The James Altucher Show

Building connections and building relationships are how you bring real value to the world around you. Jayson Gaignard is a super-connector. He's two degrees of separation from anyone you want to meet. Broke and $250,000 in debt, Jayson thought about an idea that nobody else was doing after getting a free ticket to hear Seth Godin speak, connecting entrepreneurs over an intimate dinner. He paid for this himself by going even further into debt with no expectations of ever making money on these. Mastermind Dinners launched and Jayson's new venture was off and running. Entrepreneurship often takes an unyielding belief in yourself, and Jayson definitely believes. Listen today to hear the story of someone who bet everything he had on an idea. His new book, Mastermind Dinners Build Lifelong Relationships by Connecting Experts, Influencers and Linchpins is a fantastic read and he hosts a podcast, Mastermind Talks you really need to subscribe to. Ask a question at Askaltucher.com. ------------What do YOU think of the

James and David Levien talk about the art and the science of writing books and screenplays, producing and directing movies, plus making this your full-time career. Eventually he teamed up with his longtime best friend Brian Koppelman (Episode 59) but the road to success was tough. Like most screenwriters, he moved to Hollywood to launch his career. He started as an assistant to a talent agent hoping to get the contacts in place when he had his script ready. But over the couple of years he was there, he read thousands of scripts which left him very little time to work on his own. He made contacts but they didn't see him as a screenwriter. His dream just wasn't happening... He was stuck, so he just quit and for the next six years he was just another obscure writer living in N.Y. He and Brian finally reunited and decided they'd join forces to try writing a screenplay together. They had no idea what they were going to write about but they just kept at it. As luck would have it, Brian was invited to The Mayfair Cl

James and Ben Mezrich dig deep into the art and science of writing books as a full-time career. His parents gave him two years to make a go at it, but secretly he gave himself five. As Ben tells James, he never wanted to do anything else. After college, he locked himself in his apartment and wrote nine novels. He got rejection letter after rejection letter, about 190 in all. Eventually he found an agent and finally sold his first book, then his second and his third. But as he says... Nobody was reading them, until he finally got his break. Ben has now authored fifteen best-selling books. His book, The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook, a Tale of Sex, Money, Genius and Betrayal - debuted at #4 on the New York Times list. The book was adapted into the movie The Social Network - written by Aaron Sorkin and directed by David Fincher - and was #1 at the box office for two weeks, won Golden Globes for best picture, best director, best adapted screenplay, best score, and was nominated for eight Oscar

How do you transform your life? The answer is simple. Come up with 10 ideas a day. Every day. It doesn't matter if they are good or bad; the point is to exercise your idea muscle, to make it sweat. Today James talks with Claudia about her brand new book,Become an Idea Machine: Because Ideas Are the Currency of the 21st Century. People say ideas are cheap and execution is everything, but that is NOT true. Execution is a consequence, a subset of good, brilliant idea. And good ideas require daily work.  As Claudia explains, coming up with 10 ideas a day is very important.  Ideas may be easy if you are only coming up with one or two, but if you try to produce more than three, you will feel a burn, scratch your head, and you will be sweating and working hard. There is a turning point when you reach idea number six for the day, when you still have four to go, and your mind muscle is getting a workout. By the time you list those last ideas to make it to ten, you will see for yourself what "sweating the idea muscle"

James has a man crush and he admits it on today's podcast. Simon Rich again joins James today for a very special episode. Simon's new TV show, Man Seeking Woman, debuted last night on FXX. Man Seeking Woman follows Josh Greenberg (a stand-in of sorts for Rich himself, played by the excellent Jay Baruchel) as he navigates a fantastical nightmare world of millennial dating. When Simon was last on James show, (episode 52) they talked about an inside look at his writing technique and routines... his very own daily practice. There is an art to Simon's writing and you can feel his passion while listening to him talk about his work. On today's show they dive deep into his new TV sitcom, what a day is like creating a TV show, his biggest fears, and how he finds his inspiration. James asks Simon how you can get found. Simon says, just make something great. Don't try to write it to get a TV job, just make it great. Whether it's a 10-minute standup comedy routine or a short play you perform with your friends. Whatever i

