The James Altucher Show

Got to interview one of my favorite comedians for the podcast, Tiffany Haddish, star of "Girls Trip," her recent comedy special. "She Ready", and 20 years a stand up. I asked her what was the biggest change in her first few years of doing standup. (She's been doing it over 20 years). She said, "I learned to change the fear into fun". I think all of the above is great advice to achieve success in everything worth doing. I had a gift for Tiffany. It was a suitcase. I gave her a suitcase for the kids. Let me explain. Because a suitcase is an odd kind of gift. Tiffany was placed in foster care when she was 12 years old and stayed in the system until she was a legal adult. When she moved from home to home she didn't have a suitcase or any kind of bag to put her clothes. They make the kids put all their belongings in trash bags. And it made her feel like garbage. "You're garbage," she said. "Garbage moved around from house to house." "When I was 13, I said to myself if I ever get any sort of power, any sort of influence at all, I'm gonna figure out a way to make sure no kid feels like a piece of trash." And she's succeeding (and you can help). So she's been collecting suitcases for kids through the Felix Organization. If you're reading this and want to donate a suitcase, look up the Felix Organization. I wanted to know how she rose up from foster kid to superstar comedian. And the first black female to host Saturday Night Live. "I try to manifest what it is I want to be," she said. And she told me her self talk... "You got divine order all over you," she said. "Everything is happening in the order and the way it's supposed to happen.You got this girl. Pull that energy from your uterus. You got it that's where your soul at. Pull it up from your soul. You got this girl." I couldn't stop laughing. She said she tried to find the joy and the fun in everything she's ever gone through. Here's a quote from her new book, "The Last Black Unicorn": "In stand-up, you do need to be having fun up there like Richard Pryor said, but you have to know yourself well, too...You start learning and it's like playing a piano. You know exactly what keys to stroke, 'cause really with comedy, you're like fiddling with people's souls. You resonate on the same frequency as them, trying to greet them to relate..." "To do that, you gotta put yourself out there. And in order to put yourself out there, you've gotta have an idea who you are." Make sure to read the full show notes here: https://jamesaltucher.com/2017/12/tiffany-haddish/ And don't forget to subscribe to "The James Altucher Show" on Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcasts! ------------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 Des 201748min

If you're reading this, you probably don't know the name Stephen Tobolowsky. But I'll give you some hints. Ned Ryerson. (From "Groundhog Day") Jack Barker. (From "Silicon Valley") Sound familiar? Stephen Tobolowsky is one of the main characters and actors in one of my favorite TV Shows, Silicon Valley. He also plays the MOST annoying character in Groundhog Day. He's been in 200 movies and a thousand other things including Seinfeld, Thelma & Louise, Heroes and the list goes on. But he did something weird. He wrote a book. And when I read it I thought, "who the hell is this guy?" There are only two ways someone could write this book..." My Adventures with God". ONE: If they were incredibly broken as a human being somewhere in their lives and then they climbed back out of that hole by thinking all these intense and philosophical thoughts. TWO: They were just born this way... I still haven't figured out which one. I have to admit I didn't understand parts of Stephen's book. And not because it was bad, (I loved it), but because I had to stop and think. His thoughts are so valuable and I really wanted to know what they meant. I was pretty happy he was able to come on my podcast. He taught me that we're all writing and choosing our narratives to some extent... "Well I think on a personal level, we all end up developing narratives," Stephen said, "Either it's instinct or sometimes it's choice. I think we live in the dark so much of the time that we need metaphors to find our way. And I believe having a philosophy is only useful if it helps you see in the dark." So I asked him how do we begin to take control of our own narratives? Because we to some extent, I can't just surrender to the narratives that has  been  given to me. That takes away my freedom and ability to reinvent. Stephen told me this, "We're all living on borrowed time." This podcast shows you a window into a man's desire to connect with the deeper meaning on time and what it means to be alive. Thanks for reading! Make sure to check out the show notes here: https://jamesaltucher.com/2017/12/stephen-tobolowsky/ And don't forget to subscribe to "The James Altucher Show" on Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcasts! ------------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.

