The James Altucher Show

I was afraid before interviewing Jocko. I think it was instinctual. His body is seven times the size of mine. I pointed at the cover of his new book, "The Way of The Warrior Kid. "See this kid," I said. "That's me right now." I like to overlap somewhere with my guest. Like a story we both can share and laugh about. With Jim Norton, for instance, we grew up together. With Garry Kasparov we were both chess players. And I also worked on Deep Blue for a while, the computer that would ultimately defeat him. But with Jocko...what? I felt intimidated. He was like this superhero that had conquered the world and everyone respected him and I felt like the nerdy little boy I was in junior high school. So I started talking. "I can't do a pull up. And I've never been in the battlefield... obviously. Or I would look completely different. You were the commander of your SEAL unit and you had to make life and death decisions. But out of that, you cultivated all of these leadership lessons." He listened. That was nice. Then I

Jim Norton is the reason why I do podcasts. First, he's a world-famous comedian, recently released a one hour special on Netflix, has been on shows like "Louie" and "Inside Amy Schumer" has written two New York Times bestselling books and has appeared on countless radio shows and podcasts. But just as interesting to me...we grew up together. The first day Jim moved  into town we were in fourth grade. Rather than keeping his mouth shut like  anyone else just moving into town he immediately started making everyone laugh. Day one we were laughing so hard I thought my stomach was going to break. We all said out loud that day (Jim doesn't remember but I do), "you should be a comedian". And he did. He did! I like when my podcast combines the personal and the professional. Combines my own story with the story of someone achieving peak performance in an area of life that I love. Comedy is not just about making people laugh. And being a standup comedian is not just about "standing up" in front of a crowd of people and

HOW TO DISCOVER THE SECRETS IN LIFE The best things in life are born from coincidence. I am a firm believer in this. A year ago I was flying back from California. I started talking to the guy sitting next to me. Turns out he had  worked in almost every branch of government related to intelligence and diplomacy. Now he runs his own private intelligence company. He has information about every government in the world. He is paid a lot of money to reveal and analyze that information. But when we were on the plane, for basically four or five hours I asked him everything I could and got the most incredible detail about the state of affairs in the world. I'm almost afraid to reveal what we spoke about on the plane. Everything from "how to catch a liar" to "What is the Nigerian government specifically doing about oil prices" to "Will Trump win?" (and his answer turned out to be stunningly accurate). Then...a lost touch with him. He  was just a guy I sat next to on the plane for a few hours. We got off and went to liv

His platoon was counting on him. He couldn't come back a failure. Brandon had been deployed to the Middle East four times. He'd seen the ugliness and destruction war had caused. And now he was being sent straight to sniper school. This is one of the most stressful jobs as a Navy SEAL. He would have to learn how to make quick decisions. Hard decisions. "The only easy day was yesterday," he said. "That's our motto." Brandon is one of the most accomplished sniper teachers of his time. He changed the system. And implemented positive reinforcement, which allowed him to see firsthand how having a good "mental mindset" propels people into success. In his memoir, "The Red Circle" and his newest book, a New York Times bestseller "The Killing School: Inside the World's Deadliest Sniper Program," Brandon shows you exactly how to train for a "champions mindset." He uses mental management strategies: visualization, positive self-talk, solution-based thinking and so on. He is the master of his own fate. And now you can be

I almost changed forever the entire way people define relationships. The word "commitment" would have a new meaning. More babies would be born. I'm thinking BIG. Sometimes you want to try an idea and you don't let yourself think about money. If an idea is good, money is a side effect. Ideas are the real currency. I met a brand new couple for breakfast. J and K. They told me they just had the "going steady" conversation. "How'd you guys meet?" "J-Swipe". Or something like that. I forget. It was an online dating app. "What does 'going steady' mean when you are both in your 40s?" I asked. J was in his 40s. K wasn't. I wondered if 'going steady' meant that he gave her a ring or something. There's only so many more 'going steady's you have left in you at that age. They both pulled out their phones. They were looking at each other's phone and then showing me. "We deleted all of the dating apps on our phone," she said. But they were both peering at each other's firm. They needed confirmation. Hmmmm! Idea: The "Going

