The James Altucher Show

For billionaires, every exchange has a winner and a loser. That's what producers David Levien and Brian Koppelman tell me. They've made some of my favorite movies: Rounders, Ocean's Thirteen, Solitary Man. Now, they're coming out with 2016's most talked about show: Billions on Showtime. You can learn a lot from them. David and Brian are producers, creators and risk takers. If you want to create, listen to today's episode. You'll see how important it is to follow your curiosity. That's what David and Brian did. Sometimes starting something is that simple. Since they were kids, David and Brian were fascinated by two things: power and wealth. They wondered, "What makes a billionaire unique?" They had a question, an idea, and conviction. "We were all the f*ck in," Brian says. They had dinner with a bunch of billionaires. It sounds like it would be a lot of fun, but it wasn't. David and Brian were manipulated, belittled, and snubbed. But they were mesmerized. I'll give you one story. It's to tempt you to download this episode. Because I really think you're going to get a lot out of the interview. You'll hear their stories - the behind-the-scenes of 2016's most talked about show. You'll get motivation to write, build, and be creative. You'll hear about how a partnership is born. And you'll learn why people knowingly make the wrong choices. And maybe, you'll make the right ones. Whatever those are... the right choices for you. Ok so one story before you press play: Over dinner, David and Brian met with their first billionaire. It cost more than $2,000. He racked up the price and made them suffer. "There was clearly a power dynamic," David says. He acted like he wasn't thinking, but "billionaires don't just accidentally stumble along and amass great fortunes," David says, "He was showing us that he was no sucker. And we were." Before that night, "I've never thought, 'Who's gonna win the dinner?'" Brian said. If you've watched the trailer, you know what this guy did - "What's the point of having f*ck you money if you never say f*ck you." And they felt it. Morally, David and Brian believe in loyalty, honor, and ambition. And that you can balance these things. But not everyone does. Some people believe nice guys finish last. This interview reveals how to get inside the mind of billionaires. It might make you sick. Or it might make you hungry. Listen now. Resources and Links: * Watch the trailer for Showtime's Billions here * Check out my last interview with Bryan Koppelman here * I also highly recommend Bryan's podcast The Moment * Follow Bryan on Twitter and visit his website * Also check out David Levien's book, Signature Kill and read an excerpt here * Get my favorite movies: Rounders, Ocean's Thirteen, Solitary Man and The Girlfriend Experience ------------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.

You can't make everyone happy. Really, you can't make anyone happy. The sooner you accept this, the sooner you can let go of control, shame, or whatever your parents did to you, and start having sex. Or happiness. Whatever you're searching for. I'll explain. My guest today, a seven-time New York Times best-selling author, Neil Strauss, has written books on Motley Crue, Marilyn Manson, and pornstar Jenna Jameson, before exploring the pickup artist scene. Sex was all around him. He was immersed in the seduction community, but Neil couldn't find love himself. No woman would kiss him. He grew up a loser, and couldn't get a girlfriend for most of his life. Now he's happily married. But between marriage and being a loser, he had a lot of "pleasure fantasy experiences." Meaning, he learned how to pick up women and started having crazy sex orgies. One after another. And then he just stopped, and the sex parties ended. I wanted to know why. What made him decide he couldn't handle it anymore? But I'll get back to this. In his first book, The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists, Neil gives you easy tools you can use to have confidence. He teaches you how to feel like you're in control of a social situation. Neil was so busy having sex, he didn't have time to get back to his normal life. Personally, I don't think I'd like that. I would just constantly be jealous or insecure, to be honest. But back to happiness. Which I don't even like to talk about really... We put too much pressure on ourselves to be happy. You can't be happy all the time. And when you are happy, it should be special. But Neil had a good friend to help him refocus. "You need someone in your life who can reflect yourself back to you so you can see yourself a little bit," he says. His producer and close friend, Rick Rubin, said, "Look, you got everything you wanted in The Game. Why are you still not happy?" That's when Neil started looking for the truth. In his book, The Truth: An Uncomfortable Book About Relationships, Neil shows you how he gave up control. The book is about beliefs. "It's so hard to recognize your beliefs, let alone change them, because you're living with yourself." But behaviors are easier to change. That's what he teaches you in this episode. You'll learn how to feel healthier emotionally. When your personal life is together, you're much more capable of achieving bigger things, accumulating wealth, and feeling less stressed and worried. Neil says, "There's always a reason for what you're doing, and if you don't know the reason, then maybe you're living an unconscious life." And if you're just curious about the sex, then there's something here for you, too. ------------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.

