Ep. 229 - Brandon Webb: Becoming The Master of Your Own Fate

Brian Koppelman joins James again today to answer all those questions that James was kicking himself for not asking during their first interview back in November. Writing the super hit, Solitary Man, was a challenge different than any other Brian had yet taken on. And he tells James that he "got stuck." Fear would set in; he would see his limitations and get sidetracked. Up until that time, Brian had been able to lean on his creative partner, David Levien, to help him find the way to power through the moment after his initial creativity wore off. But when he was writing Solitary Man and showed it to Dave, he told him that it was clear Brian had to write this one himself. He had the character right, he had the voice right, and he had the tone down. This was really the first time Brian had to complete a major work himself. Growing up with ADHD made this a real challenge for Brian. Dave had always been there in the past to push them through, but not this time. So to help him move past his fears, Brian decided to do stand-up comedy. Not just going up on a stage once, but taking this on as a serious craft. He found that getting rejected helped him push through his writer's block. Brian practices his craft in every medium every day. He hosts a podcast, produces hugely successful Vine video clips, and he's currently shooting a new TV pilot, Billions.   ------------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 Run for President 2.0 Facebook Group, where we discuss why you should run for President.I write about all my podcasts! Check out the full post and learn what I learned at jamesaltuchershow.com------------Thank you so much for listening! If you like this episode, please rate, review, and subscribe to "The James Altucher Show" wherever you get your podcasts: Apple PodcastsiHeart RadioSpotifyFollow me on social media:YouTubeTwitterFacebookLinkedIn See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

13 Maalis 20151h 1min

Gretchen Rubin is the New York Times bestselling author of The Happiness Project. After reading her book and applying some of her practical ideas, James was hooked. For example, he discovered that after six seconds of continuous hugging, the body releases oxytocin - the feel-good juice. He decided to try this on Claudia the other day during a little argument they were having, and it totally worked. The Happiness Project was born out of a realization that disregarding happiness can lead to a lack of appreciation for life. Gretchen dedicated an entire year to being happy and she talks with James about how the results of that decision have completely changed her life One of the ways Gretchen and James are similar is that they both like to make lists. For him, it was about becoming an idea machine - by coming up with 10 new  ideas every day and for Gretchen, is was about finding happiness by figuring what made her happy and unhappy. Start your own happiness project right now by making a list from these two questions: How could I be happier?  What could I do that would make me happier? Gretchen says, "Happier people are more interested in the problems of others." "By being happy ourselves we are able to turn outward and focus on the needs of others." Discover the two main factors of developing a happier life from one of the most thought-provoking and influential writers on habits and happiness. Gretchen also has a new book coming out on March 17 called Better Than Before and it's about mastering the habits of our everyday lives. Official website: gretchenrubin.com. Follow Gretchen Rubin on Twitter and Facebook. In this episode: Strategies for how to look for happiness The happiness challenge The habits we need to form in order to find happiness The importance of boosting energy and vitality Triadic closure Why habits make everything easier How extreme personalities can thrive Why some people are scornful of those who exude unusual amounts of happiness How thinking about others can spark happiness Why selfish people are unhappy The downward spiral of rumination Removing anxiety by taking action Appreciating life and the small things Importance of self-command How The Happiness Project began Habit - a concrete action that is observable. How to sit down and figure out what makes you happy The importance of a sleep routine Overcoming excuses   The correlation of happiness and growth ------------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 Run for President 2.0 Facebook Group, where we discuss why you should run for President.I write about all my podcasts! Check out the full post and learn what I learned at jamesaltuchershow.com------------Thank you so much for listening! If you like this episode, please rate, review, and subscribe to "The James Altucher Show" wherever you get your podcasts: Apple PodcastsiHeart RadioSpotifyFollow me on social media:YouTubeTwitterFacebookLinkedIn See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

