Tools of Titans: The Tactics, Routines, and Habits of Billionaires, Icons, and World-Class Performers

by Timothy Ferriss

The moral of the story being: I didn’t have to make fun of the people, make fun of their food, make fun of the name. It has turned out to be the best decision I ever made, because people always talk about the respect that I pay to other people within the show, which pleases me, and I think it’s an important thing for all of us when we are travelers. [And] it is so much less work just to be yourself.”

*What is the best or most worthwhile investment you’ve made? “The best thing I ever did, besides getting sober 25 years ago, was shelving my restaurant career in 2002, selling my shares in my restaurant, and working for free for a local radio station, magazine, and TV station in an effort to create my own media syllabus. I wanted to create a product with a massive platform, and try to make a difference in the world, and I couldn’t do it without becoming a 40-year-old intern, learning everything I needed, and rebooting my career.”

“Cynicism is a disease that robs people of the gift of life.”

‘You have to believe in your capacity.’ You have to believe that your capacity is greater than you could probably imagine.

I had a lot more capacity at 30 than I thought. I thought of myself as, ‘Well, I could get some acting work and maybe I could do an occasional guest spot on Law and Order and make enough money to just get by as an actor, so I don’t have to drive this damn moving van.’ That was the extent of where my imagination was for myself. So I would just say, ‘Believe in yourself more deeply. You’re bigger than that. Dream bigger,’ I would say.”

“The most important trick to be happy is to realize that happiness is a choice that you make and a skill that you develop. You choose to be happy, and then you work at it. It’s just like building muscles.”

“If you want to be successful, surround yourself with people who are more successful than you are, but if you want to be happy, surround yourself with people who are less successful than you are.”

“The first rule of handling conflict is don’t hang around people who are constantly engaging in conflict. . . . All of the value in life, including in relationships, comes from compound interest. People who regularly fight with others will eventually fight with you. I’m not interested in anything that’s unsustainable or even hard to sustain, including difficult relationships.”

“In any situation in life, you only have three options. You always have three options. You can change it, you can accept it, or you can leave it. What is not a good option is to sit around wishing you would change it but not changing it, wishing you would leave it but not leaving it, and not accepting it.

“There’s a theory that I call ‘the five chimps theory.’ In zoology, you can predict the mood and behavior patterns of any chimp by which five chimps they hang out with the most. Choose your five chimps carefully.”

‘You must never, ever fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool.’

Truth is not determined by consensus or popularity—usually, it’s quite the opposite.

“Tell your friends that you’re a happy person. Then you’ll be forced to conform to it. You’ll have a consistency bias. You have to live up to it. Your friends will expect you to be a happy person.”

“I find that 90% of thoughts that I have are fear-based. The other 10% are probably desire-based. There’s a great definition I read that says, ‘Enlightenment is the space between your thoughts,’ which means that enlightenment isn’t this thing you achieve after 30 years sitting in a corner on a mountaintop. It’s something you can achieve moment to moment, and you can be a certain percentage enlightened every single day.”

“Desire is a contract you make with yourself to be unhappy until you get what you want.”

I think we go about desiring things all day long, and then wondering why we’re unhappy. So, I like to stay aware of that because then I can choose my desires very carefully.

I try ...

have more than one big desire in my life at any given time, and I also recognize that as the axis of my suffering. I realize that that’s where I’ve chosen to be...

Be present above all else. Desire is suffering (Buddha). Anger is a hot coal that you hold in your hand while waiting to throw it at someone else (Buddhist saying). If you can’t see yourself working with someone for life, don’t work with them for a day. Reading (learning) is the ultimate meta-skill and can be traded for anything else. All the real benefits in life come from compound interest. Earn with your mind, not your time. 99% of all effort is wasted. Total honesty at all times. It’s almost always possible to be honest and positive. Praise specifically, criticize generally (Warren Buffett). Truth is that which has predictive power. Watch every thought. (Always ask, “Why am I having this thought?”) All greatness comes from suffering. Love is given, not received.

Enlightenment is the space between your thoughts (Eckhart Tolle). Mathematics is the language of nature. Every moment has to be complete in and of itself.

“What you choose to work on, and who you choose to work with, are far more important than how hard you work.”

“Free education is abundant, all over the Internet. It’s the desire to learn that’s scarce.”

“If you eat, invest, and think according to what the ‘news’ advocates, you’ll end up nutritionally, financially, and morally bankrupt.”

“We waste our time with short-term thinking and busywork. Warren Buffett spends a year deciding and a day acting. That act lasts decades.”

“The guns aren’t new. The violence isn’t new. The connected cameras are new, and that changes everything.”

“You get paid for being right first, and to be first, you can’t wait for consensus.”

“My one repeated learning in life: ‘There are no adults.’ Everyone’s making it up as they go along. Figure it out yourself, and do it.”

“A busy mind accelerates the passage of subjective time.”