You know why I wrote Choose Yourself. But you don't know how you got here. How did you get here, on my email list, my website, Facebook page, Twitter? Do you want to know why you're following me? I'm going to tell you. I'll tell you my secrets to building an email list, a customer base, an audience. I'm going to tell you how I got you here. There are specific tactics I use. And you can use them, too, for your business or blog or anything. But I'll get back to that. First you need an idea. And there needs to be a demand for that idea. Next, you should be wondering, "Is my idea any good?" Probably not. Or maybe it is. You could be much smarter than me. Most of my ideas don't lead to anything. But a few have. Like StockPickr, the company I built and sold for millions before almost destroying myself and wanting to die. If you're an idea machine, you already know how to come up with ideas. Scaling an idea is more challenging. Results don't just appear. You need traction. You need to grow and acquire new customers. My guest today, Gabriel Weinberg, author of Traction: How Any Startup Can Achieve Explosive Customer Growth and CEO of Duck Duck Go, is the king of results -- search results that is. That's what Duck, Duck, Go does. It is a search engine and it's stealing millions of customers from Google. It takes some sort of voodoo mastermind to figure out how to beat Google at their own game. Gabriel challenges the status quo. He's part of that rare breed of people who believe nothing is impossible. Now DuckDuckGo is pretty huge. But why would anyone want to challenge Google? That's what I wanted to find out. And I'll tell you why in a second. But let's get back to my secret. In 33 minutes and 22 seconds, you can know my preferred method to scaling your business. Or you can just skip to the 33:22 mark in today's interview. You might be surprised to find out how I scaled Choose Yourself - how I got traction. But if you're not looking for shortcuts, listen to the whole interview. You'll get an all-inclusive, complete breakdown on how to sell and scale your best ideas. Gabriel goes over every marketing tactic, nineteen to be exact. If you're resourceful, you can use them to start building your wealth for the New Year. And in his book, Gabriel and Justin Mares give you marketing tips from the masters, including Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, Reddit founder Alexis Ohanian, Kayak founder Paul English, and more than a dozen others. Listen today to hear Gabriel break down the best tactics for every stage of your business. You'll also hear why he wasn't happy with Google, and how he started today's superior search engine, in addition to how you and thousands of other people got here. And how you can start selling and scaling. Ready, set... (duck, duck) go. ------------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.

I know a miracle worker. He's an entrepreneur, marketing man, and film producer who gets companies like HP to say, "yes" to him. You can learn a lot from him. I did. One thing I learned is there's more to choosing yourself. There's a part two. Part one is when you see things in your life that are absurd, decide you're not going to stand for it anymore and quit. You decide to become physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually healthy. That's choosing yourself. Part two is when you see what's wrong with the world and say, "That's absurd. Let's change that. Let's hack that. Let's modify that so it's affordable." That's what Mick Ebeling does-- founder of the Not Impossible Labs and the Not Impossible Foundation. Through these two entities, Mick figured out how build whatever he wants, and solve impossible problems. Mick sees the world through his own lens. It's the reason he's successful. He creates technology that solves absurd problems like having your arms blown off. No prosthetics, no solution. Or being paralyzed and unable to speak to your family ever again. The technology to fix these problems does exist. But when you can't afford it, you have an even bigger problem. This is why Mick hacks. He disrupts the system, doesn't wait for permission, and believes in impossible things. You can, too, but more on that later. Let me tell you how he got started. Mick was just reading the paper. He read that thousands of people in the country of Sudan don't have arms because of war injuries. And they just live with it. They can't afford prosthetics, so they hand-feed each other, dress each other, and help each other with all the other daily necessities. Mick decided to do something. He flew to Sudan with no plan and figured out how to create prosthetic arms using a 3D printer. This is someone with no experience in medicine or engineering. He's just a guy with a big heart who decided nothing is impossible. On the show, you'll hear how he 3D printed arms for a boy named Daniel, and empowered an entire country to do this for thousands of other people missing limbs. I wanted to know how it's done. How can people quit their jobs and do things that really matter? Mick tells you how on the podcast. You'll also learn how to think like today's most successful innovators. "We're not trying to create the next $700 pill," Mick says, "We're trying to create something that totally disrupts a particular fill-in-the-blank, maybe it's a way of communication, a way of transportation." This is the winning mentality today: Uber, Airbnb, Not Impossible Labs. By making technology accessible, he's solving global problems. "Help one, help many," that's Not Impossible Labs' mission. Then Mick's team tells the story through videos that go viral and infect everyone with this bug- the not impossible bug. Besides a miracle worker, Mick's a story teller. "Each of our projects tells the story of a single individual. By helping one person, how many others can we help?" Stories bridge the gap between helping just one person and helping many. Mick's not just choosing himself... He's choosing the world. "Once you start to have the awareness of something you need, you start to see it." So how can you get the big idea, do the impossible, and become beautifully successful "First of all, you can just start to believe in this mentality that nothing is impossible," Mick says. Try it. Second, look for absurdities. They're everywhere - when you read or watch TV. When something bothers you, think of solutions. Be an idea machine. Third, disrupt. Don't wait for big government or big business to give you permission. Forget bureaucracy. Disruption starts now. We're hacking the system. Listen to today's episode. You'll hear Mick's miracle stories, find out where he gets his big ideas and his money, and how you too can do impossible things. Resources and Links: * Not Impossible Labs' Website *... See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

