The James Altucher Show

You have no idea. None of us did. Until now.Everything I've done for the past two years is unfolding before me.I interviewed Dr. K Anders Ericsson. You know his work. He discovered the 10,000 hour rule.The rule that says if you do 10,000 hours of "dedicated practice" you can master a field. But what we've been lead to believe is false. And it's finally being corrected. Today.  Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise uses thirty years of research to reveal what we never knew before, including:What you're truly capable of, how you can achieve it, and where to start. I started this podcast two years ago. And I just realized what it's actually about.  Everyone I interviewed has one thing in common: peak performance. They excelled in their field. They're the smarter person in the room. They mastered their craft. Go to jamesaltucher.com for 7 things I learned about how to become a PEAK performer ------------What do YOU think of the show? Head to JamesAltucherShow.com/listeners and fill out a short

Before writing this, I closed my eyes. I allowed myself to rest. I went from, "think, think, think" to nothing. And nothing felt good. Nothing worked. Nothing is my success. Today. I used to have another kind of success.  I was a hedge fund manager, web developer, producer, investor, corporate employee, CEO, writer. I still do some of these jobs. But not because "they" tell me to. I look back and see desperation. I was desperate to secure my future. My income. My relationships. There was always a risk of getting fired. I knew my then-wife could decide she didn't love me anymore. My kids could, too. I was shrinking. Physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually shrinking. I thought if I was miserable, "they" would help me. They didn't. I bled out on the floor.  And then I chose myself. Now I do the daily practice. I experiment. I find what works for me. And I write about it. Because advice is autobiography. But something is still stopping me. And, if you've read to here, I bet there's something stopping yo

He didn't have permission. But he did it anyway. And one day Elon Musk called him. "He was either going to make life really horrible on me or he was going to cooperate with the book" said Ashlee Vance, author of the New York Times bestseller and Wall Street Journal's "best books of the year," Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future. Ashlee did 200 interviews before Elon agreed, proving permission is not a starting place. I wish I wrote the book. But I didn't. My "quest" is different. Instead, I mastered curiosity. I called people and recorded. I did a ton of research. I read every book, article, interview and watched every talk. I've spent 10,000 hours interviewing and more than 10,000 hours preparing. I didn't need permission. And neither do you. Here are 5 ways to bypass the gatekeepers: A) Master something Like anybody, Elon is smart in some things and probably stupid in others. But he mastered his interests. Mastery is learning 90% of everything you could learn about a subject. You

The most powerful currency in the world is not what you think. Not anymore. We're turning to a new economy with two powerful currencies. And you have an opportunity, right now, to build a more fulfilling and rewarding life. I'm going to tell you what these two currencies are and how to leverage them successfully. I'll tell you what works for me. But before I do, I want to introduce you to Derek Sivers. He's an influential thinker, speaker, entrepreneur and the zen master of entrepreneurship writing. If you're starting a business, you have to read his book, Anything You Want: 40 Lessons for a New Kind of Entrepreneur. It's in my top three. Derek built his business, CD Baby, around doing people favors. It became the largest seller of independent music online, with $100M in sales for 150,000 musicians. Derek later sold CD Baby for $22M and gave the proceeds to charity. "If you focus entirely on others the world seems to reward you the most," he says. That's one of the two most powerful currencies today: favors.

If I didn't listen to my pain, I'd be dead.  I've interviewed hundreds of "successful" people. When they look back, they see two things: struggle and a story. These are hero stories -- choose yourself stories. Directed by pain, they found passion. Because they listened. I was alone, on the floor, broke, desperate, hopeless.  I ignored the pain. I wanted to die. And then something shifted. But you don't need to hit rock bottom to be successful. You just need something that ignites you.  "There's a moment, a chemistry, where people find a spark... something inside you triggers greatness," said Terry George. He wrote and directed the award winning film, Hotel Rwanda, and the upcoming film, The Promise, about a love story during WWII's genocide. "I'm not interested in suffering," he says. But he is. "I'm interesting in alleviating it." He grew up Catholic during Ireland's struggle for civil rights across a divided nation. "I got beaten up in playgrounds and shit like that. There was definitely a sense that you we

