Choose Yourself Book Summary I Who have you Chosen?

Book – Choose Yourself (Summary)

Author – James Altucher

Genre – Self-help Book

Published in – 2013

One thing is for sure: if you don’t make courageous choices for yourself, nobody else will.

We must choose ourselves in the era of fast change and unexpected turns in life. Through his ups and downs in life & business, James teaches essential lessons to choose yourself.

James claims it is one thing to know “The Secret” repeat affirmations, while it’s entirely another thing to create opportunities. He provides step-by-step guides and urges readers always to choose themselves in all aspects of life.

I loved the way James describes entrepreneurs – Everyone is an entrepreneur. The only skills you need to be an entrepreneur are the ability to fail, have ideas, sell those ideas, execute them, and be persistent, so even if you fail, you learn and move on to the next adventure.

About The Author –

JAMES ALTUCHER is a successful entrepreneur, chess master, investor, and writer. He has started and run over 20 companies and sold several businesses for large exits.

He has also run venture capital funds, hedge funds, and angel funds and currently sits on the boards of several companies. His blog has attracted over 10 million readers since its launch in 2010.

About The Book –

As we move toward an employee-less society, where ideas become currency and innovation gets rewarded more than manual or managerial services, you can live the life you want.

James not only lays out how to create a side hustle, set realistic expectations, and be willing to work, but he also clears many myths about entrepreneurship and how to go about it.

He encourages readers to choose themselves, rely on their ideas, implement them, and create something of their own, as that’s where the economy is moving. Corporates are reducing permanent staff, temp jobs, and freelancing is rising.

Covid-19 alone is responsible for a massive shift in how everyone perceives work, travel, and productivity. Internet and technology have made many jobs comfortable and many redundant at the same time.

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A couple of Great Points from the Book

1) Permanently, Temporary –

• Companies no longer need the same amount of people to be as productive as they’ve always been. We are moving toward a society without employees. It’s not here yet. But it will be. And that’s okay.

• It’s a phase where ideas are more important than people, and everyone must choose themselves for happiness.

• In every industry, the middleman is being taken out of the picture, causing more disruption in employment, greater efficiencies, and more opportunities for unique ideas to generate real wealth.

2) Rejection –

• It’s part of everything we do. Whether we like it or not, we have to face it if we want growth. No one likes to be rejected, yet one who can surpass rejection reaps the natural increase.

• Rejection and the fear of rejection are the biggest impediments to choosing ourselves. We can all put together books about all the times we are rejected.

3) Time Traveling –

• I Loved how James described the time we waste in thoughts of past and future.

• Most people obsess over regrets in their past or anxieties in their future. He calls this “time traveling.” The history and future don’t exist. They are memories and speculation, neither of which you have any control over. You don’t need to time travel anymore. You can live right now.

4) Simple Daily Practice –

James explains no matter what our situation is, we can always make tiny changes to teach a few habits in our lives to get off the ground and get traction. As mentioned in the book ‘The One Thing,’ success is not consequential but sequential. One thing we do in one area positively affects another area as well.

A few Daily practices from the list you may consider –

• Sleep Eight Hours.
• No Junk Food.
• No Complaining For The Whole Day.
• No Gossip.
• Write down a list of ideas. The ideas can be about anything.
• Think of ten people you are grateful for.
• Forgive someone. You don’t have to tell them. Just write it down on a piece of paper and burn the paper.

5) Don’t have opinions –

• This is huge, and we all get sucked into convincing others of our viewpoints or defending our beliefs. We rarely can change others’ minds. Most people have their opinions dear to them and are barely looking to change them.

• Yet we care so much about all those things we’ve been taught from birth are “important” or “our way of life” that have become burdens and waste of time because we cling to them and protect them like they are more precious than the time and energy we waste watching them.

6) Maintaining Your Intelligence –

• James advises readers to let go of their regret, resentment, and jealousy, as it drastically affects our intelligence and ability to make good decisions.

7) Honesty is the only way to make money –

This is the opposite of what you have heard or might witness.

• James explains that dishonesty and crookedness only work till it works, and then BAM! You hit rock bottom, and it takes a long time to gain trust back.

• Honesty, on the other hand, has compounding effects. It may not make you money immediately, but in the long term, you’ll have opportunities pouring in, as people like to deal with honest people.

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I have also created a video of a few quotes from the book – I hope you like it. Please subscribe to my YouTube channel – Myread4change.

Conclusion –

It is a fantastic book, encouraging readers to embrace the new economy and move on from the Industrial Age, where corporate taking care of employees was popularized.

If you are looking for a step-by-step process to set any new habit or start a side hustle, you may consider reading The 1% Rule book, which lays out setting goals and breaks them into daily tasks to implement.

I hope this book summary gave you a fair idea of what to expect from Choose Yourself Book.

Thank You For Reading.

Muzammil