The James Altucher Show

HOW TO DISCOVER THE SECRETS IN LIFE The best things in life are born from coincidence. I am a firm believer in this. A year ago I was flying back from California. I started talking to the guy sitting next to me. Turns out he had  worked in almost every branch of government related to intelligence and diplomacy. Now he runs his own private intelligence company. He has information about every government in the world. He is paid a lot of money to reveal and analyze that information. But when we were on the plane, for basically four or five hours I asked him everything I could and got the most incredible detail about the state of affairs in the world. I'm almost afraid to reveal what we spoke about on the plane. Everything from "how to catch a liar" to "What is the Nigerian government specifically doing about oil prices" to "Will Trump win?" (and his answer turned out to be stunningly accurate). Then...a lost touch with him. He  was just a guy I sat next to on the plane for a few hours. We got off and went to live our separate lives. Until now. His new book is out: "Warnings" written with uber-diplomat Richard Clarke. What is he warning about? Everything. Where are the hidden potential catastrophes around the world. And how can we live with them. And how can we avoid them. And how can we figure out the warnings after these? He answers, he analyzes, he proves, and he does it from his 30 years of experience uncovering these things for the US government and now, through his company, for other governments and large institutions that can afford him.  The key is: "that  can afford him". Because now he comes on the podcast and just like the coincidence of meeting  him a year ago, he answers all of my questions again about his book. About the "Warnings". I love  when coincidence intersects real life. I saw his book, remembered him from our interaction, and we had the best time on the podcast. Read the book, listen to the podcast, and don't ignore the coincidences in your life. (But he is.) R.P. Eddy is the CEO or Ergo, one of the greatest super intelligent firms in the world. Governments hire him and his firm to spy on other governments. "Hopefully, I wasn't too indiscreet," he said, referring to the time on his plane.   I told him not to worry. "If you're not arrested by the end of this podcast, then you're okay." In his book, "Warnings: Finding Cassandras to Stop Catastrophes," R.P. covers all the major world catastrophes that could've been predicted and prevented: 9/11, Madoff, Fukushima, the financial crisis, AIDS, climate change. If we can learn to predict these, or at least learn how to figure out  how the correct experts are, then a lot of pain can be avoided. Experts warned us. But no one listened to them. R.P. calls these people "Cassandras." The name comes from greek mythology. Apollo (a god) wanted to sleep with Cassandra. She refused. So Apollo cursed her. "She could foretell any future disaster. She could see it in vivid color," R.P said. But the curse was that no one believed her. So she burned to death in a terrible attack. (An attack she knew was coming...) These people exist in real life. And R.P. wants us to notice them. So R.P, and his coauthor, Richard Clarke, started "The Annual Cassandra Award." They're giving away cash prizes (up to $10,000) to motivate people to find and nominate a true "Cassandras." This is the formula for spotting a "Cassandra..." How to detect a truth-teller (listen at [55:25]) The "Cassandras" featured in R.P's book are experts in their field. They have been for years. He told me about Laurie Garrett, the head of global health for the Council of Foreign Relations. She's the first person to ever win the Polk, the Pulitzer and the Peabody. "She foresaw the rise of HIV/AIDS when she was a radio reporter in San Francisco," R.P. said. "She saw these men dying of a disease called 'gay related immune deficiency,'... See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

His platoon was counting on him. He couldn't come back a failure. Brandon had been deployed to the Middle East four times. He'd seen the ugliness and destruction war had caused. And now he was being sent straight to sniper school. This is one of the most stressful jobs as a Navy SEAL. He would have to learn how to make quick decisions. Hard decisions. "The only easy day was yesterday," he said. "That's our motto." Brandon is one of the most accomplished sniper teachers of his time. He changed the system. And implemented positive reinforcement, which allowed him to see firsthand how having a good "mental mindset" propels people into success. In his memoir, "The Red Circle" and his newest book, a New York Times bestseller "The Killing School: Inside the World's Deadliest Sniper Program," Brandon shows you exactly how to train for a "champions mindset." He uses mental management strategies: visualization, positive self-talk, solution-based thinking and so on. He is the master of his own fate. And now you can be too... -- Here's what we talk about: [6:08] - I don't normally do this. But this time I gave away the "table of contents" of what I wanted to discuss with Brandon Webb: - I wanted to cover Brandon's ideas on war- discuss the issue of teaching people to kill people (to me, this is the elephant in the room)- Brandon was one of the first deployed to Iraq. So I wanted to ask about his ups and downs going to war, coming back and going to war again  -"Obviously, I don't want to learn how to be a sniper" I said, "but what I really want to talk about is peak performance." Both of Brandon's books to talk about this, especially his section on "mental management." I wanted to learn what tools and habits I need to do today to make myself a master of my own fate. That's