Tim Ferriss, the best-selling author of The 4-Hour Workweek, shares his Tribe of Mentors book, a compilation of tools, tactics, and habits from over 130 world-renowned performers. The book, which includes profiles from iconic entrepreneurs, athletes, artists, and billionaires, aims to help readers answer life’s most challenging questions, achieve extraordinary results, and transform their lives.
Ferriss’s book, Tribe of Mentors, was inspired by the death of close friends in 2017, which highlighted the importance of time as a scarce, non-renewable resource. He sought answers from world-class performers, ranging from wunderkinds in their 20s to icons in their 70s and 80s.
The book contains practical and tactical advice from mentors who have found solutions, helping readers achieve extraordinary results and reassess their priorities and purpose. The Tribe of Mentors book includes many of the people Ferriss grew up viewing as idols or demigods and has been downloaded over 200 million times on his podcast, The Tim Ferriss Show.
Read about Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill with this detailed guide!
About the Author
The New York Times has described Tim Ferriss as “a cross between Jack Welch and a Buddhist monk.” He is an early-stage Internet investor and advisor in Uber, Facebook, Twitter, Shopify, Duolingo, Alibaba, and more than fifty other firms. He is also one of Fast Company’s “Most Innovative Business People.” That 4-Hour Workweek, The 4-Hour Body, The 4-Hour Chef, and Tools of Titans are among his four #1 New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestsellers.
Because of the popularity of his podcast, The Tim Ferriss Show, which has had over 200 million downloads and been chosen for “Best of iTunes” for three consecutive years, The Observer and other media have dubbed him “the Oprah of audio.”
Review
Time Ferriss, a renowned author and podcaster, has been a constant in my journey since I began seeking my true self and searching for my purpose. I have owned all of his books, but I did not read his latest book, “Tribe of Mentors,” cover to cover. The book is a collection of interviews, with the table of contents listing the names of the interviewees and their answers. Tim’s books are not story books but more like reference books, with the 11 questions asked by the interviewees to ponder and respond.
Read about Best Life Coaching Books with this detailed guide!
The feature of repeated questions makes reading the book very rhythmic, as the mind switches to auto-pilot. It’s more like listening to a conversation than reading. The questions include:
1. What is the book or books you’ve given most as a gift and why?
2. What purchase of $100 or less has most positively impacted your life in the last six months or recent memory?
3. How has a failure set you up for later success? Do you have a favourite failure of yours?
4. If you could have one gigantic billboard anywhere with anything on it—metaphorically speaking, getting a message out to millions or billions—what would it say and why?
5. What is the best or most worthwhile investment you’ve ever made?
6. What is an unusual habit or absurd thing that you love?
7. What new belief, behaviour, or habit has most improved your life?
8. What advice would you give a smart, driven college student about to enter the “real world?”
9. What are bad recommendations you hear in your profession or area of expertise?
10. In the last five years, what have you become better at saying no to (distractions, invitations, etc.)? What new realisations and/or approaches helped?
When you feel overwhelmed or unfocused or have lost your focus temporarily, what do you do?
Tim’s organisation of the massive amounts of information in this book is meticulous, including a list of recorded conversations from respondents and where to find them online. He also includes a mentor index, which is an index of questions answered by interviewees. He even includes blank-lined pages for readers to use in making their own notes and indexes.
The style and substance of “Tribe of Mentors” is lockstep, an amazingly informative book presented in a friendly conversational style. The book organisation is on par with everything else TF has done, and it doesn’t call for as many organisational asides as “Tools of Titans.”
“Tribe of Mentors” will appeal to anyone who’s looking for more shit to read, learn, and get better. As a coffee table book, intelligent friends will pick it up to read a few passages and instant meaningful conversation should break out.
Read about The War of Art – Steven Pressfield with this details guide!
Summary
“Tribe of Mentors” is a book by Tim Ferris that shares deep, practical, and life-changing tips and hacks to improve personal, emotional, spiritual, and practical aspects of life. The book features a wide range of mentors, including legendary investor Ray Dalio, Navy SEAL Jocko Willink, and Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks. These mentors become your mentors, helping you accelerate your learning curve and improve your life.
Despite some negative reviews, the author is grateful for the book and its valuable content. “Tribe of Mentors” is a compilation of Tim’s best interviews and how he has applied this knowledge in his personal life. It is culled from off-cuff podcasts, which have a spontaneous flow that results in many low-hanging nuggets.
However, “Tribe of Mentors” takes hours or days to write thoughtful and sophisticated answers to questions, which can be deep and practical but also make more nuanced points and employ a more sophisticated vocabulary.
The book does not provide instant gratification like “Tools of Titans,” but it flows and is easy to read. However, one aspect that some reviewers find fascinating is that Tim asks everyone the same questions, which provides a breadth and range of personality and knowledge on the topics. This diversity and colour open up the mind towards valuing the diverse and sometimes contradictory parts of one’s personality.
Read about The Miracle Morning – Hal Elrod with this detailed guide!
Tim has included links to interviews and other resources from many of the mentors, an index of the top books these leaders have purchased, and an index of the best “under $100” purchases Tim’s mentors have discovered. The author has gained so much from this book and gives it their highest recommendation.
Thank you for joining me on this review and leaving a reply after you’ve read the book to let me know what you think.