#783: The 4-Hour Workweek Revisited — How to Get Uncommon Results by Doing the Opposite, Aiming with Precision, and Aiming for the Unrealistic

This time around, we have a bit of a different format, featuring the book that started it all, The 4-Hour Workweek https://www.amazon.com/4-Hour-Workweek-Anywhere-Expanded-Updated/dp/B0031KN6T8/?tag=offsitoftimfe-20, which was published in 2007. It’s crazy to think that the 20th anniversary is around the corner. Readers and listeners often ask me what I would change or update, but in my mind, an equally interesting question is: what wouldn’t I change? What stands the test of time and hasn’t lost any potency? This episode features three chapters from the audiobook of The 4-Hour Workweek that are time-tested. They represent tools and frameworks that have changed my life and that I still use today. The 4-Hour Workweek: Expanded and Updated is written by Timothy Ferriss and narrated by Ray Porter. The audiobook, produced and copyrighted by Blackstone Publishing, is available wherever audiobooks are sold. You can find it on Audible https://www.audible.com/pd/The-4-Hour-Workweek-Escape-9-5-Live-Anywhere-and-Join-the-New-Rich-Expanded-and-Updated-Audiobook/B0031AS3BE?tag=offsitoftimfe-20, Apple https://books.apple.com/us/audiobook/the-4-hour-workweek-expanded-and-updated-escape-9-5/id1646139635?ls=1, Google https://play.google.com/store/audiobooks/details?id=AQAAAABEIGggPM&pli=1, Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/7JnUhVyFL0VArWBOCOsZgR, Downpour.com https://www.downpour.com/the-4-hour-workweek-expanded-and-updated?sp=17422, or wherever you get your favorite audiobooks. Sponsors: Seed's DS-01® Daily Synbiotic broad spectrum 24-strain probiotic + prebiotic https://seed.com/tim: https://Seed.com/Tim https://seed.com/tim (Use code 25TIM for 25% off your first month's supply) Helix Sleep https://helixsleep.com/tim premium mattresses: https://HelixSleep.com/Tim https://helixsleep.com/tim (20% off all mattress orders and two free pillows) AG1 https://drinkag1.com/tim all-in-one nutritional supplement: https://DrinkAG1.com/Tim https://drinkag1.com/tim (1-year supply of Vitamin D (and 5 free AG1 travel packs) with your first subscription purchase.) Timestamps: [00:00] Intro (D is for definition). [05:43] Beating the game, not playing the game. [10:11] Challenging the status quo vs. being stupid. [11:48] Retirement is worst-case-scenario insurance. [13:40] Interest and energy are cyclical. [15:06] Less is not laziness. [16:24] The timing is never right. [17:24] Ask for forgiveness, not permission. [18:01] Emphasize strengths, don’t fix weaknesses. [18:57] Things in excess become their opposite. [20:02] Money alone is not the solution. [21:24] Relative income is more important than absolute income. [24:13] Distress is bad, eustress is good. [25:59] Questions and actions. [27:45] Dodging bullets: fear-setting and escaping paralysis. [32:51] The power of pessimism: defining the nightmare. [36:59] Conquering fear = defining fear. [39:55] Uncovering fear disguised as optimism. [42:00] Someone call the Maître d'. [45:02] Questions and actions. [49:45] System reset: Being unreasonable and unambiguous. [53:13] Doing the unrealistic is easier than doing the realistic. [55:41] What do you want? A better question, first of all. [57:41] Adult-onset ADD: adventure deficit disorder. [59:44] The fat man in the red BMW convertible. [01:01:21] Correcting course: get unrealistic. [01:02:28] How to get George Bush or the CEO of Google on the phone. [01:08:41] Questions and actions and dreamlining calculations. * For show notes and past guests on The Tim Ferriss Show https://tim.blog/podcast, please visit tim.blog/podcast https://tim.blog/podcast/?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=podcast-description. For deals from sponsors of The Tim Ferriss Show https://tim.blog/podcast, please visit tim.blog/podcast-sponsors https://tim.blog/podcast-sponsors Sign up for Tim’s email newsletter (5-Bullet Friday) at tim.blog/friday https://go.tim.blog/5-bullet-friday-1/. For transcripts of episodes, go to tim.blog/transcripts https://tim.blog/transcripts. Discover Tim’s books: tim.blog/books https://tim.blog/books. Follow Tim: Twitter: twitter.com/tferriss https://twitter.com/tferriss Instagram: instagram.com/timferriss https://instagram.com/timferriss/ YouTube: youtube.com/timferriss https://www.youtube.com/timferriss Facebook: facebook.com/timferriss https://www.facebook.com/TimFerriss/ LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/timferriss http://linkedin.com/in/timferriss Past guests on The Tim Ferriss Show http://tim.blog/podcast include Jerry Seinfeld https://tim.blog/2020/12/08/jerry-seinfeld/, Hugh Jackman https://tim.blog/2020/06/26/hugh-jackman/, Dr. Jane Goodall https://tim.blog/2020/04/16/jane-goodall/, LeBron James https://tim.blog/2018/11/27/lebron-james-mike-mancias/, Kevin Hart https://tim.blog/2020/05/20/kevin-hart/, Doris Kearns Goodwin https://tim.blog/2018/09/07/doris-kearns-goodwin-leadership/, Jamie Foxx https://tim.blog/2015/12/06/jamie-foxx/, Matthew McConaughey https://tim.blog/2020/10/19/matthew-mcconaughey/, Esther Perel https://tim.blog/2017/05/21/esther-perel/, Elizabeth Gilbert https://tim.blog/2020/05/08/elizabeth-gilbert/, Terry Crews https://tim.blog/2017/12/20/terry-crews-how-to-have-do-and-be-all-you-want/, Sia https://tim.blog/2020/08/12/sia/, Yuval Noah Harari https://tim.blog/2020/10/27/yuval-noah-harari/, Malcolm Gladwell https://tim.blog/2016/06/21/malcolm-gladwell/, Madeleine Albright https://tim.blog/2020/05/27/secretary-madeleine-albright/, Cheryl Strayed https://tim.blog/2017/03/30/cheryl-strayed/, Jim Collins https://tim.blog/2019/02/18/jim-collins/, Mary Karr, https://tim.blog/2020/11/11/mary-karr/ Maria Popova https://tim.blog/2014/10/21/brain-pickings/, Sam Harris https://tim.blog/2020/05/15/sam-harris-2/, Michael Phelps https://tim.blog/2021/01/21/michael-phelps-grant-hackett/, Bob Iger https://tim.blog/2020/01/16/bob-iger/, Edward Norton https://tim.blog/2019/10/31/edward-norton-motherless-brooklyn/, Arnold Schwarzenegger https://tim.blog/2015/02/02/arnold-schwarzenegger/, Neil Strauss https://tim.blog/2014/06/24/neil-strauss/, Ken Burns https://tim.blog/2019/09/12/ken-burns/, Maria Sharapova https://tim.blog/2017/08/26/maria-sharapova/, Marc Andreessen https://tim.blog/2016/05/29/marc-andreessen/, Neil Gaiman https://tim.blog/2019/03/28/neil-gaiman/, Neil de Grasse Tyson https://tim.blog/2019/10/03/neil-degrasse-tyson/, Jocko Willink https://tim.blog/2016/09/21/jocko-willink-on-discipline-leadership-and-overcoming-doubt/, Daniel Ek https://tim.blog/2020/12/03/daniel-ek/, Kelly Slater https://tim.blog/2020/09/08/kelly-slater/, Dr. Peter Attia https://tim.blog/2019/11/27/peter-attia-fasting-metformin-longevity/, Seth Godin https://tim.blog/2016/02/10/seth-godin/, Howard Marks https://tim.blog/2018/09/25/howard-marks/, Dr. Brené Brown https://tim.blog/2020/02/06/brene-brown-striving-self-acceptance-saving-marriages/, Eric Schmidt https://tim.blog/2019/04/09/eric-schmidt/, Michael Lewis https://tim.blog/2020/05/01/michael-lewis/, Joe Gebbia https://tim.blog/2018/03/08/joe-gebbia-co-founder-of-airbnb/, Michael Pollan https://tim.blog/2018/05/06/michael-pollan-how-to-change-your-mind/, Dr. Jordan Peterson https://tim.blog/2021/03/01/jordan-peterson/, Vince Vaughn https://tim.blog/2017/05/31/vince-vaughn/, Brian Koppelman https://tim.blog/2020/04/23/brian-koppelman/, Ramit Sethi https://tim.blog/2019/05/07/ramit-sethi/, Dax Shepard https://tim.blog/2020/11/18/dax-shepard/, Tony Robbins https://tim.blog/2014/10/15/money-master-the-game/, Jim Dethmer https://tim.blog/2020/05/18/jim-dethmer/, Dan Harris https://tim.blog/2020/11/19/dan-harris/, Ray Dalio https://tim.blog/2017/09/13/ray-dalio/, Naval Ravikant https://tim.blog/2015/08/18/the-evolutionary-angel-naval-ravikant/, Vitalik Buterin https://tim.blog/2021/03/08/vitalik-buterin-naval-ravikant/, Elizabeth Lesser https://tim.blog/2021/03/16/elizabeth-lesser/, Amanda Palmer https://tim.blog/2019/04/18/amanda-palmer-2/, Katie Haun https://tim.blog/2021/02/18/katie-haun/, Sir Richard Branson https://tim.blog/2017/10/09/richard-branson/, Chuck Palahniuk https://tim.blog/2020/09/02/chuck-palahniuk/, Arianna Huffington https://tim.blog/2017/10/18/arianna-huffington/, Reid Hoffman https://tim.blog/2015/08/31/the-oracle-of-silicon-valley-reid-hoffman-plus-michael-mccullough/, Bill Burr https://tim.blog/2017/09/17/bill-burr/, Whitney Cummings https://tim.blog/2015/06/26/whitney-cummings/, Rick Rubin https://tim.blog/2015/05/15/rick-rubin/, Dr. Vivek Murthy https://tim.blog/2020/03/26/vivek-murthy/, Darren Aronofsky https://tim.blog/2017/09/09/darren-aronofsky/, Margaret Atwood https://tim.blog/2022/02/22/margaret-atwood/, Mark Zuckerberg https://tim.blog/2022/03/24/mark-zuckerberg/, Peter Thiel https://tim.blog/2014/09/09/peter-thiel/, Dr. Gabor Maté https://tim.blog/2018/02/20/gabor-mate/, Anne Lamott https://tim.blog/2021/07/09/anne-lamott/, Sarah Silverman https://tim.blog/2022/01/12/sarah-silverman/, Dr. Andrew Huberman https://tim.blog/2021/07/06/andrew-huberman/, and many more. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Tim Ferriss?