5 Maalis 201547min

Performance coach and bestselling author of Live It, Jairek Robbins, talks about his journey in the life coaching business and how he and James met through an ongoing competition on Amazon.   Jairek reveals how his father, Tony Robbins (Tony Robbins podcast), encouraged him to find his life calling through a simple process of learning, living, and giving. He explains how his father's one rule about money gave him the opportunity of a life time.   Jairek now owns and operates his own performance coaching firm (jairekrobbins.com) where he thrives on helping clients reach their full potential. He believes so deeply in the message ofLive It that he waited 10 years to publish the book so that he could first live out the principles of the text.   This episode is full of great tips and practical examples that explain why performance coaching is a hot topic in today's culture. Find out how a good life coach can identify small changes that yield big results.   In this episode:   Alkalizing your body Five questions that could change your life Why Live It took 10 years to complete The characteristics of a good life coach Defining the ideal day Case study: How a law firm corrected a major time-management dilemma The difference between individual coaching and business coaching Importance of identity Transitioning from a practice to a business Listen as James and Jairek have a little idea sex Tony Robbins' only rule about money for his kids Making the transition from ambition to meaning Conquering the the main opponents to success   How to pick habits that improve your life ------------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 Run for President 2.0 Facebook Group, where we discuss why you should run for President.I write about all my podcasts! Check out the full post and learn what I learned at jamesaltuchershow.com------------Thank you so much for listening! If you like this episode, please rate, review, and subscribe to "The James Altucher Show" wherever you get your podcasts: Apple PodcastsiHeart RadioSpotifyFollow me on social media:YouTubeTwitterFacebookLinkedIn See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

3 Maalis 20151h 6min

Kevin Kelly is Senior Maverick at Wired magazine. He co-founded Wired in 1993, and served as its executive editor from its inception until 1999. He is also editor and publisher of the Cool Tools website, which gets half a million unique visitors per month. From 1984-1990, Kelly was publisher and editor of the Whole Earth Review, a journal of unorthodox technical news. He co-founded the ongoing Hackers' Conference, and was involved with the launch of the WELL, a pioneering online service started in 1985. He authored the best-selling New Rules for the New Economy and the classic book on decentralized emergent systems, Out of Control. Kevin dropped out of college to pursue his real interests, and they are varied. James and Kevin talk about Kevin's idea that "if you have 1000 True Fans then you have a business." This is a wide-ranging conversation about the past, the present, and the future. Kevin's extremely bullish on the future of artificial intelligence, yet he says there is no extinct technology... none. And they talk about a few of his books, Cool Tools and The Silver Cord.   Listen here if you want to see into the future. ------------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 Run for President 2.0 Facebook Group, where we discuss why you should run for President.I write about all my podcasts! Check out the full post and learn what I learned at jamesaltuchershow.com------------Thank you so much for listening! If you like this episode, please rate, review, and subscribe to "The James Altucher Show" wherever you get your podcasts: Apple PodcastsiHeart RadioSpotifyFollow me on social media:YouTubeTwitterFacebookLinkedIn See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

27 Helmi 20151h 11min

A.J. Jacobs is creating the world's largest family reunion. You may remember A.J. from his first interview on The James Altucher Show a year ago. If you know A.J., you'll know why this is the one event you don't want to miss. He's a master at creating a huge media splash. The Global Family Reunion is set for June 6, 2015 at The New York Hall of Science, on the grounds of the World's Fair. James is a featured speaker along with George H.W. Bush, Dr. Oz, and too many others to list here... plus Morgan Spurlock ("Supersize Me") will be creating a featured documentary of the entire event. James and A.J. talk today about world peace and why when someone is part of your family, you tend to be much more tolerant of them. "Delusional opportunism is a wonderful thing and sometimes it pays off." A.J. is a master at marketing and he tells James some of the hacks he's using to get the word out. This entire experiment will eventually become a book. They talk about their personal writing styles and techniques. AJ says that even if he's stuck, he'll just start typing. It's important to get the movement of your fingers over the keyboard. You can throw out those first 20 minutes, but it's key to get going.   They talk about the origin of the human race and how closely we are related to Neanderthals. ------------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 Run for President 2.0 Facebook Group, where we discuss why you should run for President.I write about all my podcasts! Check out the full post and learn what I learned at jamesaltuchershow.com------------Thank you so much for listening! If you like this episode, please rate, review, and subscribe to "The James Altucher Show" wherever you get your podcasts: Apple PodcastsiHeart RadioSpotifyFollow me on social media:YouTubeTwitterFacebookLinkedIn See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

