Top 289 Quotes & Sayings by Tim Ferriss - Page 4

By working only when you are most effective, life is both more productive and more enjoyable. It's the perfect example of having your cake and eating it, too.

Fun things happen when you earn dollars, live on pesos, and compensate in rupees.

A friend of mine, Derek Simmons, who's been on the podcast, said, "If more information were the answer, we'd all be billionaires with perfect dads." It comes down to motivation and incentives. If it isn't a punishment or a reward, then it's just talk.

Lacking an external focus, the mind turns inward on itself and creates problems to solve, even if the problems are undefined or unimportant. If you find a focus, an ambitious goal that seems impossible and forces you to grow, these doubts disappear.

If you are insecure, guess what? The rest of the world is, too.

In excess, most endeavors and possessions take on the characteristics of their opposite.

The manifesto of the dealmaker is simple: Reality is negotiable.

The goal is not to simply eliminate the bad, which does nothing more than leave you with a vacuum, but to pursue and experience the best in the world.

Most people can do absolutely awe-inspiring things. Sometimes they just need a little nudge.

It is predicated on the assumption that you dislike what you are doing during the most physically capable years of your life. This is a nonstarter—nothing can justify that sacrifice.

I'm prepared to do battle for a dream that is worth dreaming.

A goal without real consequences is wishful thinking. Good follow-through doesn't depend on the right intentions. It depends on the right incentives.

There is a direct correlation between am increased sphere of comfort and getting what you want.

Learn to ask, "If this is the only thing I accomplish today, will I be satisfied with my day?"

Compile your to-do list for tomorrow no later than this evening.

It's not enough to have the right answers. You have to have the right questions.

Do not expect work to fill a void that non-work relationships and activities should Work is not all of life. Your co-workers shouldn't be your only friends. Schedule life and defend it just as you would an important business meeting. Never tell yourself "I'll just get it done this weekend."

Excitement is the more practical synonym for happiness, and it is precisely what you should strive to chase. It is the cure-all. When people suggest you follow your "passion" or your "bliss," I propose that they are, in fact, referring to the same singular concept: excitement. This brings us full circle. The question you should be asking isn't, "What do I want?" or "What are my goals?" but "What would excite me?"

The start of the day is often the best time to get things done. This is somewhat related to willpower.

Just as modern man consumes both too many calories and calories of no nutritional value, information workers eat data both in excess and from the wrong sources.

The universe doesn't conspire against you, but it doesn't go out of its way to line up the pins either. Conditions are never perfect.

Avoid results-by volume approach, instead focus on few critically important but uncomfortable actions.

$1,000,000 in the bank isn't the fantasy. The fantasy is the lifestyle of complete freedom it supposedly allows.

If it's important to you and you want to do it 'eventually', just do it and correct course along the way.

Most people are good at a handful of things and utterly miserable at most.

If you spend your time, worth $20-25 per hour, doing something that someone else will do for $10 per hour, it's simply a poor use of resources.

I always point people to the article '1,000 True Fans' by Kevin Kelly. If you choose your thousand ideal customers or readers properly and find the single author blog that targets that audience, you never have to do any more marketing. You're done. That is a lesson that very few product developers and marketers have learned, and it's unfortunate.

Personally, I now aim for one month of overseas relocation or high-intensity learning (tango, fighting, whatever) for every two months of work projects.

It's amazing how someone's IQ seems to double as soon as you give them responsibility and indicate that you trust them.

What we fear doing most is usually what we most need to do. As I have heard said, a person's success in life can usually be measured by the number of uncomfortable conversations he or she is willing to have. Resolve to do one thing every day that you fear. I got into this habit by attempting to contact celebrities and famous businesspeople for advice.

With a decrease in the number of pirates, there has been an increase in global warming over the same period. Therefore, global warming is caused by a lack of pirates. Even more compelling: Somalia has the highest number of Pirates AND the lowest Carbon emissions of any country. Coincidence?

I'm often asked how I define "success." It's an overused term, but I fundamentally view this elusive beast as a combination of two things - achievement and appreciation. One isn't enough: Achievement without appreciation makes you ambitious but miserable. Appreciation without achievement makes you unambitious but happy.

There are no statues erected to critics.

Focus on being productive instead of busy.

Just because you are embarrassed to admit that you're still living the consequences of bad decisions made 5, 10, 20 years ago shouldn't stop you from making good decisions now. If you let pride stop you, you will hate life 5, 10, and 20 years from now for the same reasons.

Someday is a dis-ease that will take your dreams to the grave with you.

I'm not a big believer in long-term planning and far-off goals. In fact, I generally set 3-month and 6-month dreamlines. The variables change too much and in-the-future distance becomes an excuse for postponing action.

The benefits of becoming fluent in a foreign tongue are as underestimated as the difficulty is overestimated. Thousands of theoretical linguists will disagree, but I know from research and personal experimentation with more than a dozen languages that (1) adults can learn languages much faster than children when constant 9-5 work is removed and that (2) it is possible to become conversationally fluent in any language in six months or less. At four hours per day, six months can be whittled down to less than three months.

Doing something unimportant well does not make it important.

Don't suffer fools or you'll become one.

The best results I have had in my life; the most enjoyable times, have all come from asking the simple question: 'What is the worst that could happen?'

People don't want to be millionaires - they want to experience what they believe only millions can buy.

Resolve to do one thing every day that you fear.

If you let pride stop you, you will hate life

The downstream effects are unknown. Do your best and hope for the best. If you're improving the world-however you define that-consider your job well done.

Language learning deserves special mention. It is, bar none, the best thing you can do to hone clear thinking.

Fear is your friend. It is an indicator. Sometimes it shows you what you shouldn't do, more often than not it shows you what you should do.

Don’t follow a model that doesn't work. If the recipe sucks, it doesn't matter how good a cook you are.

Different is better when it is more effective or more fun.

I've seen the promised land, and there is good news. You can have it all.

What's the worst that could happen?

I take notes like some people take drugs.

The commonsense rules of the "real world" are a fragile collection of socially reinforced illusions.

Awareness, even at a subconscious level, beats fancy checklists without it, track or you will fail.

Relative income uses two variables: the dollar and time, usually hours.

Changing the world doesn't require much money. Again, think in terms of empowerment and not charity. How much were Gandhi's teachers paid? How much did it cost to give Dr. Martin Luther King the books that catalyzed his mind and actions?

Effectiveness is doing the things that get you closer to your goals. Efficiency is performing a given task (whether important or not) in the most economical manner possible. Being efficient without regard to effectiveness is the default mode of the universe.

For the employee, the goal is to have full access to necessary information and as much independent decision-making ability as possible. For the entrepreneur, the goal is to grant as much information and independent decision-making ability to employees or contractors as possible.

Information is useless if it is not applied to something important or if you will forget it before you have a chance to apply it.

If you see distraction externally, you end up creating an internally distracted state.