I don’t recall exactly how I was turned on to Time Ferriss, but he’s been a constant in my journey since I began seeking my true self and searching for my purpose. He’s directly or indirectly responsible for a large chunk of my influences and post graduate adult learning. I listen to most podcasts he releases and I own all his books. I haven’t read all the books cover to cover for various reasons, but all of his books aren’t designed to be read cover to cover from page 1 to “The End”. I did however read Tim’s latest book, "Tribe of Mentors", cover to cover. And I did it in a fairly short amount of time (for me) considering it’s 570+ pages.
The full title is “Tribe of Mentors: Short Life Advice From the Best in the World”. Copyright 2017. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing New York, New York. I pre-ordered this book and received a 1st Edition Hardcopy. I can’t remember the cost; just shy of $30 probably.
My first impression of the book was its familiar size. Very similar to rest of his books approximately 9” tall X 7” wide X 2” thick. It doesn’t weigh as much as it looks like it should. Mostly black and gold colored cover with Carolina Blue highlights. No jacket. The paper is off white, grainy, and kinda sticky. Got that good “new book” smell. (Come to think of it, old books smell good too.) It’s bound in a way to create ridges on the fore-edge so thumbing through the book and quickly flipping pages is easy.
As I mentioned, Tim’s books aren’t story books. They more resemble reference books. This particular book is a collection of interviews and the table of contents is the list of 100’ish names of the questionees and where their answers can be found. As a cool twist Tim includes a few of the rejection letters he received from people he’d asked to participate. This addition emphasizes how folks with couth and courtesy say “Thank you but no thank you”.
My favorite feature of the book is that all the interviewees were given the same 11 questions to ponder and respond. Tim dissects each question and reveals how and why he crafted them and what he’s looking to get out of them. The feature of repeated questions makes reading the book very rhythmic. The pages go by quickly and the mind switches to auto-pilot. It’s more like to listening to a conversation than reading. The 11 questions are:
What is the book (or books) you’ve given most as a gift and why? Or what are one to three books that have greatly influenced your life?
What purchase of $100 or less has most positively impacted your life in the last six months or recent memory?
How has a failure, or apparent failure, set you up for later success? Do you have a “favorite failure” of yours?
If you could have one gigantic billboard anywhere with anything on it—metaphorically speaking, getting a message out to millions or billions—what would it say and why? It could be a few words or a paragraph.
What is on the best or most worthwhile investments you’ve ever made? (Money, time, energy, etc…)
What is an unusual habit or absurd thing that you love?
In the last five years, what new belief, or behavior, or habit has most improved your life?
What advice would you give a smart, driven college student about to enter the “real world”? What advice should they ignore?
What are bad recommendations you hear in your profession or area of expertise?
In the last five years, what have you become better at saying no to (distractions, invitations, etc.)? What new realizations and/or approaches helped? Any other tips?
When you feel overwhelmed or unfocused or have lost your focus temporarily, what do you do?
Only high performers were questioned (some of which I was familiar, some not) and they lead us down a rabbit hole with their answers. They suggest enough books, TED talks, poems, articles, authors, etc. to keep anyone busy for years to come. Tim also lists each interviewee’s social media handle(s) so readers can connect and follow on the interwebz.
Tim’s organization of the massive amounts of information in this book is meticulous. He includes a list of recorded conversations from respondents and where to find them online. He includes a mentor index. Not every respondent answered every question so Tim includes an index of questions answered by interviewee. He even includes blank lined pages for readers to use in making their own notes and indexes.
Style and substance of “Tribe of Mentors” is lockstep. An amazingly informative book presented in a friendly conversational style. The books organization is on par with everything else TF has done. “Tribe” didn’t call for as many organizational asides as “Tools of Titans” and that was welcome in my opinion. No decoder rings necessary.
“Tribe of Mentors” will appeal to anyone who’s looking for more shit to read, learn, and get better. It’s a red pill type book that I personally read through one time, took notes, and now leave lying around in the open to conveniently revisit. As a coffee table book intelligent friends will pick it up to read a few passages and instant meaningful conversation should break out. If not, you may want to re-think the folks you let hang out at your place.
