Tim Ferriss | Rituals, Reinventing Success & the Power of Failure

27:43It will only increase it. Yeah. And I would add, if I may add one, one more thing. No, you're good. Let me just add one more thing. So, so because Gary's mentioning some potential peak life experiences that you could have, which may be part of the impetus or dream related to building this business, I would say a year from now, try to schedule four or more weeks where you are not part of the system. And in other words, if you schedule at least four weeks, has to be at least four weeks, off the grid where other people are making decisions for your business, what that means is prior to leaving on that vacation to Spain or wherever it might be, you have to put systems in place, rules, policies, people, et cetera, that will allow you to do that without everything falling apart.

28:33And those systems then outlive the vacation and you come back and that helps you then to scale because you've proven that you are not the bottleneck for every and all decisions. But you have to force that. If you just say, I'm going to make an effort to build it, that's generally not going to be enough. But if you've pre-committed to yourself and your boyfriend, maybe even other people in your family, you've bought plane tickets. now you have accountability. And, and that's very, very, I've seen it be very helpful for entrepreneurs who want to scale, but not to do so by bleeding out their eyeballs.

29:02And now that we're just going high level, we're just really jamming here and playing a little ping pong. Let me talk about accountability. You know, buying plane tickets may be accountability for a big percentage of people because it's a financial one. It took me realizing at 38 years old that I'm only accountable to other human beings, not money. And that's how I hacked my health finally, I hired a full-time health employee, and I didn't wanna let Mike and now Jordan down, so I wasn't competing with myself or letting myself down, that's why I wasn't winning that game. But once I realized my accountability was actually other human beings, that's how I hacked that.

29:37So Tim's right, but then make sure it's not money, because you might be like, screw it, who cares about the$2 ,000 of plane flights? The people are really important. This is part of the reason before we started recording, I was saying that after reading an article called The Tail End by Tim Urban, Wait But Why, which had a huge impact on me, how I related to my family and realizing that by the time I think you graduate from high school, you've spent 80 % of the total hours you will ever spend with your parents before they die. I started scheduling every six months a trip with my family. Now I'm taking my family on this trip, but it's also extremely beneficial to me because I'm taking in this extended trip every six months and I have to ensure systems are in place.

30:15And so it's, it's a fantastic way to raise other people up while also improving your business game at the same time. I love it. I hope that helps. Yeah, absolutely. Fortunately, my boyfriend is just as entrepreneurial as I am. So we love this stuff. So thank you so much. You're welcome. Have a great day. Love you guys. Hey everybody. Actually, if you're a really hardcore listener, you know, I never do this. I'm sorry to be jumping in the middle of the podcast but the truth is I'm like shitting the bed on this everybody else is getting people to review on Spotify and Apple and like the Vayner Nation does none of that if this podcast has ever meant anything to you please go to Spotify or Apple right now and leave a review by the way even if you give me a one star review because you think it's shit I respect it but just leave a review an actual review yeah that would mean something for me so thanks now back to the podcast let's get another call you know it's super interesting I mean like you know the reality is is that that restrictions, Snapchat, creating a restriction to the openness of social at the time had the real upside.

31:17I think in life, those restrictions are a huge deal as well. Huge, huge, huge. And I think people aren't putting those barriers there. And the reason I got so excited when you said buy the plane tickets, I didn't realize that money wasn't my barrier anymore. And I've had different levels of money. I was never trading on money. And so once I figured myself out, I'm like, ooh, I'm a good CEO, because I don't like to let people down. I work for them, not them me. And that's how I've been able to hack and I think it's super important for people to get inside themselves to understand those things. Who's this?

31:47Charlie. Charlie speaking. Charlie, this is Gary Vee. You're on the Ask Gary Vee Show with Tim Ferriss. My man Gary, what's up, Brent? Things are good, Charlie, how are you? Man, life is good. Good man, what's your question? Alright, I need two answers from you guys. One from each of you. You got it.

32:10How y 'all run y 'all's businesses. Real quick, you chopped off for a second, Charlie. One more time. I said, what have y 'all learned from hip-hop that has transformed how y 'all run your businesses? I love it. Is that CEO Charlie? Charlie, I didn't catch your name. I love it. I'm so glad you're on the call, man. How are you doing? Man, life is good. Never been better. How's Titty Boy? Man, Titty Boy is doing amazing. Witness all around me like a pool. You say, oh. A.K.A. 2 Chainz for all of you guys that don't know. Tim, what is your hip-hop story, if at all? I'm actually not sure I know. Yeah, you know, so believe it or not, I was one of the co-founders of the first hip-hop dance troupe at Princeton University.