14 Des 20171h 47min

I wish I could take everything Ray Dalio said and turn it into a book. But he already did that. It's called, "Principles: Life and Work." And I'm going to be re-reading it for the rest of my life. He defines principles as "ways of successfully dealing with reality to get what you want out of life." And he's revealing how he used these principles to build BridgeWater Associates, (which manages $150 BILLION in assets. Globally.) He told me story after story. How he went broke. How he started over. How he built a community within the walls of business. How he wrote his book. Love his family, teaches his students, learns from life... "I think you're faced with choices. Those are the times that test your values..." "Being successful is hard," he said. "But it's a lot harder to live a life you don't want." Then he said, "habit is the main controller of all of us." And (for me) it all came down to one formula: He said, "Dreams + reality + determination = a successful life."   Show Notes: Principles: Life and Work by Ray Dalio Ray founded Bridgewater Associates, LP, a hedge fund that manages $150 billion in global investments. Listen to Ray's TED Talk   "The Hero with a Thousand Faces" by Joseph Campbell "The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business" by Charles Duhigg (And you can listen to my interview with Charles - Ep. 161 - Charles Duhigg: Be Smarter, Faster, Better... And Most of All Be Free  Also check out this video from Ray if you want to learn more about economics.   Thanks so much for listening! If you like this episode, please subscribe to "The James Altucher Show" and rate and review wherever you get your podcasts: iTunes Stitcher iHeart Radio Spotify   Follow me on Social Media: Twitter Facebook Linkedin Instagram   ------------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.

12 Des 20171h 25min

You may remember Amy, she came on my podcast a few weeks ago. We discussed her book, "13 Things Mentally Strong People Don't Do." I asked her why is it a book about what people DON'T do instead of SHOULD do. It seemed counterintuitive to me. But her reasoning made sense. The book wasn't written for other people. It was actually just a letter to herself at first. And then she put it online. And it became viral... that led to a book deal. The podcast was really popular. But I feel like you didn't get the full story... Amy's not just an author, therapist, social worker/mentally strong person. She's also an entrepreneur. She was making money in her sleep... "I've always had some sort of a side hustle usually something fun or strange," she said. I knew immediately I needed to have her back on the show. I wanted her to  share this with my listeners. Because these are "choose yourself" ideas. Simple, easy to execute, and anyone can do it.   "I had a friend who had a jewelry store," Amy said, "so I knew the markup on jewelry was incredible, like 200 hundred or 300 hundred percent." And she knew jewelry was fairly inexpensive to ship because it didn't weigh anything. Over the years she and her husband thought about how they could turn this into something they could monetize. And finally they did it. I asked so many questions about how she pulled the trigger. And got the courage. I wanted to know how she made this business work. I also gave her ideas about how she could scale. I really believe this: anyone who listens to this podcast can start doing their own side hustle right now. "Over time it went from a few dollars to a few hundred and then before I knew it we were up to a few $1,000  dollars a month." You could quit your job I told her. "That was the dream," she said. You can read my show notes here: https://jamesaltucher.com/2017/12/amy-morin-2/ And don't forget to subscribe to "The James Altucher Show" on Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcasts! ------------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.