essentially what this show is about... becoming the master of your own fate. "Choosing yourself." [30:16] - I needed to know. Islam itself. What is the fight? Is this really a fight of religions? I asked Brandon why radicalism has spread so quickly in the Middle East. He pointed out the economics and the gap between rich and poor. "The social and political situation is not very good... Saudi Arabia, for example, has a very elite royal ruling class but the working population is very poor." He said people join the fight because they need a cause. They need to belong to something. A military is a tribe. I get this question all the time. "How do I find my purpose?" Some people find their purpose in a fight. In a mission. In a cause... Brandon explained that the people who join these radical groups, or any group, were probably suffering in life. And they wanted to fill a hole in their life. They wanted what any human wants: a feeling of belonging. That's the powerful force pulling them in. When Brandon was 16, his dad threw him off a boat in Tahiti. Brandon had to find his way back. And eventually he joined the military, became a Navy SEAL and then became a special ops sniper. There were 23 of them and 220 tried out. The question he gets most often is one of ignorance, "How many people did you kill?" But that's not what it's about for Brandon. And maybe that's what separates good from evil. He continued to tell me how radical governments incentives people to join "the cause." He said they pay you to become a martyr. I couldn't believe it. "Is that true?" I asked. "Yeah," he said, "As a state sponsor of terror, Iran is funding and fueling the conflict in the Middle East, especially with Israel." And the Internet makes it worse, too. Brandon tells me how... [59:03] - Brandon was training people to be peak performers in incredibly high stake situations. It wasn't just target practice. Someone would be shooting back. He expected each and every one of his students to perform at a perfect level. Eighty and ninety percent was no longer acceptable. I wondered how you could teach someone... See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

I almost changed forever the entire way people define relationships. The word "commitment" would have a new meaning. More babies would be born. I'm thinking BIG. Sometimes you want to try an idea and you don't let yourself think about money. If an idea is good, money is a side effect. Ideas are the real currency. I met a brand new couple for breakfast. J and K. They told me they just had the "going steady" conversation. "How'd you guys meet?" "J-Swipe". Or something like that. I forget. It was an online dating app. "What does 'going steady' mean when you are both in your 40s?" I asked. J was in his 40s. K wasn't. I wondered if 'going steady' meant that he gave her a ring or something. There's only so many more 'going steady's you have left in you at that age. They both pulled out their phones. They were looking at each other's phone and then showing me. "We deleted all of the dating apps on our phone," she said. But they were both peering at each other's firm. They needed confirmation. Hmmmm! Idea: The "Going Steady" App Both sides of the couple sign in to the app. Then they select the other person. Then when both sides select each other, the app deletes all the dating apps on their phone. If they ever download a dating app again, the other side gets notified by email. Or if they "de-select" each other from "Going Steady" then both sides get notified by email. Simple! Extras: - Notify FB and Twitter that they are "Going Steady" - Keep track of anniversaries, gifts, places they go, significant memories, etc. - Notify friends of anniversaries, etc. BOOM! The next day I wrote up the "spec", which was actually just similar to what I wrote above. I logged into freelancer.com. I opened a new project and cut and pasted my Spec in there. It was weird to read prior chats I had had on the site. Since the last time I had uploaded a project in there was in 2006. A customer service representative popped up a window and asked if I need help. I said, "Sure, why not?" Meanwhile, within ten minutes I had about ten people bid to do my project. I included in the Spec that they had to not only complete the app in 30 days but upload to the Apple store, the Google Play store, and do basic marketing for me. People were bidding from China, India, and Kenya. The average bid was $1000. I chatted with each one of them to make sure they understood what I was asking. My basic test was this question: can an app on Android and Apple detect and delete other apps on Android and Apple? The customer service representative recommended a developer as well. This developer cost more than $1000. More like $3500. That's ok. I just wanted a good job done. A small price to pay to change the future of evolution. I asked this developer the same question. Some of the developers would not upload to the stores or do any marketing. I crossed them off. Others didn't seem to understand my question about detecting other apps on the phone. I crossed them out. I didn't want any communication problems with people from the opposite side of the world. Finally, the recommended developer said, "I know you can do this on Android but not sure on Apple. Let me research." Five minutes later he came back. "It's impossible to do this on Apple." We tried to figure out a work-around. Like if the device owner gave permissions, etc. But there was no work-around. "Ok," I said, "thanks for your help." End of idea. End of project. Total time it cost me: 45 minutes, from writing the spec, logging into the site, creating the project, talking to the developers. Total money: I paid $29 to have a customer service