#154: The Habits of a Master -- Paulo Coelho, Author of The Alchemist

"A successful writing day is the day that I suffer in the morning, and I have fun in the evening." -Paulo Coelho Paulo Coelho (@paulocoelho https://twitter.com/paulocoehlo) has long been one of my writing inspirations. His books, of near universal appeal, spans from The Alchemist http://www.amazon.com/Alchemist-Paulo-Coelho/dp/0061122416 to the most recent Adultery http://amzn.to/214Mt8w and has been translated into more than 70 languages. Few people know that The Alchemist, which has sold more than 65 million copies worldwide, was originally published by a small Brazilian publisher to the tune of... 900 copies. They declined to reprint it. It wasn't until after his subsequent novel (Brida http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0061578959/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=offsitoftimfe-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0061578959) that The Alchemist was revived and took off. I, for one, have always been impressed with consistent writers. Paulo, who averages one book every two years, is staggeringly consistent. As I type this, I am under the pressure of deadlines and often feel as Kurt Vonnegut did: "When I write, I feel like an armless, legless man with a crayon in his mouth." My output is erratic at best, and I wondered: how does Paulo write? What is his process? How does he think about it? I reached out to him, and he was kind enough to reply with the audio I've included in the podcast. In it, he provides some gems and answers. Enjoy! Show notes and links for this episode can be found at www.fourhourworkweek.com/podcast http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/podcast. This podcast is brought to you by MeUndies http://meundies.com/tim. Have you ever wanted to be as powerful as a mullet-wearing ninja from the 1980's, or as sleek as a black panther in the Amazon? Of course you have, and that's where MeUndies http://meundies.com/tim comes in. I've spent the last 2-3 weeks wearing underwear from these guys http://meundies.com/tim 24/7, and they are the most comfortable and colorful underwear I've ever owned. Their materials are 2x softer than cotton, as evaluated using the Kawabata method. Check out MeUndies.com/Tim http://meundies.com/tim to see my current faves (some are awesomely ridiculous) and, while you're at it, don't miss lots of hot ladies wearing MeUndies http://meundies.com/tim. This podcast is also brought to you by Wealthfront https://wealthfront.com/tim. Wealthfront is a massively disruptive (in a good way) set-it-and-forget-it investing service, led by technologists from places like Apple. It has exploded in popularity in the last two years and now has more than $2.5B under management. Why? Because you can get services previously limited to the ultra-wealthy and only pay pennies on the dollar for them, and it's all through smarter software instead of retail locations and bloated sales teams. Check out wealthfront.com/tim http://wealthfront.com/tim, take their risk assessment quiz, which only takes 2-5 minutes, and they'll show you—for free–exactly the portfolio they'd put you in. If you want to just take their advice and do it yourself, you can. Well worth a few minutes to explore: wealthfront.com/tim http://wealthfront.com/tim.

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• 0:01Tim Ferriss?

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• 0:06Speaker 01

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• 0:08Speaker 02

  No, this is inappropriate, Tim.

• 0:12Speaker 01

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• 0:23Tim Ferriss?

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• 1:07Tim Ferriss?

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• 1:53Tim Ferriss?

  This episode is brought to you by Wealthfront, and this is a very unique sponsor. Wealthfront is a massively disruptive, in a good way, set it and forget it investing service led by technologists from places like Apple and world famous investors. It has exploded in popularity in the last two years, and they now have more than $2.5 billion under management. In fact, some of my very good friends, investors in Silicon Valley, have millions of their own money in Wealthfront. So the question is, why? Why is it so popular? Why is it unique? Because you can get services previously reserved for the ultra wealthy, but only pay pennies on the dollar for them. And this is because they use smarter software instead of retail locations, bloated sales teams, etc. And I'll come back to that in a second.

• 2:35Tim Ferriss?

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• 3:20Tim Ferriss?

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• 4:03Tim Ferriss?

