Timothy Ferriss's Blog, page 67

Liz Lambert — The Unstoppable Hotelier

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Credits: Pia Riverola

“There’s something so awesome about where elegance meets rock and roll.”

 — Liz Lambert

Liz Lambert (@thelizlambert) first purchased a seedy motel on South Congress Avenue 23 years ago, and transformed it into Hotel San José, which has become known today as the quintessential “Austin” hotel. The success of Hotel San José, which sparked a revitalization in the city’s now thriving South Congress district, led her to launch Bunkhouse Group, a hospitality company founded on the pillars of design, music, and community-driven experiences.

In the course of chronicling her experiences with the residents of Hotel San José on video camera, she ended up making the Last Days of the San José, a documentary that casts a fascinating light on human relationships in gentrification and urban renewal. You can check out the trailer here, click here to be notified when streaming becomes available, or get a copy of the DVD here.

Enjoy!

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[image error]

Liz Lambert — The Unstoppable Hotelier
https://rss.art19.com/episodes/85a66b23-4f0c-4531-9816-758b62d6b57c.mp3Download

Listen to it on Apple Podcasts.
Stream by clicking here.
Download as an MP3 by right-clicking here and choosing “save as.”

Want to hear another episode with someone who takes design seriously? — Listen to my interview with Debbie Millman in which we discuss catalyzing low points, a ten-year plan for a remarkable life, and much more. (Stream below or right-click here to download):

How to Design a Life - Debbie Millmanhttps://rss.art19.com/episodes/a125690b-22e8-4d37-ae6a-f136c1df2cc0.mp3Download

This podcast is brought to you by Soothe.com, the world’s largest on-demand massage service. Because I’ve been broken so many times, I have body work done at least twice a week, and I have a high bar for this stuff. I do not accept mediocrity, and I wouldn’t expect you to, either.

After much personal testing, I can affirm that Soothe delivers a hand-selected, licensed, and experienced massage therapist to you in the comfort of your own home, hotel, or office in as little as an hour. I was amazed at the quality of service and convenience. Think of it as Uber for massages, available in fifty cities worldwide. Download the app at Soothe.com and use code TIM25 to get $25 off your first massage.

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Peloton is offering listeners to this show a special offer. Visit onepeloton.com and enter the code TIM at checkout to receive $100 off accessories with your Peloton bike purchase. This is a great way to get in your workouts, or an incredible gift. Again, that’s onepeloton.com and enter the code TIM.

QUESTION(S) OF THE DAY: What was your favorite quote or lesson from this episode? Please let me know in the comments.

Scroll below for links and show notes…

SELECTED LINKS FROM THE EPISODE

Connect with Liz Lambert:

Bunkhouse Group | Twitter | Instagram

Trailer for the Last Days of The San José
Hotel San José
South Congress, Visit Austin, TX
American Film Institute
Texas Christian University
Stanford University
The University of Texas at Austin
Texas Monthly
Manhattan District Attorney’s Office
7 Things to Know about Mid-Century Design Pioneer Florence Knoll by Aileen Kwun, Artsy
The Visitor by Carolyn Forché
A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction by Christopher Alexander, Sara Ishikawa, Murray Silverstein, Max Jacobson, Ingrid Fiksdahl-King, and Shlomo Angel
Lake Flato
The Continental Club
Jo’s Coffee
The Timeless Way of Building by Christopher Alexander
Tuscan Village
El Cosmico
Lone Star Bohemia: The Renaissance of Marfa, the West Texas Playground of the Arts by Sean Wilsey and Daphne Beal, Vanity Fair
Thunderbird Marfa
Behind the Design: Liz Lambert, Bunkhouse Hotels by Natalie Marchbanks Dolling, Block Print Social
Bunkhouse Group Playlists on Spotify
Hotel Saint Cecilia
Satya Sai Baba Nag Champa
The Rolling Stones Recall the Decadent Splendour of Exile On Main St. by Paul Sexton, uDiscoverMusic.com
Bob Dylan Taking Tea
Saint Cecilia, Franciscan Media
Pinus Taeda (Loblolly Pine), Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center
SXSW Conference & Festivals
Joie de Vivre
The Phoenix Hotel
Chip Conley: Should I Take My Burning Man Pics off Facebook? by Paul Sloan, CBS News Moneywatch
PEAK: How Great Companies Get Their Mojo from Maslow Revised and Updated by Chip Conley
Emotional Equations: Simple Steps for Creating Happiness + Success in Business + Life by Chip Conley
How to Become an Effective CEO: Chief Emotions Officer by Chip Conley, Tim.blog
Measuring What Makes Life Worthwhile by Chip Conley, TED 2010
Hotel San Cristóbal Baja
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs by Saul McLeod, Simply Psychology
Maslowtopia, Burners.me
McGuire Moorman Hospitality
Biography of the Dollar: How the Mighty Buck Conquered the World and Why It’s Under Siege by Craig Karmin
The Dream of a Common Language: Poems 1974-1977 by Adrienne Rich
Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed
Slouching Towards Bethlehem by Joan Didion
When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times by Pema Chodron
The Second Coming by William Butler Yeats
YMCA Texas Youth and Government

SHOW NOTES

Some background on the documentary that chronicles Liz Lambert’s transformation of a vintage motel from transient crash pad to boutique hotel: Last Days of The San José. [08:24]
What prompted this transformation? [13:51]
How the documentary came about. [15:39]
After a particularly bad week, this documentary reminded me to be grateful for everything I have.  [17:49]
Why did Liz go to three schools as an undergrad to pursue humanities? [21:34]
What does it mean to be “a Texan, through and through,” and why do Texans tend to specify a region when discussing the state? [23:36]
How did Liz make the decision to study law after focusing on poetry? [25:05]
Does Liz regret the time she spent as a lawyer? [26:33]
How did Liz go from practicing law to owning a seedy motel to scratching her itch to design? [27:42]
As a lawyer with liberal politics, what made Liz choose to be a prosecutor rather than a defender? [30:39]
On moving back to Texas after becoming the first openly gay person hired at the Manhattan District Attorney’s office. [33:48]
The death of a friend and a re-evaluation of priorities. [34:58]
How did Liz find her footing and approach to doing what she now does? [36:28]
Persuading investors to throw money at an expensive hotel overhaul is a skill set well-suited to a lawyer, but having an experienced business partner, taking a few math classes, and spending long hours behind the front desk can help. [40:55]
Is there anything about The San José renovation Liz would do differently now as a more experienced hotelier? [47:41]
On restoring the hotel’s traditional role as a hub that serves the community. [50:03]
Taking inspiration from architect and design theorist Christopher Alexander. [52:53]
What is “the quality without a name?” [54:05]
At 1171 pages, A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction is simultaneously intimidating and fascinating — but highly recommended. [55:26]
What’s so special about El Cosmico in Marfa? [56:58]
What makes each Bunkhouse property a unique experience? [1:02:54]
What is Hotel Saint Cecilia’s story? [1:04:25]
“Let people be the color in the room.” [1:07:05]
The “Mexico meets Japan” style of The San José explained, the chaos of a soft open during SXSW, and first impressions. [1:09:22]
Who is Chip Conley, what has Liz learned from him, and where did Liz and I unknowingly cross paths thanks to him? [1:16:42]
How Chip ties into Bunkhouse’s recent international expansion. [1:22:04]
The importance of operational rigor to the success of a business. [1:22:38]
How does Liz balance the desire to be an artist with the desire to be a business tycoon? [1:24:22]
Does Liz have an idea of what she’d like her hotel empire to look like in the next few years? [1:27:36]
What famous hotel wrecker Keith Moon and Liz might have agreed upon regarding the homogenization of chain hotels. [1:30:14]
Liz’s vision for the future isn’t just about what’s good for her. [1:32:37]
On work-life balance, a growing family, and the realization of mortality. [1:34:25]
Books gifted and reread most often. [1:37:07]
A time when Liz learned more from something going wrong than she would have had it gone right. [1:43:00]
What would Liz’s billboard say? [1:48:29]
Parting thoughts. [1:50:42]

PEOPLE MENTIONED

Jennifer Lane
Uta Briesewitz
Tina Gazzerro Clapp
Jeff Bezos
Florence Knoll
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
Carolyn Forché
Christopher Alexander
Eddie Safady
Donald Judd
Bob Dylan
The Rolling Stones
Lyndon Lambert
Rudolph Michael Schindler
Chip Conley
Christian Strobel
Abraham Maslow
Larry McGuire
Keith Moon
Erin Lee Smith
Adrienne Rich
Cheryl Strayed
Joan Didion
John Wayne
Pema Chodron
Seth Godin
W.B. Yeats
Ryan Holiday
Gautama Buddha
Jack Kerouac

How to Succeed in High-Stress Situations (#319)

[image error]

“A good person dyes events with his own color…and turns whatever happens to his own benefit.” – Seneca

From the outside looking in, the last several weeks have been disaster after disaster for me:

Death in the family
Several deals that have been worked on for 6+ months fell apart at the last minute
I might need to sue someone for egregious breach of contract and unexpected damages
On and on and on…

I’ve thought of several books over and over again during this period to cope. One of them was The Obstacle Is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph by Ryan Holiday (@ryanholiday). It has helped me to turn problems upside-down, look at them through a different lens, and even uncover unique opportunities.

The Obstacle Is The Way is a collection of stories and principles about Stoicism, which I consider to be the ultimate personal “operating system” for anyone who wants to thrive in high-stress environments and situations.

If you want to be antifragile like Thomas Jefferson, Marcus Aurelius, Bill Belichick, and many of the most dominant investors in history, Stoicism offers a real playbook. If you want to make better decisions, if you want to smile when other people cower, it offers real tools.

To quote Andy Grove, former CEO of Intel, “Bad companies are destroyed by crisis. Good companies survive them. Great companies are improved by them.” What if you could be a person who is improved by crisis? At the very least, it would give you opportunities no one else can see, let alone grasp. Much more important, it would make you a happier human being.

Here are a few sample chapters from The Obstacle Is The Way. Please enjoy!

[image error]

[image error]

How to Succeed in High-Stress Situationshttps://rss.art19.com/episodes/b7f9ff3d-82e5-46ae-9809-df3c621e72f2.mp3Download

Listen to it on Apple Podcasts.
Stream by clicking here.
Download as an MP3 by right-clicking here and choosing “save as.”

