Martin Shkreli: From Most Hated Man to Optical Computing Visionary – Curiosity & Defiance

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
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**SPEAKER_3** (1:25)
Today on The James Altucher Show.

**Martin Shkreli** (1:28)
What do you think about that guy? Well, he's the most hated man in America, you know, according to who? According to this guy that told me to think that. But if you're brave and you're energetic, you can learn. And I think that as we get older, we tend to avoid that. And I think one of the things I've heard about entrepreneurs like Elon and others is, is you sort of have to stay young and stay in a young mentality. My refusal to apologize, my refusal to bow to people, my willingness to disrespect, say, Congress or presidential candidates was unusual. But it's just this funny thing where like, just being yourself can be so dangerous. You ultimately do have to take risks in life. And I think that, you know, part of what the government, when I say the government, again, it's part of like specific people that want to do is enforce this idea that they're very powerful and that they don't want you to take certain kinds of risks because they'll come and get you. But if you take the risks anyway, you're implicitly saying, you're not as powerful as you think you are. And if you keep neutering that power, that's all they got.

**SPEAKER_3** (2:26)
This isn't your average business podcast, and he's not your average host. This is The James Altucher Show.

**James Altucher** (2:44)
Is he the most hated man in America? I don't think so, actually. Martin Shkreli was notorious for various reasons that you'll hear about in this episode. Crazy stories. But I've come to know Martin in the past few months as both friend and business partner. And well, let's just hear stories and hear the explanations. And I think you'll agree with me that this is one of the smartest people I've ever had on the podcast.
You've been called the most hated man in America. When you were first called that, did you view that as a funny thing, or did it upset you?

**Martin Shkreli** (3:30)
I absolutely thought it was funny. It's such a crazy character, or way to describe somebody, because I have this theory that biographers, and generally anyone writing, say more about themselves and their subjects. And so when you write a book about Einstein or Leonardo da Vinci, you're actually telling more of your story than theirs, because their stories are known. And your lens and how you refract, you know, so to speak, the information is really revealing, you know. There's no new information about Albert Einstein. But what you focus on, the way you look at it, tells a lot about the biographers. Same thing with journalists, where you write a headline like that. What does that mean? Right? That means that you think that, right? There's no consensus. You didn't do a census. You didn't do a survey. You know, you basically are saying, at best, you're saying people like me and my friends circle don't like this guy. And then you're adding some hyperbole. So it's such a, it's a dishonest, you know, it's so palpably dishonest. But I think this insidious part here is that what you're really trying to do, instead of saying this, me and my friends think this way, you're really trying to say you should think this way. And, you know, that's, I think, the scary thing that somebody says, what do you think about that guy? Well, he's the most hated man in America.