  Hello, boys and girls, ladies and germs. This is Tim Ferriss. Welcome to another episode of The Tim Ferriss Show. This time around, instead of a long-form interview, deconstructing a world-class performer, I thought I would do something different. This time around, I'm going to revisit the book that started it all, what put me on the map, so to speak, way back in 2007, The Four Hour Work Week. It is completely nuts to think that the 20th anniversary is just around the corner in a few years. And many of you readers, many of you listeners, often ask me what I would change or update. But in my mind, an equally maybe more important question is, what wouldn't I change? What are the things that have stood the test of time that have not lost any potency?

• 0:44Tim Ferriss?

  The things that I revisit most often? And this episode is intended to answer that. It features three chapters from the audiobook of The Four Hour Work Week that are time-tested. These are the things that have changed my life tremendously that I continue to use to improve my life, to get back on track. They represent tools and frameworks that millions of you have read, and I have seen hundreds and thousands of successful case studies. They do work. The chapters are narrated by the great voice actor Ray Porter. And just as a quick review, a quick primer, The Four Hour Work Week is written in four sections, each corresponding to a letter in the acronym D E A L, which stands for Definition, Elimination, Automation, and Liberation.

• 1:27Tim Ferriss?

  The chapters you're going to hear are from the section D is for definition. Why is this? Well, first things first, it comes first. If you want to craft your best life and your ideal lifestyle, to do it proactively, not reactively, these chapters should help. It's a very programmatic, it lays it out. If you want to maximize your per-hour output, whether that's four hours a week, 40 hours a week, or 100 hours a week, the approaches are the same. And definition is the most important first step. So. I really hope you enjoy them. These are the bedrock of the four hour work week, and they are timeless, in part because I borrowed a lot of these from best practices elsewhere. That's why they have lasted so long, because they started off lasting so long and I selected

• 2:11Tim Ferriss?

  them. If you're interested in checking out the rest of the audiobook, which is produced and copyrighted by Blackstone Publishing, you can find it on Audible, Apple, Google, Spotify, downpour.com, or wherever you find your favorite audiobooks. And please, please, please, let me know what you think of this format. Do you like it? Should I do more of it? Should I not do it? Should I do it in a different way? I'm thinking of doing things not just with my own books and offering additional thoughts, but with other books from other people. So let me know. Send me a note after you listen to this @Tferris, T-F-E-R-R-I-S-S, on Twitter. That is X, of course. And you can also leave a comment

• 2:51Tim Ferriss?

  on the blog post associated with this particular episode on tim.blog. And we're going to get right to the meat and potatoes. But before that, just a minute to hear a few quick words from the people who make this podcast possible. I have been fascinated by the microbiome and probiotics, as well as prebiotics for decades, but products never quite live up to the hype. Now, things are starting to change, and that includes this episode's sponsor, Seed's DSO1 Daily Symbiotic. I've always been very skeptical of most probiotics, but after incorporating two capsules of Seed's DSO1 into my morning routine, I have noticed improved digestion and improved overall health.

• 3:35Tim Ferriss?

  So why is Seed's DSO1 so effective? For one, it is a two-in-one probiotic and prebiotic formulated with 24 clinically and scientifically studied strains. But if the probiotic strains don't make it to the right place, they're not as effective. So Seed developed a proprietary capsule and capsule delivery system that survives digestion and delivers a precision release of the live and viable probiotics to the colon. And now you can get 25% off your first month with code 25TIM at seed.com/tim using code 25TIM, all put together. One more time, seed.com/tim, code 25TIM.

• 4:15Tim Ferriss?

  As many of you know, for the last few years, I've been sleeping on a Midnight Luxe mattress from today's sponsor, Helix Sleep. I also recently had a chance to test the Helix Sunset Elite in a new guest bedroom, which I sometimes sleep in, and I picked it for its very soft but supportive feel to help with some lower back pain that I've had. The Sunset Elite delivers exceptional comfort while putting the right support in the right spots. It is made with five tailored foam layers, including a base layer with full perimeter zoned lumbar support right where I need it, and middle layers with premium foam and micro coils that create a soft contouring feel. And with a luxurious pillow top for pressure relief, I look forward to nestling into that bed every night that I use it.

• 4:57Tim Ferriss?

  The best part, of course, is that it helps me wake up feeling fully rested with a back that feels supple instead of stiff. And you, my dear listeners, can get 20% off of all mattress orders plus two free pillows. So go to helixsleep.com/tim to learn more. So, take a look. With Helix, better sleep starts now.

• 5:18Speaker 01

  At this altitude, I can run flat out for a half mile before my hands start shaking. Can I ask you a personal question?

• 5:27Speaker 02

  No, it would seem inappropriate.

• 5:29Speaker 01

  I'm a cybernetic organism, living tissue over metal endoskeleton.

• 5:44Speaker 03

  Rules that change the rules. Everything popular is wrong. I can't give you a surefire formula for success, but I can give you a formula for failure: try to please everybody all the time. Herbert Bayard Swope, American editor and journalist, first recipient of the Pulitzer Prize. Everything popular is wrong. Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest. Beating the game, not playing the game.

• 6:20Speaker 03

  In 1999, sometime after quitting my second unfulfilling job and eating peanut butter sandwiches for comfort, I won the gold medal at the Chinese Kickboxing Shanshu National Championships. It wasn't because I was good at punching and kicking, God forbid, that seemed a bit dangerous considering I did it on a dare and had four weeks of preparation. Besides, I have a watermelon head, it's a big target. I won by reading the rules and looking for unexploited opportunities, of which there were two. One, weigh-ins were the day prior to competition. Using dehydration techniques commonly practiced

• 7:04Speaker 03

  by elite powerlifters and Olympic wrestlers, I lost 28 pounds in 18 hours, weighed in at 165 pounds, and then hyper-hydrated back to 193 pounds. Most people will assume this type of weight manipulation is impossible, so I've provided sample photographs at 4hourblog.com. Do not try this at home. I did it all under medical supervision. It's hard to fight someone from three weight classes above you, poor little guys. Two, there was a technicality in the fine print. If one combatant fell off the elevated

• 7:45Speaker 03

  platform three times in a single round, his opponent won by default. I decided to use this technicality as my principal technique and push people off. As you might imagine, this did not make the judges the happiest Chinese I've ever seen. The result? I won all of my matches by technical knockout, TKO, and went home national champion, something 99% of those with five to 10 years of experience had been unable to do. But, isn't pushing people out of the ring pushing the boundaries of ethics? Not at all. It's no more than doing the uncommon within the rules.

• 8:25Speaker 03

  The important distinction is that between official rules and self-imposed rules, consider the following example from the official website of the Olympic Movement, olympic.org.

