In 2007, I read ‘The 4 Hour Work Week’ by Timothy Ferriss.
Now, here in 2017, my wife and I own a business… A living, thriving corporation with a presence in over 50 countries.
All because I read Ferriss' book.
Thank you, Tim Ferriss.
My name is David Zak, and my wife is Rebecca. We are artists. We have always been artists.
We have found that being entrepreneurs is just like being artists. :)
Artists can let go, trust intuition and problem solve on the fly. Just like great entrepreneurs.
Our business has been a project. A work of art.
Today, in 2017, The 4 Hour Work Week is mostly outdated because of how the internet has only grown along with the processes for manufacturing and access to global distribution networks at the click of a button… and a billion other things that have changed in the last 10 years... and continue to change.
Recent I got Tools of Titans, a new book by Tim Ferriss.
I have only read half of Tool of Titans so far because I have been overwhelmed by the quality and quantity of content and had to stop. I have 6 and a half pages of notes so far. That never happens!
The book is basically a whack of small chapters where Tim asks all of the most impressive and successful people in the world a bunch of great questions... and it doesn't waste your time with tons of writing. It gets right to the point.
I’m eating it up because they seem like insights that only a lifetime of hustling could uncover. It feels like a bunch of tips that will save us years of mistakes and position us well for the future.
As a way to review all of my notes, I am writing this blog so that other people can benefit from exposure to these ideas too :)
Here are my notes from the first half of Tools of Titans:
_____________________________________
THE TOP MOST POWERFUL THOUGHTS FOR ME:
- You don’t have to do everything that you want to do in life all at once…. You can do everything that you want to, you just need foresight and patience. Live life in chapters.
- Once you have success, if a new idea is not a ‘HELL YA!’, then it is a ‘no’.
- A lack of time = a lack of priorities.
- Split your pricing into FREE or ULTRA PREMIUM…. Stop playing around in the middle.
- SET NEW GOAL FOR 2018: “Have an openness to indirect paths.”
- The best opportunities are often seemingly from left field.
- During periods of creation, turn off your wifi so that you can be non-reactive! (I'm gonna do that after I finishing writing this!)
- Peter Diamondis! - He is the one who said ‘the best way to make a billion dollars is to help a billion people.’ - I have repeated this line before without realizing who the author is. Now I know!
- ‘3 to 5 billion consumers are coming online in the next 6 years… What do they need?’
UN-CITED QUOTES:
- ‘…the bar is set so low because most companies stopped giving a fuck years ago.’
- ‘Getting upset won’t help things.’
- ‘Investing in yourself is the most important investment you will make in your life’
- ‘Never go to bed without a request to your subconscious’ - Thomas Edison
- ‘Choose consistency over intensity’
- ‘We are whatever we pretend to be’ - Kurt Vonnegut
- Stop looking at and listening to the news! You can't do anything about it so stop wasting time.
- ‘not accepting the norm is the secret to really big success and changing the world.
- ‘a day that ends well, started with exercise’. (Print this big!)
TO DO:
- Find the name of the business mentor who told me ‘no one will ever want to buy a business like this.’ ('Tim' something from Oakville Business Center who sent me useless data that he said cost $60,000+.) - thank him for the motivation.
- Look up a quote on pg. 196 and show it to Rebecca.
quote: ‘##################’
- Make a plan and routine that allows you to wake up 1 hour earlier. You suck!
- Look at to-do list and ask: ‘what, if done, will make all the rest either easier, or irrelevant?’
- Name something that is TRUE that very few people agree with you on.
- Send someone a thank you note today.
- Take more Vitamin D
- Consider trying to fast for 3 days
- SLOW DOWN
- Get abs where you see the vertical line that separates them…
- See if psilocybin is supervised in Canada
- Book floatation tank sessions. try 2 hours.
- Listen to Tara Brauch guided meditations.
- Give meditation another honest go.
- Get the momentum extension for Chrome.
- Take one mindful breath a day
- Never answer ‘how are you’ with ‘busy’ (a lack of time = a lack of priorities)
- Start a ‘Dave and Rebecca Fund’ and invest it making a good idea work and plan on losing all the money.
- Look up what a ‘floodgate fund’ is.
- Look into ‘infusion soft’ as sales software. Maybe the developers know about it?
- Find and print this article: ‘The Psychology of Automation’ by Ramit Sethi (this is on Tims blog…)
- At the top of page 320, there is something that I want to teach to my kids.
quote: ‘##################’
- Type out the noted sentence on page 317.
quote: ‘##################’
- look into the company: ‘silver orange’
- get the app: ‘way of life’ to track and modify behaviour
- add ‘remineralization’ to the ideas list (and update that list in the idea room!)
- Google and get these speakers: Genelec 8040A speakers
- Print ‘What if…’ out on big paper for putting up in the idea room.
QUESTIONS TO ANSWER:
- Where would we take Zoë and Xavier for 2-5 months? (Don’t get a dog yet and stop getting cats)
- ‘This new product… will it change the world?’
BOOKS TO BUY:
- The Second Law - P.W. Atkins
- Ghengis Khan and the Making of the Modern World
- Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman - Richard Feynman
- The Who Book - Geoff Smart, Randy Street
- The Unbearable Lightness of Being
- Stone Soup - a children’s book that is a ‘must read’
- The Checklist Manifesto - Atul Gawande
- Getting Everything You Can Out of All You’ve Got - Jay Abraham
- House of Leaves - Mark Danielewok
- Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me) - Travis and Amason
- The Diamond Age - Neal Stephenson (strong female lead)
- One Monster After Another - Mercer Mayer’
- Joy on Demand - Chade-Meng
- Works that Work - Frank Luntz
- Show your Work - Austin Kleon
- Iacocca: An Autobiography - Lee Iococca and William Novak
- The Robert Collier Letter Book (1931)
- Age of Propaganda - Anthony Pratkanis
MOVIES TO WATCH:
- Scott Pilgrim vs. The World
MISC.
- Try this for breakfast: Dried Plum, Banana, Hemp Powder, Almond Milk, Walnuts
---END OF THE FIRST HALF OF THE BOOK---
Alright, if you have answers to some questions I ask myself in this blog, please comment and we can revise the blog until it is super helpful for everyone.
Now... go kick some ass.
