After investment personality James Altucher lost millions of dollars—for the second time, he acknowledged that he needed to make a change. That ‘change’ led him down a path of bettering himself in every aspect of his life, which required him to identify the different chapters of failure, triumph, and power of personal growth and perseverance in his life.
The author of at least 16 different books, Altucher’s 2013 personal-empowerment manifesto, “Choose Yourself” landed on the shelves of Amazon Video as an eight-part docuseries in collaboration with DNA Films back in July. The COVID-19 box office debut surpassed expectations for audience attendance, according to Nitish Kannan at True Hollywood Talk.
Altucher’s name, frequently associated with Bitcoin investment and what it means to create your success, has recently sparked conversation surrounding the realities COVID-19 has created for major cities like New York who have suffered tragedy because of the pandemic.
Last month, Altucher shared a Linkedin post arguing that the global coronavirus pandemic is different from previous disasters in history such as the September 11th terror attacks and the 2008 market crash, because of the sophistication of technology that now makes “work-from-home” possible. But not everyone shared Altucher’s opinion, as it caught the attention of comedian and former sitcom star, Jerry Seinfeld, who believes New York is far from dead, according to Deadline.
“I’ve gotten more death threats in the past week than probably the average politician does — all because I wrote a column for The Post with the online headline ‘NYC Is Dead Forever: Here’s Why,’” Altucher shared in his Op-Ed on The New York Post. “I presented facts. Plus, I told the story of my own lifelong love affair with the Big Apple and lamented its impending demise.”
In Altucher’s view, there’s some serious denial with today’s reality. “Denial won’t help anything. Failing to address problems won’t save Gotham.” From his personal experience, he emphasizes that it’s “the working-class people who will bear the brunt: the dry cleaners, the deli-sandwich virtuosos, the retailers.”
This notion is discussed regularly in Altucher’s two weekly podcasts, “The James Altucher Show” and “Question of the Day”, Altucher finally shares his full story, bringing viewers into a deeper level of the author’s past.
For those new to Altucher’s story, his podcast digs deep into his “Choose Yourself” story on where this individual struggled, how much it hurt, and how they pushed through. It’s a real-life glimpse into the daily struggles we all face within ourselves. His two podcasts are downloaded about 2 million times a month. With over 500 episodes, his guests include Bryan Johnson, Peter Diamandis, Steven Kotler, Jesse Itzler, Garry Kasparov, William Shatner, Nassim Taleb, Jamie Metzl, Mark Cuban, Eric Weinstein, Rich Roll, and Tim Ferriss.
Many of his guests all had one thing in common, according to the podcast host. “They were always insanely curious. They asked tons of questions in their life…They always ask, ‘why not?’”
And for leaders like Sir Richard Branson, Gary Vee and Tony Robbins whose daily content continues to inspire, it certainly doesn’t hurt in today’s climate to add more programming like Altucher’s, which is focused on personal struggle and triumph that plays into mental health in today’s COVID-19 era. If this pandemic has taught the world anything, it’s that humanizing our struggles and voicing it in a healthy manner, helps keep viewer attention but also keeps us all connected.