24 Helmi 20151h 1min

Peter Diamandis, CEO of the XPRIZE and co-chairman of Planetary Resources and Steven Kotler, the cofounder and director of research for the Flow Genome Project aswell as being author of "The Rise of Superman," a New York Times bestseller, and previous guest on The James Altucher Show, came together to co-write Bold, about building companies using exponentially growing technologies like 3D printing, artificial intelligence, and synthetic engineering. They join James today to talk about the prevalent doom-and-gloom media that saturates us with negative news over and over again. Peter says he believes that people need an alternative and hear the good news. They go through the six D's outlined in the book: Digitalization, Disruption, Deception, Demonetization, Dematerialization, and Democratization Peter says, "Bold was written as the roadmap for entrepreneurs to get us to this abundant future with the realization that the world's biggest problems are the biggest business opportunities."   It's a great story... ------------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 Run for President 2.0 Facebook Group, where we discuss why you should run for President.I write about all my podcasts! Check out the full post and learn what I learned at jamesaltuchershow.com------------Thank you so much for listening! If you like this episode, please rate, review, and subscribe to "The James Altucher Show" wherever you get your podcasts: Apple PodcastsiHeart RadioSpotifyFollow me on social media:YouTubeTwitterFacebookLinkedIn See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

19 Helmi 201549min

Andy Weir followed his dream. Ever since he was a small boy he wanted to be a writer, but it took him a long time to find success. His first short story, The Egg brought him a bit of notoriety. This thousand-word story got passed around on blog sites and people began to follow him. The Martian, Andy's new hit book was first published as a serial, one chapter at a time on his website. He had just a only few thousand readers.  He eventually self published this as a book and it sold about 35,000 copies on Amazon. Suddenly Random House came calling with a big pile of money. They talk about his daily writing habits and the books and authors Andy is a fan of and James digs in a bit to find out what's next. He tells James that he's still afraid of being a one hit wonder. James asks him what advice he would give to aspiring writers 1.Write.  It's easy to daydream about your story but you have to sit down and write. 2.Resist the urge to tell your story to your friends and family 3.This is the best time in history to be a writer. Today, you can bypass the gatekeepers   Listen here its great story ------------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 Run for President 2.0 Facebook Group, where we discuss why you should run for President.I write about all my podcasts! Check out the full post and learn what I learned at jamesaltuchershow.com------------Thank you so much for listening! If you like this episode, please rate, review, and subscribe to "The James Altucher Show" wherever you get your podcasts: Apple PodcastsiHeart RadioSpotifyFollow me on social media:YouTubeTwitterFacebookLinkedIn See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

18 Helmi 201553min

ames and Claudia talk with Ari Whitten, author of the book The Low Carb Myth,to talk aboutwhy people get fat and get unhealthy. Do carbohydrates make you fat? His conclusions are surprising. He disagrees strongly that we get fat because we are lazy and eat too much. Rather than being due simply to gluttony, sloth, and conscious decisions around how much we eat or move. If you've been on a low- or no-carb diet or are just looking for an alternative to eating healthy, listen here. ------------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 Run for President 2.0 Facebook Group, where we discuss why you should run for President.I write about all my podcasts! Check out the full post and learn what I learned at jamesaltuchershow.com------------Thank you so much for listening! If you like this episode, please rate, review, and subscribe to "The James Altucher Show" wherever you get your podcasts: Apple PodcastsiHeart RadioSpotifyFollow me on social media:YouTubeTwitterFacebookLinkedIn See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

15 Helmi 201526min