  But I've been so impressed by Wealthfront that I've invested a significant amount of my own money, at least for me, in the team and the company itself. So I am an investor and hope to soon use it as a client. Now, back to the recommendation. As a Tim Ferriss Show listener, you'll get $15,000 managed for free if you decide to open an account. But just start with seeing the portfolio that they would suggest for you. Take two minutes, fill out their questionnaire at wealthfront.com/tim. It's fast, it's free. There's no downside that I can think of. Just take a look, see what portfolio they would create for you, and you can use that information however you want. Wealthfront.com/tim. Hello, boys and girls, ladies and germs. This is Tim Ferriss, and welcome to another

• 4:45Tim Ferriss?

  episode of The Tim Ferriss Show. This one is an experimental episode, as I often indulge in, and it features one of my favorite writers, an inspiring fellow, Paulo Coelho, who has long been one of my writing inspirations. His books of near-universal appeal span from The Alchemist to the most recent Adultery, and his work has been translated into more than 70 languages. Who knew there were even 70 languages on the planet? And few people know that The Alchemist, which was sold to an original Brazilian publisher, which printed 900 copies, has now sold more than 65 million copies worldwide. I expect it's probably more than 100 million. That original Brazilian publisher, after the 900 copies, declined

• 5:29Tim Ferriss?

  to reprint it. It wasn't until after his subsequent novel, called Berida, that The Alchemist was revived and took off. I, for one, have always been very impressed with consistent writers. Paulo averages one book every two years, and he is staggeringly consistent. As I am recording this, I'm under the pressure of deadlines, and I more often feel like Kurt Vonnegut did, also one of my favorite writers, and he explains it with a quote, "When I write, I feel like an armless, legless man with a crayon in his mouth." That's most of the time that I spend writing. So my output is erratic at best, and I wondered, how does Paulo write? What is his process? How does he think about it? And this episode covers a lot of that. It might seem like a niche topic for this podcast, for those of you

• 6:12Tim Ferriss?

  who say, "Well, I'm not a writer. What am I going to get out of this?" And what I would encourage you to think of as you listen, and the audio is a little bit grainy, because he recorded it from Geneva. ...in Switzerland, that it showcases in many ways the struggle and how someone at the top of their game, who has seemingly beaten all of the odds, still has the daily struggle. And I reached out to him, he was kind enough to reply with the audio that I've included, and he really provides some gems and answers to the following questions, which I will read right now, because he doesn't always repeat them. And here we go. So the first is, when on deadline, what is the first thing you do in the morning? What does your daily schedule look like? Do you take any days off?

• 6:54Tim Ferriss?

  And what determines if you've had a "successful" writing day? The next, how do you capture ideas that might be helpful in your writing? These days, what software and tools do you use for writing? Next, how much of your books do you visualize or outline upfront versus writing organically piece by piece? In other words, how much of the story arc have you decided before you start writing? Let's take two books as examples, The Alchemist and Aleph. Otherwise, how did the process differ for these two books? What are your most common mistakes that you see first-time novelists making? Most common weaknesses? Do you base your characters on real people? Why or why not? If not, how do you develop those characters? And then last, what are the two to three things you personally find most invigorating

• 7:37Tim Ferriss?

  or helpful when you're stuck or feel stagnated with writing/ideas? Do you have a team of any type, researchers, etc., who help you? And he also offered a few other suggestions. Well, the first is some context. The sentence in Alice in Wonderland that he mentions is, "Begin at the beginning," the king said gravely, "and go on till you come to the end, then stop." That is it. And he covers a lot on his YouTube channel, and for all of his musings, you can certainly see his Facebook fan page, which is just facebook.com/paoloquello. And he has the same handle on Twitter. I think he has something along the lines of 28 million fans as I record this, which is astonishing.

• 8:20Tim Ferriss?

  So without further ado, please enjoy this short and experimental episode with the incredible Paolo Quello. And I will link to anything he mentions in the show notes, as well as additional resources, at fourhourworkweek.com/podcast.

• 8:39Speaker 02

  Hello team, Paulo Coelho. Pleasure to talk to you. Looking forward to meet you, as I said in my email.

• 8:49Speaker 02

  As for your answers, I will try to be as brief as I can. About the deadline.

