The James Altucher Show

If you slept on the floor last night, you're off to a great start. Ryan Holiday started on the floor. I guess that's where we all start. The difference is we want to stand on the floor, not sleep on it. But maybe you should stop thinking that way. Maybe you should sleep on the floor. Ryan Holiday didn't even sleep on his own floor. He slept on someone else's floor. Even better, it was his boss's f...

Rich Roll was having a heart attack on his staircase. He was fat. He hated his work. He was unhappy. A few years later, he ran, swam, and biked 703 miles in seven days when he was 45 years old. When he was 40, he had a job he hated, but he was still trying to live the American dream: the two cars, the beautiful family, the partnership at a law firm. "I thought I was having a heart attack on the st...

Jon Acuff, the author of five books, writes from the trenches. Today he talks with James about a few of the self-sabotage practices he used to follow. Jon also talks about the fear he had of creating an email list, instead using Twitter to make believe he was communicating with his readers, and his fear of self-promoting his books while not wanting to be one of those "extreme self-promoters." Jon...

Dan Buettner ruined James' life, and in today's podcast, you'll find out why. Today, they talk about The Blue Zones, Dan's new book. It's a fascinating topic completed in conjunction with a 10-year project with National Geographic. It's not about just making it to 100; it's all about being healthy and active at 100, still enjoying life, and contributing. As Dan says, "they are repositories of wisd...

What an interview... This one will go down in the archives as one of our best. Nick Megalis is a true artist in every sense of the word And he moves to the beat of his own crazy drum. Today Nick allows James to ask him anything. He's willing to tell us why his work is so important to him. It's a very funny interview but it goes deep. Nick says he's extremely fortunate that people like what he does...

We sent you Part 1 of this amazing interview with Mark Ford on Tuesday and today we're releasing Part 2. If you've not listened to Part 1 click here to start there. Make sure you go to markfordbook.com and learn how you can claim your free copy of Mark's book, Living Rich: How to Live as Well as a Billionaire on a Middle-Class Budget. ------------What do YOU think of the show? Head to JamesAltuche...

Today, we have a very special show for you. I recently hopped on a plane and headed to Palm Beach, Florida, where I recorded this two-part show from this gentleman's waterfront mansion. The man is a true legend in the field of entrepreneurship and investing, having started more than 100 companies, most of which have been successful. My guest today is New York Times best-selling author Mark Ford. Y...

As James and Moisés dive into this conversation, they talk about a shift in power from West to East and North to South, from presidential palaces to public squares, from corporate giants like Microsoft to Google, to today's unknown startups. In The End of Power, Moisés argues that power is not merely shifting and dispersing, it is also decaying. Those in power today are consistently at risk of los...

We all have what Eker calls your "money blueprint." You've been taught to think the thoughts you think. If you were taught bad habits, then you may be programmed to continue to follow with bad habits throughout your life. And when you realize this, you can make a profound change in your life. From a very early age, Eker wanted nothing more than to become a millionaire. He tried so many different b...

Note: I want to apologize up front for the sound quality on this episode. We tried everything we could to get it as clear as possible but we thought this interview was so good we didn't want to discard it. Thanks in advance for struggling though - I promise it will be worth it. Dave McClure has taken a slightly different path towards the funding of startups. He gets in early in a lot of company's...

Brian Koppelman joins James again today to answer all those questions that James was kicking himself for not asking during their first interview back in November. Writing the super hit, Solitary Man, was a challenge different than any other Brian had yet taken on. And he tells James that he "got stuck." Fear would set in; he would see his limitations and get sidetracked. Up until that time, Brian...

Gretchen Rubin is the New York Times bestselling author of The Happiness Project. After reading her book and applying some of her practical ideas, James was hooked. For example, he discovered that after six seconds of continuous hugging, the body releases oxytocin - the feel-good juice. He decided to try this on Claudia the other day during a little argument they were having, and it totally worked...

Performance coach and bestselling author of Live It, Jairek Robbins, talks about his journey in the life coaching business and how he and James met through an ongoing competition on Amazon.   Jairek reveals how his father, Tony Robbins (Tony Robbins podcast), encouraged him to find his life calling through a simple process of learning, living, and giving. He explains how his father's one rule abou...

