James Altucher

I hate to say it: but yes it does.

Shae, thanks so much. I'm glad things are going better now.

Your best new customers are your current customers.

Get a waiters paid.

Go to a cafe with the pad.

At the top of each page put the name of a current customer. Write down 10 - 15 ideas of additional services you can provide each customer. Even if it has nothing to do with your current biz.

Then offer those services. Be more and more indispensable. This will generate more loyaly, more money, and word of mouth will get you new customers.

1) Buying a house. People always forget: a.) a house is an illiquid investment so you cant get your money back when you need it most b) there's millions of hidden costs when you buy a house c) the bank owns your house. not you. When you sell your soul to a bank, you reap what you sow. d) "choosing yourself" requires freedom. the white picket fence becomes a prison bar.

2) I put $2mm into a wireless device company that didn't work out. But in general I kept doubling down everywhere because it wasn't any one bad investment but a psychology that I needed MORE to be happy. Choosing Yourself requires a philosophy that LESS actually creates abundance in life.

Then they refused to lend it to me. So I hung up and didn't speak to them. Then six months later I still hadn't spoken to them. My dad had a stroke and died. That didn't feel too good to me.

yes. i call it "the daily practice" but really its my practice. What works for you might be different. In the book I also describe a "simple daily practice" to ease into it.

• I eat well
• i sleep well. I used to never sleep. Sleeping is the key to ALL health
• i dont drink. Drinking is a depressant and has a lot of sugar.
• i only engage with positive people. Even on this AMA i don't engage with people trying to bring me down. NEVER.
• i read every day. 2 hours. Books. not web.
• i write 10 ideas a day. Doesn't matter what kind of ideas. The key is to get the idea muscle going.
• I am every day grateful. if i start to slip into thinking about scarcity, i change to think about abundance. It is such a pleasure to do this.

Do all of the above for six months. I guarantee its like magic what happens then. Please try it. I dont care if you buy my book or not. Try the above.

Forget everything in your question. Forget these words: "business world" , "degrees", "colleges", "tough".

Here's what you do: every day try to figure out ten ideas that will create value for people. You need to build the idea muscle or it atrophies like any other muscle. School doesn't do that. School atrophies your brain.

Don't expect your ideas to be good. After about six months they will start ot be good. Become an idea machine. help people. Eventually charge people to help them. Now you are in business. Take a fulltime job so you can get paid while you are building your idea muscle.

introduce 2-10 people a day to each other who you think can help each other. Build out your network this way. Deliver value.

That is your schooling. Nothing else will ever work.

Sure. That's a different story. Thats less than 1% of people. But even then, you can rent fantastic places then, keep most of your cash, and be able to move whenever you want. I choose freedom!

how to fail. We reward kids who get As in school. This is horrible. Kids need to know how to get a C- and what it means and how to learn from it.

Second, most kids have no clue how to sell an idea. How to communicate. Creativity is not nourished.

The best thing I ever did with my money was just keep it in cash. Cash in the bank lets me know i can watch the river in the morning and not worry about money. Money doesn't solve all your problems but it solves your money problems.

More important to buy memories than materials.