Top 280 James Altucher Quotes (2024 Update)
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51. “I don’t blame them. I never blame anyone but myself. Every second I am manipulated and coerced and beaten down it’s because I’ve allowed it.”

— James Altucher

52. “Happiness is just a positive perception from our brain. Some days, you will be unhappy. Our brain is a tool we use. It’s not who we are.”

— James Altucher

53. “It’s very important to enjoy what you’re doing or else you are always going to procrastinate.”

— James Altucher

54. “Wake up early. Avoid distractions. Work three to five hours a day and then enjoy the rest of the day. Be as perfectionist as you can, knowing that imperfection will still rule. Have the confidence to be magical and stretch the boundaries of your medium. Combine the tools of the medium itself with the message you want to convey. Don’t get stuck in the same rut – move forward, experiment, but with the confidence built up over experience. Change the rules but learn them first.”

— James Altucher

55. “Help is a conversation. If one side talks too much, the other side will get bored. So make sure you help back when you can.”

— James Altucher

56. “Only worry about your own happiness, which doesn’t have to be limited by anyone else’s stupidity unless you allow it to be.”

— James Altucher

57. “Don’t sweat it if you are stuck in the corporate job right now. But begin to plan ahead. I know from much personal experience that it takes 1-3 years to transition from total scratch to making a living from home in any career you want.”

— James Altucher

58. “When we die our entire legacy is simply the added together strengths of all the connections we make with others. This is the ghost of ourselves we leave behind. This is showing up.”

— James Altucher

59. “I’m a big believer in minimalism. Not materialist minimalism, although that’s part of it, but time and energy minimalism. The body is given only so much energy a day.”

— James Altucher

60. “Buying coffee on the street instead of in a Starbucks is the poor man’s way to get rich. In other words, you will never get rich by scratching out ten cents from your dollar.”

— James Altucher

61. “You can’t make money without selling something real. You can’t make something real without first imagination manifesting itself in your head. You can’t have imagination without surrendering yourself to an idea that you want to create something of value to other human beings.”

— James Altucher

62. “Everything that happens in your future is a direct result of what you do today.”

— James Altucher

63. “Being a leader doesn’t mean you created something or you did something great in the past or some other person has given you any kind of authority.”

— James Altucher

64. “I find that many entrepreneurs are trying to do everything when it would be cheaper and more time-efficient to delegate, even if there are monetary costs associated with that.”

— James Altucher

65. “The only way to make real wealth is to get rid of your salary. In a salary, by definition, you are creating wealth for others, and you are creating a chain and handcuffs for yourself.”

— James Altucher

66. “If too many things have to happen in order to bring about the situation you want, then back out of it and try again later.”

— James Altucher

67. “I love being honest and intimate with people. I love building community. I love emailing with readers.”

— James Altucher

68. “But don’t limit yourself too much either. Always be looking for new opportunities to improve incrementally.”

— James Altucher

69. “The idea muscle must be exercised every day. Even if you’ve come up with ideas every day of your life, it will atrophy if you give it a two-week rest.”

— James Altucher

70. “Research your secret options thoroughly. Or else don’t begin the negotiation because you have not prepared properly.”

— James Altucher

71. “Mistakes I’ve made in the past make me afraid to try new things in the future. I want to be perfect.”

— James Altucher

72. “I had ideas first, wealth second. It only worked in that order.”

— James Altucher

73. “Try this exercise: pretend everyone was sent to this planet to teach you. Famous people, dead people, your neighbors, your relatives, your co-workers. This will give you a strong feeling of humility. And guess what, you will learn from people, you will appreciate them more, and they will actually appreciate you more. Because everyone loves to teach.”

— James Altucher

74. “Do as many ideas as possible. The right idea will pick you.”

— James Altucher

75. “Choose to commoditize your labor or choose yourself to be a creator, an innovator, an artist, an investor, a marketer, and an entrepreneur.”

— James Altucher

76. “When you’re a kid, everything has a question mark at the end of it. Only later do they turn into periods. Or even exclamation points. “Will I get over this?” becomes “It’s too late.” Becomes “I can’t get over this!”

— James Altucher

77. “Good ideas are a link between the real world and the world of myths and dreams.”

— James Altucher

78. “But business is just a vehicle for transforming the ideas in your head into something real, something tangible, that actually improves the lives of others. To create something unique and beautiful and valuable is very hard. It’s very special to do. It doesn’t happen fast.”

— James Altucher

79. “Like many people, he realized that he had to do something different in order to get out of the rut he was in. There’s a saying, “It’s your best thinking that got you here.” So the first step is to literally throw away your “best thinking.”

— James Altucher

80. “Habits. It’s the 5x5 rule. You are not just the average of the five people around you. You’re the average of the five habits you do, the things you eat, the ideas you have, the content you consume, etc.”

— James Altucher

81. “Don’t do something just for the money. Money is a side effect of persistence. You persist in things you are interested in. Explore your interests. Then persist. Then enjoy all the side effects.”

— James Altucher

82. “Don’t time travel into the past, roaming through the nuances as if they can change. Don’t bookmark pages you’ve already read.”

— James Altucher

83. “The best, very best scammers will always ask for your advice. This is their favorite technique. It makes them vulnerable. It flatters your ego.”

— James Altucher

84. “It’s easy to get anonymous people to hate you. Have an opinion. Be creative. Be yourself.”

— James Altucher

85. “Not everyone is an entrepreneur. Not everyone wants to be one.”

— James Altucher

86. “People are walking around blind. If you are the one who can see, you will be able to navigate through this new world.”

— James Altucher

87. “Most people are not truly talented at anything. However, most people can be pretty good at something.”

— James Altucher

88. “Games are all about taking risks.”

— James Altucher

89. “Don’t forget: when you start a website, it’s not yet a trusted site. So you have to bring people from a trusted site to your site to build up the trust in your site.”

— James Altucher

90. “This applies not just to customers but everyone in your life. Everyone. If someone no longer has your best interest at heart, then in your own self-interest you need to back off. Now.”

— James Altucher

91. “Your bosses simply hate you. You created more and more value. They paid you less and less. That’s the definition of disdain in my book.”

— James Altucher

92. “It’s in the valley of failure that we sow our seeds of success.”

— James Altucher

93. “Today I will try again. And tomorrow. And then the next day. If I don’t get better, I will at least have fun trying. And what else is there in life but to play as much as possible?”

— James Altucher

94. “Everyone is different. We all suffer from the disease of being human. There are a thousand cures but no antidotes.”

— James Altucher

95. “Reading is the best return on investment. You have to live your entire life in order to know one life. But with reading you can know 1000s of people’s lives for almost no cost. What a great return!”

— James Altucher

96. “Honesty is about the scars. Its about the blemishes. But its more than just bragging about failure, which could be a form of ego. Its about truly helping people.”

— James Altucher

97. “In life, you will always have 30 percent of people who love you, 30 percent who hate you and 30 percent who couldn’t care less.”

— James Altucher

98. “I have lots of ideas. How do I pick the right one? Execute on as many as possible. The right idea will pick you.”

— James Altucher

99. “You will be the beacon that will enhance the lives of everyone around you and, in doing so, trigger the actual law of nature that says when you enhance everyone around you, you can’t help but enhance yourself.”

— James Altucher

100. “The best way I have ever found to fill that hole is not to seek external motivations to fill the emptiness, but to ignite the internal fire that will never go out. To light up my own inner sky.”

— James Altucher