How to Improve at Anything You Want

How To Improve at Anything You
Want
James Altucher
[1]
http://jamesaltucher.quora.com/How-To-Improve-at-Anything-You-Want
1 of 13 24-Apr-14 4:35 AM
My girlfriend at the time kicked me out of her bed in the middle of the
night and told me to leave. "Ugh," she said, "you're like reading the
same newspaper twice."
Which is really embarrassing and humiliating. It was about 3 in the
morning and I got my clothes on and left.
So that's my most prominent Easter memory until right now.
I'd like to tell what happened after that. The shitstorm that went down
that night after I left her apartment.
But let's fast forward 20 years.
She was right. I am like reading the same newspaper twice. I always
write about how I got better after my worst moments.
But these experiences are not unique to me. Everyone who has done
anything worth doing has been on REPEAT and lived to tell the tale.
This morning I was reading Carol Leifer's new book, "How to Succeed in
Business Without Really Crying", about her rise in standup-comedy,
and then writing for TV shows like Seinfeld, SNL, and The Larry
Sanders Show, three of my all-time favorite shows.
http://jamesaltucher.quora.com/How-To-Improve-at-Anything-You-Want
2 of 13 24-Apr-14 4:35 AM
It was a classic clusterf*ck at points in her career. But she did it.
Throughout it, she got better and I learned while I read.
If all you do are these things, you'll get better at whatever over time. I
hope I'm good enough to stick by these principles.
Sometimes I falter. Sometimes I fall off the wagon. I'm back on now but
we'll see.
HOW TO GET BETTER AT ANYTHING YOU WANT
Some of these are obvious. Some I've written before. But all are actually
incredibly difficult.
A) LOVE WHAT YOU DO.
This seems like BS. Of course you should love what you do.
But it's not that easy. It's hard to love something when you are losing
money, people are hating you for it. You're losing friends. You're feel
like a failure. And everything is going wrong.
The other day I wrote a post where I mentioned my 12 year old
daughter. She didn't like it and she felt really bad about it and about
me.
Then I felt worse. It's the worst thing in the world to make your 12 year
old feel bad. At that moment I didn't love what I did. I felt like giving
up forever.
But I deleted that post and then got back like a crack addict who's gone
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15 minutes without a dose.
B) CONNECT WITH PEOPLE WHO LOVE THE SAME THING YOU
DO.
I love talking to other people who write. I love to see how they think
about words, about their business, about how they succeeded and how
they failed and what they are working on now.
I love hearing their ideas. I love to see how I would do things
differently, or what I could learn.
More important, these are your comrades in your own private army.
Will you conquer? Will you all succeed together and save each other's
lives in the middle of battle.
Help the wounded, protect the unprotected? Time will tell. But I have
met great friends through this process and continue to do so.
I'm a shy introvert from birth and other people who do what I do tend
to be as well. It's great to be extroverted with a bunch of introverts.
C) LISTEN TO THE PEOPLE WHO LOVE WHAT YOU DO
I always listen to the advice of other writers and other people trying to
build their careers on either writing, self-improvement, business,
entertaining.
I've learned so much in the past year from people who can
constructively look at my stuff and tell me what they would do and how
they've succeeded at getting the word out. I'm really thankful for all of
these people.
http://jamesaltucher.quora.com/How-To-Improve-at-Anything-You-Want
4 of 13 24-Apr-14 4:35 AM
Most people offer destructive criticism. Criticism so bad and
meaningless that they are automatically not in my "scene" even though
on paper it would appear they were. Find the people in your scene and
learn from them. Completely ignore the people who look good on
paper but are useless to you and your improvement.
And every chance you get, listen to the people in your scene. The ones
that truly have your back. Let them do the talking. That's how you
learn.
D) READ THE HISTORY OF WHAT YOU DO.
I read novels every day dating from every decade. I've read self-help
books dating back to the 1890s. I've watched every Youtube comedy clip
I could find for the past 60 years.
I don't really know what I do. It's sort of somewhere in the middle of all
these things (the best ideas are combinations of other ideas).
But reading the history of what you do is the surest way to come up
with something unique, mixed with something old that people have
forgotten, mixed with new twists on various combinations that nobody
ever thought of.
You only get that with reading and knowledge.