• 8:56Speaker 02

  I don't have deadlines. I write a book once every two years. And I sit down, of course. I have the book inside of me. And I start procrastinating in the morning. I check in my emails, I check news, I check everything that I could check or just postpone at the moment to sit and face myself as a writer in front of my book. So let's say that for three hours I'm trying to tell to myself that, "Oh, no, no. Later, later, later." And then, one moment, I say, "Okay.

• 9:40Speaker 02

  Just not to lose the face in front of myself. I'm going to sit and I'm going to write half an hour." And I do. And of course, this half an hour becomes 10 hours in a row. That's why I write my books very quickly. Because I cannot stop. I cannot stop. And then, of course, at night, I take a lot of notes because I'm still in the speed of writing book. The book. The next day, these notes are totally useless. The same thing happens again.

• 10:21Speaker 02

  Checking emails, going to social communities, postpone, procrastinating. And I cannot, I cannot stop. Probably this is my inner ritual, you know? I have to feel guilty

• 10:37Speaker 02

  of not writing for three hours or four hours. But then, when I'm there, I start writing and non-stop. As I said before...

• 10:49Speaker 02

  Two weeks, in two weeks I have the book ready.

• 10:55Speaker 02

  Okay, next question. My daily schedule while writing books is the one that I just described. Trying to escape from my task of writing my books.

• 11:11Speaker 02

  My normal daily schedule is in the morning checking my social communities, answering emails. Then walking, walking is for me my way of thinking, my way of meditating. It's not that I'm thinking, but I am in a kind of transition, totally connected with the present moment. And when I arrive from walking, I sit here and then I start really connecting to my social communities. I work with three or four people, not more than that.

• 11:51Speaker 02

  My agent in Barcelona, my office in Brazil, and my webmaster. This is the only two people, three people that have access to me. There is a very strong shield, so I can really use my time to do what I think I should do to fulfill this blessing that was bestowed on me, that was to allow me to live my personal legend, to become a writer against all odds. Because Brazilians don't have this tradition to be translator.

• 12:33Speaker 02

  And besides that, there are very few authors who can make a living out of writing. Nothing in the US, but all over the world. However, I was so committed to my work that it was my dream. It was my dream from the very beginning, so I really enjoy what I do. I don't work. In fact, what I'm doing is really to have pleasure and have fun and have social responsibility towards my readers, myself, and the world where I live.

• 13:13Speaker 02

  Do I take any days off? I take many, well, back to what I said. I force myself to give, to take two weeks off, but not during the, my writing period. My writing period is like I go into a tank and I only can leave this tank after finishing a book. So, as Alice in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll says, Alice in Wonderland, it's very easy to write a book.

• 13:52Speaker 02

  Start in the beginning, go through the middle and go to the end and then stop. That's it. No, no secrets. I can later quote Lewis Carroll's sentence in an email. I don't know it by heart, but more or less what I said. A successful writing day is the day that I suffer in the morning and I have fun in the evening, fun by writing. Fun, I will not describe this as fun. It is also painful, but, and it's exhausting because I don't realize that I'm totally connected. I'm in a kind of trance.

• 14:37Speaker 02

  So, when I, when I go to bed after 10 hours of working, well, the adrenaline is still, is still circulating in my blood. So, it takes hours to, to sleep and there is this note, notepad by, by my side and I take notes, but I take notes only to take them out from my head. They will, they will be useless next day. I never use notes that I took,

• 15:15Speaker 02

  only to continue writing. And this happened since I wrote my first book, The Pilgrim's Reach. I cannot change this process. I wish I could sit and write and not feel guilty for four or five hours during this day. It's impossible.

• 15:35Speaker 02

  ¿Cómo capturo ideas que pueden ser útiles en tu escritura? No lo hago, no lo hago.

