Excellent article from James Altucher. Here’s just some highlights:
So don’t be afraid to test, fail, test, fail, try again, repeat, improve, test, fail again, and keep improving. The way to keep improving? Keep coming up with ideas for your business and for other new businesses.
As your idea muscle improves, so will your ability to “fail quickly”. Failing quickly is a better skill than executing quickly.
You may not have a side project going on right now, but you can make money by starting one. I’ll tell you how here.
And:
– 10 things I can do differently today. Write down my entire routine from beginning to end as detailed as possible and change one thing and make it better.
– 10 Things I Learned from X. Where X is someone I’ve spoke to recently or read a book by recently. I’ve written posts on this about the Beatles, Mick Jagger, Steve Jobs, Bukowski, the Dalai Lama, Superman, Freakonomics, etc.
– A problem I have and ten ways I might try and solve it.
And:
At any given point I have about 10-20 books on my “to go” list. Books that I can just pop in and continue reading.
Every day I read at least 10% of a non-fiction book that gives me tons of new ideas, an inspirational book, a fiction book of high-quality writing, and maybe a book on games (lately I’ve been solving chess puzzles). And then I start writing.
And:
Loading Likes...If you stick to an abundance mentality, and be grateful for the ideas that are flowing through you, then they will be infinite. Where they come from, nobody knows. But they will be infinite and lucrative for you.
So give ideas for free, and then when you meet, give more ideas. And if someone wants to pay you and your gut feels this is a good fit, then give even more ideas.