Claudia Azula Altucher - Become An Idea Machine: Because Ideas Are The Currency Of The 21st Century

C opyright 2015 by Claudia Azula Altucher

First Edition: January 2015

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Cover Design & Print Layout: Erin Tyler

Ebook Development: Ian Claudius

T o all who may be struggling, stuck, feeling pressure or fear.

May the prompts on these pages fill your days with new ways of looking at the world.

May your passions be ignited, your creativity soar.

May your life, and that of those around you become magical, abundant, and filled with bright ideas.

May you become idea-wealthy and a magnet for success.

T he way to have good ideas is to get close to killing yourself. Its like weightlifting. When you lift slightly more than you can handle, you get stronger. In life, when the gun is to your head, you either figure it out, or you die. When you cut yourself open, you bleed ideas. If youre broke and close to death, you have to start coming up with ideas. If you destroy your life, you need to come up with ideas to rebuild it.

The only time Ive been FORCED to have good ideas is when I was up against the wall. My life insurance policy was like a gun to my head: Come up with good ideas OR ELSE your kids get your life insurance! Or at an airport when I realized a business I had been working on for four years was worthless. Or when I was getting a divorce and I was lonely and afraid I wouldnt make any money again or I wouldnt meet anyone again. Or my kids would hate me. Or I would disgust my friends.

The problem is this: youre NOT in a state of panic most of the time. States of panic are special and have to be revered. Think about the times in your life that you remember its exactly those moments when you hit bottom and were forced to come up with ideas, to get stronger, to connect with some inner force inside you with the outer force.

This is why its important NOW to strengthen that connection to that idea force inside of you. This book is about HOW.

Nothing you ever thought of before amounted to anything thats why you are exactly where you are at that moment of hitting bottom. Because all of your billions of thoughts have led you to right there. You cant trust the old style of thinking anymore. They came, they saw, they lost. You have to come up with a new way of thinking. A new way of having ideas. A new ways of interacting with the outside universe.

People know what runners high is. Its when you are running for a long time, at the point of exhaustion, and then something kicks in and gives you a second wind. 400,000 years ago people didnt jog for exercise. They didnt even have jogging shorts. Or sneakers. 400,000 years ago people need to eat and live. And either youre running to catch a prey, or you are running from a lion. Youre the prey! And you need that second wind in both cases or you DIE.

The same thing happens in the brain. When you are about to die, a second wind kicks in. Ideas, experiences, opportunity, and probably hidden forces and neurochemicals we dont understand. But you cant get runners high unless youre ALREADY in good shape. Its not possible unless you are already able to run long distances. This is why its important to exercise the idea muscle right now. If your idea muscle atrophies, then even at your lowest point you wont have any ideas. How long does it take this muscle to atrophy? The same as any other muscle in your body: just two weeks without having any ideas. Atrophied. If you lie down in a bed for two weeks and dont move your legs you will need physical therapy to walk again.

Many people need idea therapy. Not so that they can come up with great ideas right this second (although maybe you will) but so that people can come up with ideas when they need them: when their car is stuck, when their house blows up, when they are fired from their job, when their spouse betrays them, when they go bankrupt or lose a big customer, or lose a client, or go out of business, or get sick.

IDEAS ARE THE CURRENCY OF LIFE. Not money. Money gets depleted until you go broke. But good ideas buy you good experiences, buy you better ideas, buy you better experiences, buy you more time, save your life. Financial wealth is a side effect of the runners high of your idea muscle. Whoa! That was a big intro.

Sometimes people ask, Did you only start coming up with ideas because you already had it made?

No, I was on the floor crying because I was dead broke and dead lonely and had no prospects so thats why I had to do it.

What do I mean by an idea machine?

You will be like a superhero. Its almost a guaranteed membership in the Justice League of America. Every situation you are in, you will have a ton of ideas. Any question you are asked, you will know the response. Every meeting you are at, you will take the meeting so far out of the box youll be on another planet, if you are stuck on a desert highway you will figure the way out, if you need to make money youll come up with 50 ideas to make money, and so on.

After I started exercising the idea muscle, it was like a magic power had unleashed inside of me. Its ok if you dont believe me. Or maybe you think its bragging. There are many times when I dont have ideas. But thats when I stop practicing what I am about to advocate.

Try it for yourself. I have no reason for you to try this. I just want to share my experience. Its like part of your brain is opened up and a constant flow of stuff, both good and bad, gets dropped in there. From where? I dont think about it and I dont care. But I use it.

In early 2009 was one of those times when I desperately needed to do this. I was fulltime either trying to find a girlfriend or I was trying to start a business or both. I was also going broke in the stock market and losing my home.

Every night, Id have waffles for dinner and a bottle of wine and start writing ideas down. This is before I went paleo (no waffles!) and stopped drinking alcohol (five years sober!) and I was writing 10-20 of the most ludicrous ideas a day down. And you know what? It worked.

I was laid off from my corporate safe job in March of 2009. After ten years of service I got nothing.

At first it hurt like hell. And it wasnt just me; many of my friends were laid off at that time, and I only see that trend continuing. Open any newspaper and you will see who is out of a job today. There is no denying that things have changed. The entire economy has turned upside down. Everyone I know has been fired or demoted.