• 15:43Speaker 02

  Trato de vivir mi vida, lloro. Realmente vivo mi vida y eventualmente aparece algún tema cuando el ciclo de dos años termina. Y hay varias capas de ideas, ¿sabes? Pienso: "Voy a escribir un libro sobre esto", y luego empiezo, luego el segundo, luego el tercero. Pero escondido detrás de todos estos libros, que no estoy dispuesto a ser escritos o que nunca deberían ser escritos, es el libro que quiero que sea escrito, que quiero escribir. Así que... Y es el libro que quiere que sea escrito.

• 16:28Speaker 02

  Creo que es mucho más una decisión del libro que del escritor. Y luego, cuando descubres la primera frase, detrás de esta primera frase hay un cordón que te lleva a la última frase del libro. Vamos a ver, déjame darle un ejemplo. Cuando escribí El Alcámico, quería escribir una metáfora sobre mí, sobre mi vida.

• 17:00Speaker 02

  Y... para ser honesto, no sé por qué elegí un hombre de shepherds. Nunca he sido un shepherder. No hice ninguna investigación sobre shepherds, ni siquiera en el Islam. Oí que alguien, cuando estaba en Israel, mencionaba los cinco preceptos del Islam. Pero el libro era precioso. Creo que cuando escribes un libro, como se escribe en El Alcámico, te conectas con el alma del mundo, te conectas con esta energía que llamo inspiración, todo el mundo llama inspiración. Y luego...

• 17:40Speaker 02

  y no hay tal esfuerzo para escribirlo. Eso es lo que me quedé. I took this Trans-Siberian journey in 2006 and I never thought I would be able to write a book on it. Why? Because it's so difficult to explain this point that contains everything. So I lived my experience traveling for three months. I met this Aleph, this point, but I thought I would be unable to write about it.

• 18:22Speaker 02

  And then, one day, two years ago, I was talking to a friend and she said, "Why don't you write about the Trans-Siberia?" "No, this long trip." I said, "First, because I don't feel like writing this. Second, because it's not every single experience that I have in my life that I want to write, on the opposite." I write about a few experiences, but not all of them. But, well, and then, okay, three days later, I got this inspiration. "Yes, I should write. The book is ready." And I started the book with a word that normally you don't start a book, it's "no."

• 19:06Speaker 02

  Nobody starts a book saying "no." This must be a bad vibe. That said, the book is now, at the moment that I'm recording this interview, number one everywhere. It was released two weeks ago in Germany, and it went to number three, one week ago, and then this week, number two. So... Yeah, if you want to capture ideas, you're lost.

• 19:43Speaker 02

  Porque no vas a vivir tu vida.

• 19:47Speaker 02

  Vas a estar capturando ideas, vas a estar deshacido de las emociones que necesitas tener, bueno, para vivir completamente. Vas a ser un observador y no un ser humano que está viviendo su o su vida. Yo, yo, excepto, por supuesto, por cosas técnicas, yo, yo, animo a los escritores a no pensar en escribir cada vez que hacen algo. Olvídate de los notebooks, olvídate de tomar notas. Deja que lo que es importante permanezca. Lo que no es importante, se va. Así que cuando te sientas para escribir,

• 20:33Speaker 02

  bueno, hay este proceso de purga, este proceso de limpieza, que solo quedan las cosas importantes. Así que es mucho más fácil que tomar notas y sobrecargar a ti mismo con la información.

• 20:53Speaker 02

  Software y herramientas que usas para escribir. Yo uso... Yo me encantaría mucho hablar más. No quiero que este podcast sea muy largo, sé que es un blog, pero básicamente uso Word.

• 21:09Speaker 02

  Y eso es todo, eso es todo. Dicho eso, un escritor hoy en día no es un escritor de libros. Él o ella debe estar completamente consciente de que hay diferentes tipos de escritura. Puedes escribir para libros, puedes escribir para móviles, puedes escribir para Twitter, puedes escribir para blogs. Y cada y cada plataforma requiere una técnica diferente. Esto es lo que es muy emocionante para los escritores hoy en día. We are in front of a new challenge. And you have to learn how to do it. A tweet is not a book. A book is not a tweet.

• 21:54Speaker 02

  So, but please, writers should exercise training in these new techniques. Let's forget about the classic format of books and move to the way that internet is now forcing us to move, forcing, I mean, encouraging us to write.

