Success Advice

3 Powerful Life Lessons From the Multi Millionaire “Tim Ferriss”

Published

10 years ago

Dec 21, 2014

Rob Allen

Tim Ferriss (if you’re not familiar with his work) is a New York Times and Wall Street Journal best selling author, an angel investor in companies such as Facebook, Twitter, Uber, and Evernote, a blogging/podcasting extraordinaire with more than 1 million monthly visitors to his site, and the first American to hold a Guinness World Record in tango.

He’s one of the only people in the world whose other accomplishments completely dwarf the fact that he’s a Princeton alumnus.

But aside from his laundry list of achievements, Tim is also the world’s leading authority on Lifestyle Design.

What exactly is that? An entirely new and rapidly growing category of blogs, businesses and books focused on challenging traditional assumptions and living a richer life.

In his debut novel, The 4-Hour Workweek, Ferriss begs the question: Why should you have to wait until you’ve worked 40+ years and you’re 65 years-old to start traveling, spending quality time with friends and family, and taking up new hobbies?

Why not live the life you want right now? Why not enjoy every waking moment to the fullest?

Ferris firmly believes in turning the traditional American retirement plan upside down. And rather than deferring all your happiness to the future (65+ years old), he presents the case for us to streamline our lives, build our own business, find joy, travel the world and be passionate today.

As we gear up for the New Year with resolutions and goal setting on our mind, it may be time to revisit a few of the powerful life lessons embedded in his timeless classic, The 4-Hour Workweek.

By applying Ferriss’s philosophies to our next-year’s goals, we’re certain to kick start the year off right and catapult ourselves to greater levels of success.

So let’s dive right in and begin designing the lives we want, TODAY, using these potent principles.

1. 80/20 your way to success

Otherwise known as Pareto’s Law, the 80/20 rule says that 80 percent of the results for any given activity come from just 20 percent of the inputs. This is the foundation for many of Ferriss’ guiding tenants. One example of the rule in action for entrepreneurs is 80 percent of your business’s revenue typically comes from just 20 percent of your client/customer base.

Ferriss argues that you should eliminate the 80 percent of things you’re doing that aren’t yielding significant results. And instead you should focus exclusively on the 20 percent of activities that are. In doing so, you free up A TON of your time to focus on duplicating those actions/clients/processes that yield high returns. The 80/20 rule works in the opposite way as well.

Normally, you’ll see that 80 percent of your problems in business or in life come from just 20 percent of the people and clients you interact with.

Remove the 20 percent, and the majority of your problems disappear. Especially as we gear up for the New Year and new goals this principle can be very powerful in terms of showing us the best areas to focus on for maximum results.

However, 80/20 isn’t set in stone; it’s simply a starting point for your analysis. Sometimes you’ll find the ratio to be even higher at 90/10 or even 99/1. Whatever the case, you can channel your energy and stop wasting time on fruitless goals with this in your arsenal.

2. Never underestimate the impact of time and mobility on your happiness

A lot people (especially us entrepreneurial types) like to think that money alone will make us happier. Even if we intellectually know that money by itself doesn’t lead to happiness, we still have a tendency—year after year—to make higher income one of our top goals.

This can be very powerful and beneficial, IF done the right way. But for most of us, we just arbitrarily pick an income goal that’s higher than the last year. Instead, we should be picking an income or revenue goal that allows to do the things we want with our lives.

What does that mean? Here’s an example: Let’s say we run an online merchandising business that typically profits $100,000 per year. At that level, let’s say the owner spends 30 hours per week on the business and has time to take three, 2-week vacations throughout the year. The business stays running and automated just fine. However, what most people would do in this situation is raise the goal above $100,000 in profit to $200,000 in profit. Now, instead of 30 hours per week, let’s say the owner spends 80 hours per week on the business (more time acquiring new clients, dealing with customers, and processing orders) and has ZERO time for a vacation.

Which life would you prefer? If we truly look at it, the person making $200K is poorer in terms of time and mobility than the person making $100K. Now am I saying you shouldn’t be ambitious and raise your goals? Absolutely not! But what you MUST always do is consider WHY you want the goals your setting. If your income is going to provide a certain lifestyle for you, but achieving that level of income doesn’t allow you ANY free time, should you really have that goal? We must always remember that being in control of our own time and destiny is essential to long-term happiness, and understanding this is crucial for setting your next year’s goals.

3. Always push yourself outside your comfort zone.

Throughout the 4-Hour Workweek, Ferriss lists Comfort Challenges at the end of nearly every chapter.

These challenges range from walking up and getting a guy or girl’s phone number to testing your skills in negotiation at flea markets.

Why did Tim choose to scatter these throughout his book? He summarizes the answer in this quote:

“Success can be measured by the number of uncomfortable conversations you’re willing to have.”

Essentially, he’s saying get outside your comfort zone and keep pushing yourself. That’s how 26 out of 27 publishers turned down Ferriss’ idea before he finally got his book published—he kept pushing past doubt and his comfort zone. And when his book launched, it became an instant best seller.

Ferriss’ message for entrepreneurs is you have to get outside your comfort zones and develop socially so you can effectively present and sell your ideas and concepts. But more importantly, the key to a rich life is connecting with people and forging lasting friendships. To do that you have to know how to talk to anyone, with confidence and be persuasive. If your 2015 goals don’t include an element of that, you should revisit and refine them until they do.

Crush it in 2015! And if you haven’t already pick up a copy of The 4-Hour Workweek or any other of Tim Ferriss’ masterpieces.

