Rating: 5/5
In Tribe of Mentors, author Tim Ferriss interviews many wildly successful individuals about how they overcome failures, stay balanced, and deal with setbacks.
Some of the interviews left a bit to be desired, but others (Dr. Peter Attia, Whitney Cummings, Julie Galef, and Tim O’Reilly to name a few) are well worth the price of admission. I ended up with dozens of highlights and new books to read.
Quotes
“Desire is a contract that you make with yourself to be unhappy until you get what you want.” – Naval Ravikant
(On the topic of worst advice) “You’re too young.” Most of history was built by young people. They just got credit when they were older. The only way to truly learn something is by doing. Yes, listen to guidance. But don’t wait. – Naval Ravikant
“The best advice I have seen comes form people who don’t try to tell me the answer…instead they give me a new apprach to thinking about the question so that I can solve it better on my own.” – Mike Maples Jr.
“Learn more, know less.” – Neil Strauss
“When something goes badly, I don’t automatically assume I did something wrong. Instead I ask myself, “What policy was I following that produced this bad outcome, and do I still expect that policy to give the best results overall, occasional bad outcomes notwithstanding?” If yes, then carry on!” – Julie Galef
“The fact is that when two extreme opinions meet, the truth lies generally somewhere in the middle.” – Annie Duke
“Everybody’s impatient at a macro, and just so patient at a micro, wasting your days worrying about years. I’m not worried about my years, because I’m squeezing the fuck out of my seconds, let alone my days.” – Gary Vaynerchuk
“Forethought is a virtue; remember that one day, that distant future will be now, and the choice you make today will have shaped the choices you are able to make then.” – Tim O’Reilly
“Be polite, on time, and work really fucking hard until you are talented enough to be blunt, a little late, and take vacations and even then…be polite.” – Ashton Kutcher
(On the topic of worst advice) “Good things come to those who wait…Good things come to those who work their asses off and never give up.” – Daniel Elk
“There is no earth-spinning committee.” It helps me to relax and remember that I am, as we all are, a part of something larger. – Sarah Elizabeth Lewis
“So the one-liner is: A high savings rate (or “profit margin on life”) is by far the best strategy for a great and creative life, because it’s your ticket to freedom. Freedom is the fuel for creativity.”
(On what she would put on a gigantic billboard) “Fly high.” In any given situation, I can’t control anything except my reaction and my contribution, so this mantra helps me to not deplete myself with low-brow responses to problems. Most likely, the problem won’t be around for in a year, but my reputation of how I dealt with it will. – Whitney Cummings
“For the great enemy of truth is very often not the lie — deliberate, contrived, and dishonest — but the myth — persistent, persuasive, and unrealistic. Too often we hold fast to the clichés of our forebears. We subject all facts to a prefabricated set of interpretations. We enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought.” – John F. Kennedy (Favorite quote of Peter Attia)
“Nobody really knows what the world and the job market will look like in 2040, hence nobody knows what to teach young people today. Consequently, it is likely that most of what you currently learn at school will be irrelevant by the time you are 40. So what should you focus on? My best advice is to focus on personal resilience and emotional intelligence…By 2040…the only way for humans to stay in the game will be to keep learning throughout their lives and to reinvent themselves again and again.” – Yuval Noah Harari
“Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional. Say you’re running and you thinkg, ‘Man, this hurts, I can’t take it anymore.’ The ‘hurt’ part is an unavoidable reality, but whether or not you can stand anymore is up to the runner himself.” – Haruki Murakami