Tim Ferriss Quotes

It is possible to become world-class, enter the top 5% of performers in the world, in almost any subject within 6-12 months, or even 6-12 weeks.

"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."

Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.” –Anaïs Nin

You must want to be a butterfly so badly, you are willing to give up being a caterpillar.

It is far more lucrative and fun to leverage your strengths instead of attempting to fix all the chinks in your armor.

Flavor is, counterintuitively, less than 10% taste and more than 90% smell.

The immediate answer that comes to mind is ‘humility.’ Because you’ve got to be humble, and you’ve got to be coachable. . . . Later, when I was running training, we would fire a couple leaders from every SEAL Team because they couldn’t lead. And 99.9% of the time, it wasn’t a question of their ability to shoot a weapon, it wasn’t because they weren’t in good physical shape, it wasn’t because they were unsafe. It was almost always a question of their ability to listen, open their mind, and see that, maybe, there’s a better way to do things. That is from a lack of humility. . .

Wasn’t it Bill Clinton who said that when dealing with anyone who’s upset, he always asks, ‘Has this person slept? Have they eaten? Is somebody else bugging them?’ He goes through this simple checklist. . . . When we’re handling babies and the baby is kicking and crying, we almost never once say, ‘That baby’s out to get me’ or ‘She’s got evil intentions.

You always have three options. You can change it, you can accept it, or you can leave it. What is not a good option is to sit around wishing you would change it but not changing it, wishing you would leave it but not leaving it, and not accepting it. It’s that struggle, that aversion, that is responsible for most of our misery. The phrase that I probably use the most to myself in my head is just one word: accept.

If the recipe sucks, it doesn’t matter how good a cook you are.

Parkinson’s Law dictates that a task will swell in (perceived) importance and complexity in relation to the time allotted for its completion.

If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid.” — Epictetus

To avoid criticism, say nothing, do nothing, be nothing.” — Elbert Hubbard

When in doubt or overwhelmed, take a break and 80/20 both business and personal activities and relationships.

Though you can upgrade your brain domestically, traveling and relocating provides unique conditions that make progress much faster. The different surroundings act as a counterpoint and mirror for your own prejudices, making weaknesses that much easier to fix.