James Altucher - Choose Yourself!

HERES THE DEAL

I dont need to make a dime off of this book. The ideas in the book have already made me wealthy in many ways. What I really care about is that as many people as possible read this book and understand this message, even if it puts my own personal investment at risk.

Heres how Im going to try and create a situation where as many people as possible get this message:

I know nobody values booksor anythingthat are given away for free. So, Im not going to do that. This isnt one of those ineffectual self-help books designed to look good on your shelf. You either read the book and use these ideas, or you shouldnt bother. Thats why you have to front the purchase price. But, if you can prove to me that you have actually read the book, I will give you your money back. Its an investment thats all upside on your part.

How do you prove to me youve read the book? Do the following:

Within the first three months of the official publication date, do these two things:

1) Send me a copy of the receipt to . There is a kindle version, a hardcover, and an audio version and they all cost different amounts. I need to know what you paid.

2) Then choose one of the following to send together with the receipt:

• You can write an honest review on Amazon or GoodReads or your blog.
• You can take a photograph of yourself reading the book.
• You can write me a testimonial or an e-mail asking me questions that show youve read the book.

If you can think of other ways, thats fine too. The point is: prove to me you read the book, and get your money back. Or, you can tell me to give it to a charity. This is the charity I will give it to:

WomenForWomen International

Im a man of my word. If every single person who buys the book takes advantage of this opportunity, then I will make zero on it. But Ill be just as happy because it means the message will spread and you, the people who read the book, will be helped.

I know I was helped. This book has worked for me. I chose myself.

DEDICATION

I Choose Myself!

TABLE OF CONTENTS

FOREWORD

I started out as a computer science major. I then got excited about improvisational comedy. I then somehow ended up as CEO of Twitter. We live in a world where the yellow brick road has many forks and can take us on many incredible journeys.

Its increasingly difficult to know the final destination of these journeys.

The day and age of the massive corporations that take care of us from beginning to end are over. But that is exciting news. It means we can choose the life we want for ourselves. You choose that life by doing the best you can right in this moment. Right now. By being bold in this moment. Right now. There is no other moment to wait for. Twitter is about the entire world conversation right in this moment. Its the improvisation, right now, of the planet. And yes, its often comedy. And its often about people reinventing themselves and starting new conversations for their lives.

What I like about James and his book is you can tell he came from a similar roller coaster. He chose his own path to success without knowing the outcome. And what happens to him later--well, hopefully he wont end up in a gutter. Who knows?

The key is to be bold right in this moment. As James says in the title of this book, Choose Yourself, and he explains how. Choose yourself right now.

If you do this, not only can you not plan the impact youre going to have, you often wont recognize it while youre having it. But one thing is for sure: if you dont make courageous choices for yourself, nobody else will.

Theres no one path. Theres every path. Every path starts with this one moment. Did you choose yourself for this moment? Can you be bold? Then all paths will lead to the same place. Right now.

#chooseyourself

Dick Costolo, CEO of Twitter

I CHOSE MYSELF: AN INTRODUCTION

I was going to die. The market had crashed. The Internet had crashed. Nobody would return my calls. I had no friends. Either I would have a heart attack or I would simply kill myself. I had a $4 million life insurance policy. I wanted my kids to have a good life. I figured the only way that could happen was if I killed myself. My expenses were out of control. Id made some money and amped up my lifestyle to drunken-rock-star status. Then I promptly lost it, my bank account bumping along zero during the worst economy in maybe twenty years. Im talking about 2002, but I could also have been talking about 2008: the year I lost my home, my family, my friends, money, jobs.

The excruciating downward spiral began in 1998 when I sold a company right as the dot-com bubble was really starting to swell. I was one of the smart ones, I thought. I was cashing out. Then I did everything wrong. I bought a house I couldnt afford. I had expensive habits I couldnt maintain. I gambled, and squandered, and gave, and lent to everyone I knew. Hundreds of thousands of dollars. Then millions of dollars.

I started another company. I put millions into that. I felt like I needed to buy love. And if I didnt have an enormous amount of money to buy it, nobody would love me. That failed.

I lost my house. I lost all my money. I lost any self-esteem I had. I lost my friends. I had no idea what I was going to do. I failed at every attempt to right the ship, to succeed.

I would look at my daughters and cry because I felt like I had ruined their lives. I wasnt just a personal failure, or a failure in business, I was a failure as a father, as well. I didnt even have enough money every month to pay the mortgage that kept the roof over their heads.

I was officially lost. I had nothing left. Zero. Less than zero, actually, because I had debts. Millions in debts.

By 2002 there was nothing left in the ATM machine. I thought running out of money would be my worst moment. Worse than death. I was wrong.

At the end of 2002 I had a conversation with my parents. I was angry and depressed. We got into an argument. Over whatit doesnt matter anymore.

I hung up the phone and cut them off.

Over the next several months my father tried to reach out to me. I was starting to come back. I was writing. I was appearing on TV. He congratulated me. His final congratulations were about six months after I last spoke to him.

I didnt respond.

A week later he had a stroke. He never spoke again. He died without me ever speaking to him again.

And I was still broke, hungry, despairing, and depressed. I was in a constant state of panic. Nobody was helping me. Nobody was giving me any chances. Nobody was giving me an outlet to prove how talented I was. I knew I had to hustle to make it, but the world was upside down and I didnt know how to straighten things out. To make things right.

For all intents and purposes, 2008 was a carbon copy of 2002. I managed to get myself back on my feet. I built and sold another company. I made a lot of money and then, through mindless squandering, I pissed it all away. Again. Except this time I was getting a divorce, losing even more friends, failing at two other companies at the same time, and I had no clue what I was going to do to climb out of the hole Id dug for myself.

This kind of thing hasnt just happened to me once. Or twice. But many times. In the past twenty years Ive failed at about eighteen of the twenty businesses Ive started. Ive probably switched careers five or six times in various sectors ranging from software to finance to media. Ive written ten books. Ive lost multiple jobs. Ive been crushed, on the floor, suicidal, desperate, anxious, depressed. And each time, Ive had to reinvent myself, reinvent my goals and my career. On most occasions, I didnt realize what steps I was repeating over and over, both positive and negative. Once I achieved success I would inevitably return to my negative habits and start squandering my good fortune.