You can have power, but it comes with a lot of bullshit. When Spider-Man's Uncle Ben said, "With great power comes great responsibility," he was trying to say that power comes with a lot of BS. It's a good warning. We want all of the power and none of the bullshit. And then you hear everyone complaining. It's hard to be a good guy. My guest today, Jane Swift, is the youngest female governor in U.S. history turned CEO of Middlebury Interactive Languages. She's a superhero. During her campaign, she was pregnant with twins. She also already had a daughter. But that didn't stop her. She gives and expects nothing in return. That's what I do. Think about your obstacles. Now imagine doing more and complaining less. Sometimes, you might feel like you either have energy and no resources, or resources and no energy. Jane created both. And in today's podcast, she'll teach you how. I asked her what inspired her. "It's really around the passionate belief that I could make things better," she tells me. Her superpowers are her passion mixed with energy and focus. She uses them to help others. As governor, Jane was passionate about education. She says all children have gifts. And this is true for adults, too. Maybe someone failed you - the school system, or your parents. And now you're grown up. You're at a point in your life where you feel you should know what you're doing with your finances, your career, your family.  Maybe you're feeling lost now. If no one patted your back, told you you're special, and helped you figure out what you're good at, you may feel like someone is sitting on your chest. You are lying there with weight, pressure, a heaviness inside you that says, "I'm stuck here."  But it's not too late to find out what you're good at. Jane's goal was, and still is, to give kids opportunities in life. Don't you wish someone wanted the same for you now? I do. The difference is, you have to choose yourself. Part of that is surrounding yourself with the right people. Who are the right people? Jane says, "Sometimes, depending on the issue, the right people around the table are folks who you know well and trust a great deal." Plainly, if you pick the wrong people, you'll be stressed and you'll waste energy. How you spend your energy is your choice. And that's powerful. The other resource we crave is money. Campaigning, Jane didn't have that either. She hustled. "I tend to outwork people," she says. "As a working mother, I've learned to work hard and smart." She raised $60,000 for her campaign. Some people wrote checks to support her. Others baked brownies, and she had bake sales... That's old school hustling.  Sometimes, to make things happen, you have to go back to the basics. You don't become a superhero by trying to be a superhero. You become a superhero by overcoming whatever's in your way. "I had to be really crisp and really convincing, and really think through my position on a number of issues to convince people that a 25 year old woman, a couple of years out of college, would be a better state senator than a 7 term incumbent," she says. Start small. Try to improve 1% a day. The people who baked brownies helped at least 1%. That's how you gain momentum. And that's what you'll learn in today's episode. You'll learn how to hustle, earn power, and, if you're lucky, become a superhero, too. ------------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... See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

