“OK,” I said, “Here’s what you do. Just be interested in other people.”
My friend had just spent an hour telling me his problems. Job problems. Girl problems. Health problems.
He was miserable. He couldn’t meet people. He was lonely. Nobody was calling him back for a job.
He was worried he was going to be thrown onto the street. “I’ll have no place to live, man. What if I can’t get a job over the next year?
“My doctor told me when I was a kid that I was ADD. Maybe this is all because of that.
“9/11,” he said.
“Julia,” he said. And said some more.
Earlier he had called and he was around the block. I said stop by. He stopped by. I asked how he was doing. He told me. Then he told me some more. We took a walk. He told me more.
We came back and were sitting around. I made a coffee. I said my thing.
I don’t know if my solution will help him. It helps me. That’s all I know. All I know is what I do.
Live life as if you are NEVER going to die. Ever. @jaltucher (Click to Tweet!)
I think it makes me patient. I’m immortal. Eventually everyone today will be gone tomorrow. But I will still be here. They will be gone.
Some of them I will miss. Some…not so much.
And whatever I want to get better at, if I focus on it a little bit each day, I will be the best.
Because I’m going to live forever. So I listen to people tell me their stories so I can learn.
When you drive a car across the country, you have to first turn on the ignition.
That’s the only thing I know about getting across the country by car. You have to start the car.
My friend was just visiting me. He spoke to me for a few hours. Listening to someone else is always the ignition.
Eventually it was night-time and he left and I took a walk by myself. It was pleasant. I watched all the people in the street who are going to die tomorrow.
James Altucher has built and sold several companies, and failed at dozens more. He’s written fourteen books, and The Rich Employee is the book to RULE THEM ALL. (Although he is also fond of The Choose Yourself Guide to Wealth, The Power of No & Choose Yourself.) He’s an investor in twenty different companies. He writes every day. He doesn’t have enough friends. Still interested in knowing him? Follow him on Facebook and Twitter.