Shortcuts -  [5:40] - I asked Garry, "What separated you from people just as talented?" He interrupted. Finally! I found my match! "Wait, wait wait, slow down," he said. "'As talented' is a stretch." He said he was lucky. His upbringing made him a champion. "I was born in a family where chess was part of the culture. My father and mother usually spent their winter nights looking at the newspaper chess sections, solving problems. Also, I was born in the Soviet Union so when my talent was discovered, I had an opportunity to be taught by semi-professionals. Then professionals. The framework for my talent to be discovered and to be polished was there." He said, "You may call that luck, but the talent was quite unique." That's how you become a peak performer. You have to pursue your talent and get a little lucky. But it's never just luck. "As soon as I discovered chess I started moving very quickly." He beat the kids his own age and older. By age 12 he was the Soviet junior champion. Peak performance comes from ta

Jon is paralyzed from the neck down. He couldn't crawl. "My mom noticed I was dragging my legs," he said. The doctors said he'd die at age two. But he felt like he had something to contribute to the world. So he became unstoppable. He started writing for free. "I couldn't be paid," he said. If he earned a decent income, Jon would lose his Medicaid. His reputation as a writer grew. So he started consulting. And made 30,000 dollars in 24 hours. "At first, I charged $99. And 300 people signed up." He raised his prices. Then built online courses that taught people how to guest-blog and started another "premium" consulting service. "I made half a million dollars in 9 months," he said. The work lets him pay his own health benefits and live life for himself. Now, Jon Morrow is the CEO of SmartBlogger. He helps bloggers increase traffic, improve their writing, and make money. Jon believes any limitation can be overcome, although not easily. His story continues to inspire thousands around the world. Shortcuts -  [23:0

I remember sitting at my cubicle job looking at people wondering, "Why? Why are you here? Why are you doing this?" I asked a friend once, "Don't you think this job is meaningless?"   He said no.   And then I knew what I had to do. I had to quit. And I did (eventually). First I spent time building up my own business on the side.   I don't know if I've ever really believed in myself. I just knew I didn't want the life I had. Sometimes believing in yourself just means you don't believe in what you're doing right now. And you have to change.   Sara Blakey felt this way, too. She woke up one day, looked at her life and said, "I'm in the wrong movie." Now she's a self-made billionaire entrepreneur.   But my friend Ryan Deiss said believing in yourself is possible. And I wanted to know more.   He started his first business in college. And made $100K in revenue the first year. He sold eBooks online. "I had books on pretty much any topic," he said. One was about baby food. Then he partnered with mommy bloggers and sol

Over the past five years, I've seen Ryan Deiss rise from a quality entrepreneur to one of the biggest names in Internet marketing. He's the founder and CEO of DigitalMarketer and anybody in the internet marketing space knows Ryan Deiss. He emailed me at 4am. He said, "I realized the promise that was made to millenials-- the same one that was made to me, and probably the same one that was made to you-- "Go to college. You'll get a good job," simply isn't true anymore."  The old promise is no longer true. But there's a new promise.... We're going back to a society where mastery matters. And grades don't.  But still....most parents want to send their kids to college. Have them waste the four years, and even the money. Get into debt. "It will pay off," they think, even though the data shows incomes for people ages 18-35 have been going straight down for 25 years. So how do you grow? Invest in yourself.  Shortcuts -   [7:42] - People say you go to college to learn how to be an adults. "The best place to learn to b

  Dave Asprey is the creator and bestselling author of "The Bulletproof Diet." He biohacks health. And discovers innovative ways to live longer, lose weight, increase brain function and evolve better. My brain isn't hacked (yet). So I needed to talk to Dave. We did a podcast and I asked him "how do you evolve better?" Shortcuts: - [14:00] - Energy is scarce. We get tired. So I asked Dave what he does specifically to enhance his energy levels? - [21:40] - Aging is scary... Dave told me what he takes every day to slow down the aging process. This is importance because the environment is affecting how we age. We live in WIFI dense areas. We're constantly stressed. Our diets fluctuate and so on. "We call it aging. Over time, your ability to power your body goes down, and that doesn't have to happen. It is within your control to fix it," he said. "You can tell the battery in your body to recondition itself and you can give it a better power source. Or you can let it slowly grind down..." - [39:50] - I never know w

