I had never heard of James Altucher before I was given this book. It came as a birthday present, alongside what ended up feeling like a pile of self-help books. I know that the gift giver did not intend my birthday haul to resemble the self-help aisle of a bookstore (plus flip flops), but it certainly felt that way. Oh right, there was a bottle of tequila too! So, forgive me if it took me a while to bother even looking at this book, but here is what I have to say about it, now that I've read it:
I liked it. There are plenty of life lessons in this book, and sure, the requisite amount of cheese. Although, I suppose many would simply see that bit as "accessible"? Regardless, it is certainly written with a level of informality that will offend some and attract others. I don't agree with everything that Altchur says, but the thing that I really liked about this book is that it feels like a well articulated hard copy of the life-lessons that I have already learned but can't manage to hold on to; like an outline of things I keep trying to remember all at once and keep forgetting. We all have our lifelong battles. My own tend to focus on maintaining momentum. Someone once said that "life is like riding a bicycle. It's all about balance and forward momentum." Reading this book feels a little like my dad holding my bicycle handlebars when I was just starting to internalize what it felt like to hit the groove of riding a two wheeler.
Did I mention I'm 32?
The other thing that I liked about this book is that it totally validated some of my own beliefs. I don't work in a bank, ergo why do I have to wake up at 7am if that just doesn't work for me? People LOVE to judge, and haters are going to hate. Having someone tell you that it is okay to make your own rules, while at the same time reminding you that if you're going to make your own rules then you have to ACTUALLY follow through and make them, is a good combination.
You can't expect to get all of life's answers out of a book. You can't expect anyone else to live your life for you. I think that people who don't like this book are looking for the answers to their problems in a book. This book isn't the answer to your problem, but it just might help you stop long enough to see a doorway that you would have otherwise missed.
Another thing---Altucher pronounces the American Dream dead. Time of Death: 2008. Personally, I understand the point that he is trying to make. To a large degree, I agree with him, but anyone who still lives, works, or aspires to be a part of "corporate America" is not going to like the fact that he actually said it in print. Not to mention to the fact that there are certain industries that aren't dead yet (although even industries like law and medicine are changing very fast). Now---Mr. Altucher, please correct me if I am wrong----I think what he is trying to say is that there is no longer any guaranteed path to earning a living. You can still go to Law school and become a lawyer. You can still got to Medical school and become a doctor. You can still get an MBA---end of sentence (not going to even try to add anything to that one). In the past, if you did any one of those three things, you were pretty much guaranteed a financial future. The time when a J.D., M.D., or M.B.A. equaled lifelong income, is over.
The point is that that doesn't have to be a BAD thing. Sure, it's scary, but it is also a future ripe with opportunity. If you can't get behind the statement I just made, then don't bother reading the book. if you can agree with even part of it, then read it.
Having said that, I think the way that this issue is approached in the book doesn't quite translate. If you want to have a conversation about whether or not the American Dream is in fact dead, then have one, but this book isn't really about whether or not it's true. This book is built on the premise that the paradigm has already shifted. The state of the U.S. job market is such that you could write an entire encyclopedia on the dynamics of employment. That's not the point. This book takes it as a given that if you're reading it, you probably already have a sense that things are no longer the way they once were. If you are already looking for a way around the establishment, then no problem; Altucher gives you tools to try and forge a new pathway. If you are part of the establishment and perfectly content to stay there, then you're not going to like the fact that Altucher just said "what you think you have no longer exists."
There is a line in the book where Altchur says you have two choices: be a temp or be an entrepreneur. I think the "temp" part of this sentence is broader than temp agencies, or "dead-end" jobs that pay the rent. I think Mr. Altucher probably meant that you have to get used to the fact that your "job" even your "career" is temporary---again, please correct me, If I am wrong.
If you can't accept that the ground has already shifted beneath our feet, then you're going to have a problem with this book. If you pick up this book because you recognize that the ground has already shifted? Then "Choose Yourself" is a great little toolbox, full of ways to build or rebuild part or all of your life.
FInally, I would like to add one more thing. I would have like to given this book 4.5 stars, but that's not an option. 4.5 because (1) I'm not in love with the cover and (2) there is certainly a little cheesiness/informality within, and (3) I don't like the title. Now, if you've read the book, hopefully you'll get the... joke? irony? self-deprecation? symmetry? I don't know. I just know that I liked the content a whole lot---not quite enough to give it my all-time high rating, but high enough that I'll give it 5 stars instead of 4. Besides, 4.5 should be rounded up to 5 anyway.
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From fantasizing about driving into a concrete wall to something akin to mental health.
I've never actually put a knife on my wrist but I've looked at the rear end of trucks with relief. Emotional incompetence on top of an almost inherently stressful industry on top of possibly terminal health issues on top of more possibly terminal health issues to produce even more emotional garbage in a household already way too crowded. Where you think you did great to then get verbally vomited on and you spend the following days not being able to muster enough energy to walk to the kitchen to grab something to eat or take hours before getting up to go pee. James lived something like that, perhaps worse. What he did, what he shared with me, is the closes thing to a cure. More like a dose you take every day for life, if you want to remember what joy feels like. Or anything but that gray, numb thing, place, state, you can end up living in.There's a lot of other stuff too. Getting out of that box we are put in, or rather, allow ourselves to be put in. Work, relationships, health. No magic thing, or rather, precisely applied knowledge that kind of works like magic. No need to understand it. Might actually be better if you don't.In the end, it's a book. A great book. If I were only allowed to read five books in my life, this might just make it there. I'm not sure I would have any life at all without it.I could compare this book with others, from roman thinkers to pulp self-help, but there's no point in that. You *need* this book. Even if you don't feel like sticking a ballpoint through your windpipe now, you really don't know what life will throw into your face or that of your most loved ones. And sometimes there is nothing you can do about it. So skip your next cup of coffee, buy this, and if you do not want to or can't read it now, and you should, keep it close at hand. An in-case-of-trainwreck-break-the-glass kind of thing. My hands are shaking now. Cool. James says somewhere in the book that if you can't pay for it, he will. I'll second that. If you need to read this and can't afford it, buy it, send me the receipt, and I'll see to it that it's paid for. Somehow.The simple (not easy) excercise James proposes has kept me rooted to a good, enjoyable day to day experience in precise proportion to how stricly I adhered to it. Again, no fairy tell spells here. But muster the strength to follow the steps, and crawl your sorry mess inch by inch out of the hole you find yourself in. A lesson I often need to remind myself of. Choose yourself, yourself. You cannot count on anybody else, and I bet even if you feel completely worthless or powerless right now, you are not. Do the one thing, then the next, and one day you'll look back and won't believe you even considered the other path.
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