Fifteen percent of you won't like this interview. "I like that," he says, "I like being doubted." But I don't doubt Gary Vaynerchuk. And that's why I'm giving away 100 copies of his brand new book, #AskGaryVee: One Entrepreneur's Take on Leadership, Social Media, and Self-Awareness. The details are on my podcast. Gary will be the first to admit that he doesn't know everything. But he knows everything about everything he knows. "I talk emphatically and with enormous bravado about the things I know and understand," he says, "and I hedge and punt things I don't understand." Gary is transparent. Authentic. Self-aware. And successful. So successful that I dont even like introing him. He wants you to win. And I do, too. "When you understand yourself, you're able to navigate the world," he says. But navigating is hard. I have more misunderstandings than understandings. That's ok. Because it allows me to be curious everyday, do this podcast, write and read three, four or five books a week. "Self-awareness is the sing

I never thought about sex with Barbara Corcoran. I still don't. But she brought it up. We were talking about entrepreneurship. And she said how old she was when she lost her virginity. Twenty-three. I wanted to know how she turned a thousand dollars into a five billion dollar company. Then: $1,000. Now: $5,000,000,000. I wanted to know how she founded The Corcoran Group, the largest company in real estate. And how you become the type of entrepreneur Barbara Corcoran chooses on Shark Tank. I'm going to tell you how to get Barbara's investment. If that's what you want. But not everyone is meant to be an entrepreneur. According to Barbara. "I found a real difference between the superstars and everyone else," she says.   And I agree. That's why I wrote The Rich Employee. Entrepreneurship isn't everything. But it can be. Barbara reviews thousands of investment opportunities. And most hear "no."  She says you have to have "a nose for entrepreneurship." That's how you get a "yes," from Barbara Corcoran. But before y

I'd rather be an alien. I'd rather be myself. Than be liked. It makes sense... why you'd want to be liked. Think about it. From an evolutionary standpoint, when you're liked, you're safe. You're in the tribe. People protect you. But now, I'd rather be an alien. I don't want stress. I don't want to worry, "Do I fit in?" There are consequences to being liked. You start compromising. You stop taking risks. You follow the herd. You get stuck in a crappy job at a fluorescently lit cubicle. Where they can watch you. You stop taking risks. You wonder, "Is this ok?" Ok to who? Not you. Not the only person who matters. I'd rather be an alien. If I'm an alien, I can act like I just landed here. And I'm not supposed to know if I fit in. I'm forced to be myself. No trying. Just forced. I can surrender. My guest today, used to be in a tribe. I won't say it's the worst one. But it's bad. Turney Duff is the New York Times bestselling author of, The Buy Side: A Wall Street Trader's Tale of Spectacular Excess, where he tells

I don't want to be afraid. But I am. I'll explain why. But first, I want to introduce you to Adam Grant. He has the solution to my problem... And maybe your problem, too. Adam is the youngest tenured and highest-ranking professor at the famed business university The Wharton School, a writer for The New York Times, and the New York Times bestselling author of Give and Take: A Revolutionary Approach to Success. In researching his new book, Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World, Adam met with today's most successful and innovative entrepreneurs.  Why? To get answers. "We have a ton of guidance on how to generate ideas," he says. But what about after? What do you do? Originals teaches you how to bring new ideas into the world. And really, there's no grand theory on how to be "original." But there are tricks... And Adam discovered some patterns among today's most successful entrepreneurs. He spoke to Google's co-founder, Larry Page, Warby Parker's founders and CEOs, and thought leaders like the renowned wr

Ask the world this question, and you'll drown in failure. You'll lose. Anything you take, anything you earn, will be foul. I bet you've asked this question before. Maybe everyday. Maybe all your life. "How can I get?" How can I get rich? How can I get happy? How can I get more? There's no return on getting. It leave you with nothing. Or worse than nothingness. Emptiness. But there's another way. It's simple. And it works for me I'm going to tell you how to earn your worth. It works for me. And it works for my podcast guest, Russell Simmons, "the third richest figure in hip-hop with an estimated net worth of $340 million." He gets. He told me a story. "That was my first realization that hard work turned into something," he says. "I had never been on a plane. I had certainly never been out of the country, and landing in Amsterdam they're like, 'Mr. Simmons what would you like?' I'm like, 'Oh shit Mr. Simmons.' That was a revelation. I was a grown man I could get things I wanted." But not all his life. He grew u