Talk about choosing yourself, Amanda Palmer has always blazed a path that pushes the boundaries of what most of us would be comfortable with. Her latest project is a book called The Art of Asking, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Let People Help that explores the fear most of us experience. Why is it so hard to ask for something from those who are closest to you? Amanda tells James that it's those who are so close to us that are the ones who can hurt us where it really counts, down deep. Yet, you have to accept the fear and lead with the truth. Amanda and James also dig deep into the problem many of us have, how do you charge for your art, and how much is it really worth? People value things they purchase.   If you believe in your art, then don't be afraid to ask. ------------What do YOU think of the show? Head to JamesAltucherShow.com/listeners and fill out a short survey that will help us better tailor the podcast to our audience!Are you interested in getting direct answers from James about your questi

"I lost my job and I've piled up a huge amount of credit card debt. I just got a new job but I'm only making $11/hr. What should I do?" James says - Stop making any payments on your credit cards you can't afford to pay. I know this goes against what everyone else is telling you but James explains today why this individual shouldn't pay.  He can't... Get prepared for the calls and the harassment but don't worry. Listen here today as James explains why.  If you have a question that you would like to ask James, you can either:  Ask a question at Askaltucher.com. E-mail it to [email protected].   Or, text James at 203-512-2161. ------------What do YOU think of the show? Head to JamesAltucherShow.com/listeners and fill out a short survey that will help us better tailor the podcast to our audience!Are you interested in getting direct answers from James about your question on a podcast? Go to JamesAltucherShow.com/AskAltucher and send in your questions to be answered on the air!------------Visit Notepd.

Today James goes through therapy. As a father of two young children, he felt he was going to ruin his kids by going through a divorce. He felt he was a loser, believing that divorce is a personal failure and that married people are better than divorced people. Astro and Danielle call this The Holy Cow. In their book, Sacred Cows, and on today's podcast they talk about the promise we all make when we get married. "I'll love you forever" We make this unreasonable promise to each other, yet we can't know how we're going to feel in the future. No one can know. This is a fascinating interview as they dive into the effects on the children, the social norms of today, and the reasons people get married in the first place. Invest in yourself and listen here today.     I promise you, you won't be disappointed ------------What do YOU think of the show? Head to JamesAltucherShow.com/listeners and fill out a short survey that will help us better tailor the podcast to our audience!Are you interested in getting direct answe

James asks Tucker Max back to talk about the book publishing business and his new hugely successful new venture, Book in a Box. Almost everyone would love to write and publish a book but the amount of work involved is daunting. So it just never happens. Until now... Tucker and his team have come up with the perfect solution and he's willing to give away all his secrets on today's show. This is a fascinating interview and the ideas fly fast. It's destined to be a must-listen-to episode. Invest in yourself and listen here today.   I promise you, you won't be disappointed ------------What do YOU think of the show? Head to JamesAltucherShow.com/listeners and fill out a short survey that will help us better tailor the podcast to our audience!Are you interested in getting direct answers from James about your question on a podcast? Go to JamesAltucherShow.com/AskAltucher and send in your questions to be answered on the air!------------Visit Notepd.com to read our idea lists & sign up to create your own!My new bo

"Online dating doesn't seem to be working. Is there anything wrong with me?" James says there's nothing wrong with the woman who asks this question. Online dating has reduced the value of a relationship just due to the sheer volume and the unlimited supply. Claudia mentions how you have to be clear and set a few parameters and preferences, but you also have to be flexible. Don't only rely on online dating to meet your match. Take dance lessons, go to entrepreneur meet-ups or whatever interests you.   But don't rely solely on online dating clubs. ------------What do YOU think of the show? Head to JamesAltucherShow.com/listeners and fill out a short survey that will help us better tailor the podcast to our audience!Are you interested in getting direct answers from James about your question on a podcast? Go to JamesAltucherShow.com/AskAltucher and send in your questions to be answered on the air!------------Visit Notepd.com to read our idea lists & sign up to create your own!My new book, Skip the Line, is ou

