Quotes from James Altucher

If anything, diversify not across stocks but across the smart people you follow. That is real diversification instead of "Yahoo Finance diversification.

The key: always assume you are the least intelligent person in the room. Always. Do this in every room, at every dinner, in every situation.

The 5 × 5 RULE You're the average of the 5 people you spend time with. You're the average of the 5 thoughts you most have. You're the average of the 5 types of food you eat. You're the average of the 5 things you are most grateful for. You are the average of the 5 things you are reading today.

When you have bacon in your mouth, it doesn't matter who's president.

If someone wrote Beethoven's Fifth Symphony right now it would be laughed at.

The absolute best, surefire way to make a good living is to help someone else make a good living.

Live life like it's the last day for EVERYONE ELSE.

The way to get easy money is to have the most noble character trait of all: being risk averse.

Every master has his Elba. Banished to an island where the life you once knew no longer exists and it seems like there is no way to escape.

If a piece of writing is not hard, it's weak. It's not worth writing. It's not worth sharing. If it's not hard, it's soft. If you can't BLEED or KILL or SLASH YOUR GUTS with your word, then keep it to yourself.

People will not remember what you said, they will remember how you made them feel, if you consciously cultivate humility and learn from everyone you meet, they will remember you.

As your idea muscle improves, so will your ability to "fail quickly"—which is a much more crucial skill to hone than executing quickly.

College. Owning a home. Marriage. Children. Having a cushy job. Postponing our dreams for when there will be money. "Work hard and succeed!" Ten thousand hours to mastery. And so on.

Don't run scared to another country. They aren't better. They are, for the most part, far worse.

I ignore the headlines. Italy is a nice place to eat dinner and sight see but I'm not going to ever think again about their debt.

There's always a gap between "what I have now" and "what I would like." And that gap is all of your excuses.

When I was at my worst, the first thing I had to do was convince myself that I could succeed again. Then, and only then, could I take the first step back—the tiniest step that would release me from my fears and anxieties and allow me to move forward, if not to mastery, then at least to success.

The media only writes about the sinners and the scandals, but that's normal, because a tree that falls makes more noise than a forest that grows.

I live life as gently and positively as possible—then my negotiations work out, and then my tomorrows and the tomorrows of the people around me are pleasant.

We love our excuses. They are just as much our babies as our ideas are.

Say what you want and why. Negotiation equals authenticity.

This is a wonderful feminine quality but it is also important to remember that our own soothing, helping, and giving to ourselves is critical. So we may skip a day of doing the ten ideas if the world goes upside down. But we can take it again the next morning because our ideas are important. And because our contribution, the way we see the world, our thoughts, translated through a fine-tuned intuition of ideas is important.

Everything is a game. Understanding the rules allows you to succeed.

Coming up with ten ideas a day is like exercise. And exercise makes the idea muscle stronger.