• 8:38Speaker 03

  The 1968 Mexico City Olympics marked the international debut of Dick Fosbury and his celebrated Fosbury Flop, which would soon revolutionize high jumping. At the time, jumpers swung their outside foot up and over the bar, called the straddle, much like a hurdle jump. It allowed you to land on your feet. Fosbury's technique began by racing up to the bar at great speed and taking off from his right, or outside, foot. Then he twisted his body so that he went over the bar head first with his back to the bar. While the coaches of the world shook their heads in disbelief, the Mexico City audience

• 9:20Speaker 03

  was absolutely captivated by Fosbury and shouted "Olé" as he cleared the bar. Fosbury cleared every height through 2.22 meters without a miss, and then achieved a personal record of 2.24 meters to win the gold medal. By 1980, 13 of the 16 Olympic finalists were using the Fosbury Flop. The weight-cutting techniques and off-platform throwing I used are now standard features of sanshui competition. I didn't cause it. I just foresaw it as inevitable, as did others who tested this superior approach. Now, it's par for the course.

• 10:01Speaker 03

  Sports evolve when sacred cows are killed, when basic assumptions are tested. The same is true in life and in lifestyles. Challenging the status quo versus being stupid. Most people walk down the street on their legs. Does that mean I walk down the street on my hands? Do I wear my underwear outside of my pants in the name of being different? Not usually, no. Then again, walking on my legs and keeping my thong on the inside of work just fine thus far. I don't fix it if it isn't broken. Different is better when it is more effective or more fun.

• 10:42Speaker 03

  If everyone is defining a problem or solving it one way, and the results are sub-par, this is the time to ask, "What if I did the opposite?" Don't follow a model that doesn't work. If the recipe sucks, it doesn't matter how good a cook you are.

• 10:59Speaker 03

  When I was in data storage sales, my first gig out of college, I realized that most cold calls didn't get to the intended person for one reason: gatekeepers. If I simply made all my calls from 8 o'clock to 8:30 a.m. and 6 o'clock to 6:30 p.m. for a total of one hour, I was able to avoid secretaries and book more than twice as many meetings as the senior sales executives who called from 9 to 5. In other words, I got twice the results for one eighth the time. From Japan to Monaco, from globe-trotting single mothers to multimillionaire racecar drivers, the basic rules of successful NR are surprisingly uniform

• 11:44Speaker 03

  and predictably divergent from what the rest of the world is doing. The following rules are the fundamental differentiators to keep in mind throughout this audiobook. One. Retirement is worst-case-scenario insurance. Retirement planning is like life insurance. It should be viewed as nothing more than a hedge against the absolute worst-case scenario, in this case, becoming physically incapable of working and needing a reservoir of capital to survive. Retirement as a goal or final redemption is flawed for at least three solid reasons. A. It is predicated on the assumption that you dislike what you are doing

• 12:29Speaker 03

  during the most physically capable years of your life. This is a non-starter. Nothing can justify that sacrifice. B. Most people will never be able to retire and maintain even a hot dogs-for-dinner standard of living. Even 1 million is chump change in a world where traditional retirement could span 30 years, and inflation lowers your purchasing power 2% to 4% per year. The math doesn't work. The golden years become lower-middle-class life revisited. That's a bittersweet ending. C. If the math does work, that means that you are one ambitious, hard-working machine.

• 13:13Speaker 03

  If that's the case, guess what? One week into retirement, you'll be so damn bored that you'll want to stick bicycle spokes in your eyes. You'll probably opt to look for a new job or start another company. Kind of defeats the purpose of waiting, doesn't it? I'm not saying don't plan for the worst case. I have maxed out 401ks and IRAs I use primarily for tax purposes. But don't mistake retirement for the goal. Two. Interest and energy are cyclical. If I offered you $10 million to work 24 hours a day for 15 years and then retire, would you do it? Of course not, you couldn't. It is unsustainable, just as what most define as a career.

• 13:58Speaker 03

  Doing the same thing for eight-plus hours per day until you break down or have enough cash to permanently stop. How else can my 30-year-old friends all look like a cross between Donald Trump and Joan Rivers? It's horrendous. Premature aging fueled by triple bypass frappuccinos and impossible workloads. Alternating periods of activity and rest is necessary to survive, let alone thrive. Capacity, interest, and mental endurance all wax and wane. Plan accordingly. The NR aims to distribute mini-retirements throughout life instead of hoarding the recovery and enjoyment for the fool's gold of retirement.

• 14:44Speaker 03

  By working only when you are most effective, life is both more productive and more enjoyable. It's the perfect example of having your cake and eating it too. Personally, I now aim for one month of overseas relocation or high-intensity learning, tango, fighting, whatever, for every two months of work projects. Three. Less is not laziness. Doing less meaningless work so that you can focus on things of greater personal importance is not laziness. This is hard for most to accept because our culture tends to reward personal sacrifice instead of personal productivity.

• 15:29Speaker 03

  Few people choose to or are able to measure the results of their actions and thus measure their contribution in time. More time equals more self-worth and more reinforcement from those above and around them. The NR, despite fewer hours in the office, produce more meaningful results than the next dozen non-NR combined.

• 15:53Speaker 03

  Let's define laziness on you. To endure a non-ideal existence, to let circumstance or others decide life for you, or to amass a fortune while passing through life like a spectator from an office window. The size of your bank account doesn't change this, nor does the number of hours you log in handling unimportant email or minutia. Focus on being productive instead of busy.

• 16:25Speaker 03

  Or, the timing is never right. I once asked my mom how she decided when to have her first child, little old me. The answer was simple. It was something we wanted and we decided there was no point in putting it off. The timing is never right to have a baby. And so it is. For all of the most important things, the timing always sucks. Waiting for a good time to quit your job? The stars will never align and the traffic lights of life will never all be green at the same time. The universe doesn't conspire against you, but it doesn't go out of its way to line up all the pins either. Conditions are never perfect.

• 17:08Speaker 03

  Someday is a disease that will take your dreams to the grave with you. Pro and con lists are just as bad. If it's important to you and you want to do it eventually, just do it and correct course along the way.

• 17:24Speaker 03

  Five, ask for forgiveness, not permission.

• 17:30Speaker 03

  If it isn't going to devastate those around you, try it and then justify it. People, whether parents, partners, or bosses, deny things on an emotional basis that they can learn to accept after the fact. If the potential damage is moderate or in any way reversible, don't give people the chance to say no. Most people are fast to stop you before you get started, but hesitant to get in the way if you're moving. Get good at being a troublemaker and saying sorry when you really screw up. Six. Emphasize strengths, don't fix weaknesses. Most people are good at a handful of things and utterly miserable at most.

• 18:11Speaker 03

  I am great at product creation and marketing, but terrible at most of the things that follow. My body is designed to lift heavy objects and throw them, and that's it. I ignored this for a long time. I tried swimming and looked like a drowning monkey. I tried basketball and looked like a caveman. Then I became a fighter and took off. It is far more lucrative and fun to leverage your strengths instead of attempting to fix all the chinks in your armor. The choice is between multiplication of results using strengths or incremental improvement fixing weaknesses that will at best become mediocre.

• 18:52Speaker 03

  Focus on better use of your best weapons instead of constant repair. Seven. Things in excess become their opposite. It is possible to have too much of a good thing. In excess, most endeavors and possessions take on the characteristics of their opposite. Thus, pacifists become militants, freedom fighters become tyrants, blessings become curses, help becomes hindrance, more becomes less. Goldie Van den Broek, Edition from Less is More: An Anthology of Ancient and Modern Voices Raised in Praise of Simplicity, Inner Traditions, 1996.

• 19:35Speaker 03

  Too much, too many, and too often of what you want becomes what you don't want. This is true of possessions and even time. Lifestyle design is thus not interested in creating an excess of idle time, which is poisonous, but the positive use of free time, defined simply as doing what you want as opposed to what you feel obligated to do.

• 20:03Speaker 03

  Eight. Money alone is not the solution. There is much to be said for the power of money as currency. I'm a fan myself. But adding more of it just isn't the answer as often as we'd like to think. In part, it's laziness. If only I had more money is the easiest way to postpone the intense self-examination and decision-making necessary to create a life of enjoyment. Now and not later. By using money as the scapegoat and work as our all-consuming routine, we are able to conveniently disallow ourselves the time to do otherwise. John, I'd love to talk about the gaping void I feel in my life,

• 20:45Speaker 03

  the hopelessness that hits me like a punch in the eye every time I start my computer in the morning, but I have so much work to do. I've got at least three hours of unimportant email to reply to before calling the prospects who said no yesterday. Gotta run! Busy yourself with the routine of the money wheel, pretend it's the fix-all, and you artfully create a constant distraction that prevents you from seeing just how pointless it is. Deep down, you know it's all an illusion, but with everyone participating in the same game of make-believe, it's easy to forget. The problem is more than money.

• 21:24Speaker 03

  Nine. Relative income is more important than absolute income. Among dieticians and nutritionists, there is some debate over the value of a calorie. Is a calorie a calorie, much like a rose is a rose? Is fat loss as simple as expending more calories than you consume? Or is the source of those calories important? Based on work with top athletes, I know the answer to be the latter. What about income? Is a dollar is a dollar is a dollar? The new rich don't think so?