• 22:26Speaker 02

  Yeah, as for the story arc, there are only four stories.

• 22:35Speaker 02

  The story of a love story between two people, a love story between three people, the struggle for power, and the journey. Every single book that is in a bookstore deals with these four archetypes, these four themes. So you have to decide only among these four themes. But back, it is not, in my case, it's not me who decides. It is the book itself. I'm not saying, "Well, the book is powerful.

• 23:18Speaker 02

  It is an angel that it is whispering to me what to write." No, I'm not saying, I'm not saying that. I'm saying that, that normally I have 10,000 books that I feel like writing, and at the end of the day, I only write one. Let's take two books as examples, you said. How can we say I left? How did your process differ from these two books? Ah, they are very much close. One is a metaphor, that it is the alchemist. The other one is a real experience, my own experience.

• 24:00Speaker 02

  However, both of them are in the classic story arc of a journey.

• 24:12Speaker 02

  So, they are very much close.

• 24:18Speaker 02

  They are part of my soul. If there is... Yeah, I think that I answered the question. What are the most common mistakes that you see first-time novelists making? The most common mistake is... The first-time novelists are always postponing.

• 24:42Speaker 02

  And then, and then, they are very, very much insecure. When they finish and they publish a book, and you talk to them, and they said, "Oh, but you'll need to see my next book." This is totally nonsense.

• 25:03Speaker 02

  If you go, if you talk to many, many, many, many writers, they say that, and I don't understand, I really don't understand. Why do they say that? You cannot underrate yourself. You cannot feel insecure. You cannot, you cannot sell your next book by, by despising your, your... Or underrating your, the book that was just published.

• 25:28Speaker 02

  So, as for style and, and...

• 25:33Speaker 02

  And this type of things, don't try to innovate. I mean, you can innovate in Twitter, Facebook,

• 25:43Speaker 02

  books, mobiles, but don't try to innovate storytelling. Storytelling is the... Well, it is the, since the dawn of times, and, and it is magical and, and, and tell a good story.

• 26:03Speaker 02

  I see people trying to work so much in style, you know? Finding different ways to tell the same thing.

• 26:14Speaker 02

  That is like... It's like, well, it's like fashion, you know. Style is the dress, but the dress does not dictate what is inside the dress, the person. So what counts is the person inside the dress, not the dress itself. Of course, I need to write with good taste and, and another advice that I would give is that, keep it simple, keep it simple. Use, trust your reader. He or she has a lot of imagination.

• 26:57Speaker 02

  Don't try to describe things. Give a hint, and they will fulfill this hint with their own imaginations. That's why, that's why I'm so reluctant to show the rights of my book to movies, because there you have everything. The reader does not need to think. However, if I say, like in Alphach, at the very beginning, well, I am in my house in the Pyrenees, and there is an oak there. Well, I don't need to explain the details of my house in the Pyrenees. I only needed to put the two elements that are important.

• 27:42Speaker 02

  The oak, myself and the person that I'm talking to. And that's all. So keep it simple. Trust your reader. Understand that he or she can fulfill the empty spaces. Don't over explain. Most common weaknesses of first-time novelists, of course, lack of self-confidence. When The Alchemist was published, it did not sell, so the first publisher gave me the book back. But I was so convinced that I started knocking doors.

• 28:30Speaker 02

  And then I found a second publisher. Imagine, there was one month in my life that I could really quit my dream. And if I was not perseverant enough, The Alchemist will not be the worldwide success as it is today.

• 28:54Speaker 02

  The second weakness is to pay too much attention to critics. I don't think this happened in the US, but outside the US, critics, well, they are losing ground very fast because

• 29:11Speaker 02

  now Internet has this power of promoting or killing anything. But still, writers want to please their peers. They want to please other writers. They want to be recognized by the academia, by the system. Forget about this, who cares? You should cheer to share your soul and not to please other writer who is going to write a review that nobody is going to read, just tell you how good you are.

