James Altucher

Live life as if you are NEVER going to die. Ever.

1. There are absolutely no rules
2. Whenever someone gives you a list of rules, always throw out Rule #1.

What would I do differently if I knew it was going to end today? I think I would probably walk outside more and look at more faces. Faces tell stories. Not how the face looks. How the eyes look when they look away from you. How the mouth looks when they speak.

Yes steals years of your life. You never get them back.

We need to be able to print in space.

The middleman can be an agent, a teacher, a mentor, a boss, a company, a parent, a standardized test, a whoever. Every day there is a new middleman trying to put their hands on your private parts and squeeze until you give them their imaginary cut on your art, on your soul, on your hard work.

I said, “You’re only 14 so if you get good at poker, you won’t need to go to college. If you get really good at this, you’ll always find ways to survive.”

I turn on Facebook and there’s all of this “DO” porn. If you aren’t hustling you’re a failure. This is BS. There’s nothing really to do. The world doesn’t need more DO-ers. A lot of people DO things that are meaningless and then they die.

But when I’m lonely and use the power of loneliness, often the best things happen to me. I can’t ever forget that. Even the times of worst loneliness.

“You take what’s safe and you add something new to it. You’re good enough to try something new. You learn the confidence to try something new. A good DJ is always taking a risk. Trying something new. Seeing what happens.”

I was saying “yes” to everything. When you say yes to too many things, your fire dwindles. You extinguish the flames.

Focusing on life happiness is too hard. That is the key to unhappiness.