9 Life-Altering Tim Ferriss Quotes That'll Remind You to Stop Giving a F*ck About Useless Stuff

#2 – “Get good at being a troublemaker and saying sorry when you really screw up”

Image Credit-Tim Ferriss via his Facebook (This was Tim’s OKCupid Dating profile pic)

---

Quick note before we get going.

My online course - The Ultimate Guide to Online Income Streams - is available for special Christmas pricing.

Basic details of what’s inside:

• 64 curated case studies of online income streams that work

• A simple method to validate your income stream idea before wasting time on it

• A 1-hour bonus lesson that guides you through the tricky process of crafting a sales page from thin air

• A trick to making Google your full-time revenue idea assistant

• Website free strategies to earn more in less time

• The "Content Avalanche" method to get more customers long-term

That ends in 36 hours.

Then Santa leaves town.

Head here and select “Enroll Now” to join.

---

I’d probably be dead if it wasn’t for Tim Ferriss.

When your mind is completely overcome by dark thoughts, there aren’t many other options. But Tim shook up my worldview.

You might not know it but Tim Ferriss is a controversial figure. He made his early money with a supplement startup called Brain Quicken. Then he wrote a book with the greatest clickbait title in history: The 4-Hour Workweek.

The idea you can work no more than 4 hours a week is irresistible.

Tim’s critics say he invented hustle culture and made outsourcing to third-world countries popular. I disagree. These trends were inevitable. And the point of his famous book isn’t to work 4 hours a week.

Only ignorant people walked away with that 4 hour message after 4 seconds.

Fans are worried about Tim Ferriss after a big breakup

Over the last few years, Tim has mentioned his girlfriend many times.

In 2022, he kept saying they were going to have kids and they’d consider IVF. Then out of nowhere fans found out he was single again.

Tim never explained it.

On Reddit, fans noticed a difference in him. They say he became more outlandish and started to drink too much. Some even said the quality of his podcast with almost 1B downloads became terrible.

Then on a recent Q&A with Tim he said “don’t take dating advice from me. Speak to those who’ve been happily married for a long time and have kids.”

I loved this answer.

Tim is successful at a lot of things but romantic relationships isn’t one of them (yet). The humility he has to admit that is why I still consume every new thing he creates.

There are so many gurus and not enough real leaders.

A few years back we got to know Tim in another light. He shared his story of being s*xually abused as a small child. He didn’t even realize it happened to him until he went to a silent meditation retreat and it all came back to him.

In the one sense, he’s a victim. But in a more empowering sense, his childhood abuse forced him to become disciplined and follow an unconventional path.

Tragedy is a hidden opportunity.

Here are 9 life-altering quotes from Tim that’ll remind you to stop giving a f*ck about dumb stuff.

1. “The commonsense rules of the ‘real world’ are a fragile collection of socially reinforced illusions”

People become obsessed with rules.

They think what their employer says is gospel. They take “get a degree then a good job” literally. But a lot of rules are illusions.

They’re a loose set of concepts that can be interpreted a million different ways.

When I was 16 I got into the equivalent of college. Through some bizarre set of circumstances the admin person never checked my ID. So I got a to start adulthood 2 years earlier than most.

I also started driving by myself at 16 when the legal age in Australia to drive was 18.

Then when I entered the world of banking, I ignored the requirement to have a finance degree.

I just started at the bottom of the corporate ladder like a sh*t kicker and read finance books after hours while parked in my Holden Astra outside Crown Casino in Melbourne. Eventually I learned more from reading about finance than the smartasses in suits who had MBAs.

While the qualified types had big egos, I learned, the underqualified types like me just hung out in the “Dealing Room” (the place where all the trading happens).

I’m not saying you should break the law and become Ted Bundy. But it’s worth challenging the rules and rewriting them in your favor. You can achieve 5 years progress in 90 days when you do.

Yet most won’t challenge the rules.

They see them as black and white and follow the rules until they walk off a cliff into normality and adopt routines that produce excruciating boredom.