Want to hear another podcast featuring Ryan Holiday and Stoicism? — In this episode, we discuss the “big three” Stoics, how Stoicism applies to the modern world, and how to improve your decision-making when stakes are high (stream below or right-click here to download):

Episode 4: Ryan Holidayhttps://rss.art19.com/episodes/6e955a89-cac4-4887-8e3c-ec658faa498d.mp3Download

This episode is brought to you by Teeter. Inversion therapy, which uses gravity and your own body weight to decompress the spine or relieve pressure on the discs and surrounding nerves, seems to help with a whole slew of conditions. And just as a general maintenance program, it’s one of my favorite things to do.

Since 1981, more than three million people have put their trust in Teeter inversion tables for relief, and it’s the only inversion table brand that’s been both safety-certified by Underwriters Laboratories (UL) and registered with the FDA as a class one medical device. For a limited time, my listeners can get the Teeter inversion table with bonus accessories and a free pair of gravity boots — a savings of over $148 — by going to Teeter.com/Tim!

QUESTION(S) OF THE DAY: What was your favorite quote or lesson from this episode? Please let me know in the comments.

Scroll below for links and show notes…

SELECTED LINKS FROM THE EPISODE

Connect with Ryan Holiday:

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram

The Obstacle Is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph by Ryan Holiday
Fear-Setting: The Most Valuable Exercise I Do Every Month (my most recent TED Talk)
Tim Ferriss Book Club at Audible
The Moral Sayings of Publius Syrus: A Roman Slave by Publilius Syrus
The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe
Achieving Apatheia: 7 Steps to Controlling Your Perceptions Like a Stoic by Ryan Holiday, Medium
The Gift of Fear and Other Survival Signals that Protect Us From Violence by Gavin de Becker
A Leadership Lesson From Eisenhower’s Stoic Reversal at D-Day by Ryan Holiday, Entrepreneur
Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Xanthippe, Socrates, and Rationalizing Wives’ Abusive Behavior by Douglas Galbi, Purple Motes
Exploring Adversity and the Potential for Growth among Elite Female Athletes by Katherine A.Tamminen et al., Psychology of Sport and Exercise
Here’s the Strategy Elite Athletes Follow to Perform at the Highest Level by Ryan Holiday
The Unfathomable Power of Amor Fati by Ryan Holiday, Observer
Jack Johnson vs. Jim Jeffries (July 4th, 1910)

SHOW NOTES

The high cost of not being in control of our own emotions under pressure and how astronauts train to keep panic at bay on risky missions. [07:15]
Cultivating apatheia. [10:35]
What important things are you missing because you chose worry over introspection, alertness, or wisdom? Does getting upset provide you with more options? [11:34]
Being in control of your emotions doesn’t mean you don’t have to feel them. [12:00]
We defeat emotions with logic. [12:54]
How General Eisenhower found opportunity to defeat Germany within its own seemingly unstoppable Blitzkrieg strategy during WWII. [14:48]
Controlling our emotions allows us to find opportunities within obstacles because we’re not discouraged, upset, or otherwise distracted by them. [17:45]
By assuming disaster is imminent, our preconceptions are the problem. But seeing opportunity in the obstacle gives us a chance to grow. [18:05]
Rising up to the challenge of our rival. [19:52]
Blessings and burdens are not mutually exclusive. [20:18]
Why “That which doesn’t kill me makes me stronger” is not a cliche but fact. [21:01]
Developing a piercing gaze that sees the gift of opportunity through whatever ugly wrapping surrounds it. [21:55]
Excellence is a matter of steps. Follow the process. [23:37]
Don’t think about the end — think about surviving. [25:34]
What meteorology pioneer James Pollard Espy learned about the process from his hero Henry Clay. [26:07]
We become masters of our craft by following the thread to the next action. [27:12]
If you keep a clear head and follow the process, being trapped is just a position, not a fate. [28:52]
How often do we assume that change is impossible because it’s too big? [29:55]
Adhering to the process conquers distraction. [31:12]
To do great things, we need to be able to endure — even learn to love — tragedy and setbacks. [32:28]
Even Edison, at age 67, wasn’t too old to make a fresh start when his research campus burned to the ground. In fact, his company quickly recovered and thrived more than ever before. [34:46]
If you’ve got to put up with something terrible, you might as well have a smile on your face while it’s happening. [35:54]
We don’t get to choose what happens to us, but we can always choose how we feel about it. [39:36]

PEOPLE MENTIONED

Thomas Jefferson
Marcus Aurelius
Bill Belichick
Andy Grove
Publilius Syrus
John Glenn
Tom Wolfe
Gavin de Becker
Nassim Taleb
Seneca
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Laura Ingalls Wilder
Socrates
Xanthippe
Heraclitus
Nick Saban
James Pollard Espy
Henry Clay
Friedrich Nietzsche
Thomas Edison
Jack Johnson
James J. Jeffries
Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus
Jack London

How to Succeed in High-Stress Situations

[image error]

“A good person dyes events with his own color…and turns whatever happens to his own benefit.” – Seneca

From the outside looking in, the last several weeks have been disaster after disaster for me:

Death in the family
Several deals that have been worked on for 6+ months fell apart at the last minute
I might need to sue someone for egregious breach of contract and unexpected damages
On and on and on…

I’ve thought of several books over and over again during this period to cope. One of them was The Obstacle Is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph by Ryan Holiday (@ryanholiday). It has helped me to turn problems upside-down, look at them through a different lens, and even uncover unique opportunities.

The Obstacle Is The Way is a collection of stories and principles about Stoicism, which I consider to be the ultimate personal “operating system” for anyone who wants to thrive in high-stress environments and situations.

If you want to be antifragile like Thomas Jefferson, Marcus Aurelius, Bill Belichick, and many of the most dominant investors in history, Stoicism offers a real playbook. If you want to make better decisions, if you want to smile when other people cower, it offers real tools.

To quote Andy Grove, former CEO of Intel, “Bad companies are destroyed by crisis. Good companies survive them. Great companies are improved by them.” What if you could be a person who is improved by crisis? At the very least, it would give you opportunities no one else can see, let alone grasp. Much more important, it would make you a happier human being.

Here are a few sample chapters from The Obstacle Is The Way. Please enjoy!

[image error]

[image error]

How to Succeed in High-Stress Situations
https://rss.art19.com/episodes/b7f9ff3d-82e5-46ae-9809-df3c621e72f2.mp3Download

Listen to it on Apple Podcasts.
Stream by clicking here.
Download as an MP3 by right-clicking here and choosing “save as.”

Want to hear another podcast featuring Ryan Holiday and Stoicism? — In this episode, we discuss the “big three” Stoics, how Stoicism applies to the modern world, and how to improve your decision-making when stakes are high (stream below or right-click here to download):

Episode 4: Ryan Holidayhttps://rss.art19.com/episodes/6e955a89-cac4-4887-8e3c-ec658faa498d.mp3Download

This episode is brought to you by Teeter. Inversion therapy, which uses gravity and your own body weight to decompress the spine or relieve pressure on the discs and surrounding nerves, seems to help with a whole slew of conditions. And just as a general maintenance program, it’s one of my favorite things to do.

Since 1981, more than three million people have put their trust in Teeter inversion tables for relief, and it’s the only inversion table brand that’s been both safety-certified by Underwriters Laboratories (UL) and registered with the FDA as a class one medical device. For a limited time, my listeners can get the Teeter inversion table with bonus accessories and a free pair of gravity boots — a savings of over $148 — by going to Teeter.com/Tim!

QUESTION(S) OF THE DAY: What was your favorite quote or lesson from this episode? Please let me know in the comments.

Scroll below for links and show notes…

SELECTED LINKS FROM THE EPISODE

Connect with Ryan Holiday:

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram

The Obstacle Is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph by Ryan Holiday
Fear-Setting: The Most Valuable Exercise I Do Every Month (my most recent TED Talk)
Tim Ferriss Book Club at Audible
The Moral Sayings of Publius Syrus: A Roman Slave by Publilius Syrus
The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe
Achieving Apatheia: 7 Steps to Controlling Your Perceptions Like a Stoic by Ryan Holiday, Medium
The Gift of Fear and Other Survival Signals that Protect Us From Violence by Gavin de Becker
A Leadership Lesson From Eisenhower’s Stoic Reversal at D-Day by Ryan Holiday, Entrepreneur
Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Xanthippe, Socrates, and Rationalizing Wives’ Abusive Behavior by Douglas Galbi, Purple Motes
Exploring Adversity and the Potential for Growth among Elite Female Athletes by Katherine A.Tamminen et al., Psychology of Sport and Exercise
Here’s the Strategy Elite Athletes Follow to Perform at the Highest Level by Ryan Holiday
The Unfathomable Power of Amor Fati by Ryan Holiday, Observer
Jack Johnson vs. Jim Jeffries (July 4th, 1910)

SHOW NOTES

The high cost of not being in control of our own emotions under pressure and how astronauts train to keep panic at bay on risky missions. [07:15]
Cultivating apatheia. [10:35]
What important things are you missing because you chose worry over introspection, alertness, or wisdom? Does getting upset provide you with more options? [11:34]
Being in control of your emotions doesn’t mean you don’t have to feel them. [12:00]
We defeat emotions with logic. [12:54]
How General Eisenhower found opportunity to defeat Germany within its own seemingly unstoppable Blitzkrieg strategy during WWII. [14:48]
Controlling our emotions allows us to find opportunities within obstacles because we’re not discouraged, upset, or otherwise distracted by them. [17:45]
By assuming disaster is imminent, our preconceptions are the problem. But seeing opportunity in the obstacle gives us a chance to grow. [18:05]
Rising up to the challenge of our rival. [19:52]
Blessings and burdens are not mutually exclusive. [20:18]
Why “That which doesn’t kill me makes me stronger” is not a cliche but fact. [21:01]
Developing a piercing gaze that sees the gift of opportunity through whatever ugly wrapping surrounds it. [21:55]
Excellence is a matter of steps. Follow the process. [23:37]
Don’t think about the end — think about surviving. [25:34]
What meteorology pioneer James Pollard Espy learned about the process from his hero Henry Clay. [26:07]
We become masters of our craft by following the thread to the next action. [27:12]
If you keep a clear head and follow the process, being trapped is just a position, not a fate. [28:52]
How often do we assume that change is impossible because it’s too big? [29:55]
Adhering to the process conquers distraction. [31:12]
To do great things, we need to be able to endure — even learn to love — tragedy and setbacks. [32:28]
Even Edison, at age 67, wasn’t too old to make a fresh start when his research campus burned to the ground. In fact, his company quickly recovered and thrived more than ever before. [34:46]
If you’ve got to put up with something terrible, you might as well have a smile on your face while it’s happening. [35:54]
We don’t get to choose what happens to us, but we can always choose how we feel about it. [39:36]

PEOPLE MENTIONED

Thomas Jefferson
Marcus Aurelius
Bill Belichick
Andy Grove
Publilius Syrus
John Glenn
Tom Wolfe
Gavin de Becker
Nassim Taleb
Seneca
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Laura Ingalls Wilder
Socrates
Xanthippe
Heraclitus
Nick Saban
James Pollard Espy
Henry Clay
Friedrich Nietzsche
Thomas Edison
Jack Johnson
James J. Jeffries
Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus
Jack London

One-Person Businesses That Make $1M+ Per Year (#318)

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This podcast episode of The Tim Ferriss Show is coming up on the 11th anniversary of my first book, The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich. While there are parts written by my 29-year-old self that make me cringe, I’m both honored and amazed that it continues to strike a chord with so many.

