What Did I Learn Too Late in Life?

“I’ve always been an addict. I always will be an addict...” November 12, 2020 [UNSUBSCRIBE]( | [WEBSITE]( [Altucher Confidential] “I’ve always been an addict. I always will be an addict..” [hero image] What Did I Learn Too Late in Life? By James Altucher This guy is someone to listen to while ago I got to sit down and speak with the genius and futurist George Gilder. The same guy who predicted everything from the first smartphone tech to streaming TV — so he's worth listening to. He is hugely respected and even sat down with presidents to give his advice. He currently has a new prediction that he’s calling “[15G]( and he sat down for a virtual meeting with my publisher and one of our top analysts to spill the beans on “[15G]( [Click here to watch that recorded meeting.]( I killed myself every day. Non-stop torture. For decades, my “self” was a deadly mixture of anxiety about money, pain about relationships, petty jealousy, fear, wanting people to like me. I was thrown out of graduate school, failed at business, failed at jobs, lost a marriage, a house, then two. Always jealous. Always crying. Always wishing I were someone else. I constantly thought about money. Night and day. I would go to therapists not to reduce my anxiety but just to ask them for money. [I'd go to psychics]( and astrologers and ask them when I would make money. They always said, "Next year you will make a lot of money." Or, when China was "hot," they'd say, "I see China in your future. A lot of money." None of it ever came true. I exiled myself 70 miles away. I didn’t leave my house for three months. I felt dead. One day I had a bad trading day. I was so upset. When will things change? There was a little island near where I was. I walked into the water. I let the water go over my head and I just floated. I wanted to die. I was so sick of being a prisoner to the enormous desire of money. It was a monster. It never left my head. It was killing me. I wanted to sink. The next day I said, "Why do I keep making it and then losing it?" Why do I keep falling in love and then… disaster? What is going right when I make it? What is going wrong when I lose it? What is going right when I fall in love? What is going wrong when I lose that love? What is going right when I am creative? What is going wrong when I lose that creativity? There was a time in early 2008 I was writing for thestreet.com. I was so depressed I couldn't get out of bed. My business partner, Dan, was writing four articles a day under my name so nobody would realize I disappeared. I had to change. Maybe desire = anxiety = negativity. I became addicted to antianxiety drugs. Antipsychotic drugs. Painkillers. Alcohol. Everything that could numb me enough to sleep. I was so addicted to the worst drugs I'm still weaning off of them a quarter milligram at a time. I’ve always been an addict. I always will be an addict. I looked back at the best times in my life. When I felt confident. When I was making money. When I felt the courage to love others, when I felt the strength of having others love me. What was I doing right? I looked back at when I was doing things wrong: businesses failing, no friends, aborted relationships, lying. What was I doing wrong? I didn’t have a core integrity to speak from. I didn't have a core manifesto. Now I do and I try to live it every day. People always want complex solutions to simple problems. But minimalism, simplicity, less, is always the best. [So I’ll write what I’ve written before.]( Maybe add a tiny bit. The entire universe came from a single infinitesimal dot. A fresh start. PHYSICAL HEALTH: Eat / Sleep / Move. - 8 hours of sleep - Simply don’t eat processed foods (I try. I try.) - Move. On a recent podcast, the author of The Bad Food Bible told me, “30 minutes of brisk walking a day is enough.” More important than your Social Security number? [Please Enable Images]( type of 32-digit code you’ll see [here]( holds the keys to a market that could become bigger than the computer or even the smartphone market... [Click here now]( to find out how to get in on the ground floor. EMOTIONAL HEALTH: ZERO Toxic People I have so many examples of this: - A bad romantic relationship will destroy every opportunity and friendship in your life - One single bad business relationship can destroy a $1 billion revenue company - One bad friend can cause months of anxiety and worry. Only 1,000 “no”s can find you the right “yes.” To you who are special to me: “YES!” CREATIVE HEALTH: I always say write 10 ideas a day. Not to have a good idea. But to exercise the idea machine. A machine that will change your life once developed. Every day this idea machine fuels the rest of my life. It’s a miracle. How can you be creative? I don’t know. Keep a notebook (I keep a waiter’s pad), write your ideas down for the day. Then write down everything