Tim Ferriss is an investment guru, an author, a public speaker, and an entrepreneur. His book entitled “The 4-Hour Workweek” has sold in over 35 languages across the world, and was number 1 on the New York Times Best Seller List. He followed it up with two equally successful titles: “ The 4-hour body”, and “The 4-hour Chef”. The concept within each of these books is to find ways to steamline performance in order to accomplish things at a faster rate.
Ferriss is an angel investor and adviser to early-stage start-ups too, he has offered his expertise or funding to some really rather well–known enterprises (Facebook, Twitter, Evernote and Uber), as well as some lesser known ones such as Reputation Defender, Trippy, SimpleGeo, Task Rabbit and Foodzie to name but a few.
Investor
A master of investment opportunity, Ferriss is someone that even experienced, professional investors look to for insight. This was exemplified when in September 2013, Ferriss was able to secure $250,000 in less than an hour to invest in Shyp by creating a syndicate on AngelList.
Ferriss has featured on the Forbes list of “Names You Need To Know”, and is one of the “Most Innovative Business People”, according to Fast Company. But perhaps most significantly, his podcast is often the number one ranked podcast on the Apple App Store, a true reflection of his popularity.
Blogger
Tim’s blog, Four Hour Work Week, is one of the “19 blogs you should bookmark right now” according to Inc. Magazine, and based on analytics from various sources (Google, Alexa etc.) it is the number one blog in the Management and Leadership list. Mashable are also big fans, encouraging their readership to follow his Twitter account by including him in the “Top 5 must-follow Twitter accounts for entrepreneurs”, a list that also includes Sir Richard Branson.
Everything all the time
There wouldn’t appear to be too much that Ferriss isn’t capable of, from cooking and speaking five languages, to most areas of business and investing, via guest lecturing at Princeton, to Chinese Kickboxing and Tango Dancing, but he is also known for his application of both Parkinson’s Law and the Pareto principle to all aspects of his business and personal life.
The Pareto principle states that around 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes, while Parkinson’s Law operates under the moniker that work is in effect spread or dragged out to permeate the time made available for it. By applying both theories to his own life, his business interests and his books, Ferriss manages to accomplish an awful lot in a fraction of the time it may take others. He is also a biohack enthusiast, and speaks openly about his consumption of various biohack staples such as nootropics, which contain packed nutrients and caffeine to make the brain work at its optimal level for an extended period of time.
While adopting the modern theories that apply to biohacking, Ferriss is very much against the elements of technology that he says have caused complications rather than simplifications, such as email for example.
One of Ferriss’ mantras, which appears often in his written work, is the analogy “minimum effective dose” which he uses to describe the technique of achieving maximum results with minimal effort and time expenditure.
Check out his latest TV series here – http://fourhourworkweek.com/tv/
And is award winning Podcast here – http://fourhourworkweek.com/podcast/