representative help me. Success? Failure? Neither. It was an idea. I did the execution basics to see if I should pursue further. It didn't. But I learned a lot. What it would cost to make an app, I learned a bit more about the Apple store, and I went through the process of trying to find a developer.... See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Shortcuts -  [5:40] - I asked Garry, "What separated you from people just as talented?" He interrupted. Finally! I found my match! "Wait, wait wait, slow down," he said. "'As talented' is a stretch." He said he was lucky. His upbringing made him a champion. "I was born in a family where chess was part of the culture. My father and mother usually spent their winter nights looking at the newspaper chess sections, solving problems. Also, I was born in the Soviet Union so when my talent was discovered, I had an opportunity to be taught by semi-professionals. Then professionals. The framework for my talent to be discovered and to be polished was there." He said, "You may call that luck, but the talent was quite unique." That's how you become a peak performer. You have to pursue your talent and get a little lucky. But it's never just luck. "As soon as I discovered chess I started moving very quickly." He beat the kids his own age and older. By age 12 he was the Soviet junior champion. Peak performance comes from talent, luck and an ability to move up in the ranks faster than your competition. How do you do that? [11:44] - I feel like I'm always trying to figure out my life. I'm always planning. Because I think if I subtract X from my life, add Y, and multiply by 100, I'll be happy. Garry told me how he takes a step back. He said you need to see the big picture. That's why he started drawing all his chess matches. After each game, Garry drew the board, he looked at what happened and he saw where he went wrong. "I could feel at at every game, I was getting better," Garry said. "I was learning." That's why I write everyday. It takes my mind out of the equation. I get to see what I'm doing. And how my life is. I stop making moves. And I just breathe. Then I see clearly. The key is to create a ritual of reflection. Writing, drawing. Do something that let's you see the board. See your life. [27:40] - Sometimes Garry had ten steps planned out. Other times, nothing. Garry said, "In the cases where you don't have a clear preference, go with your natural instinct."  [34:55] - Garry was beat by Deep Blue, IMB's "genius" computer. It was the first time a machine beat the human brain at chess. People said it was a revelation. And the end was near. The same thing happened when ATM's were invented. Everyone thought bank tellers were going away. .And before that the elevator operator was eliminated. People went on strike. "This is a normal development of technology," Garry said. "If you have something really disruptive, it means it kills jobs before it creates new jobs." Sometimes jobs are replaced. Sometimes they're not. As humans our biggest shortcoming is that we let our fear precede any real threat. Machines don't have fear. But they also don't have the ability to dream... "We all do have fears," Garry said. "The question is how do we handle it... I want people to not be afraid of this progress because there are so many things we can bring back if we start dreaming again. By the way machines cannot dream. Even in sleeping mode."  -- Also, if you like today's show, subscribe! Then you won't have to check back and you'll be first to hear new episodes. Thanks! -James ------------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... See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Jon is paralyzed from the neck down. He couldn't crawl. "My mom noticed I was dragging my legs," he said. The doctors said he'd die at age two. But he felt like he had something to contribute to the world. So he became unstoppable. He started writing for free. "I couldn't be paid," he said. If he earned a decent income, Jon would lose his Medicaid. His reputation as a writer grew. So he started consulting. And made 30,000 dollars in 24 hours. "At first, I charged $99. And 300 people signed up." He raised his prices. Then built online courses that taught people how to guest-blog and started another "premium" consulting service. "I made half a million dollars in 9 months," he said. The work lets him pay his own health benefits and live life for himself. Now, Jon Morrow is the CEO of SmartBlogger. He helps bloggers increase traffic, improve their writing, and make money. Jon believes any limitation can be overcome, although not easily. His story continues to inspire thousands around the world. Shortcuts -  [23:00] - Jon told me how he developed a sense of self worth. Hear how he did it. - [26:25] - "When I got into kindergarten, another kid called me disabled, and I said, 'What does that mean?' And, he started laughing." Jon's teacher came over and said, "You don't know what that means?" He didn't. So he asked his mom. She thought about it and said, "It means you can't do something as well as someone else. But it also goes the other way." She said, "Everyone in the world can't do something as well as someone else..." So everyone in a sense is disabled. Jon focussed took inventory of his skills. Then he mastered them. Learn how you can hone your abilities, too. - [29:00] - Jon had twelve job offers after college. But he couldn't accept any of them. He had to keep his medicaid. And if he exceeded $700 per month, the government would take it away. So he found a loophole. He worked for free. Then years, later Jon asked for favors and ended up making half a million dollars in just 9 months. Find out how he initially did it here. - [1:11:50] - Jon was paralyzed from