Rather than re-editing the book and risking the loss of whatever made it work in the first place, I’d like to share case studies of people who have used it as a blueprint to build successful businesses as detailed in The Million-Dollar, One-Person Business by freelance journalist Elaine Pofeldt (@ElainePofeldt).

Much like 11 years ago, I hope this episode inspires more people to make a change for the better and accomplish more than they thought possible.

Please enjoy this episode!

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[image error]

One-Person Businesses That Make $1M+ Per Yearhttps://rss.art19.com/episodes/74298cdd-d63c-4f45-8e3b-804db9dd09d5.mp3Download

Listen to it on Apple Podcasts.
Stream by clicking here.
Download as an MP3 by right-clicking here and choosing “save as.”

Want to hear a podcast with someone who inspires others to build businesses and live lives on their own terms? — Listen to my conversation with Seth Godin in which he details the rules, principles, and obsessions that help him manage his life. (Stream below or right-click here to download):

How Seth Godin Manages His Life -- Rules, Principles, and Obsessionshttps://rss.art19.com/episodes/bac1830f-7645-4621-9534-283da586288d.mp3Download

This podcast is brought to you by 99designs, the world’s largest marketplace of graphic designers. I have used them for years to create some amazing designs. Whether your business needs a logo, website design, business card, or anything you can imagine, check out 99designs.

I used them to rapid prototype the cover for The Tao of Seneca, and I’ve also had them help with display advertising and illustrations. If you want a more personalized approach, I recommend their 1-on-1 service. You get original designs from designers around the world. The best part? You provide your feedback, and then you end up with a product that you’re happy with or your money back. Click this link and get a free $99 upgrade.

This episode is also brought to you by LegalZoom. I’ve used this service for many of my businesses, as have quite a few of the icons on this podcast — such as Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg of WordPress fame.

LegalZoom is a reliable resource that more than a million people have already trusted for everything from setting up wills, proper trademark searches, forming LLCs, setting up non-profits, or finding simple cease-and-desist letter templates.

LegalZoom is not a law firm, but it does have a network of independent attorneys available in most states who can give you advice on the best way to get started, provide contract reviews, and otherwise help you run your business with complete transparency and up-front pricing. Check out LegalZoom.com and enter promo code TIM at checkout today for special savings and see how the fine folks there can make life easier for you and your business.

QUESTION(S) OF THE DAY: What was your favorite quote or lesson from this episode? Please let me know in the comments.

Scroll below for links and show notes…

SELECTED LINKS FROM THE EPISODE

How to Build a Million-Dollar, One-Person Business — Case Studies from The 4-Hour Workweek (the guest blog post by Elaine Pofeldt)
The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich by Timothy Ferrriss
The Million-Dollar, One-Person Business: Make Great Money. Work the Way You Like. Have the Life You Want. by Elaine Pofeldt
Tools4Wisdom
SciFi VC
Tribe of Mentors: Short Life Advice from the Best in the World by Tim Ferriss
1,000 True Fans by Kevin Kelly
Optimizely: The World’s Leading Experimentation Platform
Splitly
Willow & Everett
Ideal Lifestyle Costing
Noah’s Coffee Challenge and Flexing Your Courage Muscle by Scott Britton, Life-Long Learner
How to Create Your Own Real-World MBA
99 Designs
Shopify
BigCommerce
Maker’s vs. Manager’s Schedule
Y Combinator
The Email Game
CubeFit TerraMat
Willow & Everett Cold Brew Coffee Maker on Tap
Science of Skill
Scaling Up: How a Few Companies Make It…and Why the Rest Don’t by Verne Harnish
Upwork
Built to Sell: Creating a Business That Can Thrive Without You by John Warrillow
The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It by Michael E. Gerber
Tech Emergence
Examine.com
Four Sigmatic Chaga Mushroom Elixir
WhatsApp
The Effective Executive: The Definitive Guide to Getting the Right Things Done by Peter F. Drucker
NYC Charity Chocolate Chip Cookie Off
Strand Book Store
She’s the First
Master Mind Talks
Small Giants: Companies That Choose to Be Great Instead of Big by Bo Burlingham

SHOW NOTES

Laszlo Nadler brings in more than $2 million a year with online store Tools4Wisdom. [11:16]
Starting your own business doesn’t mean you have to abandon your full-time job before making sure it’s sustainable. [11:56]
According to the US Census Bureau, what is (and what isn’t) a nonemployer firm? [12:30]
Three things these businesses offer that elude most workers today. [13:22]
The two paths entrepreneurs have traditionally taken, and the third path opened up by one-person businesses. [13:32]
What’s driving the growth of the million-dollar, one-person business? [14:26]
A shift in attitudes. [15:15]
How do you get from where you are currently to enjoying the freedom of an entrepreneur? [15:50]
Key questions to ask yourself first. [17:44]
Solo businesses and partnerships that hit the million-dollar range typically fall into these six categories. [19:01]
In spite of their differences, entrepreneurs generally have these practices in common. [19:35]
Split-testing for profit. [21:24]
Mastering the art of delegation. [24:22]
The point of comfort challenges. [27:00]
Your first entrepreneurial efforts don’t have to succeed — as long as you learn from them. [28:51]
How outsourcing smaller tasks and decisions helps you focus on the bigger tasks and decisions of your business. [31:53]
Making and managing require different schedules. [36:20]
How observing these schedules has helped Ben and Camille Arneberg pursue further business opportunities. [40:05]
Fewer distractions = more growth. [41:24]
Two key ideas that helped Dan Faggella grow his revenue far beyond the average “nonemployer” business. [42:30]
How I test potential candidates for a job. [43:28]
How Dan Faggella ensured a smooth transition when selling his company (and why he would want to sell such a successful business in the first place). [46:03]
Success through liberation — having the money to do things you want to do doesn’t matter if you don’t also have mobility. [48:14]
How Sol Orwell chose a second-in-command to handle things when he goes off the grid. [53:21]
What Sol does with his “free” time. [56:02]
Rethinking scale and profit. [56:51]
Why the story of the businessman and the fisherman resonated with “successful” entrepreneur Jayson Gaignard. [58:18]
How a Seth Godin talk inspired Jayson’s next business venture. [1:02:02]

PEOPLE MENTIONED

Jamie Foxx
BJ Miller
Esther Perel
Roger Bannister
Elaine Pofeldt
Laszlo Nadler
Eric Scott
Max Levchin
Henry Ford
Kevin Kelly
Ben Arneberg
Camille Arneberg
Noah Kagan
Paul Graham
Jack Dorsey
Dan Faggella
Sol Orwell
Jayson Gaignard
Seth Godin

One-Person Businesses That Make $1M+ Per Year

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This podcast episode of The Tim Ferriss Show is coming up on the 11th anniversary of my first book, The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich. While there are parts written by my 29-year-old self that make me cringe, I’m both honored and amazed that it continues to strike a chord with so many.

Rather than re-editing the book and risking the loss of whatever made it work in the first place, I’d like to share case studies of people who have used it as a blueprint to build successful businesses as detailed in The Million-Dollar, One-Person Business by freelance journalist Elaine Pofeldt (@ElainePofeldt).

Much like 11 years ago, I hope this episode inspires more people to make a change for the better and accomplish more than they thought possible.

Please enjoy this episode!

[image error]

[image error]

One-Person Businesses That Make $1M+ Per Year
https://rss.art19.com/episodes/74298cdd-d63c-4f45-8e3b-804db9dd09d5.mp3Download

Listen to it on Apple Podcasts.
Stream by clicking here.
Download as an MP3 by right-clicking here and choosing “save as.”

Want to hear a podcast with someone who inspires others to build businesses and live lives on their own terms? — Listen to my conversation with Seth Godin in which he details the rules, principles, and obsessions that help him manage his life. (Stream below or right-click here to download):

How Seth Godin Manages His Life -- Rules, Principles, and Obsessionshttps://rss.art19.com/episodes/bac1830f-7645-4621-9534-283da586288d.mp3Download

This podcast is brought to you by 99designs, the world’s largest marketplace of graphic designers. I have used them for years to create some amazing designs. Whether your business needs a logo, website design, business card, or anything you can imagine, check out 99designs.

I used them to rapid prototype the cover for The Tao of Seneca, and I’ve also had them help with display advertising and illustrations. If you want a more personalized approach, I recommend their 1-on-1 service. You get original designs from designers around the world. The best part? You provide your feedback, and then you end up with a product that you’re happy with or your money back. Click this link and get a free $99 upgrade.

This episode is also brought to you by LegalZoom. I’ve used this service for many of my businesses, as have quite a few of the icons on this podcast — such as Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg of WordPress fame.

LegalZoom is a reliable resource that more than a million people have already trusted for everything from setting up wills, proper trademark searches, forming LLCs, setting up non-profits, or finding simple cease-and-desist letter templates.

LegalZoom is not a law firm, but it does have a network of independent attorneys available in most states who can give you advice on the best way to get started, provide contract reviews, and otherwise help you run your business with complete transparency and up-front pricing. Check out LegalZoom.com and enter promo code TIM at checkout today for special savings and see how the fine folks there can make life easier for you and your business.

QUESTION(S) OF THE DAY: What was your favorite quote or lesson from this episode? Please let me know in the comments.

