for years.

But you can only do this if you start off very, very small.

L) LONE WOLF

Lone wolves are failures.

Thinking, If I do this deal on my own, without sharing it with others, I’ll win bigger. You ALWAYS want to invest with more people and particularly people smarter than you.

M) WORKING WITH “LOSERS”

It took me 20 years of trial and error to learn the difference.

I’m 90% there but still learning every day.

This is an important rule. “Losers” will NEVER make money or have a good deal.

“Winners” make money over the long run. ONLY stick with the winners. The worst are sore losers.

Show me a sore loser and I’ll show you a loser.

N) LOSERS, PART II

A loser is someone who blames others, is a “victim,” blames the economy, blames a partner, has lots of bad relationships, shows you glimpses of poor integrity (because you will eventually see that aimed at you), gossips about others (because to others they are gossiping about you), doesn’t know how to value risk, thinks entrepreneurship is about risk, has lots of “accidents” (car accidents, getting mugged, late for meetings because of traffic, etc.). Doesn’t return calls.

O) LOSERS, PART III

Can a loser change? Yes.

I’ve always had some elements of “winner” and MANY elements of “loser.” I’ve had to work on each thing and I’m still working on it. But I try to make up for it by helping as many people as possible so I learn how to provide value.

But here’s the thing: Losers can change but you can’t change a loser.

Focus on audience selection and not audience development.

P) FOCUSING ON OUTCOMES IS PATHWAY TO FAILURE

People say, “Make a goal and then go for it.” This is B.S. advice.

As you get better at something, as your process improves, you learn more.

Which means goals and outcomes change.

Focus on getting 1% better each day. Outcomes will then happen.

Q) ENVY

Admire success so you learn its vocabulary.

When you compare, you despair.

I can count 10 people right now who used to be close to me who now hate me.

It bothers me that they hate me. I wonder, I always helped them. Now they hate me.

This anxiety I feel is almost as bad as envy. It’s like reverse envy. I need to stop. I’m working on it. I have too much of a need for everyone to like me.

R) FEAR VS. GROWTH

Making FEAR decisions instead of GROWTH decisions. I.e., saying yes to something you don’t want to do because you are afraid you will lose an opportunity if you say no.

Bonus:

S) NOT BUYING PEACE

People say, “Money buys freedom,” but then they get more stressed the more money they have.

Make sure when you have money to respect it. Take the down time you’ve earned. Look at the sky and take a deep breath. Think about nothing.

If you don’t respect money, it won’t respect you.

—

I haven’t been happy since 1995. Until now.

It’s 2019. I’m actually happy again. For the most part.

It’s an everyday battle. I’m addicted to being human.

The post The Ultimate Guide to Going Broke appeared first on James Altucher.

from James Altucher http://bit.ly/2Vp1Cco via website design phoenix

Seven Reasons Not to Go to College (and a Solution)

I desperately needed to skip a year of college.

I paid for my college. I borrowed too much money.

But to graduate in three years I needed a 3.0 average. I had a 2.99.

THEY WOULD NOT LET ME GRADUATE!

I went to a professor in a class (Fortran programming) where I had gotten a D-. I begged him to change it to a D+. I BEGGED. I think I cried.

He gave me the D+. I graduated. Saved about $50,000 in loans.

Phew!

—

I can’t remember anything I learned in college.

I majored in computer science. When I actually got a job doing real programming I was so bad I had to go to remedial classes to catch up to the worst employees at my job (at HBO).

What about the “liberal arts”?

I got obsessed with writing and reading only after I graduated college.

In my 20s I probably read a book a day and that’s when I started writing 3,000 words a day. A habit I continue even now. I’ve written 21 books and thousands of articles.

Most of them not so good but some of them good. “Great” is the enemy of “better.”

You can only learn “liberal arts” when you have passion for it. Not when you are forced. And not when you are lectured.

“Degrees” and “education” are different.

Life is the curriculum.

Not a list of courses being offered by aging tenured professors with increasing salaries coming from your increased tuitions paid for by increasing student loan debt.

Get a skill. Screw a degree.

—

7 REASONS NOT TO GO TO COLLEGE

1) SKILLS VS. DEGREE

My daughters tell me you need a degree to get a job. Not true. You need skills. You get skills ONLY by working in the real world. Internships, beginning jobs, etc.

