James Altucher Quotes

g) Time it takes to reinvent yourself: five years. Here's a description of the five years: Year One: You're flailing and reading everything and just starting to do. Year Two: You know who you need to talk to and network with. You're doing every day. You finally know what the Monopoly board looks like in your new endeavors. Year Three: You're good enough to start making money. It might not be a living yet. Year Four: You're making a good living, and you can quit your day job. Year Five: You're making wealth. Sometimes you get frustrated in years one through four. You say, "Why isn't it happening yet?" That's okay. Just keep going. Or stop and pick a new field.

I'm invested in about 13 private companies. I've advised probably another 50 private companies.

How great is it to just rest and be happy and not move when you don't have to.

I'm a big believer in minimalism. Not materialist minimalism, although that's part of it, but time and energy minimalism. The body is given only so much energy a day.

Whether you're an entrepreneur, an employee, a student, a homemaker, a writer, it's time to start forgetting about all the ways the world has promised you safety and comfort.

If something is not a "hell, YEAH!", then it's a "no!

I have never met a mentally strong person who wasn't a voracious reader.

Did you know the leading cause of suicide in the 1800s was dental pain?

It's how you view the life inside you that creates the life outside of you. Everyday.

Sometimes it's better to just be quiet, to not think of anything at all. Out of silence comes the greatest creativity.

Anxiety and gratitude cant live in the same head

I wrote a blog post about how the book is different from the blog and why I chose to go the self-publishing route. I wrote guests posts for blogs like Techcrunch, which helped immensely and for which I'm very grateful. I used my social networks: Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, Google+, Quora, and Pinterest.

I saw 'Star Wars' when I was seven years old, and it changed my life.

Read every sentence you write out loud. If it sounds boring, kill it.

The best way I have ever found to fill that hole is not to seek external motivations to fill the emptiness, but to ignite the internal fire that will never go out. To light up my own inner sky.

Money you lose you can always make back. But even five minutes of time lost is gone forever.

I can tell you this: Everything in my life that I am happy about it is the product of a huge mistake.

You're the average of the five people you spend your time with.

If you spend a lot of energy on things that are wastes of time, then you waste energy, get sick, and die faster.

If two people believe in the same story, they might be thousands of miles apart and total strangers, but they still have a sense they can trust each other.

Arguing with people is like reading your e-mail at 4 in the morning. There is absolutely no good that can come of it. It's just scratching an itch.

When you surrender and accept the beautiful stillness around you, when you give up all thoughts of the past, all worries and anxieties of the future, when you surround yourself with similarly positive people, when you tame the mind, when you keep healthy, there is zero chance of burnout.

The American Dream never really existed. It was a marketing scam.

Each excuse let me learn about myself, let me discover entire worlds of surprising possibilities. Each one led me to more and more love.

Life is too long to reject the opportunities in front of you every day.

Most people don't have the power of persuasion.

Only think about the people you enjoy. Only read the books you enjoy, that make you happy to be human. Only go to the events that actually make you laugh or fall in love. Only deal with the people who love you back, who are winners and want you to win too.

Remember this phrase: Get Paid, Get Laid, Lose Weight because those are the three things people will pay for. - via GetNugget.co

Poor speakers create an artificial divide between themselves and the audience. They feel they need to do this in order to establish their own credibility.

Happiness is just a positive perception from our brain. Some days, you will be unhappy. Our brain is a tool we use. It's not who we are.

The problem is: income inequality is getting greater. There is no denying that. But this is not a distinction between Owner / Employee. This is a distinction between those with the Rich Employee mindset versus those with the Poor Employee mindset.

Most people are not good people. In business, in art, in almost every 'world' I've been in, most people I've meet are pretty gray to black. It takes practice to be the person who is a source of compassion and honesty.

Infinite patience gets you immediate results.

entrepreneurs can't use the excuse that "I don't have time, I'm running a business." This is your business.

People look for their passions. But often, the passions find you. How does your # passion find you? When you are good at something, you get passionate about it. That's it.

perfectionism is sometimes the most dangerous set of thoughts you can let make their home in your head.