Pennsylvania brewer Dick Yuengling, president of D.G. Yuengling & Son, has seen a lot of change since its founding in 1829. One of the most amazing things is that after five generations, it's still family-owned and two of his daughters are being groomed to take it over. Dick has always wanted to be involved in the brewery business and from an early age had the desire to modernize it. He left the company in 1973 because he couldn't get his father to modernize operations. He returned in 1984 as the company was beginning to rebound and took over the next year. He's rewritten the family storyline from one of surviving to one of thriving. James asks Dick how the company could survive for so long. The brewery survived prohibition by opening an ice cream manufacturing company that survives today. Dick says you branch out and do what you have to do to survive.   Listening to Dick, you'll soon realize why he's been so successful. He knows who he is, where he wants to take the company, and most importantly, what th

Sam Shank originally thought he wanted to be a Hollywood film director so he moved out to California to find his fame. He managed to get a job with the legendary director Wes Craven and worked on the now famous movie Scream. Quickly he learned that his reality wasn't anything like his dream. He spent most of his time running errands just like 99% of the others with the same dream. His entrepreneurial spirit kicked in quickly and he decided to create his own destiny so he moved to the center of the dot-com world, San Francisco. Sam knew he wanted to start a technology business, but knew he wasn't ready yet. So he decided to try to learn everything he could. He knew he was ready when, as he says, "You're ready when it feels just uncomfortable enough that you can bear starting a company because it's hard, it's intimidating, it's going to be a total grind, it's brutal, it's the hardest thing you're ever going to do. So you have to go in knowing that." He says, "The best way to learn about starting a business is t

The world of startups is extremely exciting. One of the few people who has been able to put himself right in the middle of it is James' longtime friend Jason Calacanis. He knows everyone... Today, James and Jason talk about Jason's early startups, Silicon Alley, Mahalo, his podcast This Week in Startups, and his newest venture, Inside.com They talk about the past, present, and future of technology.   Tune in, and you'll get the inside track into Silicon Valley's best ideas. ------------What do YOU think of the show? Head to JamesAltucherShow.com/listeners and fill out a short survey that will help us better tailor the podcast to our audience!Are you interested in getting direct answers from James about your question on a podcast? Go to JamesAltucherShow.com/AskAltucher and send in your questions to be answered on the air!------------Visit Notepd.com to read our idea lists & sign up to create your own!My new book, Skip the Line, is out! Make sure you get a copy wherever books are sold!Join the You Should R

How do people perceive you? Sally Hogshead, CEO of Fascinate, Inc. discovered a new way to measure how people perceive your communication. "You're either adding value or your taking up space." Sally tells James, that if you're nervous or uncomfortable in a conversation then you'll make your listener feel nervous and uncomfortable. When you feel relaxed and confident than your listener is more likely to feel confident in you. Find out what's really authentic about you and let that part of you stand out. How are you different than everyone else? Sally doesn't recommend trying to change who you are. Instead, you should become more of who you are. Sally explains to James her - 7 ADVANTAGES OF FASCINATION *Innovation *Passion *Power *Prestige *Trust *Mystique *Alert   And tells him where he falls within these triggers. Think about those times when you've had great success. What was similar about them and how can you use it to you advantage. To get a free assessment Sally has set up a special page for all our lin

Jay Jay French, guitarist, manager, and producer is most famous for his role as the founding member and one of the guitarists of the heavy metal band Twisted Sister  Long: Jay Jay French explains Twisted Sisters long-term success like it's an iceberg. What you see on the surface is only 10% of what's really there. They've continually reinvested in themselves. Whenever they'd make a little money, instead of just spending it, they'd roll the dice and plow it right back into the group. As Jay has written, "Whether you are an artist or an entrepreneur, your story usually begins with passion, a moment that goes something like this: 'The first time I either witnessed, touched, smelled, felt, heard [this object of passion], I just knew that I would do anything, risk anything to be a part of this life...'" That Big Bang moment truly defines you. Most people can tell you the exact date and time that this tsunami of inspiration and passion washed over their brain cells, rendering them helpless to the immutable forces t

