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

by Timothy Ferriss

Don’t worry about what your job is going to be. . . . Do things that you’re interested in, and if you do them really well, you’re going to find a way to temper them with some good business opportunity.”

“What interesting thing are you working on? Why is that interesting to you? What’s surprising about that? Is an...

“So Gabe goes, ‘If I gave you $100 million, what would you guys go build? That by building it, there’s no value for anyone copying?’ I’ll give you an example. When Intel goes to build a new chip fabricator, it’s billions and billions of dollars, and there’s no value in anybody else copying it, because not only do they have to spend even more billions to catch up, but they have to spend more billions to learn everything else Intel knows about this, and then they have to be 10 times better for anyone to want to switch. So it’s just a waste of everyone’s time [to attempt copying].”

I said, ‘I totally understand. Is there anybody in town you’d recommend would be a good place for me to work? I’m really committed to doing this. I really want to see what it’s about.’ “And what I didn’t realize at the time, was that was probably the perfect thing to have said to William, because William had an enormous ego and he was just not going to be capable of bringing himself to say anybody else in town was any good at all. So you could just see him sort of sputtering. ‘Well, really there’s no one. I think I’m probably the right person to teach you. So why don’t you come back on Tuesday?’”

‘We can do something else. If it’s not ready, we’re not going to send it out, and just hope they don’t notice that it’s not that good. We’ll fix it. We’ll do something else, but don’t try to slip by something that you know is below the standard.’

Hold the standard. Ask for help. Fix it. Do whatever’s necessary. But don’t cheat.”

‘What context does this person even have, and have I provided appropriate context?’ .

‘What context and visibility do I have and what do they have? Am I basically being unfair because I’m operating from a greater set of information?’”

“If you go out there and start making noise and making sales, people will find you. Sales cure all. You can talk about how great your business plan is and how well you are going to do. You can make up your own opinions, but you cannot make up your own facts. Sales cure all.”

“Five days a week, I read my goals before I go to sleep and when I wake up. There are 10 goals around health, family, business, etc., with expiration dates, and I update them every 6 months.”

“Money is a great servant but a horrible master.”

“Go up to the counter and order coffee. If you don’t drink coffee, order tea. If you don’t drink tea, order water. I don’t care. Then just ask for 10% off. . . . The coffee challenge sounds kind of silly, but the whole point is that—in business and in life—you don’t have to be on the extreme, but you have to ask for things, and you have to put yourself out there.”

Don’t Try and Find Time. Schedule Time. On Tuesdays from 10 a.m. to 12 noon, Noah schedules nothing but “Learning.” This is a great reminder that, for anything important, you don’t find time. It’s only real if it’s on the calendar. My Wednesdays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. are currently blocked out for “Creation”—writing, podcast recording, or other output that creates a tangible “after” product. I turn off WiFi during this period to be as non-reactive as possible.

What is the worst advice you see or hear given in your trade or area of expertise? “That you should prioritize growing your social following (Instagram, FB, Twitter, Snapchat, YouTube). Grow things that you can fully control that directly affect sales, like your email list. ‘Likes’ don’t pay the bills. Sales do.”

For Hiring Well—“Who?” Is Often More Important Than “What?”

“When I can, I travel with my family. I’m married and I have three children, so I’m always trying to figure out, ‘How can I make this work?’ You know, putting the stones in the bucket. What’s really important here, and how can I fill the bucket with the things that are really important to me?”

“Imagine you have a large glass jar. Next to it, you have a few large rocks, a small pile of marble-sized pebbles, and a pile of sand. If you put in the sand or pebbles first, what happens? You can’t fit the big rocks in. But if you add the big rocks, then the medium-sized pebbles, and only then the sand, it all fits.” In other words, the minutiae fit around the big things, but the big things don’t fit around the minutiae.

“Every time I left the house, my dad would always say, ‘Remember who you are.’ Now that I am a father, this is a very profound thing to me. At the time I was like, ‘Dad, what the hell? You’re so weird. Like I’m gonna forget who I am? What are you saying?’ Now, I’m like, ‘Gosh, that guy was kind of smart.’”

“Frustration is a matter of expectation.”

Essentially, I was being unclear about what I was saying, and I did not fully understand what I was trying to explain to him. He was just drilling deeper and deeper and deeper until I realized, every time, that there was actually something I didn’t have clear in my mind. He really taught me to think deeply about things, and I think that’s something I have not forgotten.”

Think you’re doomed because you’re outside of the epicenter of your industry? See if you can find benefits, as there might be some non-obvious advantages.

“Great men have almost always shown themselves as ready to obey as they afterwards proved able to command.” —Lord Mahon

If you want great mentors, you have to become a great mentee. If you want to lead, you have to first learn to follow.

Find canvases for other people to paint on. Be an anteambulo. Clear the path for the people above you and you will eventually create a path for yourself.