E) BE KIND TO PEOPLE WHO LOVE WHAT YOU DO
When I first moved to New York City, my sister warned me, "Everyone
will only want to meet you if they think you can do something for
them".
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5 of 13 24-Apr-14 4:35 AM
I don't know if this is true. But the first thing I think when I'm excited
about meeting someone is what can I do for them. How can I promote
them? Who can I introduce them to. What can I offer them that will
deliver immediate value into their lives without being pushy?
I don't do this in a selfish way but the reality is: the more value you
deliver others, you get 10x back in return.
It's very depressing on the path to improvement. Because so much of it
is filled with failure.
And failure stinks. No matter what the "cult of failure" tells you. It's no
fun and I feel suicidal often when I fail.
And most of the time people fail. Being kind to people who are
depressed is often the best way to deliver the value that is needed most.
F) PRACTICE DOING WHAT YOU LOVE
It doesn't matter what you do. Do it every day. It doesn't matter what
you do, do things related to it as much as possible.
In a few weeks I have to give a talk. I don't feel I am a naturally gifted
public speaker but once again i've given myself the challenge of
speaking to an entirely different sort of audience than I have ever
spoken to before.
This presents a puzzle. Now I have to spend the next month working
hard to solve that puzzle. I hope I learn many things along the way.
In the meantime, I have a new book (co-written with the lovely Claudia
http://jamesaltucher.quora.com/How-To-Improve-at-Anything-You-Want
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Azula Altucher
[2]
) called "The Power of No" coming out on July 15.
We just did the audiobook with some fun outtakes. Everything I do I try
to add my Ooomph to it.
I hope it's good. I keep practicing. When I'm 80 years old I'll still be
practicing. Practice makes...I don't know. It doesn't make perfect.
Practice makes practice. You just do it to do it.
Oooomph!
G) WATCH VIDEOS OF PEOPLE DOING WHAT YOU LOVE.
At this point, this and "reading the history" probably take up four or five
hours of my day.
Where do you find the time if you have a job, kids, etc? Well, I have
business stuff I deal with, I have kids, I have other responsibilities, I
have meetings and appointments and travel and so on.
You make the time. I have to go on a plane later to Dallas. I'll read and
watch videos on the plane. I woke up early and read. I skipped dinner
last night and watched.
When I worked a corporate job I'd skip lunch and then leave an hour
early. Or I'd wake up early and not take the breaks everyone else took.
Not that I was so great. I dropped the ball for quite a while and for years
at a time.
That happens also. But then you get back on track. Because when you
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fall in unconditional love, well, it's unconditional. You can beat me and
I'll still come back (get it...Jesus...Easter!)
H) OUTSOURCE THE THINGS YOU DON'T LOVE.
It's hard to have the time to do everything in the field you love. For
instance, if you're a chef, you don't just cook. You have to network with
other chefs. You have to find places to cook and show off. Maybe you
want to do media appearances. Or write about cooking.
There's an entire business to being a chef. It's not about making the
best dish ever. It's about building an entire business around yourself.
And you can't do everything. Maybe you don't have 20 minutes to run
to the post office to mail you cookbook to the Food Channel executive
who asked for it.
Assistants cost money. But make a list of things this month that you'd
rather not be doing for yourself. See if there's a way you can outsource
it as cheaply as possible.
Even if at first it's too much for you, eventually it won't be and you'll be
well prepared to outsource.
I) ANALYZE MISTAKES
My 12 year old gets all As in school. But when we play tennis,
sometimes she misses. She gets disappointed.
"This is the real world. People make mistakes." And we try to figure out
what she was doing wrong.
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8 of 13 24-Apr-14 4:35 AM
Every game of chess I play, if I lose I go back through the game using a
computer and see what directions the computer ("Her") thought that I
completely missed. I try to get better.
I re-read my old posts from three or four years ago and see what I do
differently now. Sometimes I rewrite them and even repost them.
Sometimes mistakes are really painful. When I would lose in a
tournament as a kid I would be so upset I'd have nightmares and would
skip school the next day. It was too painful. I couldn't even look at my
mistakes for months afterwards.
But when you get better at analyzing your mistakes (a skill unto itself)
you get better at doing what you love to do. FACT!
J) REST
You can't do one thing all day, all week, all month, for the rest of your
life. You have to mix it up.
Meet new people, read books about other things, spend time with
family and friends. Maybe travel. Have new experiences.
