The James Altucher Show

A lot of people call Jim Kwik a brain expert. On today's show, he gives us a sneak peek into his seminars that teach people how to optimize their brains to be more productive and powerful every day. "With great power comes great responsibility." Jim reverses the iconic saying to put normal people in control of their own accelerated learning: With great responsibility comes great power.  When you take control of your own learning techniques, you are capable of great things. What if you were born with superpowers but nobody showed you how to use them? You may not feel like you can excel at accelerated learning, but that does not mean you aren't capable. Jim reveals that even he experienced learning difficulties as a child after an accidental fall when he was in kindergarten. "It took me two years longer to learn how to read," he says, and because of these difficulties, he was able to find new ways to learn and excel. Your brain never stops learning. You may have been told that your memory is fixed, like your sh

Brett McKay is the founder of The Art of Manliness, a website dedicated to delivering inspiring, actionable, and life changing advice to both men and women. A lot of times men just need a little more help being organized and getting their lives together than women do. As James says, "Women just grow up faster." Brett's wife Kate is also his business partner. While there are many advantages to having your spouse involved with your business, it also introduces the difficulty of separating work time from personal time. Even during dedicated work time it sometimes is hard to clearly define roles and responsibilities in the business. This is a theme that spans most business relationships, but generally your business partner isn't also the person you share a bed with each night. Brett keeps it simple by living by the mantra that both you and your spouse should "Seek to Serve Each Other." This doesn't need to be an equal relationship all the time. Go out of your way to be generous and giving to your loved ones. The

Surrendering to what the universe has put in front of you, being able to set aside fears, and living in the moment sounds like an awesome way to go through life. Today's guest, Michael Singer, has written two books that say it is entirely possible to do that. His first book, New York Times No. 1 bestseller The Untethered Soul, was released in 2007. In The Untethered Soul, Michael explained ways to find inner peace. He also found himself on the other end of a phone call from Oprah, who loved the book and wanted to interview him on her show. He never thought of giving an interview. He made it a point not to. When The Untethered Soul came out, he paid for marketing but said he would not do interviews... That is, until Oprah called him directly. They talked on the phone for 45 minutes and he went to Chicago. That was his first and only "in-person" interview. The "second in-person interview" was... You guessed it, the one with Claudia and me, "because there was something there." Claudia and I  both e-mailed separa

Hal Elrod was dead for six minutes. The car he was driving crashed head on into a truck. His girlfriend, sitting next to him, was unscratched. The roof of the car sliced open his head, causing brain damage. Bones in his face, his arm, all over his body were broken and he was in a coma for six days (during which time his girlfriend broke up with him). When he woke from his coma the doctors told him he might never walk again. You are the alchemist of your life. The universe, perfect for 14 billion years, has given you everything you need to thrive. And yet...we often want to forcibly change the universe to fit our own selfish needs.  What idiots! I'm sure Hal did not want to hit that car. Did not want to be told he might not walk again. Did not want to go through years of therapy and misfortune as a result of this single event. This is where alchemy comes in. We're all given this chance at some point in our lives. We're all given the tools to turn misfortune into gold. 15 years later Hal is a father, runs a suc

If you want to see into the future, and live longer, healthier and happier then you must tune into today's podcast. It may scare the hell out of you but there is no holding it back. The future is here and you can't get out of its way. Steven Kotler, the best-selling author, journalist and entrepreneur joins James for today's show. Steven's books include Abundance, The Rise of Superman, Bold, and his newest release, Tomorrowland: Our Journey from Science Fiction to Science Fact. Tomorrowland offers an optimistic look into the future, but at the same time it is a bit scary. With an introduction of, "The future is here," Steven's book outlines the rapid pace that technology is and will continue to define us in every way imaginable. Some of the highlights from the book include: Strap-on bionics that reverse the aging trend and put force back into our bodies. Extending life using stem cells to swap out old body parts for new ones. Artificial vision that restores what was lost. With all these advancements, question