I don't diet. It's a distraction. My rule is simple. Don't eat when you're not hungry. But that's not always easy. Nothing is always easy. With diet, you have an internal argument. Willpower versus cravings. So what do you do when the voice in your head won't stop? You struggle. Your mind plays ping pong. Eat it. Don't it. One bite. No. Yes. Ok. Damn it. Only one side wins. Willpower or cravings. I'm going to tell you how to make willpower win. How to make that voice go away. And this will do a lot more for you than just help you lose weight. It will give you better brain function. Make you pay attention better. Give you more energy. You'll feel better. I'll tell you my secret. But before I do, I want to introduce you to a Silicon Valley investor and tech entrepreneur, Dave Asprey, who spent two decades and more than $300,000 hacking biology. When hunger stops interrupting you, "then you have more capacity to make better decisions somewhere else in your life," Dave says. He hacked hunger. And now he's sharing

He self-medicated. He covered stories in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza. He went to Iraq six or seven times. When he got back, he was depressed. He was 32 years old and had never touched hard drugs before. But it became the thing that made him feel better. Millions of people were watching. The red light was on. And right there, in the middle of his live segment, he had a panic attack. I'm going to tell you how to deal with stress. I'll tell you what works for me. But first, I want to tell you about my guest, Dan Harris. Dan is an anchor on "Good Morning America" and "Nightline."  He's also the No. 1 New York Times bestselling author of 10% Happier: How I Tamed the Voice in My Head, Reduced Stress Without Losing My Edge, and Found Self-Help That Actually Works - A True Story. After the book came out people had questions. So he also created an app called "10% Happier." It teaches users easy "judo moves" to have more creativity, feel less stress, and be happier.  It helps you surrender. B

"I remember it like it was yesterday. It was Good Friday, 1989, at 3:30 in the afternoon. It was 37 degrees outside. I stood outside the Colosseum Mall, a mall in Jamaica, Queens. It's pretty popular. Just shivering with a bag of hats. I sold $800 worth of hats in an hour," Daymond John tells me. $800 an hour. That's "the power of broke." Before FUBU (a $6 billion global apparel company), before Shark Tank, and before Obama chose him as the Presidential Ambassador for Global Entrepreneurship, Daymond John worked 18-hour days driving a delivery van. And he wasn't making money. His paychecks covered overhead - the cost of his van, gas, and maintenance. He worked to make money, and he made money to work. "When I took that to FUBU, I started saying, 'If we're not making money, it's not worth doing anything,'" he says. It's not failure. It's experience. "Other people call it failure. I won't call it failure. It's part of the process," he says. You need to take every single "failure" and bring it forward. You're on

I was always good at making money. I was also good at losing it instantly. I always went broke... Now I know why. What was I was doing wrong? I'll tell you. Because I bet you're making the same mistake. But first, I'll tell you how to make money. More money than you thought was possible. Listen to this episode. You'll hear tested and proven strategies to get rich from Ramit Sethi, the NewYork Times bestselling author and founder of iwillteachyoutoberich.com. He grew his business from a dorm-room blog into a multi-million dollar online business. And now he started a new company, GrowthLab, to teach you how to do the same thing-start and grow an online business. Ramit is a trainer. He'll make you hustle. "It's like looking up at a skyscraper and saying 'How am I going to build one of those?' Well you're not. You're going to start by walking in the lobby," Ramit says, "That's what you're going to do on day one." You can't get rich without putting in the work. I've set goals. None of them came true. But five or s

For billionaires, every exchange has a winner and a loser. That's what producers David Levien and Brian Koppelman tell me. They've made some of my favorite movies: Rounders, Ocean's Thirteen, Solitary Man. Now, they're coming out with 2016's most talked about show: Billions on Showtime. You can learn a lot from them. David and Brian are producers, creators and risk takers. If you want to create, listen to today's episode. You'll see how important it is to follow your curiosity. That's what David and Brian did. Sometimes starting something is that simple. Since they were kids, David and Brian were fascinated by two things: power and wealth. They wondered, "What makes a billionaire unique?" They had a question, an idea, and conviction. "We were all the f*ck in," Brian says. They had dinner with a bunch of billionaires. It sounds like it would be a lot of fun, but it wasn't. David and Brian were manipulated, belittled, and snubbed. But they were mesmerized. I'll give you one story. It's to tempt you to download