Rules are illusions.

2. “Get good at being a troublemaker and saying sorry when you really screw up”

My local council thinks I’m a troublemaker.

A noisy neighbor pissed me off. I told the council. They ignored me. So I knocked on the door of 112 residents with my daughter strapped to my chest in a baby carrier and got them all to sign a petition.

The council still ignored me.

So I took them through the legal system. They didn’t like it. They called me a troublemaker again. They got fancy lawyers to attack me. I fought back.

When the council had a local event, I showed up and spoke to the mayor. When they had council meetings, I showed up with other neighbors to peacefully protest.

Now the odds have shifted in our favor. People are listening.

Sometimes you’ve gotta stand up for what you believe in. People think you’ll give up, but when you don’t, you take them by surprise and they eventually get out of your way.

When you adopt this mindset there is a chance you screw up. I did recently. I threw a council employee under the bus. He was innocent but got caught in the crossfire. So…I apologized to his boss and now we’re sweet.

Don’t let the prospect of having to say sorry stop you.

3.

“90% of people in the world are convinced they are incapable of achieving great things, so they aim for the mediocre. 

The level of competition is thus fiercest for “realistic” goals, paradoxically making them the most time- and energy-consuming.”

People talk themselves out of their dreams.

It makes me sad. The competition is on the bottom end. The job market is flooded with applicants. If all you do is choose the cubicle life, this is what you’ll face. But when you start doing hard and interesting things, the competition drops right off.

I’ve been writing online for almost 10 years. I have almost no competition because no one else seems to be willing to write daily, tweet 7 times a day, read a lot of books, send out a weekly newsletter, and grow on Substack.

Just showing up for an unreasonable amount of time at an unreasonable frequency eliminates 99% of the competition. I wish more people knew this.

Stay the hell away from ‘average.’ That’s where it’s paradoxically the hardest to survive.

4. “What we fear doing most is usually what we most need to do”

There isn’t a day that goes by when I don’t get an email from a reader that says some version of “I can’t do X because I fear Y.”

You’re supposed to feel fear.

If a goal is full of fear then it’s NOT something to avoid. Fear isn’t an excuse. Fear is a compass…it leads towards growth. Fear is energy that can be redirected toward a big goal. I love to feel fear. If I go a few months without fear, then I feel like I’m dying.

The sh*t you’re afraid of is what’s holding you back.

If you knew you would die tomorrow, would you still fear these things? Nope. So pretend this is your reality and act despite the fear you feel.

Fear = The Good Life

5.

“For all of the most important things, the timing always sucks. Waiting for a good time to quit your job? 

The stars will never align and the traffic lights of life will never all be green at the same time. The universe doesn't conspire against you, but it doesn't go out of its way to line up the pins either. Conditions are never perfect. 

‘Someday’ is a disease that will take your dreams to the grave with you. Pro and con lists are just as bad. If it's important to you and you want to do it ‘eventually,’ just do it and correct course along the way.”

The ‘someday’ types piss me off.

They piss all over their dreams and live in a future reality that’s nothing more than a naughty p*rn fantasy. It’s never a good time to do anything. Read that again.

Waiting for the stars to align and for the timing to be right is a great way to ruin your life. If it’s important then do it. You’ll find a way. You’ll make time if it’s crucial.

The easiest solution I’ve found for this problem is to stop chasing these piss-weak things:

• Passion

• Purpose

• Meaning

• Interests

I do none of this. I follow obsessions. I’m addicted to what I do. I don’t delay my writing habit because it’s all I want to do. I quit my job to do it. I’m all-in and there’s no turning back. I have to make it work, otherwise my baby daughter starves.

This level of intensity eliminates almost every other problem. The roadblocks in your way become clear and the next steps are obvious.

You only have now. Tomorrow you could be dead.

6. “A person's success in life can usually be measured by the number of uncomfortable conversations he or she is willing to have”

This one is hard to talk about.