Scroll below for links and show notes…

SELECTED LINKS FROM THE EPISODE

How to Build a Million-Dollar, One-Person Business — Case Studies from The 4-Hour Workweek (the guest blog post by Elaine Pofeldt)
The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich by Timothy Ferrriss
The Million-Dollar, One-Person Business: Make Great Money. Work the Way You Like. Have the Life You Want. by Elaine Pofeldt
Tools4Wisdom
SciFi VC
Tribe of Mentors: Short Life Advice from the Best in the World by Tim Ferriss
1,000 True Fans by Kevin Kelly
Optimizely: The World’s Leading Experimentation Platform
Willow & Everett
Ideal Lifestyle Costing
Noah’s Coffee Challenge and Flexing Your Courage Muscle by Scott Britton, Life-Long Learner
How to Create Your Own Real-World MBA
99 Designs
Shopify
BigCommerce
Maker’s vs. Manager’s Schedule
Y Combinator
The Email Game
CubeFit TerraMat
Willow & Everett Cold Brew Coffee Maker on Tap
Science of Skill
Scaling Up: How a Few Companies Make It…and Why the Rest Don’t by Verne Harnish
Upwork
Built to Sell: Creating a Business That Can Thrive Without You by John Warrillow
The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It by Michael E. Gerber
Tech Emergence
Examine.com
Four Sigmatic Chaga Mushroom Elixir
WhatsApp
The Effective Executive: The Definitive Guide to Getting the Right Things Done by Peter F. Drucker
NYC Charity Chocolate Chip Cookie Off
Strand Book Store
She’s the First
Master Mind Talks
Small Giants: Companies That Choose to Be Great Instead of Big by Bo Burlingham

SHOW NOTES

Laszlo Nadler brings in more than $2 million a year with online store Tools4Wisdom. [11:16]
Starting your own business doesn’t mean you have to abandon your full-time job before making sure it’s sustainable. [11:56]
According to the US Census Bureau, what is (and what isn’t) a nonemployer firm? [12:30]
Three things these businesses offer that elude most workers today. [13:22]
The two paths entrepreneurs have traditionally taken, and the third path opened up by one-person businesses. [13:32]
What’s driving the growth of the million-dollar, one-person business? [14:26]
A shift in attitudes. [15:15]
How do you get from where you are currently to enjoying the freedom of an entrepreneur? [15:50]
Key questions to ask yourself first. [17:44]
Solo businesses and partnerships that hit the million-dollar range typically fall into these six categories. [19:01]
In spite of their differences, entrepreneurs generally have these practices in common. [19:35]
Split-testing for profit. [21:24]
Mastering the art of delegation. [24:22]
The point of comfort challenges. [27:00]
Your first entrepreneurial efforts don’t have to succeed — as long as you learn from them. [28:51]
How outsourcing smaller tasks and decisions helps you focus on the bigger tasks and decisions of your business. [31:53]
Making and managing require different schedules. [36:20]
How observing these schedules has helped Ben and Camille Arneberg pursue further business opportunities. [40:05]
Fewer distractions = more growth. [41:24]
Two key ideas that helped Dan Faggella grow his revenue far beyond the average “nonemployer” business. [42:30]
How I test potential candidates for a job. [43:28]
How Dan Faggella ensured a smooth transition when selling his company (and why he would want to sell such a successful business in the first place). [46:03]
Success through liberation — having the money to do things you want to do doesn’t matter if you don’t also have mobility. [48:14]
How Sol Orwell chose a second-in-command to handle things when he goes off the grid. [53:21]
What Sol does with his “free” time. [56:02]
Rethinking scale and profit. [56:51]
Why the story of the businessman and the fisherman resonated with “successful” entrepreneur Jayson Gaignard. [58:18]
How a Seth Godin talk inspired Jayson’s next business venture. [1:02:02]

PEOPLE MENTIONED

Jamie Foxx
BJ Miller
Esther Perel
Roger Bannister
Elaine Pofeldt
Laszlo Nadler
Eric Scott
Max Levchin
Henry Ford
Kevin Kelly
Ben Arneberg
Camille Arneberg
Noah Kagan
Paul Graham
Jack Dorsey
Dan Faggella
Sol Orwell
Jayson Gaignard
Seth Godin

Steve Jurvetson — The Midas Touch and Mind-Bending Futures (#317)

[image error]

“Celebrate the childlike mind.” — Steve Jurvetson 

Steve Jurvetson (@jurvetson) is an early-stage venture capitalist with a focus on founder-led, mission-driven companies at the cutting edge of disruptive technology and new industry formation. Steve was the early VC investor in SpaceX, Tesla, Planet, Memphis Meats, Hotmail, and the deep learning companies Mythic and Nervana. He also led investments in startups that were acquired for $16 billion, and five that went public in successful IPOs.

In 2016, former President Barack Obama announced Steve’s appointment as a Presidential Ambassador for Global Entrepreneurship. Steve has also been honored as one of “Tech’s Best Venture Investors” by Forbes, and as the “” by Deloitte. Steve will be launching a brand-new venture fund sometime later this year, and you can read about it at future.ventures.

Enjoy!

[image error]

[image error]

Steve Jurvetson — The Midas Touch and Mind-Bending Futureshttps://rss.art19.com/episodes/66c69066-e7a1-4f69-9313-f6c89b6a443e.mp3Download

Listen to it on Apple Podcasts.
Stream by clicking here.
Download as an MP3 by right-clicking here and choosing “save as.”

Want to hear another conversation with an incredible investor? — Check out my interview with Mike Maples, Jr., a partner at venture capital firm Floodgate, and the the man who taught me how to invest. Stream below or right-click here to download.

The Man Who Taught Me How to Investhttps://rss.art19.com/episodes/a37b219c-ddc8-412e-a344-3aae64dee746.mp3Download

This podcast is brought to you by Four Sigmatic. While I often praise this company’s lion’s mane mushroom coffee for a minimal caffeine wakeup call that lasts, I asked the founders if they could help me—someone who’s struggled with insomnia for decades—sleep. Their answer: Reishi Mushroom Elixir. They made a special batch for me and my listeners that comes without sweetener; you can try it at bedtime with a little honey or nut milk, or you can just add hot water to your single-serving packet and embrace its bitterness like I do.

Try it right now by going to foursigmatic.com/ferriss and using the code Ferriss to get 20 percent off this rare, limited run of Reishi Mushroom Elixir. If you are in the experimental mindset, I do not think you’ll be disappointed.

This podcast is also brought to you by Helix Sleep. I recently moved into a new home and needed new beds, and I purchased mattresses from Helix Sleep.

It offers mattresses personalized to your preferences and sleeping style without costing thousands of dollars. Visit Helixsleep.com/TIM and take the simple 2-3 minute sleep quiz to get started, and the team there will build a mattress you’ll love.

Its customer service makes all the difference. The mattress arrives within a week, and the shipping is completely free. You can try the mattress for 100 nights, and if you’re not happy, they’ll pick it up and offer a full refund. To personalize your sleep experience, visit Helixsleep.com/TIM and you’ll receive up to $125 off your custom mattress.

QUESTION(S) OF THE DAY: What was your favorite quote or lesson from this episode? Please let me know in the comments.

Scroll below for links and show notes…

SELECTED LINKS FROM THE EPISODE

Connect with Steve Jurvetson:

Future Ventures | Facebook | Flickr | Twitter

DFJ
D-Wave
The Fabric of Reality: The Science of Parallel Universes — and Its Implications by David Deutsch
Dream Machine: The Mind-Expanding World of Quantum Computing by Rivka Galchen, The New Yorker
Rose’s Law for Quantum Computers, 33rd Square
Device-Independent Quantum Key Distribution with Single-Photon Sources by Alejandro M·ttar et al.
What Is Shor’s Factoring Algorithm? by Peter Shor, Physics World
Quantum Chemistry, Chemistry Encyclopedia
Quantum Mechanics and the Schrodinger Equation, Professor Dave Explains
An Experimental Chemist’s Guide to Ab Initio Quantum Chemistry by Jack Simons, The Journal of Physical Chemistry
Mythic
Nervana
The Deep Learning Textbook by Ian Goodfellow, Yoshua Bengio, and Aaron Courville, MIT
Looking for Entangled Atoms in a Bose-Einstein Condensate by John Toon, Georgia Tech News Center
Vision Talk: Steve Jurvetson — How Do We Bridge The Accelerating Rich-Poor Gap? by Steve Jurvetson, XPRIZE
B612 Foundation: Protecting Earth from Asteroid Impacts
Armageddon
Deep Impact
Abundance: The Future is Better Than You Think by Peter H. Diamandis and Steven Kotler
Questions and Answers about CRISPR, Broad Institute
Scientists Say Ocean Circulation Is Slowing. Here’s Why You Should Care. by Bob Berwyn, Inside Climate News
The Dot Com Bubble Explained in One Minute, One Minutes Economics
Hotmail
Skype
Tesla
SpaceX
A New Kind of Science by Stephen Wolfram
Cellular Automata — The Nature of Code, The Coding Train
Neural Networks and Deep Learning by Michael A. Nielsen
Developer Resources for Deep Learning and AI, NVIDIA
Hewlett-Packard
Steve Jurvetson Never Sells a Share of a Company He Invests In, Jason Calacanis with Steve Jurvetson, This Week In Startups
Done Deals: Venture Capitalists Tell Their Story — Featured HBS Peter Crisp by Udayan Gupta, Harvard Business School
The Trappist Monk Whose Calligraphy Inspired Steve Jobs — and Influenced Apple’s Designs by Niraj Chokshi, The Washington Post
Master Plan, Part Deux by Elon Musk, Tesla
Here’s Why Investor Steve Jurvetson Saved Elon Musk’s Space Dreams by Julie Bort, Business Insider
Elon Musk and Craig Venter Want to Print Life on Mars by Jason Koebler, Vice Motherboard
Elon Musk and Other Guests Dispute That a Notorious Silicon Valley Gathering Was a ‘Sex Party’: ‘Nerds on a Couch Are Not a “Cuddle Puddle”‘ by Rob Price, Business Insider
The Women of DFJ Push Back on Claims That ‘Predatory Behavior’ Is Rampant by Connie Loizos, TechCrunch
The Tail End by Tim Urban, Wait But Why
On Grief and Grieving: Finding the Meaning of Grief Through the Five Stages of Loss by Elisabeth Kubler-Ross and David Kessler
The Scientist In The Crib: Minds, Brains, And How Children Learn by Alison Gopnik and Andrew N. Meltzoff
LEGO Mindstorms NXT 2.0
Tribe of Mentors: Short Life Advice from the Best in the World by Timothy Ferriss
Model Rocketry with Steve Jurvetson at TED 2007
Planet Labs
Celebrate the Child-Like Mind by Steve Jurvetson, Wired
Would Air Travel Be Safer Without Pilots? Steve Jurvetson Thinks So by Zoran Basich, The Wall Street Journal
Memphis Meats
Excited for the Future of Meat — The Series A for Memphis Meats by Steve Jurvetson, Flickr
Liver Success Holds Promise of 3D Organ Printing by Hasan Chowdhury, Financial Times
Gˆdel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas R. Hofstadter
Out Of Control: The New Biology of Machines, Social Systems, and the Economic World by Kevin Kelly
Coursera and Udemy each have courses on deep learning and neural networks.
Steve’s talk on deep learning and AI at O’Reilly Artificial Intelligence Conference San Francisco
Welcome to the AI Conspiracy: The ‘Canadian Mafia’ Behind Tech’s Latest Craze by Mark Bergan and Kurt Wagner, Recode
Jurvetson ’85 Delivers Address, St. Mark’s School of Texas
The Kristina Talent Stack by Scott Adams
James Watson, Francis Crick, Maurice Wilkins, and Rosalind Franklin: The Codiscovery of the Double Helix, Science History Institute
Reed’s Law