You can't make everyone happy. Really, you can't make anyone happy. The sooner you accept this, the sooner you can let go of control, shame, or whatever your parents did to you, and start having sex. Or happiness. Whatever you're searching for. I'll explain. My guest today, a seven-time New York Times best-selling author, Neil Strauss, has written books on Motley Crue, Marilyn Manson, and pornstar Jenna Jameson, before exploring the pickup artist scene. Sex was all around him. He was immersed in the seduction community, but Neil couldn't find love himself. No woman would kiss him. He grew up a loser, and couldn't get a girlfriend for most of his life. Now he's happily married. But between marriage and being a loser, he had a lot of "pleasure fantasy experiences." Meaning, he learned how to pick up women and started having crazy sex orgies. One after another. And then he just stopped, and the sex parties ended. I wanted to know why. What made him decide he couldn't handle it anymore? But I'll get back to this.

You know why I wrote Choose Yourself. But you don't know how you got here. How did you get here, on my email list, my website, Facebook page, Twitter? Do you want to know why you're following me? I'm going to tell you. I'll tell you my secrets to building an email list, a customer base, an audience. I'm going to tell you how I got you here. There are specific tactics I use. And you can use them, too, for your business or blog or anything. But I'll get back to that. First you need an idea. And there needs to be a demand for that idea. Next, you should be wondering, "Is my idea any good?" Probably not. Or maybe it is. You could be much smarter than me. Most of my ideas don't lead to anything. But a few have. Like StockPickr, the company I built and sold for millions before almost destroying myself and wanting to die. If you're an idea machine, you already know how to come up with ideas. Scaling an idea is more challenging. Results don't just appear. You need traction. You need to grow and acquire new customers.

I know a miracle worker. He's an entrepreneur, marketing man, and film producer who gets companies like HP to say, "yes" to him. You can learn a lot from him. I did. One thing I learned is there's more to choosing yourself. There's a part two. Part one is when you see things in your life that are absurd, decide you're not going to stand for it anymore and quit. You decide to become physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually healthy. That's choosing yourself. Part two is when you see what's wrong with the world and say, "That's absurd. Let's change that. Let's hack that. Let's modify that so it's affordable." That's what Mick Ebeling does-- founder of the Not Impossible Labs and the Not Impossible Foundation. Through these two entities, Mick figured out how build whatever he wants, and solve impossible problems. Mick sees the world through his own lens. It's the reason he's successful. He creates technology that solves absurd problems like having your arms blown off. No prosthetics, no solution. Or bein

You can have power, but it comes with a lot of bullshit. When Spider-Man's Uncle Ben said, "With great power comes great responsibility," he was trying to say that power comes with a lot of BS. It's a good warning. We want all of the power and none of the bullshit. And then you hear everyone complaining. It's hard to be a good guy. My guest today, Jane Swift, is the youngest female governor in U.S. history turned CEO of Middlebury Interactive Languages. She's a superhero. During her campaign, she was pregnant with twins. She also already had a daughter. But that didn't stop her. She gives and expects nothing in return. That's what I do. Think about your obstacles. Now imagine doing more and complaining less. Sometimes, you might feel like you either have energy and no resources, or resources and no energy. Jane created both. And in today's podcast, she'll teach you how. I asked her what inspired her. "It's really around the passionate belief that I could make things better," she tells me. Her superpowers are

It won't be the idea that causes you to quit... it's fear. It's the big idea that stops us-the idea of being a Google or a Facebook, a New York Times best-selling author, a guru, a YouTube sensation, a Mark Cuban or Kevin O'Leary. Sometimes, it seems easier to forget you even had the idea to begin with. The idea of success. But if you give in, you'll end up quitting before you start. It's a trap. Think about how many people are on Earth. There are millions of attractive people I have never met because I didn't give myself the chance. I always thought, "She'd never have sex with me."I didn't even look. So I quit before I could start. But staring at a girl is easy. And who knows what that leads to? If you want to achieve something, you need to make moves. In today's podcast, you'll learn the steps you need to take to achieve anything. My guest, Mary Karr, is an award-winning poet and best-selling memoirist with praise from Stephen King, among many other highly-esteemed writers. In the interview, Mary shares som