Social media is a bloodbath. Trump. Hilary. Walls. Genitals. Crooked this or Deplorable that. There's two things I know: 1) I choose whether I am happy with a situation or not. Whether I am "free" or not. Nobody else can choose that for me unless I give them permission. If a situation (call it X) happens that I don't like, I ask myself: is the world better with X and me in it. Or with X and "no me". All I can do is have impact on the people around me. And if it's worthwhile impact, if it's the sort of impact that helps people and creates positive change, then those people around me will share it with the people around them. That's how things get done. That's how one "votes" with their life every single day. No excuse. 2) I'm not the smartest person in the room. If a situation happens that I don't understand, I don't pretend to understand it. I don't go ahead and act like I understand it. I have no clue. So I ask the smartest person in the room. I ask the people who know more than me. I ask people I respect who might have opposing views. The world has many opposing views. And I admit that I don't understand all the facts. I ask people who have more facts than me. Who have studied more than me. Do I automatically agree with them? It doesn't matter. They feed my brain. I know they will because I already trust them to think carefully about an issue and I trust their years of experience. Then I think. Then I decide. Does it change what I do? No. I do what I do. I try to keep having impact in the way that I know best. I want to be a free person. This doesn't mean rich. Which often entangles me too much in the addiction of having more and more. Nor does it mean have everyone love me. Because that is also is something outside of me that is out of my control. Freedom means I can make choices. Freedom means I can make as many choices as possible to live the life I want to live. I wanted to learn more about what a Donald Trump presidency might mean. There is so much blood shed trying to force me to have one opinion or the other, I decided to call one of the smartest people I know. Ken Kurson shed some light for me on things that were confusing me. Do I have to agree with everything? No. I am free not to. But I learned. Which is always the best thing I can do. ------------What do YOU think of the show? Head to JamesAltucherShow.com/listeners and fill out a short survey that will help us better tailor the podcast to our audience!Are you interested in getting direct answers from James about your question on a podcast? Go to JamesAltucherShow.com/AskAltucher and send in your questions to be answered on the air!------------Visit Notepd.com to read our idea lists & sign up to create your own!My new book, Skip the Line, is out! Make sure you get a copy wherever books are sold!Join the You Should Run for President 2.0 Facebook Group, where we discuss why you should run for President.I write about all my podcasts! Check out the full post and learn what I learned at jamesaltuchershow.com------------Thank you so much for listening! If you like this episode, please rate, review, and subscribe to "The James Altucher Show" wherever you get your podcasts: Apple PodcastsiHeart RadioSpotifyFollow me on social media:YouTubeTwitterFacebookLinkedIn