Not just so that you can rest. Who cares about rest!
Neuron A, meet Neuron B. Oh! You never met before. Now I just
introduced you.
In the background your brain is always combining the new experiences
with the old experiences and if you are mastering your craft your brain
will be combining ideas without you even thinking about it.
http://jamesaltucher.quora.com/How-To-Improve-at-Anything-You-Want
9 of 13 24-Apr-14 4:35 AM
When you get back to doing whatever it is you do, you done do it better.
K) DON'T HOLD GRUDGES.
Not everyone is going to help you out today. Not everyone is going to
like you today. I had an experience where someone made some nasty
(brutal) comments about me three or four years ago.
Now she (claims) loves my stuff. She writes gushing letters about my
latest book. She asks me to write for her (large) media publication.
I'm glad I never really argued with her when she made her initial
comments. I followed my own advice which is: totally ignore the people
who say destructive things to you. Why turn a small candle into a
raging fire?
I've had many experiences like that. The professor who threw me out of
graduate school is now one of my closest friends for over 20 years. A
man who fired me is now a friend and we work together on occasional
projects.
An investor who once pulled money from me is now someone I
regularly co-invest and make money with.
Grudges and lashing back will only hurt your long-term chances of
success. Success is hard enough without you cutting yourself off all
your escape exits.
L) THE PUSH
Every day, think of what else you can do with the work you are most
proud of.
http://jamesaltucher.quora.com/How-To-Improve-at-Anything-You-Want
10 of 13 24-Apr-14 4:35 AM
Maybe you publish on Facebook. Maybe you can also take a post and put
it on other sites. Or maybe you can push it for a TV ideas. Or a book
proposal. Or a new business. Or a new client. Or a speaking
engagement. Or a new service you can offer.
"The Push" is every day packaging the magic you have inside of you to
help more and more people.
You aren't just your writing, or your cooking skills, or your ability to
pick stocks. You're a person who can use your skills to help and teach
and provide value in dozens of ways you probably haven't even thought
about yet.
When "the push" works, entire new worlds open up to you. New people,
new experiences, and finally it feeds right back into the very basics of
doing what you love. It adds value right back to the source...You.
M) THE SEASON OF FAILURE IS WHEN YOU SOW THE SEEDS OF
SUCCESS.
Always view down time, or failure, or mistakes, or periods where you
feel everything is over or getting worse, as the perfect opportunity to
learn, to read, to get wiser, to produce more, to network more, to
connect more with the people who love what you do and so on.
This is letter "M". Letters "A-L" are the seeds of success. Whenever you
are in the season of failure, repeat "A-L".
Persistence is the repeat.
Sometimes I really beat myself up. "Why am I not...." and there's a
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million ways that sentence can end.
OR..."Why did he or she just do...." or "Why am I still so stupid..." It
hurts to beat yourself up.
Self-doubt are the little stabs that will ultimately hit an artery and you
will lose too much blood and there's no recovery.
I'm not saying be overconfident, even when you suck.
Just stop overthinking it. Go back to A-L. Fall in love. And in the entire
universe, you will never find someone more worthy of love than
yourself.
Be in love with yourself, with the process, with the seeds, and the
universe will respond with love back to you.
- - -
I didn't want to write anything for Easter morning. But then I had a
brief idea. My ten favorite Jesus quotes. I'm Jewish. I'm not a Jew for
Jesus. I'm not really anything. I'm not even Jewish but ethnically
Jewish. But I do have ten favorite Jesus quotes that inspire me.
But then I thought about failing to have sex with this one girl and her
kicking me out of bed and throwing me out of her apartment and me
wandering the streets of the East Village at three in the morning and
watching the life spin out of control around me even though I was
depressed and lonely and scared.
And then I read this book this morning and got inspired. And somehow
the dots got connected in this weird way. Whatever.
http://jamesaltucher.quora.com/How-To-Improve-at-Anything-You-Want
12 of 13 24-Apr-14 4:35 AM
http://www.quora.com/James-Altucher 1.
https://www.facebook.com/claudia.azulaaltucher 2.
Connecting dots is the beauty of the five senses and whatever senses we
have on top of that. It's also a game from when I was a kid.
So sex, improvement, and childhood. Trifecta!
Sometimes I'm still depressed and lonely and scared. And sometimes I
am like reading the newspaper twice.
But I'm in love.
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