• 22:02Speaker 03

  Let's look at this like a fifth grade math problem. Two hard-working chaps are headed toward each other. Chap A moving at eighty hours per week, and Chap B moving at ten hours per week. They both make fifty thousand dollars per year. Who will be richer when they pass in the middle of the night? If you said B, you would be correct, and this is the difference between absolute and relative income. Absolute income is measured using one wholly and inalterable variable, the raw and almighty dollar. Jane Doe makes one hundred thousand dollars per year and is thus twice as rich as John Doe, who makes fifty thousand dollars per year. Relative income uses two variables,

• 22:47Speaker 03

  the dollar and time, usually hours. The whole "per year" concept is arbitrary and makes it easy to trick yourself. Let's look at the real trade. Jane Doe makes one hundred thousand dollars per year, two thousand dollars for each of fifty weeks per year, and works eighty hours per week. Jane Doe thus makes twenty-five dollars per hour. John Doe makes fifty thousand dollars per year, one thousand dollars for each of fifty weeks per year, but works ten hours per week and hence makes one hundred dollars per hour. In relative income, John is four times richer.

• 23:33Speaker 03

  Of course, relative income has to add up to the minimum amount necessary to actualize your goals. If I make one hundred dollars per hour but only work one hour per week, it's going to be hard for me to run amok like a superstar. Assuming that the total absolute income is where it needs to be to live my dreams, not an arbitrary point of comparison with the Joneses, relative income is the real measurement of wealth for the new rich.

• 24:02Speaker 03

  The top new-rich mavericks make at least five thousand dollars per hour. Out of college, I started at about five. I'll get you closer to the former.

• 24:13Speaker 03

  Distress is bad. Eustress is good. Unbeknownst to most fun-loving bipeds, not all stress is bad. Indeed, the new rich don't aim to eliminate all stress, not in the least. There are two separate types of stress, each as different as euphoria and its seldom-mentioned opposite, dysphoria. Distress refers to harmful stimuli that make you weaker, less confident, and less able. Destructive criticism, abusive bosses, and smashing your face on a curb are examples of this. These are things we want to avoid.

• 24:58Speaker 03

  Eustress, on the other hand, is a word most of you have probably never heard. "You," a Greek prefix for "healthy," is used in the same sense in the word "euphoria." Role models who push us to exceed our limits, physical training that removes our spare tires, and risks that expand our sphere of comfortable action are all examples of eustress. Stress that is healthful and the stimulus for growth. People who avoid all criticism fail. It's destructive criticism we need to avoid, not criticism in all forms. Similarly, there is no progress without eustress,

• 25:41Speaker 03

  and the more eustress we can create or apply to our lives, the sooner we can actualize our dreams. The trick is telling the two apart. The new rich are equally aggressive in removing distress and finding eustress.

• 25:59Speaker 03

  Q&A: Questions and Actions 1. How has being "realistic" or "responsible" kept you from the life you want? 2. How has doing what you "should" resulted in subpar experiences or regret for not having done something else? 3. Look at what you're currently doing and ask yourself, "What would happen if I did the opposite of the people around me? What will I sacrifice if I continue on this track for 5, 10, or 20 years?"

• 26:40Tim Ferriss?

  Just a quick thanks to one of our sponsors and we'll be right back to the show. This episode is brought to you by AG1, the daily foundational nutritional supplement that supports whole body health. I do get asked a lot, what I would take if I could only take one supplement, and the true answer is invariably AG1. It simply covers a ton of bases. I usually drink it in the mornings and frequently take their travel packs with me on the road. So what is AG1? AG1 is a science-driven formulation of vitamins, probiotics, and whole food sourced nutrients. In a single scoop, AG1 gives you support for the brain, gut, and immune system. So take ownership of your health and try AG1 today. You will get a free one-year supply of vitamin D and five free AG1 travel packs with your first

• 27:24Tim Ferriss?

  subscription purchase. So learn more, check it out, go to drinkag1.com/tim. That's drink A-G-one, the number one, drinkag1.com/tim. Last time, drinkag1.com/tim. Check it out.

• 27:46Speaker 03

  Dodging bullets. Fear setting and escaping paralysis. Many a false step was made by standing still. Fortune cookie. Named must your fear be before banish it you can. Yoda from Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Twenty feet and closing. Run, run. Hans didn't speak Portuguese, but the meaning was clear enough. Hall ass. His sneakers gripped firmly on the jagged rock and he drove his chest

• 28:26Speaker 03

  forward toward 3,000 feet of nothing. He held his breath on the final step and the panic drove him to near unconsciousness. His vision blurred at the edges, closing to a single pinpoint of light, and then... he floated.

• 28:44Speaker 03

  The all-consuming celestial blue of the horizon hit his visual field an instant after he realized that the thermal updraft had caught him in the wings of the paraglider. Fear was behind him on the mountaintop, and thousands of feet above the resplendent green rainforest and pristine white beaches of Copacabana, Hans Keeling had seen the light.

• 29:10Speaker 03

  That was Sunday. On Monday, Hans returned to his law office in Century City, Los Angeles's posh corporate haven, and promptly handed in his three-week notice. For nearly five years, he had faced his alarm clock with the same dread. I have to do this for another forty to forty-five years? He had once slept under his desk at the office after a punishing half-done project, only to wake up and continue on it the next morning. That same morning, he had made himself a promise: Two more times, and I'm out of here. Strike number three came the day before he left for his Brazilian vacation.

• 29:55Speaker 03

  We all make these promises to ourselves, and Hans had done it before as well, but things were now somehow different. He was different. He had realized something while arcing in slow circles toward the Earth. Risks weren't that scary, once you took them. His colleagues told him what he expected to hear. He was throwing it all away. He was an attorney on his way to the top. What the hell did he want? Hans didn't know exactly what he wanted, but he had tasted it. On the other hand, he did know what bored him to tears, and he was done with it. No more passing days as the living dead,

• 30:39Speaker 03

  no more dinners where his colleagues compared cars riding on the sugar high of a new BMW purchase until someone bought a more expensive Mercedes. It was over.

• 30:52Speaker 03

  Immediately, a strange shift began. Hans felt, for the first time in a long time, at peace with himself and what he was doing. He had always been terrified of plain turbulence, as if he might die with the best inside of him, but now, he could fly through a violent storm, sleeping like a baby. Strange indeed. More than a year later, he was still getting unsolicited job offers from law firms, but by then had started Nexus Surf. Nexus Surf dot com, a premier surf adventure company, based in the tropical paradise of Florianopolis, Brazil.

• 31:34Speaker 03

  He had met his dream girl, a carioca with caramel-colored skin named Tatiana, and spent most of his time relaxing under palm trees, or treating clients to the best times of their lives. Is this what he had been so afraid of? These days, he often sees his former self in the underjoyed and overworked professionals he takes out on the waves. Waiting for the swell, the true emotions come out. "God, I wish I could do what you do." His reply is always the same. "You can."

• 32:09Speaker 03

  The setting sun reflects off the surface of the water, providing a zen-like setting for a message he knows is true. It's not giving up to put your current path on indefinite pause. He could pick up his law career exactly where he left off if he wanted to, but that is the furthest thing from his mind. As they paddle back to shore after an awesome session, his clients get a hold of themselves and regain their composure. They set foot on shore, and reality sinks its fangs in. "I would, but I can't really throw it all away."

• 32:48Speaker 03

  He has to laugh.

• 32:51Speaker 03

  The Power of Pessimism: Defining the Nightmare

• 32:57Speaker 03

  "Action may not always bring happiness, but there is no happiness without action." Benjamin Disraeli, former British Prime Minister. "To do or not to do? To try or not to try? Most people will vote 'no,' whether they consider themselves brave or not. Uncertainty and the prospect of failure can be very scary noises in the shadows. Most people will choose unhappiness over uncertainty. For years, I set goals, made resolutions to change direction, and nothing came of either. I was just as insecure and scared as the rest of the world. The simple solution came to me accidentally four years ago.

• 33:42Speaker 03

  At that time, I had more money than I knew what to do with. I was making seventy thousand dollars or so per month, and I was completely miserable. Worse than ever. I had no time and was working myself to death. I had started my own company, only to realize it would be nearly impossible to sell. This turned out to be yet another self-imposed limitation and false construct. BrainQuicken was acquired by a private equity firm in 2009. The process is described on 4hourblog.com.

• 34:18Speaker 03

  Oops, I felt trapped and stupid at the same time. I should be able to figure this out, I thought. Why am I such an idiot? Why can't I make this work? Buckle up and stop being such a insert expletive. What's wrong with me? The truth was, nothing was wrong with me. I hadn't reached my limit, I'd reached the limit of my business model at the time. It wasn't the driver, it was the vehicle.

