It’s not every day that an entrepreneur decides to tell everyone their secrets. Yet James Altucher is one of the entrepreneurs who wants to see other small business owners grow. He’s the star of the James Altucher Show and is the author of over fifteen best-selling books. Yet he didn’t start off like this. Altucher’s first foray into business was in a completely different sector.
Post-Graduation Struggles
Altucher graduated from Cornell University with a solid foundation in computer science. He eventually graduated from Carnegie Mellon University and entered the competitive IT sector. He was one of the architects of the early dotcom explosion, which eventually became a bubble.
One of his early forays into business was Reset Inc., which dealt with web hosting and design. It wasn’t the norm back them to start a business right out of college, so Altucher stood out as a groundbreaking entrepreneur. He was willing to take risks others might not want to, much like some other entrepreneurs that we’ve covered.
A String Of Successful Businesses
What lands Altucher in our spotlight today is his string of successful businesses. Despite the downturn of the crash of the dotcom era, Altucher kept up with his business goals and spread out his earnings into multiple streams. While his businesses, like Reset Inc. and Stockpickr, are doing well, he doesn’t solely depend on them to bring income in.
His series of best-selling books, including one that explains his story in detail, have been doing well for him with minimal marketing. Altucher is a well-known name in many circles because of the persona he cultivates. His daily podcast helps keep him in the public eye enough to serve as marketing.
Knowing How To Choose Yourself is Key
“Choose Yourself” is one of the book series that Altucher has released that focuses on highlighting how people should be choosing themselves in their daily lives. The book underlines one of Altucher’s core tenets for new entrepreneurs: You Matter, and You Should Matter To Yourself.
This is crucial to understand, Altucher says, because it allows young entrepreneurs to give enough of themselves to connect to an audience but not so much that they lose themselves. It’s easy when you’re a new entrepreneur to want to help everyone, but choosing yourself first ensures that you enjoy your life instead of becoming miserable in it.
No Is a Powerful Word
Another notable book by Altucher is The Power of No, which he co-wrote with his former wife, Claudia Azula Altucher. In it, Altucher explains that when something bothers you, you have the power to say no and leave it behind. He says that for early-stage businesses, this is crucial because it sets the stage for the business going forward.
When a business starts, it can feel like it is locked into doing a certain thing. The goal should be to break the mold and seek new paths that are more profitable and less stressful. Yet doing so requires saying no to early-stage business partnerships, especially if they hurt more than help the business.
Make Your Own Luck
Altucher believes in luck, but he also believes that you can stack the cards in your favor. His book, How To Be The Luckiest Person Alive, underlines that being lucky isn’t always by chance. It’s by understanding what you want and figuring out how to align the dominos so they fall in your favor. Sometimes, that can be as simple as exploring new options.
Altucher himself testifies to using these same techniques to build his business and grow it to such a level. He’s a business butterfly with his hand in many operating enterprises, either as an investor or as a core business member. He thinks that by putting yourself out there and discovering the way things work, you can figure out how to adapt it to get what you want out of it.
Don’t Panic
While Altucher is no Douglas Adams, the advice he gives is the same. He advises young entrepreneurs to be aware that their business will face peril, but panicking won’t help the situation. There will be times when it’s hard to make ends meet, and the business feels overbearing, but panicking is what leads to so many others failing.
He says that instead of focusing on the peril, look at the opportunities that come from it. Each closed door is just a chance for another door to open. He uses examples like COVID-19 to demonstrate how so many businesses saw a need and filled that need, pivoting their business into something profitable instead of just waiting things out and dying because of a lack of income.
Personal Growth Should Come Before Business Growth
Altucher is a huge fan of personal growth and reinventing oneself to fit a new mold. He has always stated that personal growth should be the goal, and business growth will usually follow it. He underlines this by saying a lot of his business contacts and ideas for his books came from his personal growth. He advises entrepreneurs not to neglect their personal growth for business goals.
He says that there is always a demand for people who are interesting, whether that be because they have interesting stories or because they’re not the same people they were a few years ago. Most people look for a routine that comforts them, but true trendsetters in business prefer to push the barriers and change themselves to live their best lives. He thinks that by doing that, entrepreneurs guarantee that they enjoy working in their businesses.
An Engaging Storyteller with Practical Advice
Aside from his existing podcast and daily show, Altucher is also open for public speaking engagements, but he’s not the typical public speaker. He won’t regale guests with tales of things he dreamed up to inspire others. He uses real examples from his life, interspersed with advice that listeners can really use. His goal of constant self-improvement is one of the strongest foundations for his type of public speaking. If you haven’t seen, heard, or read anything by Altucher as yet, now’s a good time to learn from him.
