James Altucher Quotes Page 10

“What is enough? It’s not a number.”

“Excuses are leaks in a boat. When you cover one, another pops up, and it’s even bigger. It’s hard to keep the boat repaired and get safely to shore if you have an excuse mind-set.”

“Filtering the people we allow into our lives is probably the most important factor in determining whether we will live a happy life or not.”

“If coming up with ten ideas sounds too hard, then come up with twenty.”

“In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king. When everyone spills their guts, they lose their sight. The one who holds on to this very precious resource becomes the one-eyed man, the king.”

“Replace a complaint thought with one of gratitude or compassion.”

“There is nobody you need to impress. There is nobody who is judging you. And there will be nobody who can stop you.”

“Traveling to the past or the future will not help you now.”

“We beat ourselves up in ways in which we would never beat up someone we loved.”

“When you have a tiny, tiny piece of crap in your soup, it doesn’t matter how much more water you pour in and how many more spices you put on top. There’s crap in your soup.”

“When you say yes to something you don’t want to do, here is the result: you hate what you are doing, you resent the person who asked you, and you hurt yourself.”

“You are entitled to say no to wearing a mask in order to get people to like you.”

“You decide whom you say NO to. You are entitled to choose your tribe, regardless of what society imposes on you. You decide who in your life drains you of energy, and then purge them so you can soar. This does not mean you become a hermit; it means you choose your family, your friends, your colleagues, your tribe, your life.”

“Your brain is a tool you use. It’s not who you are.”

“Your honesty—saying no to the lying—is what will bring the lost ships home. It’s what will bring health, love, and money to you.”

“40% of people who graduate college never read a book again. If you are in the remaining 60% you are 1000× ahead of everyone else.”

“Action leaks the panic out of your head.”

“Always assume you are the least intelligent person in the room. Always. Do this in every room, at every dinner, in every situation.”

“Always take the job, pursue the life, and have the friends that allow you to have as much freedom as possible. I asked Nassim Taleb on my podcast what job should one have. He said, night watchman, because nobody is around to bother you and you can pursue all your dreams on the side.”

“At any point in your career, you are either a thermostat or a thermometer. You either define the temperature of the people around you and help them achieve their goals and dreams, or you simply do as you’re told and be a follower and never inspire.”

“Everything that happens in your future is a direct result of what you do today.”

“Everything you learn in school can be outsourced to someone who learned it more cheaply or learned it more recently.”

“Get good at three, four, or five things. Then find the intersection. Then become the best in the world at the intersection. That’s how you can pretend to do your special purpose.”

“Goals are a myth. Our ancestors for 200,000 years didn’t have goals. Every day started from scratch: hunt, forage, eat, sex, sleep, and wake up to a new day. Then we were told to find our 'goals'.”

“I have never met a mentally strong person who wasn’t a voracious reader.”

“If a company is buying lots of smaller companies, they need a vision that explains why bigger is better.”

“If you don’t give yourself permission to create a new world, chances are nobody else will.”

“In the 1890’s horses, carrying people to work, dropped 4.5 million tons of manure on the streets of Manhattan, every year. That was the big environmental problem of the day. "NYC will be buried in horse manure by 1950!" screamed the headlines. It doesn’t matter what your opinion about this was. None of the people living in NY solved the problem despite the 1000s of opinions. People with passion for mechanics in Detroit made something called a car. Problem solved.”

“Just being an entrepreneur, without having multiple sources of income, without first taking care of the risks, is suicide. ”

“Leadership is not about achieving your dream. It’s about helping everyone else achieve their dreams.”