• 34:48Speaker 03

  Critical mistakes in its infancy would never let me sell it. I could hire magic elves and connect my brain to a supercomputer, it didn't matter. My little baby had some serious birth defects. The question then became: How do I free myself from this Frankenstein while making itself sustaining? How do I pry myself from the tentacles of workaholism and the fear that it would fall to pieces without my 15-hour days? How do I escape this self-made prison? A trip, I decided. A sabbatical year around the world.

• 35:26Speaker 03

  So I took the trip, right? Well, I'll get to that. First, I felt it prudent to dance around with my shame, embarrassment, and anger for six months, all the while playing an endless loop of reasons why my cop-out fantasy trip could never work. One of my more productive periods, for sure. Then, one day, in my bliss of envisioning how bad my future suffering would be, I hit upon a gem of an idea. It was surely a highlight of my "don't happy be worry" phase. Why don't I decide exactly what my nightmare would be? The worst thing that could possibly happen as a result of my trip.

• 36:12Speaker 03

  Well, my business could fail while I'm overseas, for sure. Probably would. A legal warning letter would accidentally not get forwarded and I would get sued. My business would be shut down and inventory would spoil on the shelves while I'm picking my toes in solitary misery on some cold shore in Ireland. Crying in the rain, I imagine. My bank account would crater by 80%, and certainly my car and motorcycle in storage would be stolen. I suppose someone would probably spit on my head from a high-rise balcony while I'm feeding food scraps to a stray dog, which would then spook and bite me squarely on the face. God, life is a cruel, hard bitch.

• 36:59Speaker 03

  Conquering fear equals defining fear.

• 37:04Speaker 03

  Set aside a certain number of days during which you shall be content with the scantiest and cheapest fare with coarse and rough dress, saying to yourself the while, "Is this the condition that I feared?"

• 37:18Speaker 03

  Seneca.

• 37:20Speaker 03

  Then a funny thing happened. In my undying quest to make myself miserable, I accidentally began to backpedal. As soon as I cut through the vague unease and ambiguous anxiety by defining my nightmare, the worst-case scenario, I wasn't as worried about taking a trip. Suddenly, I started thinking of simple steps I could take to salvage my remaining resources and get back on track if all hell struck at once. I could always take a temporary bartending job to pay the rent if I had to. I could sell some furniture and cut back on eating out. I could steal lunch money from the kindergarteners who passed by my apartment every morning. The options were many.

• 38:06Speaker 03

  I realized it wouldn't be that hard to get back to where I was, let alone survive. None of these things would be fatal, not even close, mere panty pinches on the journey of life. I realized that, on a scale of one to 10, one being nothing and 10 being permanently life-changing, my so-called worst-case scenario might have a temporary impact of three or four. I believe this is true of most people, and most would be "holy shit, my life is over" disasters. Keep in mind that this is the one-in-a-million disaster nightmare. On the other hand, if I realized my best-case scenario, or even a probable-case scenario,

• 38:51Speaker 03

  it would easily have a permanent nine or 10 positive life-changing effect. In other words, I was risking an unlikely and temporary three or four for a probable and permanent nine or 10, and I could easily recover my baseline workaholic prison with a bit of extra work if I wanted to. This all equated to a significant realization. There was practically no risk, only huge, life-changing upside potential, and I could resume my previous course without any more effort than I was already putting forth. That is when I made the decision to take the trip and bought a one-way ticket to Europe.

• 39:33Speaker 03

  I started planning my adventures and eliminating my physical and psychological baggage. None of my disasters came to pass, and my life has been a near fairy tale since. The business did better than ever, and I practically forgot about it as it financed my travels around the world in style for 15 months.

• 39:55Speaker 03

  Uncovering Fear: Disguised as Optimism.

• 40:00Speaker 03

  There's no difference between a pessimist who says, "Oh, it's hopeless, so don't bother doing anything", and an optimist who says, "Don't bother doing anything, it's going to turn out fine anyway." Either way, nothing happens. Yvon Chouinard, founder of Patagonia.

• 40:20Speaker 03

  Fear comes in many forms, and we usually don't call it by its four-letter name. Fear itself is quite fear-inducing. Most intelligent people in the world dress it up as something else: optimistic denial. Most who avoid quitting their jobs entertain the thought that their course will improve with time or increases in income. This seems valid and is attempting hallucination when a job is boring or uninspiring instead of pure hell. Pure hell forces action, but anything less can be endured with enough clever rationalization. Do you really think it will improve, or is it wishful thinking and an excuse for inaction?

• 41:05Speaker 03

  If you were confident in improvement, would you really be questioning things so? Generally not. This is fear of the unknown disguised as optimism. Are you better off than you were one year ago, one month ago, or one week ago? If not, things will not improve by themselves. If you are kidding yourself, it is time to stop and plan for a jump. Barring any James Dean ending, your life is going to be long. Nine to five for your working lifetime of 40 to 50 years is a long-ass time if the rescue doesn't come.

• 41:49Speaker 03

  About 500 months of solid work.

• 41:54Speaker 03

  How many do you have to go? It's probably time to cut your losses. Someone call the maître d'. You have comfort, you don't have luxury, and don't tell me that money plays a part. The luxury I advocate has nothing to do with money. It cannot be bought. It is the reward of those who have no fear of discomfort. Jean Cocteau, French poet, novelist, boxing manager, and filmmaker, whose collaborations were the inspiration for the term surrealism.

• 42:30Speaker 03

  Sometimes timing is perfect. There are hundreds of cars circling a parking lot and someone pulls out of a spot ten feet from the entrance just as you reach his or her bumper. Another Christmas miracle. Other times, the timing could be better. The phone rings during sex and seems to ring for a half hour. The UPS guy shows up ten minutes later. Bad timing can spoil the fun.

• 42:56Speaker 03

  Jean-Marc Hachet landed in West Africa as a volunteer, with high hopes of lending a helping hand. In that sense, his timing was great. He arrived in Ghana in the early 1980s, in the middle of a coup d'etat, at the peak of hyperinflation, and just in time for the worst drought in a decade. For these same reasons, some people would consider his timing quite poor from a more selfish survival standpoint. He had also missed the memo. The national menu had changed and they were out of luxuries like bread and clean water. He would be surviving for four months on a slush-like concoction of cornmeal and spinach.

• 43:39Speaker 03

  Not what most of us would order at the movie theater.

• 43:44Speaker 03

  Wow, I can survive.

• 43:47Speaker 03

  Jean-Marc had passed the point of no return, but it didn't matter. After two weeks of adjusting to the breakfast, lunch, and dinner "mush a la Ghana", he had no desire to escape. The most basic of foods and good friends proved to be the only real necessities, and what would seem like a disaster from the outside was the most life-affirming epiphany he'd ever experienced. The worst really wasn't that bad. To enjoy life, you don't need fancy nonsense, but you do need to control your time and realize that most things just aren't as serious as you make them out to be.

• 44:27Speaker 03

  Now 48, Jean-Marc lives in a nice home in Ontario, but could live without it. He has cash, but could fall into poverty tomorrow, and it wouldn't matter. Some of his fondest memories still include nothing but friends and gruel. He is dedicated to creating special moments for himself and his family, and is utterly unconcerned with retirement. He's already lived 20 years of partial retirement in perfect health. Don't save it all for the end. There is every reason not to. Q&A Questions and Actions

• 45:08Speaker 03

  I am an old man and have known a great many troubles, but most of them never happened. Mark Twain If you are nervous about making the jump, or simply putting it off out of fear of the unknown, here is your antidote. Write down your answers, and keep in mind that thinking a lot will not prove as fruitful or as prolific as simply brain vomiting on the page. Write and do not edit. Aim for volume. Spend a few minutes on each answer. One Define your nightmare, the absolute worst that could happen if you did what you are considering.

• 45:49Speaker 03

  What doubts, fears, and what-ifs pop up as you consider the big changes you can or need to make? Envision them in painstaking detail. Would it be the end of your life? What would be the permanent impact, if any, on a scale of 1 to 10? Are these things really permanent? How likely do you think it is that they would actually happen?

• 46:15Speaker 03

  What steps could you take to repair the damage or get things back on the upswing, even if temporarily? Chances are, it's easier than you imagine. How could you get things back under control? Three. What are the outcomes or benefits, both temporary and permanent, of more probable scenarios? Now that you've defined the nightmare, what are the more probable or definite positive outcomes, whether internal, confidence, self-esteem, etc., or external? What would the impact of these more likely outcomes be on a scale of 1 to 10? How likely is it that you could produce at least a moderately good outcome?

• 47:00Speaker 03

  Have less intelligent people done this before and pulled it off? If you were fired from your job today, what would you do to get things under financial control? Imagine this scenario and run through questions 1 through 3. If you quit your job to test other options, how could you later get back on the same career track if you absolutely had to? Five. What are you putting off out of fear? Usually what we most fear doing is what we most need to do. That phone call, that conversation, whatever the action might be.

