10 THINGS YOU NEED TO DO IF YOU WERE FIRED YESTERDAY

by James Altucher

Lunch. Schedule a lunch with someone you haven’t seen in three years. Could be anyone. But it has to be someone you haven’t seen in at least three years. This injects new blood into the system. You need a total transfusion to get rid of the infected old blood.

Lunch, part II.

Have lunch with one person in your industry. Have your ideas ready for that person. Have him critique your ideas. Learn.

Resentment. You are going to feel like the people at your old job wronged you. But they are just trying to survive also. Make a list of all the good qualities that person has and send them an email why you think they are good at what they do. Thank them.

Gratitude. Make a list of the people you’ve worked with over the past ten years that you are grateful you worked with. Email them and tell them why you were grateful you worked with them. Ask them sincerely how they are doing. This is one of the most important things on this list.

Love yourself. Wake up early, exercise, take a shower, wear a suit, go into the city, and walk around. Smell that freshness on you. It makes you feel as if you are ready for anything. And you are. That’s all you need to do that day. Heck, go to a museum. You won’t have this opportunity for freedom forever.

Slash. Make a list of all expenses you can slash. Make your runway as long as possible. There are plenty of sites to advise how to do this. Picture your worst-worst case scenario. Its never as bad as you think. Write it down. Write down the plan for the worst-case scenario. Then take a nap. You just had a hard day. You need to rest.

Reconnect. Contact other people who used to work at your old company. Maybe they even worked there ten years ago. Reconnect. Come up with ideas for them.

Ideas. Make a list of places or people you might want to work with. Then come up with a list of 10 ideas for each that can make them money. This way you keep your idea muscle intact. Then pitch your ideas to each. If you can’t, move o n t o t h e n e x t o n e . T H I S TECHNIQUE WORKS.

Write. Write a book in the next three days. You can write a 30 page book called “100 things to do the day after you are fired”. Make it funny. Time to dominate the publishing industry while you are unemployed! Make a list of all the possible 30 page books you can do. Then tomorrow start one of the books.

Brainstorm.   Go completely in a different direction. What other industry can you work in? What other location can you live in? Make up the wildest fantasies about what you can do. Keep going until there is one possible direction you can execute on today. Brainstorm for an hour and some little slice of reality might peak through.

For More writings from james, go to jamesaltucher.com