Yesterday, I was busy putting together a photo shoot for Mother’s Day so I didn’t have enough time to read a brand new book. Instead, I reread a book that I recently loved. What popped up in my mind? Tribe of Mentors by Timothy Ferriss.
I’ve told many friends about this behemoth of a book and I’ve even gifted it to a few of them.
Tim Ferriss is author of self-help books including his breakout hit, The 4-Four Workweek. He’s an angel investor and advisor to startups like StumbleUpon, Evernote, Shopify, and TaskRabbit. The New York Times listed Ferriss among their “Notable Angel Investors” while CNN said he was “one of the planet’s leading angel investors in technology.” The latest book he’s written is Tribe of Mentors: Short Life Advice From the Best in the World.
Brief Synopsis: Tribe of Mentors is the result of Tim asking 100+ brilliant people the very same 11 questions he wanted to answer for himself. Eight of the questions were “rapid-fire” questions from his podcast, The Tim Ferriss Show, the first business podcast to pass 200 million downloads. The questions included everything from “What is the book you’ve given most as a gift and why?” to “In the last five years, what new belief, behavior, or habit has most improved your life?” The answers that followed were incredibly enlightening!
Top 5 Quotes:
“Courage was more important than confidence. When you are operating out of courage, you are saying that no matter how you feel about yourself or your opportunities or the outcome, you are going to take a risk and take a step toward what you want. You are waiting for the confidence to mysteriously arrive. I now believe that confidence is achieved through repeated success at any any endeavor. The more you practice doing something, the better you will get at it, and your confidence will grow over time.”
Are there any quotes you think of often or live your life by? “Hands down it would be ‘Be the change you want to see in the world.’ We spend far too much time complaining about the way things are, and forget that we have the power to change anything and everything. I’d have a secondary quote too: ‘I’m starting with the man in the mirror’ – Michael Jackson. Same message; different delivery.” – Bozoma Saint John
“Life will present you with unexpected opportunities, and you won’t always know in advance which are the important moments. Above all, it’s the quality of your relationships that will determine the quality of your life. Invest in your connections, even those that seem inconsequential.”
“In moments when you don’t believe in yourself, you need other people who believe in you. They can hold you up when you falter and keep you from hitting the ground. Other people see you differently from the way you see yourself.”
“Be original. It’s straightforward. It says what it is. Be you. Embrace you. Celebrate you.”
A Good Story: Ben Silbermann, co-founder and CEO of Pinterest describes how it took him a while before he “struck gold.” He left Google in 2008 to start acompany, the first two or three things didn’t work out. Pinterest launched in 2019 and it didn’t really start growing quickly for another year or two. It really took off around 2012. “That’s a four-year period where thing weren’t going awesome,” he states. “But I thought, ‘That’s not that long. That’s like med school before you go into residency.'”
Takeaway Tips:
Give without expecting anything in return. “Whenever I’ve given purely for giving, for helping, for supporting, for aiding, for encouraging – with zero expectation or interest in any return whatsoever – it’s ben thoroughly fulfilling,” John Rawls stated.
Listen to your inner voice to tell you what to do, be patient. “It is the ability to wait quietly for the right moment, rather than rushing about aimlessly, that can lead even an ambitious success-hunter to capture the biggest game,” said Tim O’Reilly.
The books that, time and time again, were high recommended are: Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl, The Rational Optimist by Matt Ridley, The Better Angels of Our Nature by Steven Pinker, Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari, and Poor Charlie’s Almanack by Charlie Munger.
My Biggest Takeaway:
To take time out of my day to meditate and to be mindful. To spend time with the ones I love. “Be here now,” Ben Stiller states as the quote he lives by. “Because life is short, and we only have the current moment…As I get older, I am trying to live fully in the moments with the people I love and care about.”
Who is This Book For?:
Anyone interested in learning about what goes on inside the minds of extraordinary people. This book is also for those who love to read! (Lots of good book recommendations.)
Why Do I Recommend This Book?:
I, personally, love this book because after reading it, you can decipher what it takes to become extraordinary. You can make the connections between a whole, long list of interesting people. A lot of them practice some form of meditation. Many keep a gratitude journal. Everyone seems to have gotten through some sort of failure in their life but they all came out stronger in the end.
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