Today I'm very pleased to welcome David Bach to the show. David is the author of several books on achieving your financial goals, and doing so while reducing stress along the way. With titles including Automatic Millionaire, Smart Women Finish Rich, and Smart Couples Finish Rich, David has become an absolute authority on choosing yourself first. Or as he says, "Pay yourself first." With financial troubles being the leading cause of friction and divorce amongst couples, David has found several key ways that families can manage their finances easier. Steps couples can take to improve their financial lives include: *Talking about small purchases more often. *Twice a year, work with your spouse or a financial advisor to monitor your personal financial statement. *Have a vision for your financial future. This clarifies every decision you make in your financial life. David is a big advocate of "The Latte Factor" and doing small things to save money every day. This helps people overcome the biggest obstacle to

If you're into hunting for buried pirate treasure then this is the show for you. Today I'm very happy to welcome bestselling author Robert Kurson to the podcast. Robert has just released Pirate Hunters: Treasure, Obsession, and the Search for a Legendary Pirate Ship. This is the second book featuring John Chatterton and is about his quest with John Mattera to find the ship of the infamous pirate Joseph Bannister. Bannister, a gentleman and business owner working with shipping companies in the Caribbean, one day turned pirate and stole a boat named The Golden Fleece, setting off on a pirate's adventure for years. Treasure hunting may seem like a romantic,  childish notion, but most treasure hunters are often seeking adventure, encountering huge adversity in their search and often risking all to solve the mysteries they encounter beneath the water. Chatterton (a police officer) and Mattera (a commercial diver) worked all week, used their savings, and spent every free minute of their time searching for this long

"I'm the kind of person who is embarrassed to lie," says "Freeway" Rick Ross. Not the words you would expect to come from a convicted felon. Rick built an empire, a drug empire that is, the notorious Los Angeles crack-cocaine empire. But the man who built this empire is not an evil man as you might suspect. He is charitable, a teacher, and an ideal leader. "I always knew I was going to jail," he tells me. So why did I interview him? First off, his story is the kind that creates curiosity. It is so foreign to me - a good, Jewish boy. It's thrilling. Second, our stories have a common theme: How do you pick yourself up when you're at rock bottom? His rock bottom was finding out he was sentenced to life in prison. How do you stay motivated after discovering your entire future will be in a cage? How do you not run away? Can you "choose yourself" here? Yes. Before bottom, Rick was illiterate. He picked himself up by improving every day. He read 300 books, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and more all

What are you best at? Whatever it is, you should do it more often and get paid for it, too. Do you know the ultimate site to choose yourself (besides jamesaltucher.com)? It's Freelancer.com. It's "a global market for services" and "the eBay for jobs." My guest today, Matt Barrie, is the genius who founded it. This site changed my life. And in today's interview, you'll hear how I used the site to build a business and sell it for millions of dollars eight months later. I've interviewed hundreds of successful people. Matt, on the other hand, watches people become overnight successes in real time. He is an encyclopedia of success stories. You will feel motivated and empowered after hearing these extreme entrepreneur success stories. Have you heard of giantflamingo.com? This guy outsourced manufacturing on Freelancer.com and created an entire pool toy empire. Now, he's a multimillionaire. You'll hear his full story and realize you have the same potential. If starting a business isn't for you, that's OK. You can st

Neil Strauss and James never had met before this interview but you'd think they've been best friends forever. And that's why Neil has been so successful writing about the undercover world of pickup artists. He's a really nice guy. They dive right into some of the techniques that Neil talks about in his best-seller, The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists, and he asks James to let his listeners "know him." So James becomes the patient today and Neil does a quick analysis. A lot of what Neil talks about is how you can get out of you comfort zone. Too often people fake it... but to honestly get out, you may need a friend to push you way out of your comfort zone. James asks Neil what's next and Neil tells him... Don't be trapped in what you've done before. "All people know of what you've done from what you've done before. They don't know what you're going to do next." Go do you. Regards, David Newman Senior Producer of Stansberry Radio P.S. NOT SURE WHAT TO DO WITH THE REST OF YOUR LIFE? Great