A Day In The Life of Tim Ferriss

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Rob Allen

Rob Allen is a direct-response copywriter and marketing consultant. He’s sold over $50 million worth of products online. Soon he's launching a podcast, where he's going to interview the world's top digital marketers to see what's working and increasing conversions right now. To get on the waiting list and receive pre-launch bonus materials sign up here.

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Success Advice

Why You Shouldn’t Discount A Brick And Mortar Store In 2025

We’re constantly told about how stores are closing down and how shoppers prefer online options, but is it worth questioning this theory?

Published

3 days ago

Dec 8, 2024

Toby Patrick

Image Credit: Midjourney

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Success Advice

How to Alter Your Business Approach With Technological Advancements

Keeping up with technological trends has become a challenge for almost every business owner.

Published

7 days ago

Dec 4, 2024

Addicted2Success Editor

Image Credit: Midjourney

Technology’s evolution has impacted everything, and business is no exception. Keeping up with technological trends has become a challenge for almost every business owner. Entrepreneurs unable to do so are being wiped out of the market.

There is no doubt that AI (Artificial Intelligence) and ML (Machine Learning) have taken over the business world. These technological advancements are impacting decision-making, success percentages, and other entrepreneurial aspects.

Adapting to these developments is integral to business success. Let’s explore how you can accomplish these milestones.

Embed the strength of AI and ML.

AI has modified business operations in major ways. For instance, companies have employed bots for customer support. These bots go through an effective learning process via Machine Learning before being able to answer like humans.

According to CyberGhost (CG) bots can also perform detailed data analytics and make business moves with high success percentages.

ML is used more for the analysis of data chunks and generating successful predictions. This simply means that business owners do not have to worry about large-scale financial losses.

In terms of deployment and usage, a reputed company like Netflix employs machine learning for decision-making.

Blockchain is increasing the count of business opportunities

Tampering of financial transactions is quite common and causes severe monetary damage to customers. With the rise of digital payments, this risk has increased.

Blockchain is used to elevate your experience for monetary transfers. It combats penetrating events to extract confidential customer information.

Most business sectors are using block chain but finance and supply chain management sections have a higher count. These two corporate sections have several monetary deposits and withdrawals taking place.

In terms of percentage, approximately 72% and 5% of finance and supply chain firms have implemented block chain successfully.

Dedicate Yourself to Continuous Learning and Individual Development

You invest in learning some of the very important skills, including digital marketing, financial management, and how to gain customers as an entrepreneur.

You need to set up your knowledge base about doing business on Coursera and Udemy with the basics that are necessary for the business, building further by networking with experts through webinars.

Besides, Agile methodology will introduce elasticity to your company: this review and feedback system with further correction regularly will allow for enhancing efficiency and promptly reacting to the market.

Developing key skills to achieve goals

Running a business successfully is not only about having niche/domain knowledge. Business owners need to have communication / soft skills as well in addition to niche information.

Here are some key technical/domain-related areas that business owners should have a strong grip on.

Data Storage on Cloud: These days, companies do not store their data on physical servers. Therefore business owners should know how data is stored/edited/removed/updated via AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, and other platforms.

Data Analysis/Interpretation Qualities: These days, data is as precious as gold. Business owners with data analysis abilities make correct predictions. As a result, their ventures grow in volume.

Development/Coding Knowledge

Programming knowledge gives business owners an edge whether the application is developed in-house or outsourced. It assists in getting updates deployed and handling application underperformance without getting professional support every time.

Hacking proof framework

There is no benefit of having an advanced automated system if can be penetrated. Successful business owners have above-average knowledge of cyber security and hacking attempts. They are able to choose top-notch anti-hacking software without much of an ambiguity.

Communication Abilities/Soft Skills

Here are some key communication qualities that business owners should have:

Communication/Conversation: Business owners should use to-the-point sentences in both written and oral communication.

Issue Resolution Abilities: Business owners should be able to drill down to problems and solve them. This is done successfully only if an entrepreneur has in-depth business domain knowledge.

Agile Implementations

It is mandatory for business owners to have knowledge of iterative/agile models. With such a competitive environment, it is impossible for business owners to succeed without adopting an agile framework.

Create a productive well-crafted Business Strategy

A productive business venture starts with a clear vision. The first factor making a business successful is the idea behind it. It helps with endless growth and combating competition successfully. Katherine Philips once mentioned that business goals are inevitable if goals are set concretely.

Goals should be based on smart achievements instead of complexity. Focus on the value that each one of them adds.
Business objectives should not be vague. Key indicators should be constructed to measure the success/failure of each milestone.
Be realistic when setting goals. Do not aim at impossible milestones since they can be demotivating.
Milestones/goals need to be time-bound. Set a completion deadline for each one of them.
Business goals should not be alien. Owners can think out of the box but not be obsolete / unrelated.

Create a productive well-crafted Business Strategy

Business owners cannot succeed without having a network. Some tips help in this case. Attend conferences and professional gatherings to connect with other entrepreneurs.
Here are some other related points business owners should pay attention to.

Attend meetings and conferences to stay updated with trends and meet business owners who already have well-set ventures. This helps in enhancing the learning curve of new / growing entrepreneurs.
Being a part of business communities/groups is very productive. When one shares opinions and discusses decision-making tactics, it helps in preventing errors and enhancing success rate.
Even the most experienced business owners have mentors as learning never stops. Take part in mentorship programs so there is an assurance that you are following the correct roadmap.

Conclusion

There is absolutely no doubt that business dimensions have evolved with technological advancements. Successful entrepreneurs have grabbed these changes in due course of time and continue to evolve. On the other hand, people following old paths and conventional steps fade out of competition. In a nutshell, keep an eye on the processes and practices you follow as these factors decide success rate.

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