Title: Tools of Titans: The Tactics, Routines, and Habits of Billionaires, Icons, and World-Class Performers
Author: Tim Ferriss
Hardcore: 704 pages
Favorite Quotes
“It may be lucky, but it’s not an accident” – Chris Sacca
“Losers react, leaders anticipate” – Tony Robbins
“Happiness is wanting what you have – Bryan Called
“Good” – Jocko Willink (see page 640 for full context)
Tools of Titans Book Summary
If you are someone who doesn’t care to read books or have a difficult time finding the time to read books, Tools of Titans is the book for you. Don’t let its 600+ pages scare you. This book is written in interview style from information taken from the Time Ferriss Podcast. The interview style chapters allow for the ability, and even encouraged by Tim, to skip around if you find something not overly interesting. This book is essentially 100+ books in one. At the beginning of each chapter, Ferriss includes all the pertinent information on how to learn more of the individual being interviewed.
Tools of Titans is divided into three parts, healthy, wealthy, and wise. Each part contains dozens of individual interviews with people who are world-class in their respective field. These interviews were conducted on the Tim Ferriss Podcast where all the best bits were extracted and put in to a 600-page book. There are interviews that I did skip because the subject matter didn’t interest me, that’s okay. It’s okay if you don’t find the same people interesting that I do. The point is that there are a large number of gems in this book that you can take away no matter what type interests you.
In addition to the three parts of the book, healthy, wealthy, and wise, there are also very well written non-profile chapters. This means they aren’t interview style chapters with individuals but thoughts from Tim or stories written by other people.
Healthy
The healthy part of the book actually was the most interesting for me. There was incredible amount of information from people who have devoted their lives to science and the human body. I must say, though, this chapter did contain a little more ketogenic talk than I particularly cared to read. Maybe this is a sign that is important and I should listen. One thing that was very interesting to me was the discussions regarding psychedelics and the enlightenment many find from them.
Wealthy
Learning from those who have ‘done it’ already can decrease the learning curve on the journey to wealth. Now, wealthy, isn’t just a synonym for money in this chapter. There are examples of other ways you can be wealthy. The beauty of Tools of Titans is that it gets straight to the point with each individual. Since the average chapter is only 2-3 pages, you get the point of the individual much quicker than a standard biography, or business book.
This section contained a large number of interviews from people that I was previously familiar with. This is a great thing in my opinion because it provides additional context. A large number of interviews in this part are related to tech entrepreneurs or the tech industry in general. There are also a few gems outside the tech industry thrown in as well. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Daymond John, Shaun White to name a few.
Wise
Ferriss does a great job with interviewing people who really get you to ask yourself difficult questions and think critically. These difficult questions may assist in your own personal development. The Wise part contained interviewees that stretched from Jamie Foxx to Glenn Beck to Whitney Cummings. Learn from those who have overcome difficult times in their lives and use their secrets and techniques in your own life.
Below are several individuals that I found interesting while reading the book. This isn’t an exhaustive list of my favorite interviews but just a few to look for while reading. Remember, if you find someone or a specific topic interesting, Google is your friend.
Wim “The Iceman” Hof
I first came across Wim Hof roughly a year ago while listening to a podcast conducted by Tim Ferriss and Kevin Rose titled ‘The Random Show’ (http://tim.blog/2016/03/16/the-random-show-ice-cold-edition/). Wim holds over 20 world records for seemingly odd endeavors, such as length of time in an ice bath, or climbing to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro, wearing only boxers, in record time.
Cold therapy – Cold therapy increases your immune functions, increases fat loss, and can dramatically increase mood. Wim pushes cold exposure to the limit. During one endeavor he literally froze his retinas while swimming under ice. Now, for the average person this is taking it too far so Wim doesn’t recommend swimming under ice. His recommendation is simple; as you are ending your shower, turn the water to cold for approximately 30-45 seconds. As odd as this may seem, I have tested the cold shower technique and at first it will be extremely uncomfortable but over time you start to enjoy it. Quite frankly I even looked forward to taking a cold shower. Everything in your brain (depression, anxiety, to-do lists, etc) seems to disappear as your mind is focused on one thing. Give this a try for yourself and let me know how it goes.
Breathing exercises – In mid 2016 I began swimming laps daily and wanted to see if I could hold my breath underwater for a longer period of time to decrease my lap times. Oddly enough, at about that same time I came across Wim Hof on the Joe Rogan Podcast. Early in the podcast Wim walked Joe through breathing techniques live on the show and Joe was able to hold his breath for, I believe, almost 3 minutes…on his first attempt! With his techniques I was able to hold my breath for a maximum time of 3:45 seconds up from approximately 0:30 seconds. Ferriss describes how he was able to increase his breath holding to nearly 5 minutes using these techniques. I would highly recommend watching this YouTube video that helps explain the process Wim uses. Always remember, don’t hurt yourself trying this, it can be very dangerous.
Skip to around the 8 minute mark of the video below to see how Wim trains Joe Rogan to breathe.
Dr. Rhonda Patrick
I became familiar with Dr. Rhonda Patrick from an interview she did with Joe Rogan. I’m amazed at her knowledge regarding the human body, food, plants, and animals. I would highly recommend using Google or YouTube to find more about Rhonda. I don’t think the book does a great job at really conveying the amount of knowledge she has. Not that I blame Tim, it is just difficult to concisely write about Rhonda.