One time I interviewed a kid who went through the entire MIT online curriculum (which has homework, tests, etc.) in one year.

Instead of the four years required to get a degree. He had the passion, so now he has the skills.

Companies like Google have already announced they are looking at skills instead of degrees. Many more companies have announced this.

Get a skill.

2) SOCIALIZATION

People say, “This is a great way for kids to be social at this age.”

What? I have to pay $100,000 so my ADULT CHILD can learn to have friends?

Trust me when I say, kids age 18–22 will make friends no matter what. They did for 70,000 years. They will now.

Even I know how to make friends.

3) TUITION SCAM

Price is a function of supply and demand (thank you economics 101).

SUPPLY is limited by the number of accredited colleges.

DEMAND is ARTIFICIALLY INCREASED by the government backing student loans.

So tuition is ARTIFICIALLY INCREASED.

Proof? Tuition has gone up faster than inflation by a factor of 10x since 1977. By comparison, healthcare (which also has artificial demand) has gone up faster than inflation by a factor of 3x since 1977.

THIS IS B.S.!

More proof? Why does the president of Quinnipiac College make $3,500,000 in salary?

Quinni-what?

4) GOVERNMENT BONDAGE

Why are student loans the one type of loan you can’t get rid of when you declare bankruptcy?

Answer: Because the government understands biology.

The prefrontal cortex is not fully grown until age 25 or greater. This is the part of the brain that makes nuanced adult decisions about risk.

In other words, by definition, 18 year olds are mentally ill. Their brains are deformed.

The government takes advantage of the deformed brains of unqualified adults.

5) OPPORTUNITY COST

Forget college for a second.

Imagine two kids, Alice and John.

John goes somewhere secluded where he learns basically nothing for four years.

Alice wants to be an actress. She moves to the big city. She auditions for a year. Hates the lifestyle so quits.

But then interns at a PR firm. Represents actors because she knows the business very well after all of that auditioning.

Within three years (four in total), she has risen up and has a high-paying job and a good list of clients.

John took on a lot of debt to live his lifestyle and now is a salesman at an eyeglass store.

Alice is ready to start her own PR business and then sell to a larger one for millions.

John pays back 50% of his salary to his bank. He is stuck at the eyeglass store.

(Alice and John are fictionalized names based on two very real stories.)

6) CONNECTIONS

“But you get connections in college.”

Connections are important. I’ve made 100% of my money off of 20 years of making connections. None of those connections are from college.

All of those questions came from me trying to provide value, being persistent, having integrity, and building up bit by bit, even through failure, every single year.

7) SOCIETAL IMPACT

The rich don’t take out loans for college but the poor do.

Rich people marry other rich people and have rich kids. Then the divide between rich and poor gets greater.

The students with the most debt can no longer start companies, create jobs, create the innovation America is known for.

Most people who shout about “income inequality” are probably college educated, not realizing they are part of the problem.

HISTORY

Why were colleges created?

Not to educate people.

Colleges were created and were surrounded by guards.

In the Renaissance, kings knew that violent crimes were mostly committed by young males, ages 18–22. So they sent the young men to college to “learn.”

But the guards were LOOKING IN. Not looking out. They were keeping the young men at the school so they couldn’t escape and get back to their violence.

SOLUTION:

Price = Supply + Demand

1) INCREASE SUPPLY: Make online universities accredited so they can give out degrees. This will reduce costs, save time and focus on skills vs, degrees. Will also reduce the artificial value of “brand” in education.

2) REDUCE DEMAND: I get it — there are very good intentions when the government backs student loans.

But the damage is unmistakable. 22 million young Americans are paying debt their parents never had to deal with. It’s a national disaster that is destroying every part of the American economic system.

STOP backing loans.

Heck, let’s go the other way: Give tax incentives for companies to hire skilled people without degrees.

BOOM! Problem will get solved.

It will take a decade or two but entire industries will rise up, people will get more skills, income inequality will be reduced, and America will get back on top with innovation.

I’ve lost friends over this argument. People thinking I am questioning their life choices. I feel so bad when people who were my friends start to dislike me.

But, Kathryn, I’m sorry this upset you so much. Please be my friend again. PLEASE!?

Although I guess I shouldn’t beg for friendship.

The post Seven Reasons Not to Go to College (and a Solution) appeared first on James Altucher.

from James Altucher http://bit.ly/2DHxzBO via website design phoenix