SHOW NOTES

On the power of quantum mechanics and the potential for quantum computers. [09:23]
What is a quantum computer? [11:34]
How big is a quantum computer? [14:20]
An explanation of Rose’s Law. [15:10]
How useful are quantum computers now, and how much more useful can we expect them to be in the near future? [19:50]
What is quantum chemistry, and what problems does it potentially solve? [21:06]
Quantum applications for deep learning. [22:22]
Musings on quantum entanglement. [23:15]
What Steve sees for the future of business as we move from theoretical and experimental exploration in quantum physics toward its practical application. [25:37]
What existential challenges of rapid technological advancement are we most likely to face? First: bridging the accelerating rich-poor gap. [26:54]
Protecting Earth from asteroids. [28:33]
Addressing the increasing ease with which weapons of bioterrorism can be synthesized. [30:09]
How might we cope with the effects of climate change through hibernation? [32:07]
In what ways can we prevent or mitigate social unrest resulting from a widening rich-poor gap? [34:14]
If life-saving drugs are to become cheap and affordable to everyone in the future, how does Steve see the incentives for research and development adapting? [41:00]
How did Steve get through his undergrad at Stanford in two-and-a-half years? [42:28]
Why did time and budgeting become less of a concern when Steve began his master’s program? [44:45]
Why did Steve decide to get an MBA, and would he still make that decision today? [46:00]
How did Steve enter the world of investing? [48:39]
What mistakes does Steve see otherwise smart venture capitalists making often? [49:53]
What helped Steve succeed early in his career? [53:13]
The simple rule Steve began to implement around early-stage investing. [55:26]
When did Steve start to see signs pointing toward a likely dotcom crash circa 2000, and how did his investment strategy change? [56:59]
At the time, why did Steve choose nanotechnology as the next big thing? [59:16]
On machine learning, cellular automata, and the difficulties faced when trying to reverse engineer an evolved structure to understand how they work (like a teenager or a human brain). [1:02:15]
A deep dive into deep learning and neural networks — and how GPU technology once designated for video games has pushed the field forward in unexpected ways. [1:06:08]
With an education and background in electrical engineering, why did Steve get involved in product marketing at Apple and NeXT? [1:14:23]
What are the check boxes that help Steve mitigate risk when he’s weighing investment opportunities? [1:18:52]
The question that weeds out “the charlatans and the arbitrage-seeking opportunists.” [1:22:04]
The uncertainty of enormous markets. [1:23:36]
Where did the name for Hotmail originate, and how dedicated to “free” were the founders? [1:24:32]
Wildly successful companies that were initially regarded as bad ideas. [1:25:19]
Why does Steve never sell shares once he’s invested in a company? [1:26:07]
Commonalities and differences observed between Steve Jobs and Elon Musk. [1:31:18]
In what ways does Steve believe Elon Musk is the “most risk-immune person” he’s ever met? [1:36:09]
Elon’s “battle mode” of focus during crises. [1:42:26]
On Steve Jobs’ architecting of the way people communicated, and enforcing the ideal number of people in team sizes and meetings. [1:47:18]
Steve addresses recent bad press. [1:48:54]
What was Steve’s self-talk when these allegations arose? [1:52:15]
Who helped Steve throughout this time, and why was he advised to keep mum about the allegations — even in his own defense? [1:56:59]
What other particularly trying times has Steve endured? [1:59:31]
What helped Steve through the grieving process when his father passed away? [2:00:32]
How Steve prepared to become a parent, and what analytical thinkers can gain by trying to see things from the perspective of a child. [2:04:59]
What Steve would put on his billboard. [2:07:11]
How children are like scientists. [2:07:38]
Steve is so enthusiastic about model rockets that he even gave a TED Talk about them. [2:09:15]
Drones and how to eliminate the TSA. [2:10:36]
As a technology investor, how does Steve budget for regulatory or political opposition from incumbents? [2:15:01]
The current and future science of synthetic “clean” meat and why it’s important. [2:18:27]
Could this technology be adapted to produce human tissue and organs for transplants, or is 3D printing more feasible? [2:28:13]
How might the layman become more scientifically literate? [2:31:13]
How long does Steve estimate it would take for someone to familiarize themselves enough with deep learning to get involved in the field? [2:35:04]
Steve talks about the commencement speech he gave at his old high school, what it covered, and what was most strongly received. [2:36:20]
Personal strengths don’t always come from obvious places, and their combination into “talent stacks” can result in unforeseeable breakthroughs. [2:38:25]
How “every great idea is a recombination of prior ideas,” and the part technology plays in increasing possible pairings of these prior ideas. [2:40:52]
Parting thoughts and what’s next for Steve. [2:42:51]

PEOPLE MENTIONED

Matt Mullenweg
Barack Obama
David Deutsch
Richard Feynman
Albert Einstein
Geordie Rose
Carver Mead
Gordon Moore
Peter Shor
Erwin Schrodinger
Peter Diamandas
Bill Gates
Tınu Jurvetson
Tiiu Jurvetson
John Hennessy
Henry Ford
Tim Draper
Stephen Wolfram
Steve Jobs
Elon Musk
Mark Zuckerberg
Larry Page
Sergey Brin
Naval Ravikant
Sabeer Bhatia
Peter Crisp
Kimbal Musk
Craig Venter
Antonio J. Gracias
Genevieve Lydstone
Tim Urban
Isaac Newton
Kevin Kelly
Matt Ridley
Douglas Hofstadter
Geoffrey Hinton
Yoshua Bengio
Andrew Ng
Marc Andreessen
Warren Buffett
Scott Adams
James D. Watson
Francis Crick
Rosalind Franklin
Maurice Wilkins
Nikola Tesla
Guglielmo Marconi
David P. Reed

Steve Jurvetson — The Midas Touch and Mind-Bending Futures

[image error]

“Celebrate the childlike mind.” — Steve Jurvetson 

Steve Jurvetson (@jurvetson) is an early-stage venture capitalist with a focus on founder-led, mission-driven companies at the cutting edge of disruptive technology and new industry formation. Steve was the early VC investor in SpaceX, Tesla, Planet, Memphis Meats, Hotmail, and the deep learning companies Mythic and Nervana. He also led investments in startups that were acquired for $16 billion, and five that went public in successful IPOs.

In 2016, former President Barack Obama announced Steve’s appointment as a Presidential Ambassador for Global Entrepreneurship. Steve has also been honored as one of “Tech’s Best Venture Investors” by Forbes, and as the “” by Deloitte. Steve will be launching a brand-new venture fund sometime later this year, and you can read about it at future.ventures.

Enjoy!

[image error]

[image error]

Steve Jurvetson — The Midas Touch and Mind-Bending Futures
https://rss.art19.com/episodes/66c69066-e7a1-4f69-9313-f6c89b6a443e.mp3Download

Listen to it on Apple Podcasts.
Stream by clicking here.
Download as an MP3 by right-clicking here and choosing “save as.”

Want to hear another conversation with an incredible investor? — Check out my interview with Mike Maples, Jr., a partner at venture capital firm Floodgate, and the the man who taught me how to invest. Stream below or right-click here to download.

The Man Who Taught Me How to Investhttps://rss.art19.com/episodes/a37b219c-ddc8-412e-a344-3aae64dee746.mp3Download

This podcast is brought to you by Four Sigmatic. While I often praise this company’s lion’s mane mushroom coffee for a minimal caffeine wakeup call that lasts, I asked the founders if they could help me—someone who’s struggled with insomnia for decades—sleep. Their answer: Reishi Mushroom Elixir. They made a special batch for me and my listeners that comes without sweetener; you can try it at bedtime with a little honey or nut milk, or you can just add hot water to your single-serving packet and embrace its bitterness like I do.

Try it right now by going to foursigmatic.com/ferriss and using the code Ferriss to get 20 percent off this rare, limited run of Reishi Mushroom Elixir. If you are in the experimental mindset, I do not think you’ll be disappointed.

This podcast is also brought to you by Helix Sleep. I recently moved into a new home and needed new beds, and I purchased mattresses from Helix Sleep.

It offers mattresses personalized to your preferences and sleeping style without costing thousands of dollars. Visit Helixsleep.com/TIM and take the simple 2-3 minute sleep quiz to get started, and the team there will build a mattress you’ll love.

Its customer service makes all the difference. The mattress arrives within a week, and the shipping is completely free. You can try the mattress for 100 nights, and if you’re not happy, they’ll pick it up and offer a full refund. To personalize your sleep experience, visit Helixsleep.com/TIM and you’ll receive up to $125 off your custom mattress.

QUESTION(S) OF THE DAY: What was your favorite quote or lesson from this episode? Please let me know in the comments.