‘Mark this down on your calendar. Today is the day Glenn Beck ended his career.’ “The opposite happened. I had grown up in a world where everything was manufactured, everything was written, timed, produced perfectly. What I realized that day was people are starving for something authentic. They’ll accept you, warts and all, if that’s who you really are. Once you start lying to them, they’re not interested. We’re all alike. So the best advice I learned by mistake, and that is: Be willing to fail or succeed on who you really are. Don’t ever try to be anything else. What you are is good enough for whatever it is you’re doing.”

remember, the righteous didn’t suddenly become righteous. They just refused to go over the cliff with everybody else.’

That’s all we have to do: Know what our principles—not our interests—are today. And as the world goes over the cliff, I’m not going to change my principles. Treating human beings, whether they’re like me or not like me, whether they’re the same religion or a different religion, with love and respect.”

‘You’re smart enough. You can do it.’

“Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blindfolded fear.”—Thomas Jefferson

“There’s a mystic who says there’s only one really good question, which is, ‘What am I unwilling to feel?’ ”

Perhaps my favorite lesson, excerpted below, is “Inviting Mara to Tea.” It relates to actively recognizing anger and other types of what we consider “negative” emotions. Rather than trying to suppress something or swat it away, we say to the emotion/ourselves, “I see you.” This counterintuitively helps to dissolve or resolve the issue. For instance, if you’re meditating and anger comes up, maybe the memory of some personal slight, you might silently repeat “anger, anger” to yourself and acknowledge it, which allows you to quickly return to whatever your focus is.

Fighting emotions is like flailing in quicksand—it only makes things worse. Sometimes, the most proactive “defense” is a mental nod and wink.

Inviting Mara to Tea This being human is a guest house. Every morning a new arrival. A joy, a depression, a meanness, Some momentary awareness comes

as an unexpected visitor. Welcome and entertain them all! . . . The dark thought, the shame, the malice, meet them at the door laughing, and invite them in. Be grateful for whoever comes, because each has been sent as a guide from beyond. —Rumi

When Mara visits us, in the form of troubling emotions or fearsome stories, we can say, “I see you, Mara,” and clearly recognize the reality of craving and fear that lives in each human heart. By accepting these experiences with the warmth of compassion, we can offer Mara tea rather than fearfully drive him away. Seeing what is true, we hold what is seen with kindness. We express such wakefulness of heart each time we recognize and embrace our hurts and fears.

“The key in a restaurant, and the key in any kind of high-pressure situation, I think, is that 75% of success is staying calm and not losing your nerve. The rest you figure out, but once you lose your calm, everything else starts falling apart fast.”

From His First Sous-Chef—Two Rules for the Kitchen and Life “The first is: Never serve anything you wouldn’t want to eat. Never serve crap. It’s Rule Number 1. You can have a high standard on everything. Rule Number 2: When things get really busy, instead of just plowing ahead, trying to work as fast as you can, and just going through all the tickets, he always would tell me, ‘Step back and come up with a plan. Look at what dishes you have, and figure out the most efficient way to cook them.’ So, if you have five of one thing, don’t just cook them one at a time. Get them out, prep them together, and do them together.”

Pros Use Acid “One difference between home cooks and pros is acidity level. When you think it’s ready, add another lemon. Pros bump up the acidity level. It’s one of the secrets. We add a little more acid, and it makes everything taste better.”

“That is what became that passion. . . . A lot of people [say], ‘Find your passion.’ I think passion comes from a combination of being open and curious, and of really going all-in when you find something that you’re interested in.”

‘Hey! You want to be taken seriously? Then take things seriously. Do the work, you know? Don’t coast, you know?’

“For me, a convenient place to work is a remote place among strangers where there is good swimming.”

What are a few underpriced or underrated wines? Grenache from Rusden, Zinfandel from Turley, and Chenin Blanc from Mosse. And don’t forget: “Try smelling with your mouth open, as you’ll get more information.”

“I went and talked to a chef, and I said, ‘This is what I’m thinking about . . . I’m either going to ask you for a job or I’m thinking about culinary school.’ He said, ‘Here’s the deal. You can come here today, and you can ask me for a job, and I’ll say, “Yeah, great. Here are the potatoes. Get peeling.” Or you can go to culinary school, spend two more years of your life preparing, spending $30K or $40K a year in bills to be there, then, you can come to me and ask me for a job, and I’ll say, “Yeah, sure. Here’s a big pot of potatoes. Get peeling.” Same thing.’ I was like, ‘Okay, I’m pretty good at math. I got this. Where are the potatoes? Let’s do it.’ So it was that simple.”

Competition is overrated (see Peter Thiel, page 232), and sometimes you can push a rock downhill instead of uphill (see Seth Godin, page 237).

TIM: “What do you think financially successful people who are generally unhappy have in common?” RICHARD: “Misplaced goals. I think chasing the financial is not the right way to do it. That first chef who gave me that

first wine job, he was great. We were overlooked for a couple of things in the press, and I’m new in this food and wine world. He said, ‘Look, Richard, if you work for the awards, you don’t do good work. But if you do good work, the awards will come.’”