“The best indicator of a successful tomorrow is having a successful day today — that’s the only thing.” Â –Â James Altucher
About James Altucher
James Altucher is an entrepreneur, investor, podcaster and author of books including Choose Yourself and The Power of No, which he co-wrote with his wife, Claudia Azula Altucher. He studied computer science at Cornell and then went on to graduate school at Carnegie Mellon. He hosts The James Altucher Show, where he interviews people about reinventing their careers and lives. In this conversation he draws on his own experience of college debt, building and losing businesses, and rebuilding with a daily practice.
Key takeaways
- James says his college and grad school years left him about 70,000 dollars in debt and so short on practical programming skill that his first employer sent him to a two-month remedial course.
- He argues that college runs roughly ten years behind the real world, because professors often earned their degrees a decade earlier or never practiced the work they teach.
- His best alternative to college is to start a business, since failing at one taught him more than school did, and it builds a network that isn’t limited to people your own age.
- Before you commit to an expensive degree like medicine or law, he suggests working in that field first, whether that’s cleaning bed pans in a hospital or spending a summer at a law firm.
- He says the old promise of one company for life and a pension has ended, and that the middle management layer of the economy has largely disappeared.
- His daily practice is to check four boxes: physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually healthy, and he believes a good day today is the best predictor of a good tomorrow.
James talks about building a network of people at every age and choosing yourself instead of waiting for a gatekeeper, and both come down to social skill and confidence you can practice. That’s the work inside the X-Factor Accelerator, our 90-day coaching program.
The Cheat Sheet:
- Why starting a business is better than going to college. (27:00)
- Anyone can take the bar exam in California: true or false? (30:20)
- US economics in three minutes. Â (34:40)
- Where is the money in today’s economy and is there enough? (39:35)
- James’ Choose Yourself message: what it is, and how and why to apply it to your life. (44:50)
- The story of how James thwarted a $30 million financial fraud. (1:05:45)
- And so much more…
Could you get more education from starting and failing at a business than from going to college? If someone said to you that sending an 18-year-old to college is like sending an 18-year-old to Vietnam, would you agree? That’s what James Altucher believes, and he’s our guest for episode 300.
Having founded over 20 companies along with creating and publishing 11 books, James Altucher knows a few things about how the world works and he doesn’t see the necessity of college for most people.
Today, James and I talk about alternatives to college and why they are important to thriving in today’s economy, how the American Dream has gone through a death and a rebirth, how to choose yourself every day, and how James stopped a $30 million financial fraud…accidentally.
 ÂMore About This Show:
Although he is not in favor of college for the average person, James did attend undergraduate and graduate school. He’s an alum of Cornell for his undergrad degree in computer science and he earned his graduate degree at Carnegie Mellon, also in computer science.
Despite this stellar education, James’ programming skills were so limited his first employer sent him to a remedial school to get up to speed. Although his programming skills were eventually brought up to par, James went the entrepreneurial route.
In fact, it’s a route he considers to be far more valuable than a college degree for most people. If you start and fail at a business, you will learn just as much  or more than if you would have  gone to school for a college degree, according to James. He believes starting a business is the best alternative to spending thousands, even hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt for a degree you may not use later in life. Another alternative he offers is to actually work in the field you want to go into. Want to be a doctor? Go work in a hospital changing bedpans for six months. If you still want to heal the sick and be in medicine, go to school for it. Think you want to be a lawyer? Go work in a law firm and see if you still like it at the end of summer. If you don’t, at least you didn’t waste your time and a lot of money on a legal degree. You need to do this before investing your time and money into a degree that you hate because America’s economy has shifted. No longer are there a plethora of middle management jobs. According to James, that entire layer of the US economy has fallen to the wayside. While that may raise some eyebrows and some concerns, he says there is still plenty of money and innovation in our country. It would benefit everyone to explore other options instead of trying to hang on to work that is no longer there. And that’s where self-care can be such a powerful tool. Instead of fretting over things you can’t control and worrying about how to network your way to the top as the old mindset teaches, James believes in focusing on four areas of life every day to ensure you’re healthy and happy on the inside. Everything external comes from your internal state, so take care of the internal and the external will get taken care of too. Our conversation on the topic of skipping college and alternatives to higher education may be a controversial one, but it’s a discussion worth having. As always, we don’t leave you hanging! We point out alternatives and options if you decide not to go or not to send your kids to college. There’s plenty more James and I talk about; I hope you’ll listen and digest all the great takeaways…and then start applying them to your life for self-mastery.Resources from this episode:
You’ll also like:
- The Art of Charm X-Factor Accelerator
- Best of The Art of Charm Podcast
- The Art of Charm Toolbox
- The Art of Charm Toolbox for Women
Best quotes from James Altucher
“Sending an 18-year-old to college is like sending an 18-year-old to Vietnam.”
James Altucher, 15:03
“No matter what you’re learning, college is going to be like 10 years behind the real world.”
James Altucher, 9:30
“If you could spend six months cleaning bed pans and then you still want to go to medical school, then maybe that’s another decision.”
James Altucher, 18:00
“I’ve never learned as much in college as I’ve learned from failing at a business.”
James Altucher, 25:01
“The best indicator of a successful tomorrow is having a successful day today. That’s the only thing.”
James Altucher, 43:00
FAQ
What are the 50 alternatives to college James Altucher talks about?
James mentions a free book called 50 Alternatives to College, and in this episode he walks through several of the ideas. They include starting a business, working in the field you think you want (a hospital for medicine, a law firm for law), finding an internship, and building something public like a YouTube video that reaches 100,000 views. He also describes challenges he gave his own daughter, such as writing fan fiction and taking online coding courses. He doesn’t list all 50 in the conversation.
What is a good alternative to college?
James’s top pick is to start a business, because he says starting and failing at one teaches skills, money sense and networking you won’t pick up in class. He also suggests testing a career before you pay for the degree. He’s clear that he isn’t saying nobody should ever go, and that he only shares what worked for him rather than giving advice.
Did James Altucher go to Cornell, and what did he study?
Yes. He studied computer science at Cornell, then went on to graduate school in computer science at Carnegie Mellon. In the episode he says he paid for school himself and ended up about 70,000 dollars in debt. He also says he still needed two months of remedial programming training at his first job, which is part of why he questions the value of the degree.
Does James say you should never go to college?
No. He says he’s not necessarily saying never go to college. He points out that medical school helps you become a doctor and law school can help you become a lawyer, but he urges people to work in the field first so they know they want it before taking on that debt.
Related reading
- How to become a master networker
- How to connect with people more successful than you
- How to network when you hate networking
- Influence skills for career development
If you’re working out your own path after school, or instead of it, the X-Factor Accelerator starts with a 1:1 call with Johnny and adds weekly group coaching. See what the 90 days look like →