Kevin Kelly is Senior Maverick at Wired magazine. He co-founded Wired in 1993, and served as its executive editor from its inception until 1999. He is also editor and publisher of the Cool Tools website, which gets half a million unique visitors per month. From 1984-1990, Kelly was publisher and editor of the Whole Earth Review, a journal of unorthodox technical news. He co-founded the ongoing Hac...

A.J. Jacobs is creating the world's largest family reunion. You may remember A.J. from his first interview on The James Altucher Show a year ago. If you know A.J., you'll know why this is the one event you don't want to miss. He's a master at creating a huge media splash. The Global Family Reunion is set for June 6, 2015 at The New York Hall of Science, on the grounds of the World's Fair. James is...

Peter Diamandis, CEO of the XPRIZE and co-chairman of Planetary Resources and Steven Kotler, the cofounder and director of research for the Flow Genome Project aswell as being author of "The Rise of Superman," a New York Times bestseller, and previous guest on The James Altucher Show, came together to co-write Bold, about building companies using exponentially growing technologies like 3D printing...

Andy Weir followed his dream. Ever since he was a small boy he wanted to be a writer, but it took him a long time to find success. His first short story, The Egg brought him a bit of notoriety. This thousand-word story got passed around on blog sites and people began to follow him. The Martian, Andy's new hit book was first published as a serial, one chapter at a time on his website. He had just a...

ames and Claudia talk with Ari Whitten, author of the book The Low Carb Myth,to talk aboutwhy people get fat and get unhealthy. Do carbohydrates make you fat? His conclusions are surprising. He disagrees strongly that we get fat because we are lazy and eat too much. Rather than being due simply to gluttony, sloth, and conscious decisions around how much we eat or move. If you've been on a low- or...

Brad Feld, an extremely successful early stage investor and serial entrepreneur, opens up to James about the struggles he has faced, both physical and mental. He has struggled with depression and being an introvert in an extroverts' world. And he has learned the best ways to deal with it. "Understanding yourself is extremely important." Today, physical interaction is not nearly as important as it...

Chicken Soup for the Soul, his first book, consisted of inspirational, true stories about ordinary people's lives. As a high school teacher in an inner-city school, Jack Canfield was looking for a way to motivate his students. Asking them what they wanted to be and how they could get there seemed to resonate. He helped them set goals; understand the importance of taking action, how to visualize th...

Maria Popova, avid reader, writer hunter-gatherer, and curious mind-at-large joins James today on The James Altucher Show. James tells her he reads only one blog religiously and it's Maria's blog Brain Pickings.org. It started as an e-mail to a few friends with a couple of links to things that interested her. They forwarded those on to friends and before she knew it, she was writing a blog. It's a...

James was recently in New York and caught up with his good friend and fellow podcaster Lewis Howes They decided to drop into the studio and record a podcast for The James Altucher Show and another for Lewis's podcast, The School of Greatness, one of James' favorite shows. Lewis' bio is simply amazing and way too long to rewrite here, but if you want to grow your business, improve your personal lif...

Casey Neistat is an American film director, producer, and creator of popular YouTube videos. While he has worked in almost every aspect of video making, he tells James that YouTube is his absolute passion. He chose to leave mainstream media for YouTube, which is the opposite of most YouTubers' aspirations. They talk about creative "ideas." Casey tells James that ideas matter very little - it's exe...

Tim Larkin talks with James today about pro-victim rights and personal safety. As a former military intelligence instructor who helped America's elite Navy Seals develop their hand-to-hand combat techniques, Tim has spent two decades learning about violence. He tells James the story of how he got accepted to the Navy Seals program. He exposed their problem and offered them a solution... This is an...

Seth tells James that he had to write his new book What To Do When It's Your Turn because he had no choice. It's about what's holding you back, that voice in your head that pushes you to be mediocre or pushes you to hide. "It pushes us to dig deep inside so we can do better work and impact the things we care about." They talk about the industrial age and how it changed everything. "We invented pub...