Thread by @waronweakness

How a skinny computer geek from New Jersey went from making $15 Million working with companies like Sony and HBO to having only $143 in his savings account to becoming one of the biggest personal brands on the internet

The INSANE story of @jaltucher

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1/ James Altucher's career started conventionally; grew up in the suburbs, went to college, graduated and got a job in the city.

His first job was working in the IT department of HBO which led him to produce a show called 111:am where he interviewed prostitutes, junkies and..

random street characters at 3am around NYC.

He did the show for 2.5 years but it never really took off.

2/ Meanwhile, he started helping HBO fix their websites which led him to start his first business "Reset, Inc".

Reset built websites for big media companies and brands like

> Sony
> Miramax
> The Wu Tang Clan
> Warner Brothers
> Etc

The venture was a massive success but James was killing himself working 100hrs/week building websites.

Unable to sustain the grind of running his first business, James sold Reset for $15 million in 1998.

3/ With $15 million to his name, James started to take a fall in his personal and business life.

In his own words he made "all the bad decisions":

> Gambling
> Buying houses he didn't need
> Making horrible investments

He was losing up to $1 million per week until..

one day he went to the ATM and discovered he had just $143 left.

Destroyed and depressed, James contemplated taking his own life so his kids could live off his life insurance.

James had hit rock bottom but little did he know that his huge comeback was right around the corner...

4/ One thing he did well in the process of losing $15 million was to build a valuable network both on Wall st and Silicon Valley.

He asked himself a question that would turn his life around:

💡 "How can I turn my netWORK into my net WORTH?" 💡

That's when James went all in..

5/ on stocks.

He read 100+ books on investing and began writing about stocks for his friend James Cramer's website TheStreet.

From 2002-2005 James traded for several hedge funds and from 2004-2006 he managed his own hedge funds.

He was doing great until the 2008 financial

crisis hit and he nearly lost it all again.

6/ That's when James decided to bet on himself and started his first blog the Altucher Confidential.

Jame's approach to creating content for his blog?

"I just said, ‘I’ve made every mistake in the book: Here’s what they are,"

Instead of taking the typical self-improvement guru route of ultra-positivity

James was brutally honest about his flaws and failures.

He wrote contrarian posts like "10 Reasons You Should Never Own Stocks Again"

This anti-guru approach to self-improvement writing led James to

publish one of the most successful books in the self-publishing space "Choose Yourself" (published in 2013).

Today James has:

> Published 18 books (inc multiple best sellers)
> Produces a top 10 rated podcast
> One of the biggest personal brands on the internet

7/ The greatest personal brands on the internet remind us of the traits you need to be successful:

> Authenticity is the best marketing strategy
> Be consistent (James has been writing daily and failing his way to success for decades)

James Altucher applied both and...

went from being a skinny nerd from the suburbs to becoming one of the biggest names on the internet.

Regardless of your attitude towards personal brands, James Altucher shows us how anyone can build an extraordinary brand even if they started off with "an ordinary story".

8/ If you liked this thread you should

1) Follow me. I write interesting threads like this every week

2) Join my free newsletter where I give detailed breakdowns and strategies on how you can turn your story into a great personal brand with Twitter

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