Tim Ferriss net worth: Tim Ferriss, author, speaker, investor, entrepreneur, and social media star, has an estimated net worth of $53 million dollars.
He’s authored four bestselling books (The 4-Hour Workweek, The 4-Hour Body, The 4-Hour Chef, and Tools of Titans), built one of the biggest personal blogs of all-time, created the #1 rated podcast on iTunes (The Tim Ferriss Show), amassed millions of social media followers, spoken on the biggest stages and lectured at the most prestigious universities, invested in and advised dozens of top tech companies, lived an epic life loaded with one crazy experience after the next, and earned nicknames like “The Oprah of Audio,” “The World’s Best Guinea Pig,” and “Greatest Self-Promoter of Our Generation.”
(And that’s the trimmed-down version. Damn Tim. You’re like the real-life Dos Equis dude.)
Anyways, what can we learn from this guy?
Tim Ferriss net worth lessons
Of all the fantastic things Tim and his high-performance posse can teach you… via his many articles, essays, interviews, and books… one of my favorite lessons was Ferriss’s not to-do list.
(These are often more effective than to-do lists. Why? Well, because what you don’t do determines what you can do.)
That said, here are Tim’s eight no-nos for entrepreneurs:
1) When unrecognized numbers call, don’t answer. One, because surprises are generally something you want to avoid. It puts you in a poor position for negotiation. Two, the cost of switching tasks is too expensive. Forty percent of the time, you’ll never return to finish what you were working on, before Timmy Telemarketer called.
2) Don’t email first thing in the morning or last thing at night. The former scrambles your priorities for the day, while the latter makes your mind race, thus hindering deep sleep. Batch emails once or twice daily, but no sooner than 10 am, says Tim. Never ever leave email open and refresh constantly. Most emails are manufactured emergencies; other people’s agenda for your time. Not cool.
3) Speaking of which, say no to calls and meetings that have no clear agenda or end time. Pretty self-explanatory.
4) Don’t let people ramble. Small talk eats up big time. Getting things done is about getting to the point. If someone interrupts you, put the pressure on ’em: “Hey, I’m right in the middle of something – what can I do for ya?”
5) Don’t over-communicate with low profit, high maintenance clients. Trying to please everyone and their auntie is a poor man’s game. Put the loudest and least profitable peeps in time out: “You get one call a week and that’s it.” If that doesn’t work, fire them.
6) Don’t work more if you’re feeling overwhelmed. Prioritize. Without prioritizing, everything seems urgent and important, and working more won’t fix anything. Find your one thing, do that, and don’t sweat the small stuff. Think harder, don’t work harder. If you don’t have time, truth is, you don’t have priorities.
7) Don’t have your phone on you 24/7. Take breaks. Actually, Tim recommends an entire phone-free day per week. Can you imagine? I can. I wrote about this a while back. Seems trivial, but I believe “phone addiction” is robbing most people blind.
8) Don’t expect work to fill a void in your personal life. Schedule cool activities and commit to them like you would an important business meeting (with a clear agenda and end time, of course). Checking Google Analytics all weekend is not the way to a full, rich, meaningful life.
In the digital age, where everyone’s always busy and distracted but never productive… what’s more important than a list like this? I can’t think of anything. Can you?
