James Altucher is a successful entrepreneur, angel investor, chess master and prolific writer. He has started and run more than 20 companies and is currently invested in over 30. He is the author of 18 books, including WSJ best-sellers: ‘The Power of No’ and ‘Choose Yourself’. His latest book, “Reinvent Yourself” was #1 in the Amazon store shortly after its release.
His writing has appeared in major media outlets including the Wall Street Journal, The New York Observer, Techcrunch , The Financial Times, Yahoo Finance and others. His blog, JamesAltucher.com, has attracted more than 20 million readers since its launch in 2010.

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The Learning Leader Show

  • “Vulnerability equals freedom.”
    • “You need to say something interesting. You need to step outside of your comfort zone.”
  • James started writing in 1990 after a girl he liked chose to date a writer instead of him.
    • He wrote 3,000 words a day and yet didn’t publish anything for 12 years.
  • Why write about your flaws?
    • Watch the movie 8 mile… “Eminem shares all of the negative aspects of himself. He left his competition with nothing to say about him. He beat him to the punch.”
    • “I don’t hit publish unless I’m worried. Am I afraid? If yes, then publish.”
    • “All good writing has to have a story.”
  • Commonalities of people who sustain excellence:
    • Physically healthy – They are in shape
    • Emotionally healthy – They have good relationships
    • They are extremely curious – “Ken Langone came in my comedy club and asked tons of questions. He’s so curious.”
    • They are very creative
    • They have a “ready, fire, aim” approach – Sara Blakely started Spanx and got a $300K order and hadn’t figured out how to manufacture her product yet.
  • Creativity/Idea generation is a muscle – If you don’t work it, it atrophies.
    • Write 10 ideas a day.
    • Quantity is more important than quality. “He who has the most ideas wins.”
      • You’ll have a lot of bad ideas. You have to get through those to get to the good ones. Quantity is important.
      • “Writing 10 ideas a day changed my life. I wasn’t depressed anymore.”
  • Write ideas for companies and share with them… They might call you.
  • Being an “intrapreneur” within your company – Think of ideas that can help your company and share with the CEO.
    • “Success is always on the other side of can’t.”
  • Great entrepreneurs focus on reducing risk
  • How to speak to powerful people?
    • Realize they are just people
    • Humor is key. “Laughter is the way to level the playing field.”
  • Developing a skill – Deliberate practice
    • The “10,000 Experiment” rule
    • The key to getting good is to experiment
    • Be in the top 1% of doing experiments
  • Work your idea muscle every single day – The neurons will be re-wired
    • Share your ideas to help other companies
  • Over-promise AND over-deliver. Do both. Everyone else under-promise with the hope to over-deliver. Don’t do that. Over-promise upfront and over-deliver.
  • Here is WHY joining a Learning Leader Circle is a good idea…

Resources:

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