11 Des 20171h 14min

I got a call from my friend Mike Van Cleave a year ago. He told me had cancer. We hadn't spoken for years. "It's like mold in your refrigerator," he said. "All of a sudden you're like, 'What the hell happened? It's only been a week."   You never know who's going to call you out of the blue someday with cancer. It's scary, but luckily we don't live with these thoughts in our minds. We only think of ourselves. "Will I get cancer?" And that's important. These selfish thoughts keep us alive. I've always admired my friend Mike. I felt honored to have him on this podcast. He told me the science of his cancer (thyroid cancer) and the ways he's surviving every day. I'll take emotional pain over physical any day. So my bones can keep typing. "Do you have pain in your bones?" I asked him. He did. And it went away. "I have no bone pain right now. So there's a very good chance that all the bone metastasis is working," he said. That takes away 80% of the "badness". He spoke casually. And sometimes I laughed inappropriately. I guess I was scared. In 18 months, his medicine will stop working. The cancer will keep growing again. And he'll be on a new drug. He told me about the success rate of his next drug (only 50% of people are helped and it only helps for 6 months). "What's the best case scenario?" I asked. I cried afterwards. Not in front on him. Not there... But later, when I was alone with my fear, I cried for hope. He's down to his second to last drug. The second to last hope. Unless they create a new medicine... "We're look at a maximum of three years," I said... "What happens next?" "Honestly, really bad things happen," he said. Then he told me, "All of a sudden there was meaning... The desire to connect with meaning overwhelmed the time I had for the meaningless. In some ways, you can't understand it. And the one thing I've come to understand completely is there's only one thing in your life that matters and that's the quality of your relationships. It's such a cliche. You can look back at thousands of quotes from people who are old and dying and they always talk about the people in their lives. Nobody cares how much money you have when you die." I stayed silent. I wanted to catch all his words. And learn from them. "Most of the things we sit around worrying about, you realize, at this stage, has no meaning. Now, it's important. Maybe. Ya know, it's important that I have a job, but the job itself only has the importance that you place in it." I hope this podcast is a special moment for you like it was for me. I took it as a chance to step back from my life. And the problems I think about over and over again. This interview allowed me to care for a friend. And I hope it lets you care for a stranger. That's something I want to do a little bit more each day. Until the day is full with selfless thoughts between selfish thoughts. Maybe that's part of the medicine. Make sure to read the full show notes here: https://jamesaltucher.com/2017/12/mike-van-cleave/ And don't forget to subscribe to "The James Altucher Show" on Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcasts! ------------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... See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

7 Des 20171h 21min

I don't know where to begin. I'm a fan of Scott. I think he reminds me of someone I went to highschool with. He was bright and always cursing at the right time. I remember laughing. Because I felt close to being free. But he was the one with the ability to put himself in the middle of controversy. That's something I (still) can't do. He'd say eff this or eff that. Part of me felt compelled to egg him on. But he didn't need it. He was comfortable being cynical and right. Scott Galloway does this with business. I watch his weekly  "Winners & Losers" videos where he tells you things like "Brands are dying" and "Amazon will be broken up" Then he'll dress up like Spock and I'll lose my mind. I get these videos emailed to my phone. And I'm also subscribed to his YouTube channel. He came on my podcast to talk about his new book, "The Four: The Hidden DNA of Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google." But we also talked about his past: creating and selling companies. Being on the board of The New York Times, wanting to salvage the newspaper industry (his idea back then was brilliant). "I got laughed out of the room," he said. "What was your idea?" "That the stupidest thing we did is buy into this bullshit lie that 'information wants to be free.'" He's right. I remember the beginning on the internet. We gave information  away... And now they're profiting off us. Scott called it "the hot girl effect" "Everybody wants to hang out with the hot girl," he said. "So, to say you're doing a deal with Google made you feel younger and more interesting." They said "information wants to free." So deals were made. He told me exactly how he would've turned it around. And I felt like I was listening to the possibility of new reality. That's what Scott Galloway brings to the table. Beyond strategy or analysis. Beyond brilliance, he brings possibility. And teaches you that it's not over. "The Four" are winning. But I told Scott nobody really cares. Nobody cares which one of these companies "wins." I'm interested in is learning how to win too. I want to know HOW Amazon, Apple, Facebook & Google became influential. And disruptive. So I can be influential and disruptive, too. Scott said all Fortune 500 CEO's have one thing in common... or at least "450 of them have one thing in common." They're likable. "Even the ones that are psychopaths?" I said. "Yeah..." He explained: "During the day these people are Darwin and Darth Vader, make no mistake about it. They play full body contact business and they make very brutal decisions. They dominate markets. They put companies out of business. And they don't put warning labels on your iPad even though your kid has a crack-like addiction to the thing." He called them "wolves in sheeps clothing." Zuckerberg, Jobs, Bezos, Page, Brin. But then he told me the principles they standby... There's five in total. And we go through them all on this podcast.  You can read my show notes here: https://jamesaltucher.com/2017/12/scott-galloway/ And don't forget to subscribe to "The James Altucher Show" on Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcasts! ------------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... See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