It won't be the idea that causes you to quit... it's fear. It's the big idea that stops us-the idea of being a Google or a Facebook, a New York Times best-selling author, a guru, a YouTube sensation, a Mark Cuban or Kevin O'Leary. Sometimes, it seems easier to forget you even had the idea to begin with. The idea of success. But if you give in, you'll end up quitting before you start. It's a trap. Think about how many people are on Earth. There are millions of attractive people I have never met because I didn't give myself the chance. I always thought, "She'd never have sex with me."I didn't even look. So I quit before I could start. But staring at a girl is easy. And who knows what that leads to? If you want to achieve something, you need to make moves. In today's podcast, you'll learn the steps you need to take to achieve anything. My guest, Mary Karr, is an award-winning poet and best-selling memoirist with praise from Stephen King, among many other highly-esteemed writers. In the interview, Mary shares some easy techniques you can use to get started. Number one, start with things that are easy or convenient, and build from there. Identifying your interests is important, too. Mary started with reading. "Something about reading other people's life stories made me less lonely," she says. Mary explains that it's often "the thing that happened to you that was very dramatic that maybe nobody else would find dramatic," that make the best stories. These little moments give you insight. That's what makes you capable of doing whatever you put your mind to. No one has your experiences, the order of those experiences, your relationships, your perspective, your talents, and your drive. These pieces make you capable of doing something nobody else can. You have to work with what you have. "I start with very convenient ideas and convenient memories in which I always appear to be doing beautiful and nimble things," she says, "and then it turns out I was the one making a lot of the trouble." When it's your story, who knows what will turn out? Your experiences shape what you're capable of. And they shape what you're on your way to becoming. "No one can tell me what the shape of my mind is like better than me," Mary says. In addition to her literary success, Mary taught creative writing in jail. Why? "All of us who write are ultimately trying to make the world less lonely," she says. If there's an impact you'd like to make, make it. Even if you're scared. "I'm never not scared," Mary says. When I asked what she's scared of, I realized I've heard her list before. From myself. Scared of sounding like an idiot, being boring, "losing what little stature I've gained for myself." If what you have is so little, then what is there to lose? That's how I picked myself up. I improved 1% a day. You can too. Listen today for techniques to get overcome fear of failure. You'll learn to look around you and discover opportunities. You'll let yourself stare. Resources and Links: * The Art of Memoir by Mary Karr * Read her first memoir, The Liar's Club by Mary Karr * Read her second memoir, Cherry by Mary Karr * Read her third memoir, Lit by Mary Karr * Follow Mary on Facebook & Twitter * Read what Mary is re-reading: The Worst Journey in the World by Apsley Cherry-Garrard * Stephen King praised Mary Karr in his book, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft * Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut * George Orwell's memoir Down and Out in Paris and London * Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace * Jesus' Son: Stories by Denis Johnson * Giving Up the Ghost by Hilary Mantel ------------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... See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Everyone I've ever dated (before my second marriage) was just practice. Telling my second grade crush I was in love with her and getting laughed at - practice. Posing as a psychic on Craigslist to meet women - practice. I could have chosen not to do those things. I could have been too embarrassed or said I don't want to be "that guy." But then I would have been holding myself back. Don't waste time and energy contemplating if you'll be successful. I get it. You're afraid. You don't want to get stuck or let go of a good thing. Recognize, though, that your fear won't generate wealth and freedom. So how do you know what's right financially? My guest today, Kevin O'Leary says, "There's no guarantee. You have to try things." Before becoming a successful entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and millionaire shark, Kevin tried and tested different jobs. He picked up garbage. This wasn't for him. He wasn't invested. Sometimes the key to success is to say no. Not to invest. If you aren't invested, you can keep trying new things. That's what Kevin did. He tried something else, which he talks about in today's interview. He just kept going. The idea is to find something more fulfilling. And even when you find it, keep an open mind. It might still be a test. Kevin has a three-year rule. If something can't survive three years, then "take it behind the barn and shoot it," he says. Dump it. Quit it. Do not invest. "Unless it's a hobby and you don't mind losing money," he says. This rule applies to dating, too. If you don't see a future with someone, why continue? Consider how much you're spending, or "investing," in dating someone. And think of it the other way around. Can you survive it for three years? Or three more years? Kevin waited six before marrying Linda. Now they've been married for 25 years. In his new book, Cold Hard Truth On Men, Women, and Money: 50 Common Money Mistakes and How to Fix Them, and in today's interview, Kevin teaches you how to avoid making bad investments in your life with simple, easy-to-follow tips. Smart investments require time. You need time to find out who and what you're compatible with. And those things change. You change. So when you feel stuck or unfulfilled, don't just cry about it. "There's no room for tears," Mr. Wonderful says. Do something. Listen today to learn the best techniques to test a potential investment. You'll also hear Kevin's advice on how to successfully get people invested in you. ------------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.

