10 things I learned from James Altucher

10 ideas every day - train that idea muscle!

The daily practice is like sitting on a chair with four legs - if the chair is missing one or more legs, it makes it hard to sit on. Focus on your physical, emotional, mental and spiritual health every day.

Why spend all of your time trying to learn yourself when you can learn from others? Learn from others mistakes. Learn from their successes. Shortcut the 10,000 hours needed to become the best.

You might not want to spend 10,000 hours trying to become the best. Instead, conduct 10,000 experiments. Experiments is also a great concept - yes there is such a thing as a failed experiment but with each experiment, you learn something new. And you keep your mind open to different possibilities.

Having multiple income sources is not only better for you, but it will make you feel good not having to rely on one source.

Make sure your list (list of demands, list of requirements, list of benefits) is bigger than whoever you are negotiating with.

A good framework for thinking about how to improve in whatever area of your life. Plus are the mentors - the people ahead of you that you can learn from. Minus are your students - because the best way to learn is to teach. Equals are your peers - because without people that you can work with or compete against, you won't be able to apply what you have learned.

Companies aren't your family. They don't care about how much you want to make. They're interested in extracting as much value as they can out of you and paying you as little as possible. Sucks but that's why it is in your interest to get multiple sources of income.

Find solutions to people's problems. Solve it for them (see generating 10 ideas every day). For example, James came up with 10 ideas to improve Google and then found a way to share them with someone at Google - later, he was asked to do a Google Talk.

Imagine someone spends 30 years of their live working on a specific skill - could be selling, negotiating, communicating, starting a business, etc. Now they write a book about that skill. By reading that book you can download 30 years to your life. How is there a better investment than that?