• 29:50Speaker 02

  And then you are also obliged in the future to write a review about his books. No, no, no, forget, forget. This is really a weakness. Don't pay attention and also don't answer to reviewers, don't answer to critics. Do I base my characters in real people? Depends. In many books, yes. Aleph, of course.

• 30:17Speaker 02

  The Pilgrimage is my first book, yes, no fiction. The Valkyries.

• 30:23Speaker 02

  But yes, you cannot take something out of nothing.

• 30:29Speaker 02

  So when you write a book, you use your experience, not your conscious experience, but things that are important, as I said, and that remains in you.

• 30:45Speaker 02

  And I don't, I don't develop my characters. I give them, them free rein. They, they, they guide me. When I used to read that in biographies of other writers, I said, "Oh, this, this, this people, they are trying to cheat me because..." Come on, how can a character guide a writer? They are just trying to make it very mystical, very, you know, like they wear in an ivory tower.

• 31:27Speaker 02

  But in fact, when I start writing, I saw that this is totally true. Except, of course, for some books that should be based in concrete experiences. In my case, it is The Pilgrimage, Valkyries, and Aleph. Let me, yeah. What are the two, three things I find most invigorating or helpful when you are stuck or feel stagnated with writing ideas? Okay, there is only one thing. For there are no two, three, four.

• 32:12Speaker 02

  When I am feel stagnated, I promise to myself that if I don't feel inspired, I need to move forward. I need to have discipline. So, and it happens. In the middle of a book, no, there I am. They don't know how to continue the story, even if it is a non-fiction story.

• 32:40Speaker 02

  But then I say: "Okay, you are fighting with me? Your books are fighting with me? Okay, I'm going to sit here and I'm not going to leave you alone until I find my way out of this crossroads. And then, it may take 10 minutes, it may take 10 hours, but if you don't have a discipline enough, you'll not move forward. So, at the end of the day, writing books is basically sharing your experience, and this is part of the human condition.

• 33:21Speaker 02

  And if you really are honest, if you don't try to fill a formula, to follow a formula, you have to be free to write. I wrote about prostitution in 11 minutes. I wrote about madness in Veronica decides to die. So, I wrote about things that are important to me, issues that are important to me. And you should be free to write things that you feel, and not try to repeat the same formula over and over again. And I don't have researchers, no, no, no.

• 34:03Speaker 02

  If I need any research, of course, when I wrote a laugh, I did not take notes, as I told you. I had this fantastic experience, but then, I am in a city in the middle of Siberia, and I forgot the name of the street of the hotel. Then I do a quick research, that's all. But if you overload...

• 34:30Speaker 02

  Your book with a lot of research, you're going to be very boring to yourself and to your readers. Books are not there to show how intelligent and cultivate you are. Books are out there to show your heart, to show your soul, and to tell your friends, readers, "I'm not alone," and I hope you are not, because you can identify yourself with my books or my words, as I can identify yourself with your garden, with your music, with anything that we do with love. Thank you very much. Sorry, it is a bit big.

• 35:15Speaker 02

  I'm going to upload and to send you the podcast. May God bless you, as we say here. Au revoir.

• 35:29Tim Ferriss?

  Hey, guys. This is Tim again. Just a few more things before you take off. Number one, this is Five Bullet Friday. Do you want to get a short email from me? Would you enjoy getting a short email from me every Friday that provides a little morsel of fun before the weekend? And Five Bullet Friday is a very short email where I share the coolest things I've found or that I've been pondering over the week. That could include favorite new albums that I've discovered. It could include gizmos and gadgets and all sorts of weird shit that I've somehow dug up in the world of the esoteric, as I do. It could include favorite articles that I have read and that I've shared with my close friends, for instance. And it's very short.

• 36:11Tim Ferriss?

  It's just a little tiny bite of goodness before you head off for the weekend. So if you want to receive that, check it out. Just go to fourhourworkweek.com. That's fourhourworkweek.com, all spelled out, and just drop in your email, and you will get the very next one. And if you sign up, I hope you enjoy it.

• 36:33Tim Ferriss?