The cocaine made his throat close. "I was about to die". He wanted to be an actor. He wanted to be creative. He had dreams. And working real-estate for his father wasn't one of them. "I didn't want to come down," he said. "Why'd you do it?" "I really wasn't happy with myself," he said. "I believe it was because I wasn't my authentic self doing what I really wanted to do in my life." "Nepotism got me the job." And it was killing him. He was suffocating. Now Scott Steindorff is the producer of "Empire Falls," "Chef," (one of my all time favorite movies), "The Lincoln Lawyer," "Love in the Time of Cholera," and more. He's worked with Paul Newman, Jon Favreau, Robert Downey Jr., Matthew McConaughey, Scarlett Johansson, the list goes on. The other day he called me, a few days after we shot the project, to tell me about brand new projects he was working on  that were different than anything he had done before. He is constantly testing the limits of his creativity. I wanted to know how he became his "authentic self.

I tried to ruin Ryan Holiday's life. Fortunately, I failed. I told him to start an agency, build it up, sell it for 10 million dollars and THEN start writing books. "It's a good thing you didn't listen to me," I said. But I was wrong. It turned out he took my advice. "It made me super unhappy and it cost me a bunch of friendships," he said. "But it's not your fault. I know there are a lot of things that could make me money, but what I really like is writing. That's what I want my life to be." "So what if you don't know what you want your life to be?" I asked. "What should you do?" "That's the essential question," he said... A) SELF-WORTH IS NOT NET-WORTH Most writers die penniless. I can't think of a profession where I can name as many suicides as writing. I'm jealous of the people who don't write actually. Making business deals and going to work is so much more profitable than trying to tear your soul apart and put words on a piece of paper most people won't read. There's only one writer in history to become

"You and I both know what happened to you 18 months ago," he said. "If you don't write about it, you will die as an artist." Tucker's sold over 3 million copies of his books. I know I'm going to have to listen to him. Maybe later. ----- I've known Tucker many years. I can safely, say, I've been in the trenches with Tucker. We've both started businesses since then, published books, invested together, and cried (well, I did) together since we've met. In one of the worst personal disasters of my life, Tucker was there. He was there for the beginning, middle, and end. I always ask myself 'who is in my scene'? What's a Scene? I consider it: - the people I learn from - the people who I can count on - the people who challenge me to work harder and rise to my potential (and I can do the same for) - the people I can call when I am confused or troubled, and the people who are there for me no matter what. Ask yourself: Who is in your scene? --- Without a scene, it is much harder to succeed. Ask Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, Ja

I have a rule. After every podcast, I write down 10 things I learned. I don't know if anyone else does this. Do you do this? Some people make illustrations. They send me what they've learned. It's a creation of a creation of a creation. A drawing of a podcast of someone's life.   But I broke my rule. It's been over a month. And my brain is digging for the lessons from my interview with the creator of Wordpress. I think I have Alzheimer's. Matt was 19 years old when he started Wordpress. It was 2003. Now Wordpress.com gets more traffic than Amazon.com.   The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times both use Wordpress. I use Wordpress.   I wanted to know if it's still worth the time and effort to make your own site. He said it is. That's how you break out...   "We're trying to revitalize the independent web," Matt Mullenweg said. He's 33 now. "It's not like these big sites are going anywhere. They're fantastic. I use all of them, but you want balance. You need your own site that belongs to you... like your ow

She said, I am an introvert but had to develop tricks to fake being an extravert because of where I worked. I said, Do you think everyone in LA is an extravert? She said, I don't know. Maybe they are all faking. We were at a party. I had been sleeping but a friend called me up and said "you have to go this party three blocks away from you." So I did. Why? Because why not? Sometimes you know to say no. But to surrender to the moment, if nobody is getting hurt, sometimes you say yes. I went. It was crowded and I knew some of the people and some of the people I didn't. I didn't know her but we were introduced. "You have to ask her for [X} favor," the introducer whispered to me. But I never got around to the favor. I said, can you tell me some of the tricks? I asked because sometimes I feel I don't really know how to live and look like a normal person. Sometimes I like being home and writing and reading all day because that passes for human without me having to see, or touch, or talk to anyone. When I go outside,

