10 rules of success from Tim Ferris

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

American writer Timothy Ferris, in his book "Tools of the Titans: Tactics, Procedures and Habits of Successful People", shares several techniques that help to achieve resounding success. If you, too, dream of becoming the new Steve Jobs, shake your head.

1. Create a morning ritual

Morning is a difficult time of the day. You wake up (many with difficulty) and realize that the sun is already high, you have a lot of work, and you are still in your pajamas. As a result, you do not follow your plan, do not achieve goals, but try to fend off what the world throws at you.

Successful people have their own morning ritual that helps them tune in to a fruitful day. It should be something as simple and light as possible, or feel like that for at least the first five times. For example, just one conscious breath.

Ferris himself advises to practice meditation.

2. Turn your weakness into a chip

Many successful people reported that they were aware of their weaknesses. But instead of fighting them, they turned them into superpowers, giving the strongest push forward.

Ask yourself the question, "If my weakness is to become strength, how would I do it?" Then go ahead.

Successful people understand that their flaws are not objectively bad. These are just qualities that are considered "unpopular" or not to their liking.

A striking example: the famous American radio host Dan Carlin at the very beginning of his career spoke terribly (in any case, others told him that). He acted in an original way: he emphasized his peculiarity in every possible way, made it his corporate style.

Perhaps someone will say that the advice to patent your shortcomings is trivial. And he will be right. Hence the following rule follows.

3. Don't overcomplicate

Carl Shay, one of the founders of Maker Studios (a company that was sold by Disney for nearly a billion dollars), really wanted to lose weight. He didn’t use the latest diets or advanced technology. Karl realized that in order to get in good shape, you need not ignore clichés, but follow them.

Banal advice to eat less and exercise more still works very effectively.

We all know that tears cannot help grief. But we never wondered why this phrase turned into a proverb.

We cannot achieve our goals, not because of a lack of opportunities, but because we complicate things too much.

4. Learn to think, endure and wait

Many are interested in what successful people like to read. However, Tim Ferris, communicating with them, clarified which books they were given, and as a result put together his original list. It includes “Sapiens. A Brief History of Humanity "by Yuval Noah Harari, a collection of articles" Poor Charlie's Almanac "," A Man in Search of Meaning "by Victor Frankl.

One book was mentioned most frequently. According to Ferris, it contains lessons that will be useful to everyone. This is Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse.

The main lesson described in it is that we must learn to think, wait, and be patient.

• Thinking makes it possible to critically approach problems and ask questions that are more literate than most people have. Therefore, getting less obvious answers.
• Patience teaches us to "starve" and endure discomfort. This will help to withstand more severe inconveniences over time.
• Learning to wait is selective patience. Predicting the achievement of high results, you realize that the path to resounding victory can be long.

5. Set yourself tasks before bed

LinkedIn founder and co-founder of PayPal, billionaire Reed Hoffman tackles complex problems in a curious way. Before going to bed, he writes down an unsolved problem in his diary so that the subconscious mind "digests" it and ponders at night.

Perhaps this method seems too simple. However, another famous titan resorts to him - the chess prodigy Joshua Weitzkin, known for the biographical film "In Search of Bobby Fischer". He writes down the problem after dinner and tries to solve it the next morning.

Never go to bed without asking your subconscious mind.

Thomas Edison American inventor

6. Help people

Many people have been successful in making life easier for their superiors. They did not confine themselves to the framework of the tasks assigned to them, but cleared the way for the leader, took on additional responsibilities, and independently solved various problems. Through this, they gained trust and turned the boss into a mentor.

This is not sucking up, but helping others to prove themselves. Clear a path for people above you, and ultimately you will create a path for yourself.

This principle worked in the days of Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, and it still works today.

Billionaire Chris Sacka, who started at Google, volunteered to take notes for senior executives at business meetings. And thus he became closely acquainted with the world of business.

7. Don't think badly of people

We often think of others as “difficult,” angry, when in reality they are just tired, worried about a problem, upset or disappointed in themselves. Most of the time, people don't want to hurt you. Do not fantasize, but just observe: perhaps someone quarreled with a spouse or a pipe burst in his house. Perhaps he is just incompetent or hungry.

People are best perceived as big children. When we communicate with a capricious or tired child, we will never say that he has planned something bad for us.

Alain De Botton author of How Proust Can Change Your Life

8. Choose your surroundings wisely

Naval Ravikant, CEO and co-founder of AngelList, one of the earliest investors in a number of startups like Twitter and Uber, proposes the five chimpanzee theory. Its essence is simple: the people around us influence us, regardless of whether we are aware of it or not.

If you do not take this factor into account, you will never be as successful and happy as you want to be.

Zoologists can predict the mood and behavior of any chimpanzee if they know five other animals with which they interact. Choose your five chimpanzees very carefully.

The world is changing according to your example, not according to your opinion.

Paulo Coelho writer

Emotionally, physically and materially, you are the average of the five people you spend the most time with. Look at those around you. Are they who you want to be? If you have children or subordinates, then you yourself influence them. And not in words, but in deeds.

9. First, listen to the person, then draw conclusions

Steven Dubner, co-author of the bestselling Freakonomics, believes that the moral compass can sometimes be ignored. The point is that you do not need to rush to make your judgment about a person before you listen to him.

If you are guided solely by your moral qualities, you run the risk of not hearing and not understanding correctly what they tell you.

Demonization of a person at the very beginning of a conversation will not lead to anything good.

If you want to cooperate and solve problems, especially when people have different opinions, your moral attitude can be a huge obstacle.

When you're at the stage of generating ideas rather than testing them, the moral compass needs to be temporarily put aside. Don't start the conversation by blaming and identifying the culprit. Especially if you need the help of that person to find solutions.

10. Appreciate your accomplishments

Savoring good times, hard-hitting accomplishments is an incredibly powerful technique that makes you feel happy. Ferris says that in the past he was able to achieve many goals, but he did not appreciate what he did. After he killed one fire-breathing dragon, he immediately looked out for the second target.

So when things didn't go as well as they would like, Timothy felt overwhelmed.

To fix this helped the "bank of pride", in which Ferris folded sheets of paper every day, on which he wrote what had happened that day. In difficult times, he took out a can and remembered his achievements.

If you cannot enjoy what has already been achieved, you cannot be happy in the future.