I had to interrupt him. I was too curious. I thought I would die if I didn’t ask.
Whenever you are curious about something, don’t forget to ask a question.
Curious. Question…. Curious ==> Question.
The only things you will ever remember are the questions you ask when you are curious.
Curiosity is the ONLY technique for learning. @jaltucher (Click to Tweet!)
I was talking with a guy who was incredibly inspiring and he seemed to really know what his purpose in life was.
So I got curious. I asked him how anyone could find out what their passion is. The people who feel stuck in their lives.
He said: Imagine you have a billion dollars. Think of all the things you can do now.
Subtract out everything that is a luxury. For me, for instance, I’d hire someone to do all my shopping and maybe bathe me. I have to subtract that because that’s like a luxury.
I asked Claudia. She said she’d fly to Buenos Aires. I said, “You can do that right this second. That’s all you can think of if you got a billion dollars?” Maybe she just wants to get away from me until I shower.
But anyway, subtract the bigger house, the boat, the trips, the chefs, the assistants, the bigger car, the plane.
What would you DO? Not what you would HAVE.
Now…figure out how to that thing RIGHT NOW. Without the billion dollars.
Naveen Jain told me this technique. He’s going to the moon.
He started moonexpress.com. He’s already developed a lunar lander. NASA agrees it will work. He’s going to head over to the moon by 2020 and I believe him. One of the smartest people I’ve ever spoken to.
He wakes up at 4:30am and reads constantly about the things he’s interested in: space research, medical research, neuroscience.
He said also, “let’s say you want to be a philanthropist.” This doesn’t mean give all your money away.
He said, “You still have to make it sustainable. So it’s okay if it’s a sustainable business.”
For instance, if he can get to the moon, he can mine for rare earth minerals which are quite valuable here. Then once it’s a sustainable business he can achieve his true objectives, which is to use the moon as a sort of launching pad for other planets.
I like this. He didn’t need money to do this dream. He’s rich but he raised the money, he hired the scientists, he mapped out the dream, he found the business model, and in 2020 he’s going to land on the moon.
I’m going to add to this.
Someone asked me yesterday what I thought about Warren Buffett’s “5/25” technique:
A) Write down the top twenty-five things you want to do with your life.
B) Focus on the first five.
C) NEVER EVER FOCUS AGAIN on the next twenty. AVOID THEM. They are only distractions if you truly want to be good at the first five.
I actually think it’s wrong to focus on the first five. Focus maybe on the first two or three. Of the 105 people who have been on my podcast I can tell you the first two for every single one of them.
For example: Mark Cuban: Money and basketball.
Coolio: Rap and cooking.
Claudia: Yoga and writing.
I love to write things that will help people. I love to entertain.
I don’t need a billion dollars to do that, but if I had a billion dollars I would do those things.
Well, what if you have no money?
I had no money. And it took years to figure out how to do the things I wanted to do. For all 105 of my podcast guests it took them years.
But if I had a billion dollars, I’d do the things I’m doing right now. And I’d keep trying to get better at them.
I have other things on my list also. I wish I could paint. I wish I could play the piano better. I wish I could run a billion revenue business.
But you know what: I’m not going to focus on those things. They are not in my top three. Maybe they are somewhere around fifteen-twenty.
I’m going to give you one other technique for finding purpose. The Plan B technique. Otherwise known as the morning after pill.
It’s the morning after and you realize your absolute #one dream didn’t work out.
But divide the dream into categories. Ok, I like to entertain. That might mean write, or it might mean speak, or it might mean, write fiction, or it might mean ten other things.
So do this and tell me what happens:
- The “you have a billion dollars” technique
- The “5/25” technique
- The Plan B technique
Oh, one more technique: “the one thing technique”.
What ONE THING can you do today to move forward a tiny tiny bit on what you are left with when you do the above.
Maybe it just means find one thing you are curious about. Ask a question.
I wrote this post.
I’m going to shower.
James Altucher has built and sold several companies, and failed at dozens more. He’s written thirteen books, and The Choose Yourself Guide to Wealth is the book to RULE THEM ALL. (Although he is also fond of 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.
Image courtesy of Brixie.