Dominic D’Agostino
For those interested in learning about what a ketogenic diet is refer to the chapter on Dom D’Agostino. This chapter wasn’t for me but it may be interesting to you.
Peter Attia
For those interested in further ketogenic diet reading, please read this chapter.
One interesting takeaway from Peter was his supplements he does NOT take. He does not take multivitamins. “They’re the worst of both worlds. They contain a bunch of what you don’t really need and don’t contain enough of what you do need. It poses an unnecessary risk with no upside.” This was very interesting to me, as I figured multivitamins were generally accepted as a net positive. Also, Peter mentions vitamin C in a way that essentially says drinking orange juice while your sick will not decrease the length of sickness. This is something I hear all the time, “you have a cold?”, “Here, drink some orange juice!” While the orange juice might not hurt (more on that) it won’t necessarily help your cold either.
After researching the point of orange juice not helping during a cold, I did come across the nutrition facts for juices. This shocked me. Juices have just as much sugar as many sodas! We load our kids up with orange juice, apple juice, grape juice and think we are helping. I guess if the choice was soda vs. juice, the answer still should be juice but it was eye opening.
Triple H
As someone who travels over 250 days a year working for the WWE, Triple H says that the best way he combats jet lag is to exercise. As soon as he arrives at a hotel he checks with the front desk to determine where the gym is. He then immediately starts a strenuous workout. This forced his mind to focus on his physical activity, not trivial time change differences.
Matt Mullenweg
For those of you who have created a website, blog, or visited websites in general, then you have used Matt’s product. Matt is the lead developer for WordPress, a product that powers over 25% of the ENTIRE Internet. Matt shares several great stories during his interview including one where he lost a $400,000 check.
Fun fact: Matt does not curse!
Tony Robbins
If you haven’t heard of Tony Robbins you may be dead or living under a rock. Tony has positively influenced millions of people over the course of his career. Tony holds week long seminars that last for over 12-15 hours so as you would imagine this book doesn’t cover the full Tony Robbins. I would highly recommend watching YouTube videos and familiarizing yourself with Tony Robbins. See my book summary of MONEY Master the Game by Tony Robbins.
Casey Neistat
The average person most likely will not know who Casey Neistat is but simply put he is a YouTuber. He makes (made) daily video blogs (vlogs) and created one of the fastest growing YouTube channels. Daily vlogs may not be for some people but Casey is an extremely good storyteller. See below for one of his videos he created for Nike in which he traveled the world until the budget he given ran out.
James Altucher
I came across James’ blog in early 2010. A somewhat pessimistic writer, James doesn’t write about what you want to hear, he writes about the truth. I highly recommend his book “The Power of No”.
Real-World MBA
Tim decided that he wanted to go to graduate school. He quickly found out during his first class that it wasn’t going to be right for him. He decided to use the money that would have spent on tuition to start up his own fund called the, “Tim Ferriss Fund” and learn in real life. After describing how he would structure his deals for his fund, Tim made his first deal. He broke his rules on deal #1. Things were not off to a good start. Tim goes on to explain how his Real-World MBA turned out and how you can start your own Real-World MBA program.
Chase Jarvis
Chase is the CEO of Creativelive.com. Creative Live is an online learning platform that has more than 2 million students in 200 countries. If you are a creative, I would highly recommend going on YouTube and watching some of Chase’s free content.
Noah Kagan
Creator of the “Coffee Challenge”. Kagan challenges people to ask for a 10% discount on their next coffee purchase. The goal isn’t to get 10% off a coffee (but it may work) but rather to be ok with getting rejected and start getting comfortable with uncomfortable situations. I first heard Noah Kagan on the Smart Passive Income Podcast with Patt Flynn – https://www.smartpassiveincome.com/podcasts/noah-kagan-appsumo/.
One thing that wasn’t mentioned in the book was why Noah lost out on $100 million as Facebook employee #30 – http://okdork.com/why-i-got-fired-from-facebook-a-100-million-dollar-lesson/.
Jocko Willink
A former Navy SEAL who is one of the scariest human beings on the planet. Jocko completed 20 years of service for the U.S. Navy and commanded SEAL Team Three’s Task Unit Bruiser. This interview was by far the most interesting for me. I quickly consumed both Tim Ferriss Podcasts (episode #107 and #187) with Jocko and a three hour-long podcast with Joe Rogan. Jocko does a great job of explaining how to develop discipline in your life and to take ownership of your actions.
Also, Jocko has written a book that goes into great detail about the topics he and Tim discuss in Tools of Titans. See my book review of Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin
About the Author
Tim Ferriss is one of Fast Company’s “Most Innovative Business People” and one of Forbes’s “Names You Need to Know.” He is an early-stage tech investor/advisor (Uber, Facebook, Alibaba, and more) and the author of three #1 New York Times and Wall Street journal bestsellers: The 4-Hour Workweek, The 4-Hour Body, and The 4-Hour Chef. The Observer and other media have called Tim “the Oprah of audio” due to the influence of his 100M-plus-download podcast, The Tim Ferris Show
Please leave a comment below to let me know if you have read the book. If you have read the book, which interviews were your favorites?
p.s. Sorry for the the number of Joe Rogan references and videos in this review. Tim and Joe Rogan have a large number of overlap with the guests they interview.
