What is excellence and how do we apply it to our business and lives for increased happiness? It’s a question angel investor, world-renowned speaker, and best-selling author Tim Ferriss is answering on multiple platforms. How to master the art of living an incredible, productive, purpose-driven life is of specific interest. He’s accomplished his mission to understand how to do this with five books and interviews with thousands of the world’s best leaders like Jim Collins, Brené Brown, and Malcolm Gladwell. In addition to this, Ferriss shares everything he learns—most commonly in the form of entirely free resources like his blog, newsletter, YouTube channel, and podcast show.
Learn more about Tim Ferriss and his top resources for running an optimal business and life below.
Who is Tim Ferriss?
Tim Ferriss is a self-made millionaire from East Hampton, New York. He was born six weeks prematurely on July 20, 1977, and almost did not survive birth. Sadly, as a child, Ferriss experienced severe abuse at the hands of his babysitter’s son. Unfortunately, this unconscious trauma had a drastic impact on his life before he became an entrepreneur and best-selling author. During his senior year at Princeton University, he realized his graduation date for his BA in East Asian studies wasn’t attainable. At this point, he planned on ending his life. In a twist of fate, his mother intervened after his library informed her that a book on suicide was ready for pick up. After this event, Tim learned how to cope with depression by focusing on what does matter, concentrating on gratitude, eating healthy, and more techniques he shares in all of his resources.
In terms of entrepreneurship, he became a business owner in 2001, a year after he graduated college. Tim Ferriss’s first company, an e-commerce site called BrainQUICKEN, sells nutritional supplements online. While running the business, he wrote his critically acclaimed, best-selling book The 4-Hour Workweek. The book, published in 2007, has since sold over 2.1 million copies. In 2010, he sold his company for an undisclosed amount. Since then, he has become a full-time investor, investing time and money into companies like TaskRabbit, Evernote, Duolingo, Alibaba, Uber, Shopify, and Trippy. He is also a writer, speaker, interviewer, podcast host, and content creator. As of 2021, his estimated worth is around 100 million dollars.
Top Resources Created by Tim Ferriss
As mentioned above, Tim Ferriss has thousands of resources designed to help entrepreneurs, leaders, and professionals live their best life. Because of this, he has something of value for everyone. Whether you enjoy listening to business podcasts, like to spend an hour a day reading great leadership books, or are a fan of watching YouTube videos, use the list below to begin creating a more productive business and happier life.
The 4-Hour Workweek
Thus far, Ferriss has written five New York Times and Wall Street Journal best-sellers. He is most famous for his first book, The 4-Hour Workweek, a step-by-step guide on how to work smarter, not harder. Making this transition provides entrepreneurs and hardworking professionals the ability to pursue the life of freedom and happiness they desire. In the book, Ferriss introduces his audience to productivity hacks like the 80/20 rule (Pareto Principle), outsourcing tasks, prioritization, low maintenance entrepreneurship, and taking holidays now.
Quote from the Book:
“Doing less meaningless work, so that you can focus on things of greater personal importance, is NOT laziness. This is hard for most to accept because our culture tends to reward personal sacrifice instead of personal productivity.”
Tools of Titans
In 2016, Ferriss published his fourth book Tools of Titans, a compilation of knowledge gained from interviewing over 200 world-famous entrepreneurs, leaders, and high-performers on The Tim Ferriss Show. Several pages are dedicated to the greatest takeaways and tips from each interview with recognizable names such as Jack Dorsey, Seth Godin, Tony Robbins, and Jocko Willink.
Quote from the Book:
“The most important trick to be happy is to realize that happiness is a choice that you make and a skill that you develop. You choose to be happy, and then you work at it. It’s just like building muscles.”
Tribe of Mentors
Tribe of Mentors, published in 2017, is Tim Ferriss’s most recent book. Inspiration for this book came after a few of his close friends passed away. Additionally, he was on the precipice of his 40th birthday. The author found himself asking some serious questions about priorities, purpose, and goals. He reached out to 100 high-performers for answers to the same 11 questions. As a result, the book provides life advice from people who established themselves through different avenues of success. This includes Jimmy Fallon, Arianna Huffington, Sharon Salzberg, and Tony Hawk. It’s an interesting read full of short tidbits of advice from some of the most successful people known.
Quote from the Book:
“As a leader, there is no one else to blame. Don’t make excuses. If I don’t take ownership of problems, I can solve them. That’s what a leader has to do: take ownership of the problems, the mistakes, and the shortfalls, and take ownership of creating and implementing solutions to get those problems solved. Take ownership.” —Jocko Willink as quoted in Tribe of Mentors
Newsletter
If you’re too strapped for time to pick up a book right now, subscribing to Tim Ferriss’s newsletter is a great alternative. Don’t worry, these are emails you’ll actually want to read. All you have to do is click on the “Newsletter” button on his website and opt-in for “5-Bullet Friday”. You’ll start receiving his weekly shortlist of five things he thinks people should know about. Additionally, subscribers receive a heads up on giveaways, Ferriss’s event schedule, book releases, and other important information.
Blog
Another free resource from Ferriss is his blog. There you can find his podcast interviews, personal posts, case studies, “how-to” guides, book recommendations, and everything in between. Part of the fun of the blog is searching through its content. Ferriss has covered a variety of topics throughout the years. These include information about what it’s like to encounter a black hole, healing trauma, productivity hacks, and surviving entrepreneurship. Looking for something in particular? One of the blog’s best features is that it’s broken down into categories such as: “Investing,” “Marketing,” “Travel,” “Writing and Blogging,” and so forth. This simplifies finding the content you want to read. Nevertheless, randomly venturing into blog posts outside the content you’re looking for is highly suggested.
YouTube Channel
If you’re currently overloaded with reading, Ferriss also offers a ton of video content. Here, subscribers can stay up to date on all his interviews and life lessons. Additionally, his YouTube Channel is organized into themes, similar to his blog. Various sections are dedicated entirely to The Tim Ferris Show, book launches, fitness tips, Q&A sessions, and tips and tricks.
One of the best things about his videos is the opportunity to see how Ferriss interacts with those he interviews. While he’s a great writer and speaker, watching him and his interviewees converse adds another dimension to the messages being communicated. Watching body language and facial reactions conveys new information that one might not capture through just listening. For those who are fans of Ferriss’s podcast, subscribing to his channel will add to the experience of learning from him and his guests.
Podcast
As mentioned above, Ferriss is the host of one of the world’s most listened-to podcasts, The Tim Ferriss Show. It currently ranks on Chartable’s list of the Top 100 Most Popular Podcasts in the U.S. Thus far, it has over 600 million downloads. The series features a wide variety of successful guests from all walks of life. For instance, he interviews people like Steven Pressfield, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Debbie Millman, and Richard Branson. One of the best things about the show is that no matter who he is talking with, Ferriss makes sure there are applicable lessons listeners can use. It’s a great tool for anyone who wants to feel mentored by some of the world’s top leaders, entrepreneurs, and intellectual minds.
Additional Resources to Increase Personal Growth
The number one thing to remember when digging into Tim Ferriss’s content is to be open to trying a variety of tips and tricks from high performers to see what can help you achieve your own personal and professional goals. Maybe this means experimenting with biohacking or learning various strategies for inducing creativity. The point is: allow yourself to be flexible enough to see what optimizes your business and life. As Ferriss says, he isn’t an interviewer—he’s a Human Guinea Pig. Taking on a similar perspective is a great way to develop a growth mindset and dissolve the fear of failure.
While Tim Ferriss’s content is a great starting point, here’s a shortlist of a few more resources for increased productivity, performance, happiness, and the achievement of life goals.
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