This time last week I was in London to spend the evening with James Altucher at his Choose Yourself Guide To Wealth event. Many thanks to Angel Milev and his team of volunteers for making the magic happen and inviting James over and organising this incredible event!
When I knew I was going to be able to attend the evening, I couldn’t help but tweet James… 😉
I can’t remember how I stumbled upon James and his work. Via an interview on a podcast I think. His writing, outlook, and his approach has influenced me a great deal. He has done the same for many others as the 1000 strong audience at the event testified. In fact, it was through the support of Kat Loterzo and the stories that James writes so painfully honestly that I managed to write the hardest blog post I’ve ever written; in preparation for publishing that blog post I spent 2 weeks reading practically everything James has ever written. So when I heard James was coming to town to talk about his book Choose Yourself Guide To Wealth and to have a Q&A, how could I not go!
So, in James Altucher style, here are 13 things I learned from spending an evening with James Altucher!
A. When you chase money, it runs away from you
When James said this I turned to my friend Natalie and we looked at each other, nodding. Â We could relate! It’s SO true. The more you chase money, the more it runs away. You’ve gotta be cool, man. Play hard to get. THEN money will come to you!
B. On the way up, do the opposite of when you ended up at the bottom
James has had many ups and downs during his career, and he talked openly about loosing friends, loved ones, money ($15,000,000 in about 12 or 16 weeks!), businesses crashing, facing homelessness…. and he talked about such dark subjects with such dark humour that we couldn’t help but laugh along with James.
One of my favourite quotes from the evening…
“Now we’ve laughed about dead babies, let’s do the Q&A!”
More laughter.
The point being, if you don’t want to be at the bottom and stay there, do the OPPOSITE of what got you to the bottom to get you to the top! Ask what you need to improve about yourself so it doesn’t happen again.
C. Surround yourself with positive people
That’s what I’ve been telling you! Do it.
D. Write 10 ideas every day
James advocates exercising your ideas muscle by writing down 10 ideas every day. Then you can share the best of those ideas and give them away. Help people with them. Â Constantly deliver great ideas. This is the 10 ideas James had on that day in London.
Your ideas can also have Idea Sex; match and merge some of your ideas to come up with a mega idea, an idea BABY!
E. Recognise your feelings and alway choose GRATITUDE
There is someone out there, right now, who wants the life you have.
F. Have at least 7 sources of income
James has studied the studies and this is the average sources of income that millionaires have.
G. Loosing money provides very valuable feedback
When you are in business for yourself and you loose money, process the loss and ask what this feedback is telling you.
H. Get rid of practically everything you own.
That’s what James and his wife Claudia have done. They’ve stripped their house of everything they don’t need. I don’t think it’s any exaggeration to say that they have minimilized minimalism! Or something. They own very, very little. Less stuff to think about.
I. Don’t have a to-do list.
Instead, at the end of the day, have an ‘I did list’.
J. You are the sum of your possessions or the sum of your experiences
Which are you going to choose?
K. No diet book advocates eating Doritos
Watching your weight isn’t hard. You can take every diet book that’s been on the planet and none of them advocate eating crap! Also, use a smaller plate.
L. Look after your emotional, spiritual, mental and physical health every day.
M. The best predictor to having a successful tomorrow is to have a successful today.
Thank you, James for coming over to London and being so generous with your time and wisdom. It was an event I’ll never forget!
Follow @jaltucher, Visit jamesaltucher.com  Listen to his amazing podcast & do yourself a favour and pick up a copy of The Choose Yourself Guide To Wealth!
ABOUT Karen Strunks is a speaker and author and helps daring, rebellious, non-conforming women create a No Compromise life and business doing exactly what they love.
