"Great minds discuss ideas;
average minds discuss events;
small minds discuss people."
-Eleanor Roosevelt
Welcome to The Golden Sense! Money is a side effect of being an idea machine. James Altucher is a living breathing idea machine. James is an American hedge fund manager, entrepreneur, bestselling author, and podcaster. He has founded or cofounded over 20 companies, including Reset Inc. and StockPickr, and claims to have failed at 17 of them. He sold several companies for eight figure exits. He's on the board of a billion dollar revenue company, has written for The Financial Times, The New York Observer, and over a dozen popular websites for the past 15 years. He's run several hedge funds, venture capital funds, and is a successful angel investor in technology, energy, and biotech. He has also lost all his money, made it back, lost it, made it back several times. James writes down 10 bad or good ideas every day. He claims his idea generation has catapulted him into many of his successful ventures and has been the driving source of his wealth accumulation.
Coming up with ideas is like working a muscle. If you didn't walk for a month your legs would become weak. The moment you stood up, after that month of sitting, your legs would be wobbly and unstable. Your fitness would be completely gone and walking or even running would be a major challenge. Exercising your "idea muscle" is like working on your physical fitness. The more ideas you produce, the better they become. A good way to start is to imagine all the obstacles are gone. Imagine, “if I wasn’t worried about money". James calls this IDEA SUBTRACTION. Subtract the perceived obstacles to an idea and (BAM!) you find that many more ideas are born from that.
Idea's change your attitude. By constantly coming up with new ideas you will surprise yourself with the amount of businesses and adventures that can come from nothing. Ideas will help you streamline your current activities and create a future full of possibility. I have tried it myself and have found numerous business ideas; I hardly know where to start.
Write down 10 bad ideas every day and sooner or later 10 good ideas will come to fruition. Most success stories come about by accident, timing, or perseverance. Constantly producing ideas will increase the chance for this to happen.
The 1990's rapper Coolio wrote lyrics every day for 17 years in a row before having a single hit. Someone finally listened. Somehow his voice stopped imitating others and became his own.
Coolio would go on to make millions in his career producing hit songs.
Silly Putty, the stretchy, bouncy compound that children of all ages love to mold, stretch and make into odd shapes came into existence quite by accident. Credit is most typically given to James Wright, an engineer for General Electric, who during WWII was trying to create an inexpensive substitute for synthetic rubber. He mixed boric acid and silicone oil and came up with something even more pliable instead. The substance didn’t suit the government’s needs, but a few years later, an enterprising businessman recognized its marketing potential as a children’s toy. Over time, its popularity soared and Crayola acquired the exclusive manufacturing rights in 1977. Silly Putty was then inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame in 2001.
Being an "idea machine" may eventually lead you to where you want to be.
Hockey great Wayne Gretzky had an interesting take on how to master his particular craft – don’t go where the puck is on the ice, but instead to where the puck is going to be. Gretzky, a first ballot Hall-of-Famer, saw the game unfold before him seconds before his opponents did and that vision helped catapult him to the short list of not only greatest hockey players ever, but the greatest athletes regardless of the sport. “A good hockey player plays where the puck is, but a great hockey player plays where the puck is going to be.” said Gretzky.
The point is, by producing ideas, you increase your chances of being in the right place at the right time. Highly productive people generate success, and successful people have productive brains. They go hand-in-hand. By becoming an "idea machine", health and wealth are simply a bi-product.
What do you have to lose?
-T. Norman
Note: This is the 50th edition to The Golden Sense! A big thanks to everyone who reads!