Be honest about mistakes. Even if you are afraid of what people think.

Get Paid, Get Laid, Lose Weight" - because those are the three things people will pay for.

Games are all about taking risks.

The only way to make real wealth is to get rid of your salary. In a salary, by definition, you are creating wealth for others, and you are creating a chain and handcuffs for yourself.

Don't regret your mistakes. You'll always make mistakes. The better you are, the less mistakes you make. The only way to get better is to thoroughly analyze your mistakes.

Every game, and almost every life situation, has short cuts: ways you can get better without learning the entire literature of the game from beginning to end.

When I was 22, I was thrown out of graduate school and then fired from three jobs in a row at higher and higher salaries where I saved nothing.

The only thing you have control over is your mindset, your habits, and the choices you make internally about how you're going to deal with a situation.

The people who don't know personal finance have TV shows about it.

I now know the key is to do what we call ABC: Acknowledge, Boundary, Close. Whenever you sense someone is about to start manipulating you, you need to go into ABC mode. First the Acknowledge. I could've repeated what she said. Yes, a lot of work has gone into the situation (in this case, the dinner party), and it is wonderful. Then the Boundary: "I have to leave in five minutes." The other person may or may not approve but that is no longer your problem. The benefits from doing this in your life will far outweigh the discomfort of that moment. Just keep repeating ABC. Finally, the Close: After a few minutes, leave. ABC is a very effective way of dealing with manipulative behavior. You first need to understand what is happening (recognize the onset of manipulation) because if you act immediately, without recognizing what you are feeling, without taking

Don't sweat it if you are stuck in the corporate job right now. But begin to plan ahead. I know from much personal experience that it takes 1-3 years to transition from total scratch to making a living from home in any career you want.

Ultimately, the best speakers are the ones who have put 10,000 hours into listening.

Everything that happens in your future is a direct result of what you do today.

Being a leader doesn't mean you are the guy who runs things.

Somebody has to be on stage, and some people have to be in the audience. That's the only difference. Don't put any thought as to why you are on the stage or how you need to be 'better' than the people in the audience. You aren't better. You're simply the speaker.

Everyone is different. We all suffer from the disease of being human. There are a thousand cures but no antidotes.

if you don't make courageous choices for yourself, nobody else will.

I always imagine a good leader is surrounded by people who call their mothers at the end of the day and tell them, 'Mom, you can't believe what I did today. Let me tell you about it.'

I'm going to repeat this: I buy experiences and not things. I don't like to buy my kids' gifts. But I'll take them places and won't hold back. They will lose and forget the "things" in the long run. But they will never forget the experiences.

Nobody can tell you what to do. No matter what they pay you. No matter what obligations you feel you owe them. Every second defines you. Be who you are, not who anyone else is, or who anyone else wants you to be.

When I give away a book for free, it gets my name out there. That has lifelong value for me that goes way beyond the few dollars I could maybe charge.

you don't have to worry about "finding" your passion. You're naturally going to get passionate about what you are good at.

Life is cold. People stay warm through the intimacy of a story.

This is the final bubble. The US government now has to keep printing money to keep things stable. Maybe when the economy booms again they can hold off - but that might be a while.

Being grateful is the bridge between the world of nightmares and the world where we are free to say no. It's the bridge between the world of delusions and the world of creativity.
It's the power that brings death back to life, the power that turns poverty to wealth and anger to compassion.

Teaching how to think is better than lecturing how to do it.

Noticing your reactions to suffering, anger, pain is the key to well-being.

I loved Internet businesses, having built and sold one. And I loved the financial business, despite the fact that it was almost all a scam.

Branding jails corporate America, but honesty sets entrepreneurs free.

I am a sore loser. It's not that I'm so competitive with others. But I'm competitive with myself. I like to do better than I did before.

You can say no to people who make you feel bad about yourself. To people who backstab you or make you feel anxious in any way.

You have to ask good questions. "What can I do to improve?" or "How can I find a better job?" or "How can I be grateful that I lost this job?" Because inside of every problem is the seed of a "difficult gratitude problem" and it always improves your life to solve those problems.