Ben (of Ben & Jerry's) was in the room. He needed a logo. Debbie Millman just started her agency. She was competing against the best ad agencies in New York City. She lost. So she moved on to Burger King. "Why do you think you lost?" "We didn't have insurance," Debbie said. "We didn't have the big, global brand experience to show them." "I'll never forget this," she said. "When we got to Burger King headquarters, we got into a fairly small elevator with the Senior Vice President of Market Research. The door closes. He looks at us and says, 'Don't get your hopes up.'" This is important. Because Debbie Millman never describes herself as an entrepreneur. But she's the perfect example. Entrepreneurship is about putting your all into something, getting rejected and going back into the next room.   Data is taking over. Data is replacing thinking and driving the direction of the future. Data sells confidence. And that's what the brands wanted. Burger King tried changing their logo 7 times in the decade leading u

Tony Robbins stopped by on his birthday. And then he started causing problems. Like he does. "I realize you're high energy," the audio engineer says, looking at Tony, "but when you bang the table it sounds like the whole room is shaking." In 220 podcasts, it's the first time the audio engineer had to interrupt in the middle. "Oh, ok, no problem," Tony says. "I don't want to stop the passion," the audio engineer says. "Don't worry, I'll be good," Tony says. Then the audio engineer went back outside. Tony kept slamming that table. Outside the room, people thought he was going to climb over the table and beat the S**t out of me. But it was all good. BUT... I felt like I had to keep the energy level high. So pretty soon we were both yelling back and forth. He was there because of his new book, "Unshakeable". But we spoke about maybe 1000 topics. Not just the financial world. So let's get right down to it. What did I learn? - EVERY YEAR (on average) THE STOCK MARKET WILL FALL 10% This is great for new

My ancestor from 70,000 years ago was smarter than me. He knew every plant, mushroom, animal, predator, prey in a several mile radius. He knew how to make weapons. He knew how to capture something, make it edible. I can barely order delivery. And as far as weapons, they say "the pen is mightier than the sword" but I don't think a tweet is. My ancestor also knew how to adapt to new terrains, how to handle strangers who could be threats, how to learn who to trust and who not to trust. I wish I had his skills. Not only that. Archaeological evidence says his brain was bigger than mine. And bigger is better. To make things worse, another animal made the entire human race its slave. Wheat domesticated us. It forced us to stick around for the harvest, horde up for years when the harvest might be bad, go from a life of a diverse diet to basically all carbs all the time. And it turned us from hunters to farmers. But it's not all bad. And the news is actually very good. Probably the books I've recommended most in the p

Imagine going on a swing as high as you can. Then going higher. Then going so high you loop around. I get scared thinking about it. Sergey Brin, the founder of Google, did it the first time he tried. Steven Kotler and Jamie Wheal were training people at Google how to get into the state of FLOW. Sergey volunteered. What is Flow? The state where your brain and body loses all sense of time and you retreat into this perfect area of creativity and productivity. A state where Steven and Jamie have spent years trying to hack and re-create at will. And this is what they've done. I was talking to Steven Kotler, who's been on my podcast a few times and Jamie Wheal. They co-authored "Stealing Fire: How Silicon Valley, the Navy SEALs, and Maverick Scientists Are Revolutionizing the Way We Live and Work." It's sort of a sequel to "The Rise of Superman" all about "flow" in action sports. Steven said. "It's the moments of total absorption where you get so focussed on the task at hand that everything else just disappears, ac

I want to be a Jedi Knight. The idea of surrendering to some "force" greater than oneself. The idea of being in touch with some essence that can bring out my full potential in way that I could never possibly understand. When Cass Sunstein, genius economist (author of "Nudge", 40 other books, does Nobel-prize level research) wrote "The World According to Star Wars", I knew I had to talk to him. I reached out to everyone I knew, found a way to get ahold of Cass, who wasn't doing any interviews on the book, and managed to book some  time with him. I've written many times before about the effect Star Wars has had on my life. But I was also interested in the phenomenon of Star Wars, a topic Cass writes about. In particular, why was it a hit? George Lucas is the living breathing manifestation of "idea sex". He takes concepts that worked in the past, meshes them together, and knows the combination will work. For example: think of a blonde-haired young man who has to reluctantly save the world from an evil galactic e