5 Des 20171h 24min

Dennis Woodside left Google, for DropBox. Everyone thought he was crazy. DropBox was this little tiny company. What was he thinking? "So you ask why I would go from Google to Dropbox. Just play the movie forward. Where's it going to be in ten years? It's logical to me that the company that pioneered this notion of putting your files in the cloud is going to have all kind of opportunities and going to solve problems for everybody in the world. A lot of people don't think that way. They think very linearly. That's how we're taught as kids. That's how you're taught in college." (And that's how Dennis was taught to think in law school. But he got out of that rut. More on that later...) "You have to rewire your brain a bit," he said. You have to ask yourself, "What trends do I understand to be true?" And "If I extrapolate that trend to its logical conclusion, what does the world look like?" That's what Dennis did. And that's how he found Google. And later, Dropbox. He said Google was tiny when he first joined. "What year?" "2003" There were only a thousand employees. "When I joined Google everybody thought I was crazy because it was a little tiny company," he said, "but I felt one of the most exciting things you can do with a career in Silicon Valley is to help grow a company. And be there early... There's a lot of uncertainty. And competition is really hard. You have to figure everything out. That's the hardest part, but the most rewarding." Dennis is now the COO of DropBox. How did he go from lost lawyer to a leader in Silicon Valley? I wanted to know. "Ultimately, I realized I wasn't going to be a great lawyer," Dennis said. This is where his career path changed from one end of the spectrum to the other. He reinvented. He learned a whole new set of skills. And he adapted to an ever changing digital world. Most people are thinking about the next ten days, Dennis is thinking about the next ten years. He saw DropBox as a pioneer. And is vision paid off. DropBox is one of the fastest growing companies maybe ever. And there are billions of people who are signing up every month. I wanted to learn how to cultivate that same skill. The one that lets you have a vision. And believe in it. Make sure to read the full show notes here: https://jamesaltucher.com/2017/12/dennis-woodside/ And don't forget to subscribe to "The James Altucher Show" on Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcasts! ------------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.

4 Des 20171h 3min

I sat down with two women the other day. And I can't decide whether they've completely ruined my life or helped me. I decided they were going to help me decide before this podcast was over. Ellen Fein and Sherrie Schneider are the authors of the classic book, "The Rules". I know this book inside and out. Every woman I ever dated back in the 90's and early 00's read "The Rules" AND were following them. I felt like I was talking to them on behalf of every single person I've ever dated. (And every man who's ever been frustrated by a woman they've dated.) "The Rules" tell women how to date and WHO to date. But more than that, it teaches you to have self respect. How to bring the center of gravity back to yourself. And stop outsourcing your self-esteem to some other human or some idea of being with that human. I've been married twice. I told Ellen and Sherrie about both of my marriages, but I kept something things private, too. I told them I'm going to give their books to my daughters. I want them to read it. "But I don't know if I want my future girlfriend to read it," I said. Maybe that's because I'm a little lost. And I want her (whoever she is) to be a little lost with me. Make sure to read the full show notes here: https://jamesaltucher.com/2017/11/ellen-fein-sherrie-schneider/  And don't forget to subscribe to "The James Altucher Show" on Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcasts! ------------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.

30 Nov 20171h 10min