James Altucher

I often GET INSPIRATION by reading. I can never underestimate the ability to absorb someone else’s life by reading about it. I’m a vampire sucking out their knowledge and making my brain more powerful. This gives me fuel when I procrastinate.

Since I was a kid, they have been my parents and mentors and friends. I’d come home from school and watch sitcom after sitcom all day and night. For better or worse, they raised me. And still do.

Happiness is outside of my comfort zone. Every day.

If you spend the majority of your time in worlds where people are accomplishing incredible things, all of a sudden that starts to seem normal.

Farnoosh is great at interviewing. And I wanted her to interview me. I find when I am a guest on other people’s podcasts I always find new ways to say the things I want to express, new ways to say what I’ve learned from my guests and my experiences.

Business is hard. It’s 24 hours a day. You can’t leave it at work.

People lie and say “ideas are a dime a dozen and execution is everything?” This is the biggest lie told in “business self help”. It divides the amateurs from the pros.

“The research is pretty clear,” Charlie said. “They have done experiments. They’ve deprive animals of play—they give them love, nurturing, food, shelter, all the things they need to survive— but they deprive them of play, the animal inevitably grows up to be socially and emotionally crippled.”

Have a spirit of adventure, the desire to learn something new, be an explorer and never get too comfortable.

I get this question all the time. “How do I find my purpose?” Some people find their purpose in a fight. In a mission. In a cause… Brandon explained that the people who join these radical groups, or any group, were probably suffering in life. And they wanted to fill a hole. They wanted what any human wants: a feeling of belonging. That’s the powerful force pulling them in.

Do lots of things. See what you love. Do the things you love again. Don’t do the things you don’t love.

Star Wars gave me destiny. That sounds stupid. Like I’m a four year old. I don’t care.