Scroll below for links and show notes…

SELECTED LINKS FROM THE EPISODE

Connect with Steve Jurvetson:

Future Ventures | Facebook | Flickr | Twitter

DFJ
D-Wave
The Fabric of Reality: The Science of Parallel Universes — and Its Implications by David Deutsch
Dream Machine: The Mind-Expanding World of Quantum Computing by Rivka Galchen, The New Yorker
Rose’s Law for Quantum Computers, 33rd Square
Device-Independent Quantum Key Distribution with Single-Photon Sources by Alejandro M·ttar et al.
What Is Shor’s Factoring Algorithm? by Peter Shor, Physics World
Quantum Chemistry, Chemistry Encyclopedia
Quantum Mechanics and the Schrodinger Equation, Professor Dave Explains
An Experimental Chemist’s Guide to Ab Initio Quantum Chemistry by Jack Simons, The Journal of Physical Chemistry
Mythic
Nervana
The Deep Learning Textbook by Ian Goodfellow, Yoshua Bengio, and Aaron Courville, MIT
Looking for Entangled Atoms in a Bose-Einstein Condensate by John Toon, Georgia Tech News Center
Vision Talk: Steve Jurvetson — How Do We Bridge The Accelerating Rich-Poor Gap? by Steve Jurvetson, XPRIZE
B612 Foundation: Protecting Earth from Asteroid Impacts
Armageddon
Deep Impact
Abundance: The Future is Better Than You Think by Peter H. Diamandis and Steven Kotler
Questions and Answers about CRISPR, Broad Institute
Scientists Say Ocean Circulation Is Slowing. Here’s Why You Should Care. by Bob Berwyn, Inside Climate News
The Dot Com Bubble Explained in One Minute, One Minutes Economics
Hotmail
Skype
Tesla
SpaceX
A New Kind of Science by Stephen Wolfram
Cellular Automata — The Nature of Code, The Coding Train
Neural Networks and Deep Learning by Michael A. Nielsen
Developer Resources for Deep Learning and AI, NVIDIA
Hewlett-Packard
Steve Jurvetson Never Sells a Share of a Company He Invests In, Jason Calacanis with Steve Jurvetson, This Week In Startups
Done Deals: Venture Capitalists Tell Their Story — Featured HBS Peter Crisp by Udayan Gupta, Harvard Business School
The Trappist Monk Whose Calligraphy Inspired Steve Jobs — and Influenced Apple’s Designs by Niraj Chokshi, The Washington Post
Master Plan, Part Deux by Elon Musk, Tesla
Here’s Why Investor Steve Jurvetson Saved Elon Musk’s Space Dreams by Julie Bort, Business Insider
Elon Musk and Craig Venter Want to Print Life on Mars by Jason Koebler, Vice Motherboard
Elon Musk and Other Guests Dispute That a Notorious Silicon Valley Gathering Was a ‘Sex Party’: ‘Nerds on a Couch Are Not a “Cuddle Puddle”‘ by Rob Price, Business Insider
The Women of DFJ Push Back on Claims That ‘Predatory Behavior’ Is Rampant by Connie Loizos, TechCrunch
The Tail End by Tim Urban, Wait But Why
On Grief and Grieving: Finding the Meaning of Grief Through the Five Stages of Loss by Elisabeth Kubler-Ross and David Kessler
The Scientist In The Crib: Minds, Brains, And How Children Learn by Alison Gopnik and Andrew N. Meltzoff
LEGO Mindstorms NXT 2.0
Tribe of Mentors: Short Life Advice from the Best in the World by Timothy Ferriss
Model Rocketry with Steve Jurvetson at TED 2007
Planet Labs
Celebrate the Child-Like Mind by Steve Jurvetson, Wired
Would Air Travel Be Safer Without Pilots? Steve Jurvetson Thinks So by Zoran Basich, The Wall Street Journal
Memphis Meats
Excited for the Future of Meat — The Series A for Memphis Meats by Steve Jurvetson, Flickr
Liver Success Holds Promise of 3D Organ Printing by Hasan Chowdhury, Financial Times
Gˆdel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas R. Hofstadter
Out Of Control: The New Biology of Machines, Social Systems, and the Economic World by Kevin Kelly
Coursera and Udemy each have courses on deep learning and neural networks.
Steve’s talk on deep learning and AI at O’Reilly Artificial Intelligence Conference San Francisco
Welcome to the AI Conspiracy: The ‘Canadian Mafia’ Behind Tech’s Latest Craze by Mark Bergan and Kurt Wagner, Recode
Jurvetson ’85 Delivers Address, St. Mark’s School of Texas
The Kristina Talent Stack by Scott Adams
James Watson, Francis Crick, Maurice Wilkins, and Rosalind Franklin: The Codiscovery of the Double Helix, Science History Institute
Reed’s Law

SHOW NOTES

On the power of quantum mechanics and the potential for quantum computers. [09:23]
What is a quantum computer? [11:34]
How big is a quantum computer? [14:20]
An explanation of Rose’s Law. [15:10]
How useful are quantum computers now, and how much more useful can we expect them to be in the near future? [19:50]
What is quantum chemistry, and what problems does it potentially solve? [21:06]
Quantum applications for deep learning. [22:22]
Musings on quantum entanglement. [23:15]
What Steve sees for the future of business as we move from theoretical and experimental exploration in quantum physics toward its practical application. [25:37]
What existential challenges of rapid technological advancement are we most likely to face? First: bridging the accelerating rich-poor gap. [26:54]
Protecting Earth from asteroids. [28:33]
Addressing the increasing ease with which weapons of bioterrorism can be synthesized. [30:09]
How might we cope with the effects of climate change through hibernation? [32:07]
In what ways can we prevent or mitigate social unrest resulting from a widening rich-poor gap? [34:14]
If life-saving drugs are to become cheap and affordable to everyone in the future, how does Steve see the incentives for research and development adapting? [41:00]
How did Steve get through his undergrad at Stanford in two-and-a-half years? [42:28]
Why did time and budgeting become less of a concern when Steve began his master’s program? [44:45]
Why did Steve decide to get an MBA, and would he still make that decision today? [46:00]
How did Steve enter the world of investing? [48:39]
What mistakes does Steve see otherwise smart venture capitalists making often? [49:53]
What helped Steve succeed early in his career? [53:13]
The simple rule Steve began to implement around early-stage investing. [55:26]
When did Steve start to see signs pointing toward a likely dotcom crash circa 2000, and how did his investment strategy change? [56:59]
At the time, why did Steve choose nanotechnology as the next big thing? [59:16]
On machine learning, cellular automata, and the difficulties faced when trying to reverse engineer an evolved structure to understand how they work (like a teenager or a human brain). [1:02:15]
A deep dive into deep learning and neural networks — and how GPU technology once designated for video games has pushed the field forward in unexpected ways. [1:06:08]
With an education and background in electrical engineering, why did Steve get involved in product marketing at Apple and NeXT? [1:14:23]
What are the check boxes that help Steve mitigate risk when he’s weighing investment opportunities? [1:18:52]
The question that weeds out “the charlatans and the arbitrage-seeking opportunists.” [1:22:04]
The uncertainty of enormous markets. [1:23:36]
Where did the name for Hotmail originate, and how dedicated to “free” were the founders? [1:24:32]
Wildly successful companies that were initially regarded as bad ideas. [1:25:19]
Why does Steve never sell shares once he’s invested in a company? [1:26:07]
Commonalities and differences observed between Steve Jobs and Elon Musk. [1:31:18]
In what ways does Steve believe Elon Musk is the “most risk-immune person” he’s ever met? [1:36:09]
Elon’s “battle mode” of focus during crises. [1:42:26]
On Steve Jobs’ architecting of the way people communicated, and enforcing the ideal number of people in team sizes and meetings. [1:47:18]
Steve addresses recent bad press. [1:48:54]
What was Steve’s self-talk when these allegations arose? [1:52:15]
Who helped Steve throughout this time, and why was he advised to keep mum about the allegations — even in his own defense? [1:56:59]
What other particularly trying times has Steve endured? [1:59:31]
What helped Steve through the grieving process when his father passed away? [2:00:32]
How Steve prepared to become a parent, and what analytical thinkers can gain by trying to see things from the perspective of a child. [2:04:59]
What Steve would put on his billboard. [2:07:11]
How children are like scientists. [2:07:38]
Steve is so enthusiastic about model rockets that he even gave a TED Talk about them. [2:09:15]
Drones and how to eliminate the TSA. [2:10:36]
As a technology investor, how does Steve budget for regulatory or political opposition from incumbents? [2:15:01]
The current and future science of synthetic “clean” meat and why it’s important. [2:18:27]
Could this technology be adapted to produce human tissue and organs for transplants, or is 3D printing more feasible? [2:28:13]
How might the layman become more scientifically literate? [2:31:13]
How long does Steve estimate it would take for someone to familiarize themselves enough with deep learning to get involved in the field? [2:35:04]
Steve talks about the commencement speech he gave at his old high school, what it covered, and what was most strongly received. [2:36:20]
Personal strengths don’t always come from obvious places, and their combination into “talent stacks” can result in unforeseeable breakthroughs. [2:38:25]
How “every great idea is a recombination of prior ideas,” and the part technology plays in increasing possible pairings of these prior ideas. [2:40:52]
Parting thoughts and what’s next for Steve. [2:42:51]

PEOPLE MENTIONED

Matt Mullenweg
Barack Obama
David Deutsch
Richard Feynman
Albert Einstein
Geordie Rose
Carver Mead
Gordon Moore
Peter Shor
Erwin Schrodinger
Peter Diamandas
Bill Gates
Tınu Jurvetson
Tiiu Jurvetson
John Hennessy
Henry Ford
Tim Draper
Stephen Wolfram
Steve Jobs
Elon Musk
Mark Zuckerberg
Larry Page
Sergey Brin
Naval Ravikant
Sabeer Bhatia
Peter Crisp
Kimbal Musk
Craig Venter
Antonio J. Gracias
Genevieve Lydstone
Tim Urban
Isaac Newton
Kevin Kelly
Matt Ridley
Douglas Hofstadter
Geoffrey Hinton
Yoshua Bengio
Andrew Ng
Marc Andreessen
Warren Buffett
Scott Adams
James D. Watson
Francis Crick
Rosalind Franklin
Maurice Wilkins
Nikola Tesla
Guglielmo Marconi
David P. Reed

Whitney Wolfe Herd — Founder and CEO of Bumble

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“Spirituality comes out in moments of darkness.” – Whitney Wolfe Herd

Whitney Wolfe Herd (@whitwolfeherd) is the founder and CEO of Bumble, one of the fastest-growing social networking apps in the world. She launched Bumble in 2014 as the only dating platform where women make the first move, and in three years, her vision has led to Bumble’s growth to more than 28 million users worldwide in 144 countries.

Bumble launched Bumble BFF in 2016 as a friend-finding feature and Bumble Bizz for professional networking in 2017. Whitney was named to Forbes’ “30 Under 30” list and has recently been on the covers of not just Fast Company, but also Forbes and Wired.

Please enjoy!

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Whitney Wolfe Herd — Founder and CEO of Bumble
https://rss.art19.com/episodes/0b19c53b-f57e-4e26-b6aa-d972c2f9f7ca.mp3Download

Listen to it on Apple Podcasts.
Stream by clicking here.
Download as an MP3 by right-clicking here and choosing “save as.”

Want to hear another podcast with an inspiring decision-maker? — Listen in on my conversation with one of 2017’s most-requested guests, Bozoma Saint John, the Chief Brand Officer at Uber with a story that spans continents. Stream below or right-click here to download.

Lessons from Bozoma Saint John -- From Spike Lee to Uber, From Ghana to Silicon Valleyhttps://rss.art19.com/episodes/18f80039-69f9-428f-868c-f49a0b25c0eb.mp3Download

This podcast is brought to you by FreshBooks. FreshBooks is the #1 cloud bookkeeping software, which is used by a ton of the start-ups I advise and many of the contractors I work with. It is the easiest way to send invoices, get paid, track your time, and track your clients.

FreshBooks tells you when your clients have viewed your invoices, helps you customize your invoices, track your hours, automatically organize your receipts, have late payment reminders sent automatically and much more.

