Just finished reading James Altucher's book "How To Be The Luckiest Person Alive!"

This is the same James Altucher that writes the best posts on TechCrunch.

I wanted to share some of my favorite highlights from his book:

The only way I’ve ever made money was by creating something that had lasting value for others. Every other attempt at a shortcut failed miserably.

Asking, then listening is the first steps towards creating value for someone else.

My ONLY Three Goals in Life

• A) I want to be happy.
• B) I want to eradicate unhappiness in my life.
• C) I want every day to be as smooth as possible. No hassles.

By 8am you should have a list of small to-dos you need to accomplish today. Send out 10 emails that all advance your career by noon today. 10 thank-yous or 10 “can I help” emails. You’ll feel you accomplished a lot on the day. This works.

There’s $15 trillion dollars in our economy, recession or no recession. It’s falling like snow. Reach out with your tongue and taste it.

Took me a while to realize "I want to be happy" is different from "I want to eradicate unhappiness".

Aren't all three of his goals essentially the same thing? :)

Yea pretty much. It seems to be the single most important thing to him in life, which is cool :)

I'm pretty much obsessed with happiness, too: http://pandawhale.com/ifindkarma/happiness

Happiness correlates with lots of things, including health, wealth, and success.

Awesome link! Stumbled across this gem:

I hated every minute of training, but I said, "Don't quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion."

-- Muhammad Ali

The James Altucher book was amazingly interesting. I believe he's just as obsessed with that as you :)

I used to believe that success and wealth would bring happiness and health.

I now believe that happiness brings health, wealth, and success.

So you can optimize by pursuing happiness.