interesting to you. Practice: write 10 novel ideas. Write 10 inventions. Write 10 things McDonalds can do to be better. Google. Your friend. Your spouse. SPIRITUAL HEALTH: I hate the word “spiritual.” It sort of feels gooey. But the essence of spirituality is simply: “I can’t control the world.” And the world is an irrational place filled with irrational people. And yet happiness still exists. What is happiness? I don’t know. But this is what I try: - Friendships and love - Improvement every day in the activities I love. Even tiny improvement - F Making more choices for myself today than the day before. If others are making choices for me, the results won’t be as good as my own choices for me. Everyone else’s agenda is worse for you than your agenda. 1% IMPROVEMENT A DAY: Whatever I try to get good at, I try to improve 1% a day. How? - Mentors - Virtual mentors - Doing - Reading - Writing - Studying failure (never blame, always study) - Repeat - Challenge myself. If I want to get better at something, find the worst conditions to practice in. Mikhail Botvinik, former world chess champion, used to play practice matches with someone blowing smoke in his face. Did he get better? Yes. Did he die of cancer? Probably. But he got 1% better a day. LESS: A few years ago I threw away everything I owned. I lived for two years in Airbnbs. Now I am starting to slowly build up. In those two years I was more successful than I ever was. I discovered new and great friends. I met someone special. When you get rid of the clutter of life, of the mind, of emotions, then true love takes its place. Loving yourself is abundance. From nothing, comes everything. What did I learn too late in life? Nothing. Sincerely, [James Altucher] James Altucher The Most Shocking Announcement Of 2020? has changed the world time and time again… With the iPod, they changed how we listen to music. With the iPad, they changed how we use computers. With the iPhone, they changed how we interact with each other. [And now, it looks as if Apple could change the world again.]( What Apple’s working on next could be bigger than anything they’ve done before… It could be the next great leap in technology. And it’s set to make some savvy early investors remarkable profits… Will you be one of them? Or will you sit on the sidelines yet again? [Click here for this urgent prediction.]( Subsribe To My Podcast [The James Altucher Show]( [The James Altucher Website]( [Subscribe Via Text]( [Subscribe With YouTube]( [Subscribe On Messenger]( [Subscribe With iTunes]( [Connected on LinkedIn]( Add AltucherConfidential@email.threefounderspublishing.com to your address book: [Whitelist Us]( Join the conversation! Follow me on social media: [Facebook Group]( [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [Pinterest]( [Instagram]( [Three founders Publishing]( To end your Altucher Confidential e-mail subscription and associated external offers sent from Altucher Confidential, a subsidiary of Three Founders Publishing, LLC, feel free to [click here](. If you are having trouble receiving your Altucher Confidential subscription, you can ensure its arrival in your mailbox by [whitelisting Altucher Confidential](. Choose Yourself Media, LLC., a subsidiary of Three Founders Publishing, LLC., is committed to protecting and respecting your privacy. Please read [our Privacy Statement.]( For any further comments or concerns please email us at AltucherConfidential@threefounderspublishing.com. Three Founders Publishing, LLC. 808 Saint Paul Street, Baltimore MD 21202. Nothing in this e-mail should be considered personalized financial advice. Although our employees may answer your general customer service questions, they are not licensed under securities laws to address your particular investment situation. No communication by our employees to you should be deemed as personalized financial advice. We expressly forbid our writers from having a financial interest in any security recommended to our readers. All of our employees and agents must wait 24 hours after online publication or 72 hours after the mailing of a printed-only publication prior to following an initial recommendation. Any investments recommended in this letter should be made only after consulting with your investment advisor and only after reviewing the prospectus or financial statements of the company. © 2020 Choose Yourself Media, LLC., a subsidiary of Three Founders Publishing, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Protected by copyright laws of the United States and international treaties. This newsletter may only be used pursuant to the subscription agreement and any reproduction, copying, or redistribution (electronic or otherwise, including on the world wide web), in whole or in part, is strictly prohibited without the express written permission of Three Founders Publishing, LLC. EMAIL REFERENCE ID: 430ALCED01