This is Optimal Living Daily Episode 1623, three mistakes, the path to success by James Altature

of JamesAltature.com and I'm Justin Mollick. This is the podcast where I act as a personal

narrator for you for free, usually from blogs but sometimes from books. Either case,

always with permission from the authors, every day including weekends and holidays,

and I'll keep this intro nice and short so let's get right to it as we optimize your life.

Three mistakes, the path to success by James Altature of JamesAltature.com.

There were three mistakes. The first was when I hit a guy in a car accident. It was my fault.

I was 18 and had just finished a chess lesson with the US champion. I'd been to him in a game and

I was daydreaming about it. I ran a red light. A 70 year old man broke his leg and three fences

were destroyed. I went through a window but somehow I didn't have a scratch. The second mistake

was when I was nine. Hey, who said I had to go in chronological order? And I love football cards.

I was in the KB toy and hobby shop in Brunswick Square Mall in New Jersey. I kept hiding

packs of cards in a hole in my jacket and hoped nobody would notice. Finally an employee came up to

me and said, can you come into the back with us sir? Later when my grandfather came to pick me up

and there were police with me, he turned to me and said with the saddest look of disappointment on

his face, what did you do? None of us can cast a first stone. We're all trying to climb up on the

backs of our past and attempt to achieve some modicum of success. The third mistake was losing all my

money. I lost my house, my friends at the time because they were only friends when they thought I

had money, my business colleagues because nobody wants to do business with a loser, and even my family

long story. I went from a feeling of immortality to feeling not just mortal but dead. I'll certainly

suicidal. But most of all, I needed to survive. I would add up the dwindling numbers in my bank

account every day just to make sure I could survive the next month, maybe two months before I,

...