15 years young, Fark.com is still alive and growing.   With 45 million monthly downloads and 3 million unique visitors per month, it has an extremely loyal fan base.   Drew Curtis, the founder of Fark, has chosen a different path from most web startups. He shuns most advertising and is not interested in selling Fark and cashing out.   He just loves his lifestyle.   Journalists have gotten lazy with the advent of social media. ""Hey look what so and so said on Twitter' has got to be the laziest form of journalism ever," he says.   BuzzFeed, UpWorthy, Daily Beast, and Slate    and sites like them have news-jacked the media, Fark is different. They like to put a comedic spin on the headlines.   Here are a couple of Fark headlines vying for headline of the year:   *300 gallons of orange juice leaks into swamp after truck accident. Yeah, that's one screwed driver   *Obama launches air strike on Iraq, cementing his record as Nobel Peace Prize winner with the most confirmed kills   *Fight between family members

Adam Grant, the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School's youngest tenured professor, and author of one of the best books of 2013 - Give and Take: Why Helping Others Drives Our Success - joins The James Altucher Show today.   Helpfulness is Adam's message.   James asks Adam how he got into a topic that resonates so much with people. He says it all started in his early life when he was a diver. He started giving pointers to his competitors, and eventually one of those he helped ended up beating him in the state finals.   This got him thinking...   Is giving a zero-sum game? If he wants to win, do other people have to lose?   Do you have a hard time asking people to help you? Adam talks about the huge difference between taking and receiving.     Some interviews James does make you think hard about yourself. This one takes that to the extreme ------------What do YOU think of the show? Head to JamesAltucherShow.com/listeners and fill out a short survey that will help us better tailor the podcast to our audience

Daniel O'Brien's love of presidents started early. As he recounts the story in his hilarious book, How To Fight Presidents, it all started when his American Government professor said on his very first day of class, "Not one of you is ever going to grow up to be president of the United States."   He never wanted to be president but when that professor told him he couldn't even if he wanted to, something triggered inside him and he thought...    "Oh, yeah? I'll show you. I'm going to be president. I'm going to be president all over this country and there's not a damn thing you can do about it."   On today's James Altucher Show, James and Daniel talk about our "badass" presidents and which ones Daniel thinks he could beat up.   In 2007, while still in college, Daniel wrote an article that he thought might work on Cracked.com. They bought it and a bunch more. He's now Head Writer and Creative Director of Video having written more than 200 articles to date and his article "The 5 Most Badass Presidents of All-Time"

Sam Harris, a brilliant and often controversial author and lecturer, joins James today to talk about science, religion, spirituality, and Ben Affleck.   Ted.com has said of him...   "Questions of good and evil, right and wrong are commonly thought unanswerable by science. But Sam Harris argues that science can - and should - be an authority on moral issues, shaping human values and setting out what constitutes a good life."   Sam is willing to take on the topics that most run from. Today he and James dive into all of them.   What is consciousness? How does something as simple as a thought take over you?   You have an angry thought and suddenly you're angry. How can a happy thought make you happy?   Is this controllable and should you want to control your thoughts?   Sam says yes...   The energy of anger can be very useful. There are times when you want to convey anger. Detaching yourself from passion can become a huge liability and often unhealthy.     This is an amazing interview. Open your mind and allow so

Dave Berg spent 18 years as Jay Leno's co-producer of The Tonight Show.    Everyone knows The Tonight Show; say the name and you immediately get an image to pop into your mind. But what was really going on behind the scenes?   Today, Dave gives us all some great insight...    You'll hear in his voice how much love and respect he has for Jay, who he called the hardest-working man in all of show business. The inside stories are fantastic, Dennis Rodman (the get), Bill Clinton (the get he never got), and the one person that took him six years to finally get on the show.   Who were Dave's favorite guests? I bet you'll never guess his first response. Dave talks about what makes for a great show and who were the greatest guests.   Click here to listen to Dave's stories.   And in his new book, Behind the Curtain: An Insider's View of Jay Leno's Tonight Show,  Dave reveals what it's like to produce a hit late-night entertainment show.   ------------What do YOU think of the show? Head to JamesAltucherShow.com/listener