Top critical review
3.0 out of 5 starsis James a genius or a hack? He's both.
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 5, 2017
Is James Altoucher a legit genius, or is he a hack self-help writer spamming as many books as possible? I just read his first two books, "Choose Yourself" and "Reinvent Yourself", and the verdict is, he's both.
James is an Idea Guy. The main takeaway you'll get from these books is to write down 10 ideas a day, and develop the good ones. If you have a really good idea, figure out the next step to take. What separates a big idea from a small one - and what makes an idea "too big" for you, is if you can figure out the next step.
These books are the result of James being a voracious reader, insatiably curious, and focused on getting better every day. The mindset behind these books are worth the price. They're full of ideas, and if even one changes you for the better, that's a good ten bucks.
The cons are, the books are full of typos. He also re-published several sections of "Choose Yourself" inside "Reinvent Yourself". These are the actions of a hack writer. If you consider yourself a literate or well-read person, you'll probably be very annoyed by this. But you can also learn from it. The mindset of an entrepreneur is to "fail fast, fail forward," meaning create something rapidly, don't worry if it's not perfect, get it done, and move on to the next thing. This mindset is what can actually create your company. It's also the mindset of why every company becomes terrible once it goes public, and why so many things across every industry are of poor quality.
If you read this book, learn from the nuggets of gold AS WELL AS what James is doing wrong. Don't be a hack writer, or a hack entrepreneur. Take the time to do things well, so you can build a reputation for quality. I'm glad I read these books, but I definitely won't be buying any more of them.