Moving eulogy for Paul Reynolds, the late Canaccord Genuity boss, via GlobeandMail.com: Paul Reynolds When Paul Reynolds decided to do something, he went full bore. He turned his laser-like focus and boundless energy to the task at hand. He loved a challenge. A few years ago, on a warm summer night in Whistler, a close… Continue Reading
My mom told me I looked disgusting. I was eating cereal. Reading a book. In a few minutes I would go to school. She had just woken up. Walked into the kitchen. Saw me. Said her thing. Not the worst thing in the world. Not something you can’t overcome. I was maybe 16. I liked… Continue Reading
I lost my keys and was locked out my apartment. It was the middle of the night and I had nowhere to go. I left a message for the landlady. I tried to climb up the fire escape to see if I could sneak in but I’m afraid of heights. About two stories up, I… Continue Reading
I want to be under water and float and not move. I love that feeling. Water completely surrounding me, I make every part of my body go limp. Thoughts rise up and create little thought bubbles above me on the surface. I don’t like to think too hard. When I float, I enjoy thinking of… Continue Reading
I asked Claudia if she would still love me in 40 years. I don’t know why I asked. Maybe because she was making me coffee. If every morning someone asks you to make coffee, how can you love him? Maybe she would get tired of it. To be blunt: I would not like making her… Continue Reading
Louis CK turned down $500,000 a year from Conan in the early 90s so he could go broke instead. Conan wanted to hire him as head writer of his show. Every step of the way in the 20 years since he put a challenge in front of himself that seemed impossible and it was until… Continue Reading
I’ve given up right before the finish line. It’s not as bad as people say really. It even has a nice ring to it. French. “I’m a self-saboteur”. Maybe I’m a spy. Like, right when you are about to make a lot of money, or finish a book, or get a job, or whatever, you… Continue Reading
I have never met a person who suddenly became happy simply by “finding their passion”. If my passion had come crawling across my bed during any of my lowest 50 moments in life and started nibbling on my ear I would’ve just pushed it away. Usually I wanted money or sex and I felt passion… Continue Reading
“You interrupt too much,” people email me. “Let your guests finish talking.” But I can’t help it. I get curious. I want to know! Now! Over the past year I interviewed about 80 guests for my podcast. My only criteria: I was fascinated by some aspect of each person. I didn’t limit myself by saying… Continue Reading
I was fired. I asked for one more week to finish what I was working on but my boss said, “No. Clear out of here in the next hour.” I don’t know why I was fired. Other people weren’t. But I think my boss didn’t like me. So I got depressed. I was going to… Continue Reading
Robbie Abed wanted to have coffee with me in 2011. Then in 2012 and 2013 and this year. I kept saying No. Robbie told me he has 250 coffee meetings a year. So in one way of thinking about it, I’m one in 250. And over a period of four years, I’m one in a… Continue Reading
I lost $15mm cash in one summer. It was about a million a week and then it picked up speed. Ugh, I’m like reading the newspaper twice. I know I’ve written about this before. But bear with me. I bought a house. I invested in bad companies. I started worse companies. I bought art. I… Continue Reading
When I met with Bernie Madoff to see if he would put money into my hedge fund I had no idea he had a scheme. Everyone said later, “We always knew”. But on the way to the meeting, those same people were calling me and saying, “ask him if we could invest.” They would deny… Continue Reading
Yoshiro Nakamatso would suffocate himself underwater in order to come up with ideas. He invented the floppy disk when he was within 1/2 second of his death, about to drown. He has 4000 patents. He also has photographed every meal he’s ever taken for the past 34 years. He claims he’s the most prolific inventor… Continue Reading
Claudia is a little upset at me. She doesn’t like when I give out my phone number. “You’re going to get too many calls,” she said. Ok, but I want people to text me with questions for our “Ask Altucher” podcasts. But sometimes I pick up the call. Last night I got a call from… Continue Reading