When you are just starting out, we can be sure of a few fundamental realities: 1) You’re not nearly as good or as important as you think you are; 2) you have an attitude that needs to be readjusted; 3) most of what you think you know or most of what you learned in books or in school is out of date or wrong.

Attach yourself to people and organizations who are already successful, subsume your identity into theirs, and move both forward simultaneously. It’s certainly more glamorous to pursue your own glory—though hardly as effective. Obeisance is the way forward.

No one is endorsing sycophancy. Instead, it’s about seeing what goes on from the inside, and looking for opportunities for someone other than yourself. Remember that anteambulo means clearing the path—finding the direction someone already intended to head and helping them pack, freeing them up to focus on their strengths. In fact, making things better rather than simply looking as if you are.

“What a clever young prodigy,” they think, and miss the most impressive part entirely: Franklin wrote those letters, submitted them by sliding them under the print-shop door, and received absolutely no credit for them until much later in his life. In fact, it was his brother, the print-shop owner, who profited from their immense popularity, regularly running them on the front page of his newspaper. Franklin was playing the long game, though—learning how public opinion worked, generating awareness of what he believed in, crafting his style and tone and wit. It was a strategy he used time and again over his career—once even publishing in his competitor’s paper in order to undermine a third competitor—for Franklin saw the constant benefit in making other people look good and letting them take credit for your ideas.

He learned how to be a rising star without threatening or alienating anyone. In other words, he had mastered the canvas strategy. You can see how easily entitlement and a sense of superiority (the trappings of ego) would have made the accomplishments of either of these men impossible.

Greatness comes from humble beginnings; it comes from grunt work. It means you’re the least important person in the room—until you change that with results.

“Say little, do much.”

Be lesser, d...

In other words, discover opportunities to promote their creativity, find outlets and people for collaboration, and eliminate distractions that hinder their progress and focus. It is a rewarding and infinitely scalable power strategy. Consider each one an investment in relationships and in your own development.

The person who clears the path ultimately controls its direction, just as the canvas shapes the painting.

Kevin loves tea. So much so that he has a tattoo on the inside of his left bicep of the Chinese emperor Shennong (literally “divine farmer”), considered the discoverer of tea. Two of his favorite, easy-to-find teas are both from Red Blossom Tea Company: Tung Ting dark roast oolong, and, for something milder, Silver Needle white tea.

“Do people you respect or care about leave hateful comments on the Internet?” (No.) “Do you really want to engage with people who have infinite time on their hands?” (No.)

‘The biggest mistake you can make is to accept the norms of your time.’

Not accepting norms is where you innovate, whether it’s with technology, with books, with anything. So, not accepting the norm is the secret to really big success and changing the world.”

Neil and I, and many other writers, use “TK” as a placeholder for things we need to research later (e.g., “He was TK years old at the time.”). This is common practice, as almost no English words have TK in them (except that pesky Atkins), making it easy to use Control-F when it’s time to batch-research or fact-check.

First, I edit for me. (What do I like?) Second, I edit for my fans. (What would be most enjoyable and helpful to my fans?) Third, I edit for my haters. (What would my detractors try and pick apart, discredit, or make fun of?)

“Hater-proofing” can take many forms, whether making fun of yourself (“I know this is laughably contradictory, but . . .”) or bringing up a likely criticism and addressing it head on (e.g., “Some people might understandably say . . . [criticism].”).

“Writer’s block does not actually exist. . . . Writer’s block is almost like the equivalent of impotence. It’s performance pressure you put on yourself that keeps you from doing something you naturally should be able to do.”

One of the best pieces of advice I’ve received for writing was a mantra: “Two crappy pages per day.”

Draft ugly and edit pretty.

Neil is a seasoned interviewer and taught me a golden key early on: Open up and be vulnerable with the person you’re going to interview before you start. It works incredibly well. Prior to hitting record, I’ll take 5 to 10 minutes for banter, warmup, sound check, etc. At some point, I’ll volunteer personal or vulnerable information (e.g., how I’ve hated being misquoted in the past, and I know the feeling; how I’m struggling with a deadline based on external pressures, etc.). This makes them much more inclined to do the same later. Sometimes, I’ll instead genuinely ask for advice but not interrupt things, along the lines of “You’re so good at X, and I’m really struggling with Y. I want to respect your time and do this interview, of course, but someday I’d love to ask you about that.”

Part two, I preemptively address common concerns during those 5 to 10 minutes. I’ve been fucked by media in the past, and I want my guests to know A) I know how terrible that is; and B) my interview is a safe space in which to be open and experiment.

This isn’t a “gotcha” show, and it’s intended to make them look good.

I ask, “Is there anything you’d prefer not to talk about?”

I’ll say, “I always suggest being as raw and open as possible. My fans love tactical details and stories. We can always cut stuff out, but I can’t add interesting stuff in later.”

“Be open to whatever comes next.”—John Cage