Right now you can get a free month of complete and unrestricted use. You do not need a credit card for the trial. To claim your free month and see how the brand new FreshBooks can change your business, go to FreshBooks.com/Tim and enter “Tim Ferriss” in the “how did you hear about us” section.

Bonus: People constantly ask me “How can I get a four-hour workweek with a service business?” I tell them to download and read Breaking the Time Barrier by FreshBooks — it’s free.

This podcast is also brought to you by Soothe.com, the world’s largest on-demand massage service. Because I’ve been broken so many times, I have body work done at least twice a week — so I have a high bar for this stuff. I do not accept mediocrity, and I wouldn’t expect you to, either.

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QUESTION(S) OF THE DAY: What was your favorite quote or lesson from this episode? Please let me know in the comments.

Scroll below for links and show notes…

SELECTED LINKS FROM THE EPISODE

Connect with Whitney Wolfe Herd:

Twitter | Instagram

Bumble
Whitney Wolfe Wants to Beat Tinder at Its Own Game by Charlotte Alter, Time
Moxie
by Kathy Padden, Today I Found Out
The Founder of Bumble on the Future of Dating & Making It in Your 20s by Natalie Gil, Refinery29
Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World by Adam Grant
Shantaram: A Novel by Gregory David Roberts
The Plant Paradox: The Hidden Dangers in “Healthy” Foods That Cause Disease and Weight Gain by Dr. Steven R Gundry M.D.
Mean Eyed Cat
30 Coconut Oil Uses for Beauty: Unexpected Hair & Skin Benefits by Popsugar and Kristi Kellogg, Allure
Smythson Notebooks
The Gift of Fear and Other Survival Signals that Protect Us From Violence by Gavin De Becker
The Art of Asking: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Let People Help by Amanda Palmer
5 Different Types of Imposter Syndrome (and 5 Ways to Battle Each One) by Melody Wilding, The Muse
Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed
The Tail End by Tim Urban, Wait But Why

SHOW NOTES

How did Bumble come to be? [06:01]
What did Whitney originally want to call Bumble? [09:58]
Whitney explains the Sadie Hawkins Dance to me. [11:37]
Why didn’t Whitney care for the name Bumble at first? [13:10]
One of my methods of testing is if something I’ve written is “sticky” enough. [14:00]
How many people currently use Bumble? [14:40]
What are the benefits of Bumble’s “women make the first move” dynamic? [15:18]
Whitney talks about how she’s overcome particularly dark periods of time. [16:47]
Harnessing anxiety as a fuel rather than surrendering to it as a handicap. [22:36]
Good sleep is a game changer. [25:51]
On using books for startup team bonding. [26:44]
Influential books read and gifted most often. [29:27]
Do plants really want to kill us? [34:41]
What recent purchase of $100 or less has had a positive impact on Whitney’s life? [36:37]
When was the last time Whitney cried tears of joy? [40:58]
What spiritual beliefs help Whitney through difficult times? [43:09]
Relying on hunches over caffeine and interference from the prefrontal cortex. [45:36]
Whitney’s most worthwhile investment of time and dedication. [50:58]
How does Whitney positively shape and scale her company’s culture? [52:26]
The best piece of advice Whitney has ever received. [54:47]
Sometimes we need to remember to let other people help us. [56:41]
How to (and not to) ask a busy person for help or advice. [58:43]
Unusual habits and absurd things Whitney loves. [1:04:38]
A new belief or behavior that has had the most positive impact on Whitney’s life. [1:07:35]
What would Whitney’s billboard say? [1:08:34]
Parting thoughts. [1:09:29]

PEOPLE MENTIONED

Andrey Andreev
Sadie Hawkins
Michael Herd
Adam Grant
Gregory David Roberts
Zooko Wilcox
Molly
Steve Jobs
Gavin De Becker
Amanda Palmer
Reid Hoffman
Peter Thiel
Ben Casnocha
Cheryl Strayed
Tim Urban

Lessons Learned Traveling The World

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This episode explores travel, and I’ll take the partial credit or blame in advance, as it might want to make you quit your job and head off to the airport with a backpack.

I have interviewed some fascinating people from around the world and in the next hour we will actually travel around the world with them. We’ll also explore specific tips and strategies from our conversations related to how they think about travel, how they personally travel, and the role that travel can play in your life. This includes conversations with:

Vagabonding author Rolf Potts about seeing the world now rather than waiting until some vague “later” that might never happen.
My friend Kevin Rose about hiding tattoos in foreign lands and getting by without knowing the local language.
Phil Keoghan from The Amazing Race about a life-changing epiphany earned while shipwreck diving.
Wired co-founder Kevin Kelly about favorite travel tools and gadgets on our trip through the mountains of Uzbekistan.

I hope you enjoy this episode of The Tim Ferriss Radio Hour!

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Lessons Learned Traveling The World
https://rss.art19.com/episodes/477a1691-0cd7-4465-a0dd-b4395ca37644.mp3Download

Listen to it on Apple Podcasts.
Stream by clicking here.
Download as an MP3 by right-clicking here and choosing “save as.”

Want to hear another podcast of The Tim Ferriss Radio Hour? — In this episode, we explore meditation and mindfulness with Chase Jarvis, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sam Harris, and Rainn Wilson (stream below or right-click here to download).

The Tim Ferriss Radio Hour: Meditation, Mindset, and Masteryhttps://rss.art19.com/episodes/c5eafee8-47a6-4e8f-a36e-48c20f5dd928.mp3Download

This episode is brought to you by LinkedIn and its job recruitment platform, which offers a smarter system for the hiring process. If you’ve ever hired anyone (or attempted to), you know that finding the right people can be difficult. If you don’t have a direct referral from someone you trust, you’re left to use job boards that don’t offer any real-world networking approach.

LinkedIn, as the world’s largest professional network — used by more than 70 percent of the US workforce — has a built-in ecosystem that allows you to not only search for employees, but also interact with them, their connections, and their former employers and colleagues in a way that closely mimics real-life communication. Visit LinkedIn.com/Tim and receive a $50 credit toward your first job post!

This episode is also brought to you by Ray Dalio’s book, Principles. If you’re a frequent listener of this podcast, you might recall that Ray was a guest on the show and his episode was extremely popular (hear it here). Ray’s story is fascinating: He started his investment company Bridgewater Associates out of a two-bedroom apartment at age 26. Now it has roughly $160 billion in assets under management. Over 42 years, he’s built Bridgewater into what Fortune considers the fifth most important private company in the US.

Along the way, Ray took tons of notes on what worked and what didn’t work. These were adapted over time for training purposes within his company, and then further refined for the world at large as Principles. In these pages, Ray shares the principles he’s developed over the past 40 years to create unique results in life, business, and investing, which any person or organization can adopt to help further their goals and make decisions with clarity of thought and purpose. Visit Principles.com for more details and to pick up a copy for your own shelf!

QUESTION(S) OF THE DAY: What was your favorite quote or lesson from this episode? Please let me know in the comments.

Scroll below for links and show notes…

SELECTED LINKS FROM THE EPISODE

Connect with Rolf Potts:

Website | Deviate Podcast | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook

Connect with Kevin Rose:

The Journal | Twitter

Connect with Phil Keoghan:

Website | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook

Connect with Kevin Kelly:

Website| Twitter | Facebook

Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel by Rolf Potts (or enjoy it on Audible)
The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich by Timothy Ferriss
Walden by Henry David Thoreau
BootsnAll: Independent Travel Community for Indie Travel
Paris Writing Workshop
Airbnb: Vacation Rentals, Homes, Experiences, and Places
Couchsurfing: Meet and Stay with Locals All Over the World
Araya Totoan
In spite of the tattoos, Kevin Rose assures us he’s not Yakuza.
7-Eleven and Circle K are different in Japan.
Suntory The Premium Malt’s — “brewed with pride”
Ghibli Museum
Harajuku
Instagram photos tagged #takeshitadori
Over 280 Images of the Most Imaginative & Strange Cosplay at Comic-Con 2016 by Steve ‘Frosty’ Weintraub, Collider
13 Secrets for Speaking Fluent Japanese by Giles Murray
Japanese Verbs & Essentials of Grammar by Rita Lampkin
The Amazing Race
The Last Cruise of Mikhail Lermontov by Derek Grzelewski, New Zealand Geographic
New Zealand’s Mikhail Lermontov: A Wreck to Die For, Diver Magazine
The Bottom of The Great Blue Hole in Belize
The Tien Shan Mountains, Encyclopaedia Britannica
Uzbekistan, Lonely Planet
Nau Vice II Blazer
Logitech Keys-To-Go Ultra-Portable Stand-Alone Keyboard
Mack’s Pillow Soft Silicone Earplugs
Cabeau Evolution Memory Foam Travel Neck Pillow
A compact umbrella with top spray-painted silver to reflect the sun.

SHOW NOTES

Introducing Rolf Potts. [06:59]
How does “vagabonding” differ from just going on another vacation? [08:40]
Rolf’s first vagabonding experience. [11:17]
Using our own time wealth rather than waiting for the lottery to give us a windfall to travel. [12:32]
Rolf’s recommended resources for fighting the fears associated with world travel. [13:09]
How the double-edged sword of technology cuts into the experience of the modern traveler for delightful convenience over inspirational serendipity. [15:00]
Introducing Kevin Rose. [22:20]
What it’s like in Japan if you don’t speak the language. [25:03]
The difference between losing a personal item in Japan and the US. [26:00]
Tokyo has a reputation for being an expensive city, but you can still have fun on the cheap. [28:54]
Book recommendations for people who want to learn Japanese. [33:33]
Introducing Phil Keoghan. [34:25]
Phil tells us about having a panic attack while diving a shipwreck at 120 feet — and how this charted the course for a life of adventure. [34:59]
What was Phil’s self-talk when returning to the wreck (and in the moment of facing similar fears)? [47:14]
Introducing Kevin Kelly. [49:18]
We cross a pass in the Tian Shan mountains at two thousand meters while Kevin explains the relative geography of Uzbekistan. [50:58]
My first cool tool. [51:59]
My second cool tool. [56:57]
My third cool tool. [59:30]
My fourth cool tool. [1:02:07]
Kevin’s heat-repelling cool tool. [1:04:55]

PEOPLE MENTIONED

Rolf Potts
Henry David Thoreau
Kevin Rose
Phil Keoghan
Kevin Kelly
David Chang

Cindy Eckert (formerly Whitehead) — How to Sell Your Company For One Billion Dollars

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“Fuck the unicorn. Be the workhorse.” – Cindy Eckert (formerly Whitehead)

Cindy Eckert (@cindypinkceo) is an entrepreneur with $1.5 billion in exits who currently serves as the founder and CEO of The Pink Ceiling, an investment firm and consulting enterprise nicknamed the Pinkubator with a mission to invest in, launch, and build other women-led or focused businesses. She believes that access to good advice alone is not enough to change the ratio of men to women in business, and that is why she personally invested more than $15 million in 2017 alone to support the development of nine portfolio companies.