the neck down. He needed to reconstruct his reality. "I can only move my facial muscles," he said. He would've went crazy. But he made a new plan. "I started listening to audiobooks and podcasts 4-8 hours a day." His goal was to spend more time listening to inspirational stories, than he actually spent in his own life. I needed to understand, "Why was that your goal?" He said, "If you spend the majority of your time in worlds where people are accomplishing incredible things, all of a sudden that started to seem normal to me." Listen how Jon reconstructed his reality - [1:16:20] - Jon said, "A lot of people are under the assumption they can get whatever they want without trading something that they have. And that's just not the case." When he hears a success story, he looks for the price. What did they sacrifice? Money? Sleep? Time? Relationships? Everything has a price. But how do you know what price you're willing to pay?  Jon tells you how. -- Also, if you like today's show, subscribe! Then you won't have to check back and you'll be first to hear new episodes. Thanks! -James ------------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!... See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

I remember sitting at my cubicle job looking at people wondering, "Why? Why are you here? Why are you doing this?" I asked a friend once, "Don't you think this job is meaningless?"   He said no.   And then I knew what I had to do. I had to quit. And I did (eventually). First I spent time building up my own business on the side.   I don't know if I've ever really believed in myself. I just knew I didn't want the life I had. Sometimes believing in yourself just means you don't believe in what you're doing right now. And you have to change.   Sara Blakey felt this way, too. She woke up one day, looked at her life and said, "I'm in the wrong movie." Now she's a self-made billionaire entrepreneur.   But my friend Ryan Deiss said believing in yourself is possible. And I wanted to know more.   He started his first business in college. And made $100K in revenue the first year. He sold eBooks online. "I had books on pretty much any topic," he said. One was about baby food. Then he partnered with mommy bloggers and sold it to their readers.    (That's the formula for a great strategic partnership. Create something useful. Find someone with an untapped audience. Someone who's talking to the people you want to talk to but who isn't not offering what you have to offer.)   Now, years later, he's the founder and CEO of DigitalMarketer. He's a transformer. He teaches people how to build profitable online businesses.     He walked me through it. He told me about digital marketing. And how people use these skills everyday to start and grow their own businesses..   Here's what he said.. ------------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.

Over the past five years, I've seen Ryan Deiss rise from a quality entrepreneur to one of the biggest names in Internet marketing. He's the founder and CEO of DigitalMarketer and anybody in the internet marketing space knows Ryan Deiss. He emailed me at 4am. He said, "I realized the promise that was made to millenials-- the same one that was made to me, and probably the same one that was made to you-- "Go to college. You'll get a good job," simply isn't true anymore."  The old promise is no longer true. But there's a new promise.... We're going back to a society where mastery matters. And grades don't.  But still....most parents want to send their kids to college. Have them waste the four years, and even the money. Get into debt. "It will pay off," they think, even though the data shows incomes for people ages 18-35 have been going straight down for 25 years. So how do you grow? Invest in yourself.  Shortcuts -   [7:42] - People say you go to college to learn how to be an adults. "The best place to learn to be an adult is to go and get a job," he said. "You can socialize around peers in the workforce. I met my wife in college. I'm thankful for that, but I think to call your first couple of years college the place where you learn to be an adult is mildly absurd."  - [17:45] - Ryan told me the top two things he looks for when hiring a candidate... and it's not a college degree. - [18:07] - Learn how to add value and move up in any job. - [25:18] - Ryan has four kids. Sending them to college would cost over a million dollars. But he said he would do it. But he has a few conditions: they have to get a job or internship. They need to test the market. And see if that's really the right fit for their lifestyle. Hear Ryan's advice on how to go through college the right way. - [28:44] - "I think if we acknowledge that a college degree is not a prerequisite to success or happiness in life than we will not as parents, or as kids, or as educators, or as employers, determine that it is a necessary requirement," Ryan said. We talked about the financial burden on kids and parents. It's not the best decision to go to a "four-year-long summer camp to find yourself." There are other options. - [32:21] - One alternative is an internship. Or apprenticeship. "I believe business owners like myself, like you, (people who hire people), I believe we should carry more of the burden of education on our backs," Ryan said. "If we're willing to make that investment, we'll recruit and retain some of the smartest people in the world." I was confused. "What do you mean by burden of education?" I said. "Will you take actual time and money to be part of someone's educational process?" He said "yes." -- Hey James here. Thanks so much for listening. If you like the show, subscribe! I have a new episodes every week.   ------------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.