• 47:40Speaker 03

  It is fear of unknown outcomes that prevents us from doing what we need to do. Define the worst case, accept it, and do it. I'll repeat something you might consider tattooing on your forehead. What we fear doing most is usually what we most need to do. As I have heard said, a person's success in life can usually be measured by the number of uncomfortable conversations he or she is willing to have. Resolve to do one thing every day that you fear. I got into this habit by attempting to contact celebrities and famous business people for advice.

• 48:21Speaker 03

  Six. What is it costing you, financially, emotionally, and physically, to postpone action? Don't only evaluate the potential downside of action, it is equally important to measure the atrocious cost of inaction. If you don't pursue those things that excite you, where will you be in one year? Five years? And ten years? How will you feel having allowed circumstance to impose itself upon you and having allowed ten more years of your finite life to pass doing what you know will not fulfill you?

• 48:58Speaker 03

  If you telescope out ten years and know with one hundred percent certainty that it is a path of disappointment and regret, and if we define risk as the likelihood of an irreversible negative outcome, inaction is the greatest risk of all. Seven. What are you waiting for? If you cannot answer this without resorting to the previously rejected concept of good timing, the answer is simple: you're afraid, just like the rest of the world. Measure the cost of inaction. Realize the unlikelihood and repairability of most missteps and develop the most important habit of those who excel and enjoy doing so. Action.

• 49:46Speaker 03

  Four. System reset. Being unreasonable and unambiguous. "Would you tell me, please, which way ought to go from here?" "That depends a good deal on where you want to get to," said the cat. "I don't much care where," said Alice. "Then it doesn't matter which way you go," said the cat. Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland.

• 50:11Speaker 03

  "The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man." George Bernard Shaw, Maxims for Revolutionists.

• 50:29Speaker 03

  Spring 2005, Princeton, New Jersey.

• 50:35Speaker 03

  I had to bribe them. What other choice did I have? They formed a circle around me and while the names differed, the question was one and the same. What's the challenge? All eyes were on me. My lecture at Princeton University had just ended with excitement and enthusiasm. At the same time, I knew that most students would go out and promptly do the opposite of what I preached. Most of them would be putting in 80-hour weeks as high-paid coffee fetchers unless I showed that the principles from class could actually be applied. Hence, the challenge. I was offering a round-trip ticket anywhere in the world to anyone who could complete

• 51:17Speaker 03

  an undefined challenge in the most impressive fashion possible. Results? Plus, style. I told them to meet me after class if interested, and here they were, nearly 20 out of 60 students. The task was designed to test their comfort zones while forcing them to use some of the tactics I teach. It was simplicity itself. Contact three seemingly impossible-to-reach people. J-Lo, Bill Clinton, J.D. Salinger, I don't care, and get at least one to reply to three questions. Of 20 students, all frothing at the mouth to win a free spin across the globe, how many completed the challenge? Exactly... None.

• 52:01Speaker 03

  Not a one. There were many excuses. "It's not that easy to get someone to..." "I have a big paper due and..." "I would love to, but there's no way I can..." There was but one real reason, however, repeated over and over again in different words. It was a difficult challenge, perhaps impossible, and the other students would outdo them. Since all of them overestimated the competition, no one even showed up. According to the rules I had set, if someone had sent me no more than an illegible one-paragraph response, I would have been obligated to give them the prize. This result both fascinated and depressed me.

• 52:45Speaker 03

  The following year, the outcome was quite different. I told the above cautionary tale, and six out of seventeen finished the challenge in less than forty-eight hours. Was the second class better? No. In fact, there were more capable students in the first class, but they did nothing. Firepower up the wazoo and no trigger finger. The second group just embraced what I told them before they started, which was...

• 53:13Speaker 03

  Doing the unrealistic is easier than doing the realistic.

• 53:18Speaker 03

  From contacting billionaires to rubbing elbows with celebrities, the second group of students did both. It's as easy as believing it can be done.

• 53:28Speaker 03

  It's lonely at the top. Ninety-nine percent of people in the world are convinced they are incapable of achieving great things, so they aim for the mediocre. The level of competition is thus fiercest for "realistic" goals, paradoxically making them the most time and energy-consuming. It is easier to raise one million dollars than it is one hundred thousand dollars. It is easier to pick up the one perfect ten in the bar than the five eights. If you are insecure, guess what? The rest of the world is, too. Do not overestimate the competition and underestimate yourself. You are better than you think.

• 54:10Speaker 03

  Unreasonable and unrealistic goals are easier to achieve for yet another reason. Having an unusually large goal is an adrenaline infusion that provides the endurance to overcome the inevitable trials and tribulations that go along with any goal. Realistic goals, goals restricted to the average ambition level, are uninspiring and will only fuel you through the first or second problem, at which point you throw in the towel. If the potential payoff is mediocre or average, so is your effort.

• 54:45Speaker 03

  I'll run through walls to get a catamaran trip through the Greek islands, but I might not change my brand of cereal for a weekend trip through Columbus, Ohio. If I choose the latter because it is realistic, I won't have the enthusiasm to jump even the smallest hurdle to accomplish it. With beautiful, crystal-clear Greek waters and delicious wine on the brain, I'm prepared to do battle for a dream that is worth dreaming. Even though their difficulty of achievement on a scale of 1 to 10 appears to be a 10 and a 2 respectively, Columbus is more likely to fall through. The fishing is best where the fewest go, and the collective insecurity of the world makes it easy for people

• 55:29Speaker 03

  to hit home runs while everyone else is aiming for base hits. There's just less competition for bigger goals. Doing big things begins with asking for them properly. "What do you want?" A better question, first of all. Most people will never know what they want. "I don't know what I want." If you ask me what I want to do in the next five months for language learning, on the other hand, I do know. It's a matter of specificity. "What do you want?" is too imprecise to produce a meaningful and actionable answer. Forget about it. "What are your goals?" is similarly faded for confusion and guesswork.

• 56:13Speaker 03

  To rephrase the question, we need to take a step back and look at the bigger picture. Let's assume we have 10 goals and we achieve them. What is the desired outcome that makes all the effort worthwhile? The most common response is what I also would have suggested five years ago: happiness. I no longer believe this is a good answer. Happiness can be bought with a bottle of wine and has become ambiguous through overuse. There is a more precise alternative that reflects what I believe the actual objective is. Bear with me. What is the opposite of happiness? Sadness? No. Just as love and hate are two sides of the same coin, so are happiness and sadness.

• 56:57Speaker 03

  Crying out of happiness is a perfect illustration of this. The opposite of love is indifference, and the opposite of happiness is, here's the clincher, boredom.

• 57:10Speaker 03

  Excitement is the more practical synonym for happiness, and it is precisely what you should strive to chase. It is the cure-all. When people suggest you follow your passion or your bliss, I propose that they are in fact referring to the same singular concept: excitement. This brings us full circle. The question you should be asking isn't, "What do I want?" or "What are my goals?", but, "What would excite me?" Adult onset ADD, Adventure Deficit Disorder. Somewhere between college graduation and your second job, a chorus enters your internal dialogue:

• 57:55Speaker 03

  "Be realistic and stop pretending. Life isn't like the movies." If you're five years old and say you want to be an astronaut, your parents tell you that you can be anything you want to be. It's harmless, like telling a child that Santa Claus exists. If you're 25 and announce you want to start a new circus, the response is different. Be realistic. Become a lawyer, or an accountant, or a doctor. Have babies and raise them to repeat the cycle. If you do manage to ignore the doubters and start your own business, for example, ADD doesn't disappear. It just takes a different form. When I started Brainquicken LLC in 2001,

• 58:40Speaker 03

  it was with a clear goal in mind: Make $1,000 per day whether I was banging my head on a laptop or cutting my toenails on the beach. It was to be an automated source of cash flow. If you look at my chronology, it is obvious that this didn't happen until a meltdown forced it, despite the requisite income. Why? The goal wasn't specific enough. I hadn't defined alternate activities that would replace the initial workload. Therefore, I just continued working, even though there was no financial need. I needed to feel productive and had no other vehicles. This is how most people work until death.

• 59:22Speaker 03

  I'll just work until I have X dollars and then do what I want. If you don't define the what I want, alternate activities, the X figure will increase indefinitely to avoid the fear-inducing uncertainty of this void. This is when both employees and entrepreneurs become fat men in red BMWs.

• 59:44Speaker 03

  The Fat Man in the Red BMW Convertible. There have been several points in my life. Among them, just before I was fired from Trusan and just before I escaped the US to avoid taking an Uzi into McDonald's, at which I saw my future as another fat man in a midlife crisis BMW. I simply looked at those who were 15 to 20 years ahead of me on the same track, whether a director of sales or an entrepreneur in the same industry, and it scared the hell out of me. It was such an acute phobia and such a perfect metaphor for the sum of all fears, that it became a pattern interrupt between myself and fellow lifestyle designer and entrepreneur Douglas Price.

