The Learning Leader Show With Ryan Hawk For more details text LEARNERS to 44222 Full show notes can be found at www.LearningLeader.com #365: James Altucher - How To Become An Idea Machine "Vulnerability equals freedom." "You need to say something interesting. You need to step outside of your comfort zone." James started writing in 1990 after a girl he liked chose to date a writer instead of him. He wrote 3,000 words a day and yet didn't publish anything for 12 years. Why write about your flaws? Watch the movie 8 mile... "Eminem shares all of the negative aspects of himself. He left his competition with nothing to say about him. He beat him to the punch." "I don't hit publish unless I'm worried. Am I afraid? If yes, then publish." "All good writing has to have a story." Commonalities of people who sustain excellence: Physically healthy - They are in shape Emotionally healthy - They have good relationships They are extremely curious - "Ken Langone came in my comedy club and asked tons of questions. He's so curious." They are very creative They have a "ready, fire, aim" approach - Sara Blakely started Spanx and got a $300K order and hadn't figured out how to manufacture her product yet. Creativity/Idea generation is a muscle - If you don't work it, it atrophies. Write 10 ideas a day. Quantity is more important than quality. "He who has the most ideas wins." You'll have a lot of bad ideas. You have to get through those to get to the good ones. Quantity is important. "Writing 10 ideas a day changed my life. I wasn't depressed anymore." Write ideas for companies and share with them... They might call you. Being an "intrapreneur" within your company - Think of ideas that can help your company and share with the CEO. "Success is always on the other side of can't." Great entrepreneurs focus on reducing risk How to speak to powerful people? Realize they are just people Humor is key. "Laughter is the way to level the playing field." Developing a skill - Deliberate practice The "10,000 Experiment" rule The key to getting good is to experiment Be in the top 1% of doing experiments Work your idea muscle every single day - The neurons will be re-wired Share your ideas to help other companies Over-promise AND over-deliver. Do both. Everyone else under-promise with the hope to over-deliver. Don't do that. Overpromise upfront and over-deliver.