Dave Asprey is the creator and bestselling author of "The Bulletproof Diet." He biohacks health. And discovers innovative ways to live longer, lose weight, increase brain function and evolve better. My brain isn't hacked (yet). So I needed to talk to Dave. We did a podcast and I asked him "how do you evolve better?" Shortcuts: - [14:00] - Energy is scarce. We get tired. So I asked Dave what he does specifically to enhance his energy levels? - [21:40] - Aging is scary... Dave told me what he takes every day to slow down the aging process. This is importance because the environment is affecting how we age. We live in WIFI dense areas. We're constantly stressed. Our diets fluctuate and so on. "We call it aging. Over time, your ability to power your body goes down, and that doesn't have to happen. It is within your control to fix it," he said. "You can tell the battery in your body to recondition itself and you can give it a better power source. Or you can let it slowly grind down..." - [39:50] - I never know what to eat. Once time I went on an all fruit diet. Another time I fasted for three days and passed out while playing ping pong with friends. Dave told me what to eat and what to avoid. He even told me which foods are worse than cigarettes. - [44:40] - "I like to go all in," Dave said. He told me exactly what he does from the moment he wakes up. - [53:00] - I asked Dave, "What do we do to evolve better?"  He told me how to take charge of your body and manage stress.   -- Hey James here. Thanks so much for listening. If you like the show, subscribe! I have new episodes every week.  ------------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.

The cocaine made his throat close. "I was about to die". He wanted to be an actor. He wanted to be creative. He had dreams. And working real-estate for his father wasn't one of them. "I didn't want to come down," he said. "Why'd you do it?" "I really wasn't happy with myself," he said. "I believe it was because I wasn't my authentic self doing what I really wanted to do in my life." "Nepotism got me the job." And it was killing him. He was suffocating. Now Scott Steindorff is the producer of "Empire Falls," "Chef," (one of my all time favorite movies), "The Lincoln Lawyer," "Love in the Time of Cholera," and more. He's worked with Paul Newman, Jon Favreau, Robert Downey Jr., Matthew McConaughey, Scarlett Johansson, the list goes on. The other day he called me, a few days after we shot the project, to tell me about brand new projects he was working on  that were different than anything he had done before. He is constantly testing the limits of his creativity. I wanted to know how he became his "authentic self." How did he go from being depressed and self-medicated to a successful and happy movie producer? I wanted to know because I don't think we ever really know. I think part of self-awareness is never quite getting there but always moving (hopefully) in the right direction. And creativity is something that needs to be  constantly reinvented. Once creativity stays the same, it is no longer creative. Scott found a way to constantly be creativity. I want to learn how. "It's not easy at all," he said. "You have to do the leg work." "What's the leg work?" I asked Here's what he said:   Step 1: FIND OUT WHAT YOU'RE CRAVING These are the two types of cravings: a) Depletion: Your body needs something. It can be water, a vitamin or mineral or a change. That's where reinvention comes in. b) Addiction: I felt powerless. I was addicted to money. More was never enough. Then I left Wall Street. Because they were the supplier. Scott wanted euphoria. He craved it. "I grew up wanting to be a skier and an actor and here I was in an office making money," Scott said. "I started craving that feeling of euphoria and excitement and passion for life." So he started doing cocaine. "Nobody knew I had a problem," he said. " I would do it by myself. So when I checked into rehab, it was a shock to my family." The patients had to drink some type of alcohol until they threw up. "By the second day, I said to the doctor, 'This isn't working for me. I'm a cocaine addict not an alcoholic." He thought they'd try something new. He thought they'd help. No. "Well... leave," the doctor said. "There was a shift in my consciousness. I went to my room. I cried uncontrollably for 24 hours. All the stress and pressure left me and from that moment on I haven't used for almost 33 and a half years." "What do you mean the stress left you?" I said. I couldn't imagine. He told me it just left. No explanation. He just saw his own choice. And he took it. I think most people don't know what they really want in life. We talked about adapting. And I said it seems like you have to surrender and be okay with the changes...  