• 1:00:29Speaker 03

  Doug and I traveled parallel paths for nearly five years, facing the same challenges and self-doubt, and thus keeping a close psychological eye on each other. Our down periods seemed to alternate, making us a good team. Whenever one of us began to set our sights lower, lose faith, or accept reality, the other would chime in via phone or email like an AA sponsor. Dude, are you turning into the bald fat man in the red BMW convertible? The prospect was terrifying enough that we always got our asses and priorities back on track immediately. The worst that could happen wasn't crashing and burning, it was accepting terminal boredom as a tolerable status quo.

• 1:01:14Speaker 03

  Remember, boredom is the enemy, not some abstract failure.

• 1:01:22Speaker 03

  Correcting Course Get Unrealistic There is a process that I've used, and still use, to reignite life or correct course when the fat man in the BMW rears his ugly head. In some form or another, it is the same process used by the most impressive NR I have met around the world: Dreamlining. Dreamlining is so named because it applies timelines to what most would consider dreams. It is much like goal-setting, but differs in several fundamental respects. One: The goals shift from ambiguous wants to defined steps.

• 1:02:05Speaker 03

  Two: The goals have to be unrealistic to be effective. Three: It focuses on activities that will fill the vacuum created when work is removed. Living like a millionaire requires doing interesting things and not just owning enviable things. Now it's your turn to think big. How to Get George Bush Senior or the CEO of Google on the Phone The article below, titled "Fail Better" and written by Adam Gottsfeld, explores how I teach Princeton students to connect with luminary-level business mentors and celebrities of various types.

• 1:02:48Speaker 03

  I've edited it for length in a few places. People are fond of using the "it's not what you know, it's who you know" adage as an excuse for inaction, as if all successful people are born with powerful friends. Nonsense. Here's how normal people build supernormal networks. Fail Better By Adam Gottsfeld

• 1:03:13Speaker 03

  Most Princeton students love to procrastinate in writing their dean's date term papers. Ryan Marinin, 07, from Los Angeles, was no exception. But while the majority of undergraduates fill their time by updating their Facebook profiles or watching videos on YouTube, Marinin was discussing Soto Zen Buddhism via email with Randy Comissar, a partner at the venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caulfield and Buyers, and asking Google CEO Eric Schmidt via email when he had been happiest in his life. Schmidt's answer: Tomorrow. Prior to his email, Marinin had never contacted Comissar. He had met Schmidt, a Princeton University trustee, only briefly at an academic affairs

• 1:03:58Speaker 03

  meeting of the trustees in November. A self-described "naturally shy kid," Marinin said he would never have dared to randomly email two of the most powerful men in Silicon Valley if it weren't for Tim Ferriss, who offered a guest lecture in Professor Ed Zhao's high-tech entrepreneurship class. Ferriss challenged Marinin and his fellow seniors to contact high-profile celebrities and CEOs and get their answers to questions they have always wanted to ask. For extra incentive, Ferriss promised the student who could contact the most hard-to-reach name and ask the most intriguing question a round-trip plane ticket anywhere in the world.

• 1:04:40Speaker 03

  "I believe that success can be measured in the number of uncomfortable conversations you're willing to have. I felt that if I could help students overcome the fear of rejection with cold calling and cold email, it would serve them forever," Ferriss said. It's easy to sell yourself short, but when you see classmates getting responses from people like former President George Bush, the CEOs of Disney, Comcast, Google, and HP, and dozens of other impossible-to-reach people, it forces you to reconsider your self-set limitations. Ferriss lectures to the students of high-tech entrepreneurship each semester about creating a startup and designing the ideal lifestyle. I participate in this contest every day, said Ferris.

• 1:05:25Speaker 03

  I do what I always do: find a personal email if possible, often through their little-known personal blogs, send a two-to-three paragraph email which explains that I am familiar with their work, and ask one simple-to-answer but thought-provoking question in that email related to their work or life philosophies. The goal is to start a dialogue so they take the time to answer future emails, not to ask for help. That can only come after at least three or four genuine email exchanges. With "textbook execution" of the Tim Ferriss technique, as he put it, Marinan was able to strike up a bond with Komisar.

• 1:06:06Speaker 03

  In his initial email, he talked about reading one of Komisar's Harvard Business Review articles and feeling inspired to ask him, "When were you happiest in your life?" After Komisar replied with references to Tibetan Buddhism, Marinan responded, "Just as words are inadequate to explain true happiness, so too are words inadequate to express my thanks." His email included his personal translation of a French poem by Thaisen Deschimaru, the former European head of Soto Zen. An email relationship was formed, and Komisar even emailed Marinan a few days later with a link to a New York Times article on happiness. Contacting Schmidt proved more challenging.

• 1:06:51Speaker 03

  For Marinan, the toughest part was getting Schmidt's personal email address. He emailed a Princeton dean asking for it. No response. Two weeks later, he emailed the same dean again, defending his request by reminding her that he had previously met Schmidt. The dean said no, but Marinan refused to give up. He emailed her a third time. "Have you ever made an exception?" he asked. The dean finally gave in, he said, and provided him with Schmidt's email.

• 1:07:23Speaker 03

  I know some of my classmates pursued the alternative scattershot technique with some success, but that's not my bag, Marinon said, explaining his perseverance. I deal with rejection by persisting, not by taking my business elsewhere. My maxim comes from Samuel Beckett, a personal hero of mine. Ever tried, ever failed, no matter, try again, fail again, fail better. You won't believe what you can accomplish by attempting the impossible with the courage to repeatedly fail better. Nathan Kaplan, another participant in the contest, was most proud of the way that he was able to contact former Newark mayor Sharp James.

• 1:08:05Speaker 03

  Because James had made a campaign contribution to Al Sharpton, the website FundRace.org listed James's home address. Kaplan then input James's address into an online search-by-address phone directory, through which he received the former mayor's phone number. Kaplan left a message for James, and a few days later finally got to ask him about childhood education. Ferris is proud of the effort students have put into his contest. Most people can do absolutely awe-inspiring things, he says. Sometimes, they just need a little nudge.

• 1:08:42Speaker 03

  Q and A: Questions and Actions The existential vacuum manifests itself mainly in a state of boredom. Viktor Frankl, Auschwitz survivor and founder of Logotherapy: Man's Search for Meaning.

• 1:08:59Speaker 03

  Life is too short to be small. Benjamin Disraeli

• 1:09:05Speaker 03

  Dreamlining will be fun, and it will be hard. The harder it is, the more you need it. To save time, I recommend using the automatic calculators and forms at 4hourblog.com.

• 1:09:19Speaker 03

  One. What would you do if there were no way you could fail? If you were ten times smarter than the rest of the world? Create two timelines. Six months and twelve months. And list up to five things you dream of having. Including but not limited to material wants. House, car, clothing, etc. Being. Be a great cook, be fluent in Chinese, etc. And doing. Visiting Thailand, tracing your roots overseas, racing ostriches, etc. In that order. If you have difficulty identifying what you want in some categories, as most will.

• 1:10:03Speaker 03

  Consider what you hate or fear in each and write down the opposite. Do not limit yourself and do not concern yourself with how these things will be accomplished. For now, it's unimportant. This is an exercise in reversing repression. Be sure not to judge or fool yourself. If you really want a Ferrari, don't put down solving world hunger out of guilt. For some, the dream will be fame. For others, fortune or prestige. All people have their vices and insecurities. If something will improve your feeling of self-worth, put it down. I have a racing motorcycle, and quite apart from the fact that I love speed, it just makes me feel like a cool dude. There's nothing wrong with that.

• 1:10:48Speaker 03

  Put it all down. Two. Drawing a blank? For all their bitching about what's holding them back, most people have a lot of trouble coming up with the defined dreams they're being held from. This is particularly true with the doing category. In that case, consider these questions. A. What would you do, day to day, if you had one hundred million dollars in the bank? B. What would make you most excited to wake up in the morning to another day? Don't rush. Think about it for a few minutes. If still blocked, fill in the five doing spots with the following. One place to visit.

• 1:11:32Speaker 03

  One thing to do before you die, a memory of a lifetime. One thing to do daily. One thing to do weekly. One thing you've always wanted to learn.

• 1:11:46Speaker 03

  Three.

• 1:11:48Speaker 03

  What does being entail doing? Convert each being into a doing to make it actionable. Identify an action that would characterize this state of being, or a task that would mean you had achieved it. People find it easier to brainstorm being first, but this column is just a temporary holding spot for doing actions. Here are a few examples. Great cook goes into make Christmas dinner without help. Fluent in Chinese goes into have a five-minute conversation with a Chinese coworker.

• 1:12:24Speaker 03

  Four. What are the four dreams that would change it all?

