Having read his original bestseller, The 4-Hour Workweek, and then both follows ups, The 4-Hour Chef and The 4-Hour Body, I’m a huge fan of Tim Ferris. That’s why I pre-ordered his brand new book released last month called, “Tools of Titans: The Tactics, Routines, and Habits of Billionaires, Icons, and World-Class Performers.”
It’s a fantastic book and at 673 pages, it’s chock full of tools and tactics that help improve your health, boost your business success and enhance your overall quality of life.
In the first section, titled “Healthy,” Ferris offers tips on diet, exercise, mental health with sections like “5 Tools for Faster and Better Sleep”, “Mind Training 101” and “5 Morning Rituals that Help Me Win the Day.” There’s lots of content about slow-carb diets, intermittent fasting, and cold pool plunges that may not be for everyone, but they are interesting all the same.
The second section, titled “Wealthy” features chapters on creating a “real world” MBA outside the classroom, launching a morning journal, gut investing and learning to say “no” when it matters most. Contributors to this section include: Marc Andreesseen; Peter Thiel; Seth Godin; Tony Robbins; Daymond John; Kevin Rose and Peter Diamandis.
On contributor, Derek Silvers, who created CDBaby.com in 1998 and subsequently sold the company for $22 million, donating all the proceeds to charity, discusses the perennially “busy” life. He says: “Because most of us say yes to too much stuff, and then, we let these little mediocre things fill our lives….The problem is, when that occasional, ‘Oh my God, hell yeah!’ thing comes along, you don’t have enough time to give it the attention that you should, because you’ve said yes to too much other little, half-ass staff, right? One I started applying this, my life just opened up.”
The third and final section is called “Wise” and includes wisdom from Whitney Cummings, Rick Rubin, Malcom Gladwell, Brene Brown and Jon Favreau. Chapters include, “The Dickens Process – What Are Your Beliefs Costing You?”, “8 Tactics for Dealing with Haters”, and “Why You Need a ‘Deloading Phase in Life.”
Reviewers on Amazon call this book, “Cliff’s Notes for life” – an appropriate description, but some also found the book a little hard to follow and disorganized. Though I read the book sequentially, at least two people I know jumped around according to their personal interests and that seemed to work well. There are a huge number of actionable insights in Tools of Titans that make the book well worth the price of admission, both in terms of its $17 cost and the time to roll through 700 pages.
Ferris ends his book with a comprehensive bibliography of books recommended by his impressive roster of contributors, a catalog of his podcasts and great quote from Sekou Andrews: “You must want to be a butterfly so badly, you are willing to give up being a caterpillar.” Are you ready?
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