  This episode is brought to you by Wealthfront, and this is a very unique sponsor. Wealthfront is a massively disruptive, in a good way, set it and forget it investing service led by technologists from places like Apple and world famous investors. It has exploded in popularity in the last two years and they now have more than $2.5 billion under management. In fact, some of my very good friends, investors in Silicon Valley have millions of their own money in Wealthfront. So the question is, why? Why is it so popular? Why is it unique? Because you can get services previously reserved for the ultra wealthy but only pay pennies on the dollar for them. And this is because they use smarter software instead of retail locations, bloated sales teams, etc. And I'll come back to that in a second. I suggest you check out wealthfront.com/tim.

• 37:18Tim Ferriss?

  Take the risk assessment quiz, which only takes two to five minutes, and they'll show you for free exactly the portfolio they put you in. And if you just want to take their advice, run with it, do it yourself, you can do that. Or, as I would, you can set it and forget it. And here's why. The value of Wealthfront is in the automation of habits and strategies that investors should be using on a regular basis but normally aren't. Great investing is a marathon, not a sprint, and little things that you may or may not be familiar with, like automatic tax loss harvesting, rebalancing your portfolio across more than 10 asset classes, and dividend reinvestment add up to very large amounts of money over longer periods of time. Wealthfront, as I mentioned, since it's using software instead of retail locations, etc.,

• 38:00Tim Ferriss?

  can offer all of this at low costs that were previously completely impossible. Right off the bat, you never pay commissions or account fees. For everything, they charge 0.25% per year on assets above the first $15,000, which is managed for free if you use my link, wealthfront.com/tim. That is less than $5 a month to invest a $30,000 account, for instance. Now, normally, when I have a sponsor on this show, it's because I use them and recommend them. In this case, it's a little different. I don't use Wealthfront yet because I'm not allowed to. Here's the deal. They wanted to sponsor this podcast, but because of SEC regulations, companies that invest your money are not allowed to use client testimonials. So I couldn't be a user and have them on the podcast, but I've been so impressed by Wealthfront that I've invested

• 38:45Tim Ferriss?

  a significant amount of my own money, at least for me, in the team and the company itself. So I am an investor and hope to soon use it as a client. Now, back to the recommendation. As a Tim Ferriss Show listener, you'll get $15,000 managed for free if you decide to open an account. But just start with seeing the portfolio that they would suggest for you. Take two minutes, fill out their questionnaire at wealthfront.com/tim. It's fast, it's free. There's no downside that I can think of. Just take a look, see what portfolio they would create for you, and you can use that information however you want. Wealthfront.com/tim.

• 39:25Tim Ferriss?

  This episode is brought to you by MeUndies. If I'm not going commando, I'm in MeUndies. I have been testing these underwear for three to four months now, pretty much every day, and in fact, throughout a bunch of my other underwear this morning. And on the road, in the house, they are extremely comfortable. They look good, feel good. They are made of micro modal, two times softer than cotton, as scientifically tested using the Kawabata method. Sounds very fancy, of course. And I get a lot of compliments from ladies for these. You don't get diaper butt, you don't get the tired elastic band. They look great, and they have underwear for both men and women. Check out meundies.com/tim, and you can see everything I've been wearing. They're ridiculous, the sublime, everything in between,

• 40:10Tim Ferriss?

  including my favorite, which is called out. And I would be remiss if I didn't mention their lounge pants. This is a new thing, and I've been wearing their lounge pants when I record podcasts. I've been wearing them out and about when I'm walking the dog, meeting people for coffee. And they are extremely comfortable. They're made from the same material as the underwear, but some of them, like the blue ones I have, have pockets, so you can walk about without seeming like you're off of your meds and completely crazy. So that is awesome. And if you're not happy with the first pair you try on, I assume that refers to the underwear, they'll refund you completely, and you can keep the pair you tried on for free. But if you're that kind of person, you should be ashamed, because

• 40:49Tim Ferriss?

  that's disgusting. MeUndies.com/tim, check it out. And until next time, thank you for listening.