#442: Tribe of Mentors — Naval Ravikant, Susan Cain, and Yuval Noah Harari

Tim Ferriss (0:24)

Hello, boys and girls, ladies and gentlemen, this is Tim Ferriss, and welcome to another episode of The Tim Ferriss Show. This episode will feature some of my favorite advice and profiles from Tribe of Mentors. Thousands of you have asked for years for the audiobook versions of Tools of Titans and Tribe of Mentors, and they are now both finally available at audible.com/ferris. Today's episode will focus on my first chapter in Tribe of Mentors, as well as profiles of Naval Ravikant, Susan Cain and Yuval Noah Harari. Just a few notes on the format before we dive in. I recorded the introduction myself and selected three fantastic top-ranked narrators to handle the rest. The short bios, which you'll hear at the beginning of each profile, are read by Kaleo Griffith. Ray Porter reads my words, as well as those of the male guests. The words of female guests are performed by Thérèse Plummer. Tribe of Mentors is the ultimate choose-your-own adventure book. It's a compilation of tools, tactics, and habits from more than 100 of the world's top performers. From iconic entrepreneurs to elite athletes, from artists to billionaire investors, their short profiles can help you answer some of life's most challenging questions, achieve extraordinary results, and hopefully transform your life as they have mine. I'm really happy with how this book turned out. And the universe helped me to pull off some miracles in Tribe of Mentors with guests like Ben Stiller, Temple Grandin, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Yuval Noah Harari, who you'll hear in this episode, Arianna Huffington, Marc Benioff, Terry Crews, Dan Gable, and many, many more. And it includes a lot of the people I grew up viewing as idols or demigods. So thanks for that, universe. And if you only get one thing out of this book, let it be this. In a world where nobody really knows anything, you have the incredible freedom to continually reinvent yourself and forge new paths, no matter how strange. So embrace your weird self. There's no one right answer, only better questions for you. I wish you luck as you forge your own path. Please enjoy this episode. And if you'd like to listen to the 100 plus profiles outside of these examples from Tribe of Mentors, just check out audible.com forward slash Ferris.

To all of my companions on the path, may you be a force for goodness world and see the same in yourselves. And remember, as Rumi once wrote, what you seek is seeking you.

Introduction.

The only true voyage would be not to travel through a hundred different lands with the same pair of eyes, but to see the same land through a hundred different pairs of eyes. Marcel Proust.

Albert grunted, do you know what happens to lads who ask too many questions? Mort thought for a moment. No, he said eventually, what? There was silence. Then Albert straightened up and said, damn if I know, probably they get answers and serves them right. Terry Pratchett in Mort.

To explain why I wrote this book, I really need to start with when. 2017 was an unusual year for me. The first six months were a slow simmer. And then within a matter of weeks, I turned 40 My first book, The 4-Hour Workweek, had its 10th anniversary. Several people in my circle of friends died. And I stepped on stage to explain how I narrowly avoided committing suicide in college. Truth be told, I never thought I'd make it to 40 My first book was rejected 27 times by publishers. The things that worked out weren't supposed to work, so I realized on my birthday, I had no plan for after 40 As often happens at forks in the path, college graduation, quarter life crisis, midlife crisis, kids leaving home, retirement and so on. Questions started to bubble to the surface. Were my goals actually my own or simply what I thought I should want? How much of life had I missed from under planning or over planning? How could I be kinder to myself? How could I better say no to the noise to better say yes to the adventures I craved? How could I best reassess my life, my priorities, my view of the world, my place in the world and my trajectory through the world? So many things, all the things.

One morning, I wrote down the questions as they came, hoping for a glimmer of clarity. Instead, I felt a wave of anxiety. The list was overwhelming. Noticing that I was holding my breath, I paused and took my eyes off the paper. Then, I did as I often do, whether considering a business decision, personal relationship or otherwise. I asked myself the one question that helps answer many others.