• 1:12:30Speaker 03

  Using the six-month timeline, star or otherwise highlight the four most exciting and/or important dreams from all columns. Repeat the process with the 12-month timeline if desired. Five. Determine the cost of these dreams and calculate your target monthly income, TMI, for both timelines. If financeable, what is the cost per month for each of the four dreams? Rent, mortgage, payment plan, installments, etc. Start thinking of income and expense in terms of monthly cash flow, dollars in and dollars out, instead of grand totals. Things often cost much, much less than expected.

• 1:13:13Speaker 03

  For example, a Lamborghini Gallardo Spider, fresh off the showroom floor at $260,000 can be had for $2,897.80 per month. I found my personal favorite, an Aston Martin DB9 with 1,000 miles on it, through eBay for $136,000, $2,003.10 per month. How about a round-the-world trip? Los Angeles to Tokyo to Singapore to Bangkok to Delhi or Bombay to London to Frankfurt to Los Angeles for $1,399.

• 1:13:52Speaker 03

  For some of these costs, the tools and tricks at the end of Chapter 14 will help.

• 1:13:59Speaker 03

  Last, calculate your target monthly income, TMI, for realizing these dream lines. This is how to do it. First, total each of the columns A, B, and C, counting only the four selected dreams. Some of these column totals could be zero, which is fine. Next, add your total monthly expenses times 1.3. The 1.3 represents your expenses plus a 30% buffer for safety or savings. This grand total is your TMI and the target to keep in mind for the rest of the audiobook. I like to further divide this TMI by 30 to get my TDI, target daily income.

• 1:14:43Speaker 03

  I find it easier to work with a daily goal. Online calculators on our companion site do all the work for you and make this step a cinch. Chances are that the figure is lower than expected, and it often decreases over time as you trade more and more "having" for once-in-a-lifetime "doing." Mobility encourages this trend. Even if the total is intimidating, don't fret in the least. I have helped students get to more than $10,000 per month in extra income within three months. Dream line math, another good option. There could be a different way of handling monthly and one-time goals.

• 1:15:26Speaker 03

  I'll use your example of an Aston Martin's monthly payment, a personal assistant's monthly payment, and a trip to the Croatian coast. While the first two should certainly be totaled and included in your target monthly income, the trip is something that should be divided by the number of months between now and the dream line's total time. Thus, if you had a six-month dream line, Aston Martin equals 2,003 per month, personal assistant equals 400 per month, Croatian trip equals 934 total, and thus, 934 divided by 6 per month.

• 1:16:03Speaker 03

  Right now in the book and in the spreadsheet, we have 2,003 plus 400 plus 934 times 1.3 monthly expenses equals target monthly income or TMI. But I think it should be 2,003 plus 400 plus 934 divided by 6 times 1.3 monthly expenses equals TMI. Or more generally, monthly goals plus one-time goals divided by total months times 1.3 monthly expenses equals TMI. Jared, President, S E T Consulting. Six.

• 1:16:44Speaker 03

  Determine three steps for each of the four dreams in just the six-month timeline and take the first step now. I'm not a big believer in long-term planning and far-off goals. In fact, I generally set three-month and six-month dream lines. The variables change too much, and in the future, distance becomes an excuse for postponing action. The objective of this exercise isn't, therefore, to outline every step from start to finish, but to define the end goal, the required vehicle to achieve them, TMI, TDI, and build momentum with critical first steps.

• 1:17:24Speaker 03

  From that point, it's a matter of freeing time and generating the TMI, which the following chapters cover. First, let's focus on those critical first steps. Define three steps for each dream that will get you closer to its actualization. Set actions, simple, well-defined actions for now, tomorrow, complete before 11:00 a.m., and the day after, again, completed before 11:00 a.m. Once you have three steps for each of the four goals, complete the three actions in the "now" column. Do it now. Each should be simple enough to do in five minutes or less. If not, ratchet it down.

• 1:18:06Speaker 03

  If it's the middle of the night and you can't call someone, do something else now, such as send an email, and set the call for first thing tomorrow. If the next stage is some form of research, get in touch with someone who knows the answer instead of spending too much time in books or online, which can turn into paralysis by analysis.

• 1:18:29Speaker 03

  The best first step, the one I recommend, is finding someone who's done it and ask for advice on how to do the same. It's not hard. Other options include setting a meeting or phone call with a trainer, mentor, or salesperson to build momentum. Can you schedule a private class or a commitment that you'll feel bad about cancelling? Use guilt to your advantage. Tomorrow becomes never. No matter how small the task, take the first step now.

• 1:19:01Speaker 03

  Comfort Challenge. The most important actions are never comfortable. Fortunately, it is possible to condition yourself to discomfort and overcome it. I've trained myself to propose solutions instead of ask for them, to elicit desired responses instead of react, and to be assertive without burning bridges. To have an uncommon lifestyle, you need to develop the uncommon habit of making decisions, both for yourself and for others. From this chapter forward, I'll take you through progressively more uncomfortable exercises, simple and small. Some of the exercises will appear deceptively easy and even irrelevant,

• 1:19:45Speaker 03

  such as the next, until you try them. Look at it as a game and expect some butterflies and sweat. That's the whole point. For most of these exercises, the duration is two days. Mark the exercise of the day on your calendar so you don't forget, and don't attempt more than one comfort challenge at a time. Remember, there is a direct correlation between an increased sphere of comfort and getting what you want. Here we go. Learn to Eye Gaze. Two Days. My friend Michael Ellsberg invented a singles event called Eye Gazing. It is similar to speed dating but different in one fundamental respect. No speaking is permitted.

• 1:20:31Speaker 03

  It involves gazing into the eyes of each partner for three minutes at a time. If you go to such an event, it becomes clear how uncomfortable most people are doing this. For the next two days, practice gazing into the eyes of others, whether people you pass on the street or conversational partners, until they break contact. Hints. One. Focus on one eye and be sure to blink occasionally so you don't look like a psychopath or get your ass kicked. Two. In conversation, maintain eye contact when you are speaking. It's easy to do while listening. Three. Practice with people bigger or more confident than yourself.

• 1:21:14Speaker 03

  If a passerby asks you what the hell you're staring at, just smile and respond. "Sorry about that. I thought you were an old friend of mine."

• 1:21:22Tim Ferriss?

  Hey guys, this is Tim again. Just one more thing before you take off, and that is Five Bullet Friday. Would you enjoy getting a short email from me every Friday that provides a little fun before the weekend? Between one and a half and two million people subscribe to my free newsletter, my super short newsletter called Five Bullet Friday. Easy to sign up, easy to cancel. It is basically a half-page that I send out every Friday to share the coolest things I've found or discovered, or have started exploring over that week. It's kind of like my diary of cool things. It often includes articles I'm reading, books I'm reading, albums perhaps, gadgets, gizmos, all sorts of tech tricks and so on that get sent to me by my friends, including a lot of podcast guests.

• 1:22:05Tim Ferriss?

  And these strange esoteric things end up in my field, and then I test them, and then I share them with you. So, if that sounds fun, again, it's very short, a little tiny bite of goodness before you head off for the weekend, something to think about. If you'd like to try it out, just go to tim.blog/friday. Type that into your browser, tim.blog/friday. Drop in your email and you'll get the very next one. Thanks for listening. As many of you know, for the last few years, I've been sleeping on a Midnight Luxe mattress from today's sponsor, Helix Sleep. I also recently had a chance to test the Helix Sunset Elite in a new guest bedroom, which I sometimes sleep in, and I picked it for its very soft but supportive feel to help with some lower back pain that I've had.

• 1:22:50Tim Ferriss?

  The Sunset Elite delivers exceptional comfort while putting the right support in the right spots. It is made with five tailored foam layers, including a base layer with full perimeter zoned lumbar support, right where I need it, and middle layers with premium foam and micro- coils that create a soft contouring feel. And with a luxurious pillow top for pressure relief, I look forward to nestling into that bed every night that I use it. The best part, of course, is that it helps me wake up feeling fully rested with a back that feels supple instead of stiff. And you, my dear listeners, can get 20% off of all mattress orders plus two free pillows. So go to helixsleep.com/tim to learn more. So take a look. With Helix, better sleep starts now.

• 1:23:36Tim Ferriss?

  I have been fascinated by the microbiome and probiotics as well as prebiotics for decades, but products never quite live up to the hype. Now, things are starting to change, and that includes this episode's sponsor, Seed's DSO1 Daily Symbiotic. I've always been very skeptical of most probiotics, but after incorporating two capsules of Seed's DSO1 into my morning routine, I have noticed improved digestion and improved overall health. So why is Seed's DSO1 so effective? For one, it is a two-in-one probiotic and prebiotic formulated with 24 clinically and scientifically studied strains. But if the probiotic strains don't make it to the right place, they are not as effective. So Seed developed a proprietary capsule and capsule delivery system

• 1:24:21Tim Ferriss?

  that survives digestion and delivers a precision release of the live and viable probiotics to the colon. And now you can get 25% off your first month with code 25TIM at seed.com/tim using code 25TIM, all put together. One more time, seed.com/tim, code 25.