even while you're depressed. "Isn't depression a lack of your expression?" he said. I never thought of it that way. Maybe I'm filling one need with sand when I really crave water.   Step 2: ASK QUESTIONS I'm not in a 12-step program, but I want to understand who I am as my authentic self. So I asked what can I do right now? "Ask yourself questions," he said. "How Am I feeling? How do I feel about myself, do I love myself, am I feeling less than? Do I feel guilt?" "But what if you're lying to yourself?" "You can't lie to yourself," he said. "You're just denying the truth. If you're listening to this, it's coming to the surface. Don't push it down."   Step 3: ACT IT OUT It's easy to come up with ideas. It's harder to act on them. I always say, actions are more important... See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

I tried to ruin Ryan Holiday's life. Fortunately, I failed. I told him to start an agency, build it up, sell it for 10 million dollars and THEN start writing books. "It's a good thing you didn't listen to me," I said. But I was wrong. It turned out he took my advice. "It made me super unhappy and it cost me a bunch of friendships," he said. "But it's not your fault. I know there are a lot of things that could make me money, but what I really like is writing. That's what I want my life to be." "So what if you don't know what you want your life to be?" I asked. "What should you do?" "That's the essential question," he said... A) SELF-WORTH IS NOT NET-WORTH Most writers die penniless. I can't think of a profession where I can name as many suicides as writing. I'm jealous of the people who don't write actually. Making business deals and going to work is so much more profitable than trying to tear your soul apart and put words on a piece of paper most people won't read. There's only one writer in history to become a billionaire. (J.K. Rowling, if you're reading... come on my podcast!) So why does anyone do it? I don't know. I do it because it's what I would do if I had nothing again. It's what I would do with everything. It's the one thing that makes me feel like I am going places without moving. B) VICTIM OR HERO Everyone wants to be the hero of their own story. I do. But I chose victim for years. I lost everything and I wanted the world to pick me back up. I'm not mad at the world for leaving me on the floor. I'm grateful. Because it let me pick myself up. It let me choose myself. "Stoicism is a practical philosophy and it works," Ryan said. "Define 'works'." "At its core, it says you don't control the world around you. You control how you respond to the world around you." He told me about the two most prominent practitioners of Stoicism. One was Marcus Aurelius, a Roman emperor. He had all the power in the world. His favorite Stoic was a slave, Epictetus, who was banished from Rome by a past emperor. "You have extreme wealth and power using the philosophy, and it's helping them," Ryan said. "And then you have extreme adversity, difficulty and powerlessness using the philosophy and it's helping them. To me, that's working." C) LOOK FORWARD TO THE BAD THINGS People are losing their jobs. And they're afraid. I asked Ryan if the Stoics have a practice for fear. He said, "The Stoics call that amor fati, which in Latin means 'a love of fate...' You look forward to the bad things because they were made just for you." D) MAKE YOUR JOB IRRELEVANT This is the key to all advancement in life. Make your job irrelevant. Burn the bridges behind you. "You should be trying to make your job or your role irrelevant because what you're actually proving is that you know how to do things, you know when something is working, and you're able to come up with the next thing," Ryan said. "When an employee comes to you and says, 'I know my job was to run this marketing department, but over the last 6 months I've automated X and Y. I've hired someone who's incredibly talented, sales are up X percent and I don't have that much to do.' Your boss doesn't go to their boss and say, 'Well how do we get rid of James?" They go, "James is f**king killing it.'" "That's how you work through or up an organization," he said. "No one says, 'Your book was so amazing Ryan, we don't need anymore books from you.' They go, 'What are you writing next?'" E) DON'T BE AN ADDICT I was listing the pillars of Stoicism. I wanted to know if I understood. So I said, - Integrity, (universal integrity, for example: never lie to get what you want) - Fairness (Help the people around you. Even if it hurts you. If it helps someone more than it hurts you, it's just.) Then Ryan jumped in. "Temperance," he said, which means don't be an addict to some other force. Don't be an addict to anything. F)... See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.