I should mention right off the bat that if you’re a guy, don’t let this bio turn you off in any way. I wanted to have Cindy on the show because she is a good CEO and entrepreneur, very much regardless of gender. The negotiating techniques, the approaches to deal-making, everything that we talk about applies to entrepreneurs, period, full stop.

Earlier in her career, Cindy was the founder of Sprout Pharmaceuticals, home of Addyi, the first and only FDA-approved treatment for low sexual desire disorder in women, which was sold for one billion dollars and then reacquired in a crazy story with incredible terms that we will discuss in this conversation.

Please enjoy this wide-ranging conversation with Cindy Eckert!

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Cindy Eckert — How to Sell Your Company For One Billion Dollarshttps://rss.art19.com/episodes/f8eb0cb5-faab-4d89-a524-499c21e7fb69.mp3Download

Listen to it on Apple Podcasts.
Stream by clicking here.
Download as an MP3 by right-clicking here and choosing “save as.”

Want to hear another podcast with a great entrepreneur? — Listen to my conversation with Sir Richard Branson, the world-famous entrepreneur, adventurer, activist, and business icon. Stream below or right-click here to download.

Sir Richard Branson — The Billionaire Maverick of the Virgin Empirehttps://rss.art19.com/episodes/2f74a98e-c86d-4211-8d7d-3c99464bd9c6.mp3Download

This podcast is brought to you by Peloton, which has become a staple of my daily routine. I picked up this bike after seeing the success of my friend Kevin Rose, and I’ve been enjoying it more than I ever imagined. Peloton is an indoor cycling bike that brings live studio classes right to your home. No worrying about fitting classes into your busy schedule or making it to a studio with a crazy commute.

New classes are added every day, and this includes options led by elite NYC instructors in your own living room. You can even live stream studio classes taught by the world’s best instructors, or find your favorite class on demand.

Peloton is offering listeners to this show a special offer. Visit onepeloton.com and enter the code TIM at checkout to receive $100 off accessories with your Peloton bike purchase. This is a great way to get in your workouts, or an incredible gift. Again, that’s onepeloton.com and enter the code TIM.

This episode is also brought to you by LegalZoom. I’ve used this service for many of my businesses, as have quite a few of the icons on this podcast — such as Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg of WordPress fame.

LegalZoom is a reliable resource that more than a million people have already trusted for everything from setting up wills, proper trademark searches, forming LLCs, setting up non-profits, or finding simple cease-and-desist letter templates.

LegalZoom is not a law firm, but it does have a network of independent attorneys available in most states who can give you advice on the best way to get started, provide contract reviews, and otherwise help you run your business with complete transparency and up-front pricing. Check out LegalZoom.com and enter promo code TIM at checkout today for special savings and see how the fine folks there can make life easier for you and your business.

QUESTION(S) OF THE DAY: What was your favorite quote or lesson from this episode? Please let me know in the comments.

Scroll below for links and show notes…

Selected Links from the Episode

Connect with Cindy Eckert:

The Pink Ceiling | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook

The Pinkubator
J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference
Addyi
Wegmans
Slate Pharmaceuticals
Sprout Pharmaceuticals
Merck
Sexual Medicine Society of North America
Trenbolone
Testopel
Zappos
Beecher’s Handmade Cheese
Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable by Seth Godin
Conditions: Hypoactive Sexual Desire Disorder (HSDD), Sexual Medicine Society of North America
Conditions: Erectile Dysfunction, Sexual Medicine Society of North America
Viagra
CEO of Company behind Addyi Says Female Sexuality Is about Biology, Not Just Psychology by Neesha Arter, Women in the World
Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James
The FDA’s Statistical Review and Evaluation of Addyi
Best Efforts, Contract Standards
Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In by Roger Fisher and William L. Ury
Getting Past No: Negotiating in Difficult Situations by William Ury
Why Valeant Gave Up on the ‘Female Viagra’by Polina Marinova, Fortune
The Tres Commas Scene from Silicon Valley
Undercover Colors Creates Polish to Reveal Date Rape Drugs, Nailpro
Lia Flushable Pregnancy Test
From Injury to Impact: Duke Student Engineers Make Strides in Wearable Tech for Athletes by Ibanca Anad, WRAL TechWire
Cindy Whitehead Wants You to Join the Billion-Dollar Founders’ Club by Macaela MacKenzie
TaskRabbit
Tradesy
The Entrepreneur Behind ‘Female Viagra’ Wants to Make Women ‘Really F**king Rich’ by Polina Marinova, Fortune
The Five Temptations of a CEO by Patrick Lencioni
Fijian Superstitions by Alicia Phillips, Bloom Where You’re Planted
Fear-Setting: The Most Valuable Exercise I Do Every Month by Tim Ferriss, TED Talk





SHOW NOTES





Cindy tells us her 2015 J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference “do or die” story. [07:43]
What is Cindy’s favorite business, and why? [09:41]
How does a company instill exceptional pride in its workforce? [10:51]
Cindy’s soup-to-nuts, three-minute commercial. [12:45]
What does Cindy listen for when asking questions during an interview? [15:13]
As an undergrad, how did Cindy’s business professor drive her to excel? [16:45]
How does someone start a pharmaceutical company without a scientific background? [18:06]
In what ways did Cindy strive to make Slate, her first pharmaceutical company, differ from other pharmaceutical companies? [19:01]
Cindy is a card-carrying member of the Sexual Medicine Society. [20:47]
The fortuitous story behind Slate’s development of the first long-acting testosterone (and why it was half the price of anything similar on the market at the time). [21:39]
How Cindy tests an interviewee’s aptitude for cultural fit. [24:46]
The six specifics Cindy seeks from a potential hire. [25:53]
How does Cindy avoid false positives during the interview process? [26:55]
A quirky (and possibly bold) story from Cindy’s personal experience. [28:38]
Duck Balls? [29:55]
Cindy gives everyone nicknames. Why? [30:42]
Are the people so bequeathed with nicknames ever allowed to veto them? What are some of these nicknames, and how have they come about? [32:38]
While nicknames and other constructs of irreverance can be a bonding experience among peers, what advice would Cindy give to those afraid to offend in these sensitive times? [34:38]
What is Cindy’s nickname? [37:41]
Cindy’s best approach for maintaining sales morale that ran counter to typical pharmaceutical techniques. [38:36]
How is first contact made with a sales prospect, and how is a unique relationship cultivated? [39:31]
Cindy’s team learned and borrowed from Zappos’ business model. What other businesses were especially influential? [41:58]
If Cindy were teaching entrepreneurship to college freshmen, what book would she assign as required reading; what project would be mandatory? [42:42]
We discuss Noah Kagan’s recommended exercise for getting comfortable with discomfort. [43:49]
A story about Cindy’s boldest choice: fighting the FDA with her second company, Sprout. [45:40]
Cindy explains Hypoactive Sexual Desire Disorder and what Addyi does to treat it. [47:04]
How similar was Addyi’s genesis story to Viagra’s? [49:53]
Why was Addyi on the verge of being shelved, and how did Cindy’s company wind up acquiring it? [50:19]
How do royalties work in the world of pharmaceuticals? [54:59]
What drove Cindy to get Addyi through the hoops for FDA approval after initial rejections? [56:40]
The road less traveled for FDA approval. [59:29]
Were the FDA’s initial reservations regarding approval of Addyi the result of being too paternalistic about a drug marketed to women? [1:00:55]
As someone who’s sold two of her own, what advice would Cindy give to an entrepreneur on the cusp of selling their company? [1:02:50]
What is a best efforts clause? [1:04:04]
When selling a company, your transaction attorneys are your most important asset. [1:05:16]
Desperation is a poor position from which to negotiate. [1:06:21]
How did Cindy and her team at Sprout celebrate the FDA approval of Addyi? [1:09:48]
How did Cindy prepare against the possibility of another rejection? [1:12:45]
Another point on selling a company you care about: “Be a little bit reluctant to give it up.” [1:14:07]
Improving deals by letting the opposition negotiate against themselves. [1:16:10]
How did Cindy make the most of negotiating the sale of Sprout in an auction-style environment? [1:18:27]
How did it come to pass that Cindy’s initial investors had the opportunity to buy Sprout back — after selling it two years before for one billion dollars? [1:21:15]
What’s next for Addyi? [1:27:02]
Rules Cindy routinely breaks as best practices. [1:27:44]
What is The Pinkubator? [1:29:39]
What Cindy learned from taking capital to fund her first company from someone whose practices didn’t align with her own. [1:31:01]
What Cindy did to relieve herself of this misalignment, and how she secured further, stable investment without making it her full-time job. [1:33:07]
How did Cindy vet investors? [1:35:52]
What is The Pink Ceiling? [1:37:22]
Examples of companies and products that benefit from The Pink Ceiling’s help. [1:37:44]
What should people know about Raleigh, NC? [1:40:06]
“Women need a voice. We need power, and money is power. Money is power to start to change things.” [1:40:50]
Being aware of rules we’re following that we’d be better off breaking. [1:43:30]
What class would Cindy choose to teach? [1:45:49]
On startup founders putting in the time to earn self-confidence. [1:47:53]
What does Cindy say to those who believe women who should dial back their femininity in the business world? [1:50:25]
How Amanda Palmer co-opted ammunition from a hater for personal empowerment. [1:52:48]
What book has Cindy re-read the most? [1:54:18]
The last time Cindy cried tears of joy. [1:55:10]
An unusual habit or absurd thing Cindy loves. [1:56:55]
Cindy talks about growing up surrounded by superstition in Fiji. [1:57:54]
What Cindy would cover if she had to give a TED Talk about something nobody would expect. [1:58:37]
What does Cindy do to get back on track when she’s feeling overwhelmed or unfocused? [2:00:23]
What would Cindy’s billboard say? [2:02:09]
How has one of Cindy’s failures contributed to later success? [2:02:49]
Getting in contact and parting thoughts. [2:04:07]





PEOPLE MENTIONED



J.P. Morgan
Cal Fussman
Frank Blake
Bryan Johnson
James Watson
Seth Godin
Noah Kagan
Irwin Goldstein
Ivonna Dumanyan
Leah Busque
Tracy DiNunzio
Stuart Smalley
Amanda Palmer
Jessie Graff
Cheryl Strayed