If she told me to jump off a bridge, I just might do it. She was the only friend who would tell me anything, and I would do anything for her. I think I love her. Growing up, I wanted to know everything-sex, bullying, whether I was normal or not. I was curious-confused really. Kids were mean and girls were pretty. Judy Blume was the only one who would answer my questions. I was asking, "What is it all for?" And she told me. I thought, maybe this is what finding God feels like. She's a No. 1 New York Times best-selling author with more than 85 million books sold. Successful? Yes. But it's more than that. "I represent childhood," she says, "I think when somebody represents your childhood, that's special. I'm lucky people tell me that." Her book, "Forever," taught me about sex. "Blubber" explained bullying. I read Judy Blume's books because I had questions and she had answers. So where did she come from? At age 25, a man took her on a date. He stayed the night and never left. They got married, had two little babies, but Judy realized she had stories but no other outlets. "I wouldn't say I had exactly grown up when I started to write, but I was in a grown-up situation." Sometimes, as grown-ups, we stop taking care of ourselves. We neglect our needs, health, relationships, and friendships. But if you're open to living a better life, you'll learn something from Judy Blume. She used to feel stuck, too. Stuck and lonely. "I understand now how important friendship is in a life, no matter how happy you are with your family," she says. Do you feel a void, too? What's missing here? Judy realized she needed to take care of herself. "Before I started to write, I was sick all the time. I was always sick. I had one exotic illness after another, but once I started writing I was letting that bad stuff out and it didn't have to make me sick anymore," she says. Writing helped her and it helped us, but we're still wondering, "What is it all for?" Uncertainty and darkness. "Would you say that's the overriding theme of the book," I asked. "You're interesting," Judy says. "I'm a person who never knows the theme of her book." Her new book, "In The Unlikely Event," is an opportunity for me, for you, for everyone "to be taken out of our own lives, to get insight into other people's lives, as well as our own lives, and to learn new things." Listen now to Judy Blume. No bridge necessary. ------------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.

This is for the writers.  Write something that doesn't suck.  It's a simple goal.  With low stakes, Amy Koppelman wrote "I Smile Back," which was rejected at least 80 times. It was rejected because it resembled the truth too much. One publisher said, "This is the reason we got into publishing, but I can't sell this." Now, Sara Silverman is starring in the movie. She's the main character, Laney.  I was scared for the Laney. The book bleeds.  Sometimes you have to feel sorry for someone else to stop feeling sorry for yourself.  Good fiction can do that. It's how you can escape.  They say you can't run away from yourself. But they lie all the time. Amy wrote letters. She was depressed. She needed an escape. When she recognized sadness in someone else, she wrote him letters. Years later, with a pair of scissors, she cut and pasted a story together. That's how she got her book. She wrote with scissors. In today's interview, Amy reveals how you write great fiction. I wanted to know about the sadness inside her. Does it come from a deeper, darker truth? Amy says the best kind of writing understands you somehow without even knowing you. It helps you understand yourself better. "All of us, whether we're writers, carpenters or teachers, we just want to be heard and understood," Amy says. Whatever you're doing now, you don't know what it's doing for your future. That's why I recommend a daily practice.  Amy doesn't have a daily practice. She used to sit and wonder when she'd make coffee again.  Depression made instant coffee look impossible. Everything loomed over her. But one day she made coffee. And over the course of many small victories, she survived.  Listen to Amy Koppelman to learn how to write to survive. This is the master of fiction that bleeds. ------------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.

Do you have a favorite book you return to over and over again? James does, and today the author of that book joins him on The James Altucher Show. Many of you know James does a Twitter Q&A every Thursday. But what you probably didn't know is that before he jumps online he rereads one book... He turns to Sugar for inspiration. Sugar is the fictional character in Cheryl Strayed's book, Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar. Cheryl Strayed has had a rough life: sexual abuse, divorce, past drug abuse, and her mother's death. All this pushed her to do something radical with her life. She decided to take a hike. Not your everyday hike; she would hike more than a thousand miles of the Pacific Coast Trail from the Mojave Desert through California, Oregon, and Washington - and she did it alone. The hike finally healed her, and she turned it into her NY Times bestselling memoir, Wild. The book was then turned into a movie starring Reese Witherspoon. Oprah loved the book so much she restarted her book club just to highlight it. Cheryl's new book Brave Enough was just released in October. James asks her, "Why a book of quotes?" As Cheryl says in the introduction of her book... "I've always been a quote collector... From the comic to the profound, the simple to the complex, the sorrowful to the ecstatic, the inspiring to the stern, whenever I need consolation or encouragement, a clear-eyed perspective or a swift kick in the pants - which is often - quotes are what I turn to. They've been tacked to the walls of every home I've made. I've written them down in my journals and kept them on files in my computer. I've scribbled them on the back of ripped-open envelopes and drawn them across stretches of sand." Now that they've met, James is almost sorry, as he'll not be able to steal from her so easily going forward.   Resources and Links: Cheryl Strayed Website Brave Enough by Cheryl Strayed Wild by Cheryl Strayed and Wild (the movie) starring Reese Witherspoon Tiny Beautiful Things by Cheryl Strayed Torch by Cheryl Strayed Dear Sugar podcast Oprah's 2015 Book Club ------------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.