The James Altucher Route to Success
James Altucher is an American entrepreneur, investor and bestselling author whose blog attracts more than 10 million readers. He’s a multimillionaire who has failed many times on the road to success.
He says; “In the last 20 years I’ve gone from being utterly broke, to making millions, to going bankrupt, to making millions, to bankrupt again and losing my home and family, to success again. So now I try to understand those trends and work with them.”
I asked him how he sees the future for employment in countries like Australia and the US?
“Zero sectors in the economy are moving towards more full-time workers. Everything is either being cut back, moved towards outsourcing out of the country, or hiring temp workers. And this goes not just for low-paid industrial workers, but middle managers, computer programmers, accountants, lawyers and even senior executives.”
Altucher thinks a new model will emerge without corporate employment.
“The new middle class definition of success will not be to rise up through the corporate ranks, but to learn not to be dependent on the corporation at all,” he says.
“Corporatism as we’ve known it for the past century is at its last breaths, while capitalism flourishes more than ever. People are going to have to develop the skill sets to have multiple streams of income.”
Part of his own success is now to be absolutely honest, a value he rates highly.
“In every industry people feel they have to wear masks in order for people to like them. This is largely how the world operates. But I had nothing left to lose. I stopped caring about what people thought about me. I would reveal everything about me and be as honest as possible about it.”
It’s this honesty that makes Altucher’s writing so real.
“I made very bad mistakes in my life. Whenever I had a lot of money I thought to myself, ‘OK thats it!’ And I would start squandering, being indulgent, having unhealthy relationships, addictions and falling apart in every way. And then I would stop, gradually start doing the things that I now associate with the daily practice and find abundance again in my life. But I never realised it was all linked together, until about five years ago.”
He keeps healthy on a day by day basis by eating, sleeping, thinking and exercising well (he only has two meals and gets up at 5.30am every day). And, a personal favourite, no gossip,
“Gossip was a useful tool when we were all fighting in the jungle 70,000 years ago and needed to know who to trust. Now it’s just a way we outsource our worlds to the worlds of others.”
His definition of success is this: “Am I doing the best I can at this very moment in time: being honest, being kind, being grateful, being healthy, being with people I love, being creative? Perhaps lifetime success is the collection of all those moments. Cultivate the fire inside of you. Nothing external will cultivate it. The greater your internal fire is, the more people will want it. The universe will bend to you.”
James Altucher’s new book, The Power of No, co-authored with his wife, Claudia Azula Altucher, was released on July 15.
First published in The Age – click here to view