I think I'm in love with Mimi Ikonn. Oh, and also her husband Alex Ikonn. Don't want to confuse anyone! When I was a kid I didn't think I would be happy unless I was a "millionaire". Some kids in my school said they were millionaires and they would make fun of anyone who wasn't. I asked my dad what he was worth. He said $2. Maybe that scarred me so much that I always make sure to have wads of $2 bills on me at all times. A year or so later his company went bankrupt. So he wasn't worth the same anymore. In his mind, he was worth ZERO. For the rest of his life he sat in the living room, depressed, and listened to music. When he was a little boy he loved music and won an award. At some point we all return to what we loved as a child. I suppose that means I will return to comics, Judy Blume, and spying on people. A few weeks ago I met Mimi Ikonn and Alex Ikonn. I was insanely curious about them. How come? Because Mimi makes videos of herself, delivers real value to people, and then makes over a million a year bec

They pick up where they left off... Talking about being obligated to continue doing what brought you success. Success can be a trap, but it's better than the alternative. Scott Adams, creator of the Dilbert comic strip and author of How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big, joins The James Altucher Show to talk about his career and how it landed him exactly where he wanted to be. Click here to listen to today's episode. He shares with us the story about he became "super fit" and how that changed his life. He and James dive into what makes a blog posts go viral. It may not be what you think. Scott loves to experiment with what it takes a post to go viral. Is it the title, the content, the angle you choose to take, the target you choose... Or could it be something else. Scott's been doing some Twitter testing. What's the ideal amount of characters, where should you place your hashtags? What he's discovered is that when he mocks a group his tweet becomes popular because everyone thinks he's talking abo

Don't give up on your dreams. "Giving up on your dreams doesn't come for free," says Chris Hadfield, astronaut extraordinaire. Chris followed his dreams for 33 years before they became a reality. Children dream. Children explore. Adults talk. And adults do. "We get the ability to explore way before we get common sense or perspective on how anything works," Chris says. If you stopped exploring, start again. In today's interview you learn how to live the life you want. Take it from Chris. He's an astronaut so he really has an outside perspective. Chris says, "When you're floating at the window of the space station and you go around the world every 92 minutes, you see the world in its completeness." Chris lived his dreams because he explored his curiosity. That's the secret. You need to explore. No matter how impossible they seem, your dreams deserve exploring. That's the other secret. You need to believe in the impossible. Chris made the impossible possible and became the first Canadian astronaut to walk in spa

I'm a freak. I'm a freak for a lot of things: comic books, podcasts, my wife. But none of that matters today (sorry Claudia). I had the pleasure, no, the honor, of interviewing my good friend Stephen Dubner today. This is like being the best man at his wedding. It's a big day for Stephen. Today, he's releasing his new book, When to Rob a Bank. What a great title, right? In today's podcast, Stephen and I take some of our offline debates online. We debate everything from who is most likely to try to kill you (hint: it's not strangers), to why the New York Times moderates comments - which according to Steven Levitt, coauthor of When to Rob a Bank, is because "there are too many people out there who don't know how to think about the world." If you haven't read Freakonomics, SuperFreakonomics, and the whole lot of Stephen Dubner's books, then I highly recommend you do. But first, read his new book. This book is made up of the 132 best stories, thoughts, and discoveries from Stephen's 85,000 blog posts over the pas

Tim Ferriss has a life-changing surprise for you. It was expensive. I mean, it was expensive for him. It cost him a couple hundred thousand dollars to get. It also wasn't easy. He fought for a year and a half to get it. This is going to change our lives. Yes, both of us. Let me ask you this: What's the one skill you always wanted and don't have? Is it Brazilian jiu-jitsu? Flirting? Playing poker? How to get out of a hostage situation? Whatever it is, you can learn it. You just need to know how to learn. Learning is a skill. Tim Ferriss did a bunch of experiments and mastered learning. In today's show, he reveals the secret to gaining any skill you ever wanted. He FINALLY got digital rights to his TV show, The Tim Ferriss Experiment. It's about how to conquer fear in any skill at 10 times your learning speed. Think of it as MythBusters meets Jason Bourne. "My job is to get people from zero percent to the top five percent in six months or less," he says, "The skill I'm refining is meta-learning. It's the toolki

