In a very interesting interview from Entrepreneur magazine'sYouTube channel, Bryan Elliott of Behind the Brand talks with Tim Ferriss, who gives some great insights, tips, and recommendations from his adventures in life.
Tim recommends books to read and drops well thought-out advice throughout the video and I thought I would list them here for reference, categorized by the context of his recommendation.
IMPORTANT NOTE: These are notes. This is not an article with beautifully flowing language. It is raw notes form a video interview written with a lot of spoken language. Use it as a reference or a cheat-sheet and not a novel :)
Entrepreneurs
- Seneca - Letters From A Stoic - "the ideal operating system for entrepreneurs and people who want to thrive in high stress/pressure environments"
---- a precept: "anger is like acid in a vessel and it damages the vessel more than what has the acid poured on it." => deliver "punishment" to haters/trolls by letting them continue to be who they are.
---- http://www.lettersfromastoic.net/ (a free resource)
---- Book on Amazon
- The Art of the Elevator Pitch
- Build the product that you want, that you are currently cobbling together a solution for
- As a workaholic, build-in gratitude and appreciation into your schedule/calendar
---- if stuck trying to find gratitude or things one is thankful for:
-------- create a "gratitude list": list 3 things your are thankful for last thing before you go to bed and first thing in the morning
---- schedule 80-20 Analysis
-------- 20% of Activities and People that are producing 80% of the results and positive emotional states
-------- 20% of Activities and People that are producing 80% of the problems and negative emotional states
-------- 20% of Activities and People that are consuming 80% of my time
-------- do it on a piece of paper, takes 15 to 30 minutes
-------- this goes into creating a TODO list and a NOT TODO list
------------ circle the one or two most important things, the force multipliers
---- schedule Fear Setting
-------- looking at why you haven't done the most important TODO and why you haven't stopped doing the most important NOT TODO
-------- helps define your fear very clearly
-------- just like goal setting, if you don't have specificity in your goal, you will not achieve it because it is a moving target
-------- on piece of paper, in one column, write down all the worst things that could happen, in great detail
-------- on the second column, write down all the ways to mitigate the risk/impact of the things form the first column
-------- in third column, list all the things you could do to get back to where you are now, if it happened
-------- when laying things out like this, most things have very low irreversible risk of a negative outcome
-------- this allows you to act on the most important things
-------- being effective (ie: doing the right things), choosing the things you do very carefully, is more important than being efficient (ie: doing things well)
---- Tim does these every two weeks
- What qualities does Tim look for in founding entrepreneurs he invests in
---- 1. have done something extremely high stress where failure is constant
-------- eg: sports, previous startups, sales, something where they are accustomed to facing failure on a small or large scale, almost every single day
-------- basically resilience. Doesn't care how smart or how many MBA's they have, if they haven't dealt with the pressure and stresses of a fast paced, venture backed, startup, with boards to contend with, HR issues to contend with, they will implode.
---- 2. the "Beer Test" or the "Mall Test"
-------- The Mall Test: if you see someone from afar at a mall, and they don't see you, do you avoid them, wave from afar, or do you come up to them and spark a conversation.
---- 3. Basic understanding of the economics at work
---- 4. Having a very keen understanding of the competitive landscape
---- 5. Having a very clearly defined problem
---- 6. Having a very clearly defined customer
- loves the Henry Ford quote "I'll let you name the price, if I get to name the terms." - gotta know your terms (re: startup investment)
- thinks Shark Tank is good to learn negotiation when seeing it in real time when they discuss terms
- Negotiation Tips
---- Secrets of Power Negotiating
---- Getting Past No - Negotiating in Difficult Situations
---- you have to practice
---- "like in boxing: everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face."
Marketers
- Marketing means identifying exactly who your customer is, knowing their behaviors, knowing their age, knowing their gender, their location, what kind of music they listen to, etc. The easiest way to do that is to sell to people who are as similar to you as possible, at least start with that.
- The target is not your market.
- 1,000 True Fans by Kevin
- It's Not About You: The Truth About Social Media Marketing by Tim O'Reilly
- The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing
- To connect with people more influential than you are (in a space)
---- In-person is the least crowded channel and most effective
-------- they have to trust the messenger before they endorse the message
-------- Ask/talk about them until they ask about you, then be super humble and soft sell
-------- always give them an easy out
Bloggers / Online Personalities
- On Writing Well
- Bird by Bird, for the psychological aspect
- Letters to a Fiction Writer, "even if you don't plan on writing fiction"
- Write the blog that you want, that you are currently struggling to find to read
- What to do when you have writers block? Write about things that anger you
- If you allow petty, abusive, behavior in comments, it escalates very, very quickly, attracting other people who want to engage in that bad behavior.
Miscellaneous
- Most industries/companies want to be second to market
---- banks don't want to loan you money until you don't need it
---- insurance companies don't want to insure you unless you don't need it
---- Apple weren't first to put songs on a device like an iPod, but they did it better
- Its never been easier to create content and self publish, but its never been harder to get the attention, or mental bandwidth, you need to "put something into orbit"
- Two of the most difficult things to build are Trust and Attention
- The vast majority, the silent majority, will like your stuff. The 10%, that are haters, will find a way to take it personally
- The best response to haters/trolls on the internet: starve it of oxogen
---- philosophical: starving it of attention
---- practical: addressing it and linking to it adds fuel to their fire
- Philosophy is, ideally, an operating system for life, for making decisions on what you should do and what you shouldn't do
Tim Looks Up To:
- Richard Feynman - an incredible, thoughtful, teacher
- Ben Franklin - "demonstrated the power of the amateur"
How Tim Ferriss uses social media: http://youtu.be/AysWsbrtzMU?t=12m27s
Tim Ferriss was also discussing his book 4-Hour Chef where he teaches one "how to learn anything."
Overall a great video with some great references. I can't wait to soak up all the curated knowledge from his references! :)
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