For the past five thousand years, people have been largely enslaved by a few select masters who understood how violence, religion, communication, debt, and class warfare all work together to subjugate a large group of people.

You create your luck by being healthy and not regretting the past or being anxious about the future.

The definition of "success" for me is: "Is today successful?

Purpose is a man-made fiction. Nobody on their deathbed gets a plaque that says "he focused on only one thing for his entire life!" Those are counterfeit thoughts in a counterfeit society.

We're taught at an early age that we're not good enough. That someone else has to choose us in order for us to be ... what? Blessed? Rich? Certified? Legitimized? Educated? Partnership material?

Poker is a charismatic game. People who are larger than life play poker and make their living from playing games and hustling.

Hold your breath. Try holding your breath for just thirty seconds. That's all it takes. Try it right now while you are looking at this line. Now ... on the twenty-ninth second, do any opinions matter?

Some people say, "Oh! You have to meditate!" You have to sit in the lotus position! Blah blah blah. No, you don't. All you have to do is stay in the present. When you catch yourself upset about the past or worried about the future, say to yourself, "Ah, I'm time traveling," then STOP.

The only way to learn new things is to ask questions and be curious. Find the people who inspire your curiosity because those are the ones you will most learn from.

When you don't choose, you excuse.

Only worry about your own happiness, which doesn't have to be limited by anyone else's stupidity unless you allow it to be.

Perfectionism is the enemy of the idea muscle. Perfectionism is your brain trying to protect you from harm - from coming up with an idea that is embarrassing and stupid and could cause you to suffer pain.

Your hands are not made to type out memos. Or put paper through fax machines. Or hold a phone up while you talk to people you dislike. One hundred years from now, your hands will rot like dust in your grave. You have to make wonderful use of those hands now. Kiss your hands so they can make magic.

Worry will never solve tomorrow's problems. It will only take energy away from today.

Buying coffee on the street instead of in a Starbucks is the poor man's way to get rich. In other words, you will never get rich by scratching out ten cents from your dollar.

Technology, outsourcing, a growing temp staffing industry, productivity efficiencies, have all replaced the middle class.

Panic freezes you. Nobody is going to go into your head and take the panic away. But action leaks the panic out of your head.

Requirements are for people who want to be unhappy. Because it's your rules or the universe's rules. The universe is going to win. Every time.

Writing a book makes you an expert in the field. At the very least, when you hand someone a book you wrote, it's more impressive than handing a business card.

Ideas are the dark matter of the universe. We know it's there, but only those "in the know" can see them.

Ninety-nine percent of the people on the street will lick the flavor right off your Life Saver if you let them.

I had ideas first, wealth second. It only worked in that order.

the only things that really matter in this world are the relationships you have with the people you love, and the meaningful things that you do. Haters don't fit anywhere into that. Don't devote any mental space to them.

I find that many entrepreneurs are trying to do everything when it would be cheaper and more time-efficient to delegate, even if there are monetary costs associated with that.

In the 1890's horses, carrying people to work, dropped 4.5 million tons of manure on the streets of Manhattan, every year. That was the big environmental problem of the day. "NYC will be buried in horse manure by 1950!" screamed the headlines. It doesn't matter what your opinion about this was. None of the people living in NY solved the problem despite the 1000s of opinions. People with passion for mechanics in Detroit made something called a car. Problem solved.

The big thing in life is to focus on providing more value to people than they expect. The rest comes then.

Good ideas are a link between the real world and the world of myths and dreams.

And by the way, I know my title said "10 Reasons" and I only listed "6". I didn't learn to count in college.

The universe wants us to have fun doing more than one thing in life. That's how it learns. You don't have one purpose in life. You have maybe 500 or so.

Nobody wants to make me a rich man. In fact, most people want to make me a very poor man. I can guarantee some people fantasize at night about how poor they can make me.

The first rule of personal finance is that it's not personal and it's not financial. It's about your ability to make ten changes and not get too depressed over it.

The way you get good ideas is to do two things: 1) Read two hours a day. 2) Write ten ideas a day. By the end of a year, you will have read for almost one thousand hours and written down 3,600 ideas. One of these ideas will be a home run.