I’m a people-pleaser at heart. I don’t want to say cruel things or piss people off, yet it’s how I now make a living. Telling people what they want to hear doesn’t help them – read that ten more times.

As you get better at having uncomfortable conversations, you start to resolve conflicts faster. I always start with empathy and compassion.

I have the uncomfortable conversation while simultaneously trying to see the world through their eyes. It makes everything easier. Once they can see that I can see what they see, it makes solutions easier to stumble upon.

Half the problem in society is people don’t want to change their mind.

They’re fixed in their thinking. They’re a concrete statue who refuses to believe they could be wrong or missing key information. So they stay the same. They hold the fort.

Then one day an earthquake cracks their concrete exterior and their up sh*t creek without a paddle.

Have the hard conversations. Tell people what you think, respectfully. Avoiding conflict creates more conflict. It’s why suppressing free speech has been a dangerous virus that’s done more harm than good.

Either we talk about uncomfortable truths…or they go underground and turn into full-blown conspiracy theories that turn nice people into monsters. And give rise to cult leaders like Andrew Hate (you know the guy).

7. “Whatever you feel you have been assigned in life, the hand you have been dealt genetically, is actually very, very malleable”

Victims. Victims everywhere.

We all get dealt a rough hand in at least one area of life. The issue isn’t what we’re given, it’s what the bloody hell are we gonna do about it.

Sit down and take it up the butt from society? Hell no.

I didn’t win the genetic lottery either. I didn’t have much money growing up. Yet these became huge advantages. I couldn’t rely on model looks to get ahead. I had to learn about money so I wouldn’t be broke forever.

The problem isn’t oppression.

It’s accepting the hand you’ve been dealt as fact and doing nothing about it. Turn oppression into free energy. It’s the best form of motivation there is.

8. “The world is changed by your example, not by your opinion”

I got hate mail today.

Apparently, comparing your daughter’s first words to a Martin Luther King speech is racist. Thankfully, I block nitpickers and those who try and take my words and twist them into some evil plot to support their warped worldview.

Opinions are like buttholes - everybody’s got one.

Opinions don’t change the world. No. Action does. If you don’t like something then take action and fix it. Don’t sit there like a keyboard warrior with your pants down, dishing out abuse at people online for no good reason.

Greta Thunberg (love or hate her) didn’t become influential by throwing mud at politicians. Nope. She stopped going to school in quiet protest and sat in places where she couldn’t be ignored. Then she dared to challenge authority and get people to support the cause.

All these TikTok monkeys with big opinions and no action are spineless. One of the boldest things you can do is take a big problem and start a business to solve it.

I’m trying to do that with writing. I believe writing online creates more opportunities for people. So I created a movement for people to do exactly that.

It’s more helpful than staying at home while eating McDonald’s and flinging dog poo at the 9-5 corporations that run the world. Or spreading fear about how AI is going to rob us of every job ever created.

Action > Words

9. “People will choose unhappiness over uncertainty”

Tim Ferriss nailed it with this idea.

If you don’t embrace uncertainty then what you get by default is unhappiness.

Some of the darkest moments of my life were replacing all uncertainty with a predictable job that didn’t use my creativity or imagination. Every day I had this sinking feeling. I felt like I was born to do more.

If you’re not a fan of taking big risks then you can slowly embrace uncertainty. What I did to make the shift was sign up for public speaking events at my local Toastmasters Club. Public speaking felt scarier than kissing a deadly snake on the lips.

The first week I spoke for 30 seconds, then 60, 120, and eventually 20 minutes.

No one’s saying to walk into a bank naked with a shotgun and ask for $100. No. But you can gradually increase your happiness levels by purposely choosing more uncomfortable situations.

Put yourself on the line. Lean into uncertainty, it’s where all the excitement is found.

---

I send this email weekly. If you would also like to receive it, join the 101,000+ other smart people who absolutely love it today.

👉 If you enjoy reading this post, feel free to share it with friends! Or feel free to click the ❤️ button on this post so more people can discover it on Substack 🙏