Todd Nesnick
We are bringing to you Tools of Titans summary, where you don’t have to read the whole book to reap t’s benefits.
Tim Ferriss shares his insights into the lives of 101 high-performing people, ranging from tech investors to athletes to entertainers to entrepreneurs to coaches. This book argues that by creating habits and beliefs like those of successful people, you can succeed too.
For this Tools of titans summary, we’ve reorganized the book completely with a focus on the key habits of each person. It helps you learn how titans behave – how to stay motivated, how they achieve in business and in work, how they stay healthy, and how they stay happy.
Motivating yourself and setting goals
It is easier for titans to know what they are fighting for when they visualize their long-term goals. A clear vision of one’s final goal, according to Arnold Schwarzenegger, eases the work in between. You know why you’re working so hard, so you can handle all the effort and cope with the pain involved.
Don’t be afraid. Stand up for yourself
Have you been wanting to accomplish something big but aren’t sure if you’re ready for it? It’s likely you’ve restricted yourself artificially. The titans spoke about overcoming obstacles imposed by society or themselves.
You are where you are today because all titans you regard started out where you are. It was the titans’ courage that allowed them to push through the obstacles.
Exercise in Fear by Tim Ferriss
Tim Ferriss’s fear exercise will help you learn to overcome your fears. Before you begin, consider what changes you want to make.
- What is the absolute worst that could happen if you made the change that you’re afraid of? Imagine it in vivid detail.
- Could this result be so bad? Is the damage so permanent?
- How would you recover from this if it happened?
- From 0% to 100%, what is the probability of this absolute worst case scenario?
- What is the best case scenario after you have visualized the worst case scenario? Is it achievable? If yes, in what ways?
You will soon discover that the worse-case scenario is not nearly as damaging as you first thought. Regardless of whether you succeed or fail, you will be able to get back to your old life.
Occupational Habits and Career Development
You have to work to reach your goals once you’ve identified them. Below are some strategies for improving productivity and making more progress in your limited time.
Concentrate on what you need to do
How busy is your life? Don’t let it overwhelm you. You probably have to focus on your goals. If you think you are moving really fast, yet you are not progressing.
These titans have hundreds of times more opportunities, but they don’t have as much time as the average person. To accomplish this, they must focus intensely on the opportunities that will enable them to achieve their goals.
- From music producer Kaskade: Imagine you have a glass jar, and next to it big rocks, pebbles, and sand. If you put the sand and pebbles in first, they take up all the space, and you can’t fit the big rocks in. But if you add the big rocks, then the pebbles, then the sand, everything fits. Likewise, if you focus on the minor to-do items, you won’t be able to fit the big priorities in.
- Author Derek Sivers has a rule for evaluating opportunities: “If it’s not a ‘hell, yes!’ it’s a ‘no.” If an opportunity doesn’t immediately excite him, it’s probably not that helpful to his goals, and so it’s not worth his time.
- Avoid a “culture of cortisol.” There’s so much emphasis on being busy and fear of missing out that you can go day to day perpetually anxious. There really shouldn’t be many emergencies in your life. Focus on your big goals, and cut out the 20% of things that cause 80% of your unhappiness.
Deciding What to Work On
In a world of endless options, it can be hard to decide what to focus on and build your career around. Here’s some advice.
Become a double/triple threat. Many people try to become the very best in the world at one specific thing, the equivalent of playing basketball well enough to make the NBA. But this is very competitive and has a low probability of success. Instead, you can easily become above average at two or more things, then combine them to great effect.
- Entrepreneur and investor Marc Andreessen agrees, citing these 5 skills as useful to augment any career: communication, management, sales, finance, and internationalization.
Work in an area where you’re not easily replaceable. This is where you can make a unique impact.
- While Tim Ferriss was building his following around self-improvement, he contemplated becoming a full-time venture capitalist (VC). Investor Kamal Ravikant nudged him away, saying that he’d be just like any other VC, and if a company didn’t get his investment, they’d just find another investor. In contrast, Tim’s listeners wrote to him with dramatic stories of personal transformation, and he’d never have that impact as a VC.