If you slept on the floor last night, you're off to a great start. Ryan Holiday started on the floor. I guess that's where we all start. The difference is we want to stand on the floor, not sleep on it. But maybe you should stop thinking that way. Maybe you should sleep on the floor. Ryan Holiday didn't even sleep on his own floor. He slept on someone else's floor. Even better, it was his boss's floor. Maybe give that a try tonight. Sleep on your boss's floor. That's how you choose for yourself. Work with people whose floor you want to sleep on. Ryan went from the floor to director of marketing of American Apparel. Now he runs his own creative consulting firm. He landed five clients on the New York Times bestseller list in one week. I'm one of Ryan's clients. He does great work. That's why I interviewed him a second time. Tucker Max and Tim Ferris are his clients, too. And because no one is born a New York Times bestselling author (or maybe they are, I don't know), listen to Ryan's tips for aspiring authors.

Rich Roll was having a heart attack on his staircase. He was fat. He hated his work. He was unhappy. A few years later, he ran, swam, and biked 703 miles in seven days when he was 45 years old. When he was 40, he had a job he hated, but he was still trying to live the American dream: the two cars, the beautiful family, the partnership at a law firm. "I thought I was having a heart attack on the staircase," he said. "I was 50 pounds overweight. I was working 80 hours a week. I wasn't happy. I was going to die." That moment on the staircase was one of three or four turning points in Rich Roll's life that forced him to say: "I have a small window to change for the better." And then he did it. But what's interesting to me is that Rich Roll is an addict. I'm an addict. Many people I know are addicts. Many addictions are bad for you. When I was younger, I was addicted to just about everything that could possibly be harmful to me. Rich Roll, when he was 31 years old and a high-priced lawyer, had to check himself int

Jon Acuff, the author of five books, writes from the trenches. Today he talks with James about a few of the self-sabotage practices he used to follow. Jon also talks about the fear he had of creating an email list, instead using Twitter to make believe he was communicating with his readers, and his fear of self-promoting his books while not wanting to be one of those "extreme self-promoters." Jon wrote his first book while working at AutoTrader.com, doing interviews from his car during lunch and giving talks on weekends when he could slip away. He'd get up early before work to write his blog, and he'd read everything he could find about becoming a better writer. James and Jon also talk about the negative feedback you will get when you put yourself out there, and that no one is really trying to eat you (you'll have to listen here to understand). Jon spent a few years working with Dave Ramsey and his organization, and wrote his best seller, Do Over,after he left. He knew he needed to find his dream job and that

Dan Buettner ruined James' life, and in today's podcast, you'll find out why. Today, they talk about The Blue Zones, Dan's new book. It's a fascinating topic completed in conjunction with a 10-year project with National Geographic. It's not about just making it to 100; it's all about being healthy and active at 100, still enjoying life, and contributing. As Dan says, "they are repositories of wisdom and human experience, and that's an asset that is frequently diminished in our society and really celebrated in Blue Zones." If you want to live to 100, you should really learn the lessons of those who have lived to that age. Is it biology? Is it the environment, diet, attitude, or something else, or is it a combination of all of the above? "A long, healthy life is no accident. It begins with good genes, but it also depends on good habits. If you adopt the right lifestyle, experts say, chances are you may live up to a decade longer. "The recipe for longevity, Buettner has found, is deeply intertwined with communit

What an interview... This one will go down in the archives as one of our best. Nick Megalis is a true artist in every sense of the word And he moves to the beat of his own crazy drum. Today Nick allows James to ask him anything. He's willing to tell us why his work is so important to him. It's a very funny interview but it goes deep. Nick says he's extremely fortunate that people like what he does and that Vine came along when it did. His Vine loops have been played more than 500 million times and he has made about a "trillion dollars" because of them (you'll have to listen to get the joke). When James asks him about his fans, he gets serious. He believes that anyone who watches his videos deserves a personal reply. And while he can't reply to all of them, he tries to every day. James asks him what's next... he lets us in on what's new and exciting and just may be the next big thing. Listen here. Regards, David Newman Senior Producer of Stansberry Radio   P.S. Hi, James here... My new book is finally out! It