Book Summary: The Choose Yourself Guide to Wealth by James Altucher

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The Book in Three Sentences

“The only skills you need to be an entrepreneur are an ability to fail, an ability to have ideas and to sell those ideas, the courage to execute on those ideas, and to be persistent so even as you fail you learn and move on to the next adventure”.
Ask: “What can I do right now to move forward, in this second?”
“Choosing yourself right now in how you treat yourself, how you treat the people around you, how you treat your efforts and your loves. Nothing is more important than this”.
“When you have ideas, you’ll quickly get freedom. When you get freedom, you’ll have the energy to build more ideas, to generate more abundance, to live the life you want to live”.
“Every day give the world at least one more reason to whisper ‘thank you’ to you. If you can hear that whisper, everything else, every gift in life, becomes expected. You earned it”.

“When you are in the Idea Machine, nothing can stop you. This is where abundance is. This is where seeds are planted. This is where you dip into other dimensions not yet created”.

“True wealth occurs when you don’t have to bow down to any gatekeepers—regardless of the money involved. Money is just a by-product. You are out of prison. You are free”.

“Here’s a secret: you don’t have to worry about “finding” your passion. You’re naturally going to get passionate about what you are good at”.

“Come up with ten ideas you can write newsletters about. They don’t have to be in the above three categories”.

“I have never once seen anyone save the increase they received in their salary”.

“Only free time, imagination, creativity, and an ability to disappear will help you deliver value that nobody ever delivered before in the history of humankind”.

“The only skills you need to be an entrepreneur are an ability to fail, an ability to have ideas and to sell those ideas, the courage to execute on those ideas, and to be persistent so even as you fail you learn and move on to the next adventure”.

“Abundance only comes when you are moving along your themes—when you are truly enhancing the lives of the people around you”.

“Ideas are the currency of life. Not money—because money can run out. 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 ‘runner’s high’ of your idea muscle”.

“Often the best way to make friends and customers for life is to direct them to a better service or product than yours”.

“When you get in the door, do not sell your product. People make a decision on your product in five seconds. Sell the dream. Build up images of the dream. Give a taste of what the dream is like. Let it linger. Let it weave itself. Let the imagination of the buyer take hold and run with it. The dream has up to infinity in value”.

“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”.

“Today is the only day I need to think about success. And every successful tomorrow is determined by one thing: having a successful today”.

“Connecting people who can benefit each other is the most useful skill you can have on the entrepreneurial ladder of skills”.

“Choosing yourself right now in how you treat yourself, how you treat the people around you, how you treat your efforts and your loves. Nothing is more important than this”.

“I don’t have the goal, ‘do this by X date’. I have a “theme” that I want to have a high quality of life until the day I die”.

“When you have ideas, you’ll quickly get freedom. When you get freedom, you’ll have the energy to build more ideas, to generate more abundance, to live the life you want to live”.

“Every day give the world at least one more reason to whisper ‘thank you’ to you. If you can hear that whisper, everything else, every gift in life, becomes expected. You earned it”.