32:51I'm so excited right now. And so this hip-hop dance troupe, so b-boying and b-girling, is my history primarily. Interesting. So I was listening to, you know, at the time, like Eric B. and Rakim and so on. Of course. But the dance troupe, which is still going strong now, I mean, more than two decades later. So I would say what I learned from hip hop is that there are certain, at least within the dance forms, that there are certain techniques and there are certain basic principles, let's say, in top rocking and footwork and power moves and all of that. So they're basic ingredients. But beyond that, you have the power to improvise and that the rules are almost meant to be broken.

33:34Like if you look at, for instance, Korean B-Boys and what they've done in the last 10 years, B-Boy Pocket, especially if people want to see power moves that will blow their minds, can keep redefining this genre that is still recognizable as hip hop. And that's part of what's so exciting to me about it is that while you have this, this recognizability and pattern matching, you still as an individual have so much freedom to create. And that's true in business. That's true in how you decide to interact with your loved ones, whatever the rules of engagement might be there. And so I think it, I think it can be translated to almost every possible area, including, including business where I make a point of breaking, uh, my own rules repeatedly as experiments to see what happens.

34:20And I do that in terms of formats in the podcast. I do that in terms of how I communicate with my employees. So I think it's very, very far ranging. Charlie, for me, the, and you know, I grew up in a culture in Edison, New Jersey that really embraced it. Fifth grade for me was Adidas with no shoelaces. I was all about it. But here's what's interesting. Everybody told me, our teachers told us in fifth grade in 85 that it's not music. It was obviously urban and minority. I grew up on MTV when Michael Jackson wasn't being played on MTV and like politics had to be played to have him on. So here's what I learned in the 25 years that I've paid attention to it, close from afar, close from afar.

35:12If you're tried and true, the market will come to you. What is super interesting to me about hip hop is it is now a absolute fundamental pillar of our culture across all genres and it stayed true to itself. Now if it evolved, but the world came to hip hop, hip hop didn't go to the world. And then I realized as I got older, oh rock and roll did the same thing. And honestly, that's what happened with me in entrepreneurship. Unlike Timmy who's incredibly good at girth and super smart at things that I'm not, he was a really good student and he'll tell you, you're 40 Tim? Yeah, 40. I'm turn 42 tomorrow.

35:53We grew up in an era Charlie, that a lot of these kids are not growing up in, which was entrepreneurship wasn't a thing. You were judged by, I went to Mount Ida College, Tim went to Princeton, and that was the judge and the jury when we were 18, 19. Tim was a winner, I was a loser. And then to watch Tim break out of the model of what every Princeton kid did, went a very different path. And a lot of cynicism, I'm sure, from the bankers and all the other people that he went to class with, and I'm sure there was plenty of jokes and cynicism behind his back, and now all of those people who are watching right now would a hell of a lot be more excited to be this path than the alternative.

36:33Hip hop, let the world come to it. And I think the biggest thing in business is you have a product or service that people don't see. And the other thing Tim and I share is we were there early for a lot of these products that nobody knew in the mass world. We knew in our little subculture, but people didn't know. Like ordering an Uber would seem ridiculous. That's why I passed, Tim's smarter. You know, it's, you know, or Twitter. or Twitter or all these other things. The world came, when Tim, listen, there was a lot of entrepreneurs, Patty Flynn, JLD, Lewis House, but when Tim did his podcast, I don't know the timing of you and those three, but when Tim did his podcast, it was earlier, things had happened, he wasn't the first, but he was the biggest when he did it.

37:16And that was still 24 months earlier than I did it or others did it. And he reaped the benefits of that, right? I've had those moments on Snapchat or Instagram or things of that nature. You know, YouTube for sure. By the way, fun fact, there's another video with Tim and I. We're much younger, we're drinking wine and it's like eight years old. We may have to slice that into the post-production. I have more hair. Yeah, me too. And so, you know, I think that, Charlie, my answer is if you believe in your thing, stick with it and the world will come to you. If you're passionate about cricket protein, This is not a joke by the way now.

37:55This is actually something I think is gonna work out. If you're passionate about cricket protein, bet the farm on it because if you see it and you understand why you see it, it's gonna be a lot of fun in nine years when we're all eating it and you are there, not because it's not selling right now. Most of the things that have brought good to Tim and I, because I can definitely speak for myself and I've watched from afar and sometimes close with Tim, people weren't super sure about at the time, we're playing on being historically correct, hip hop was historically correct. That's right. Appreciate it, Charlie.

38:28Keep hustling, man. I'm impressed with you. I also love your health transformation, which has been epic. Thank you, Gary. You're welcome, brother. I'll talk to you soon. All right. Right? I mean, for example, you experiment on yourself on all sorts. You are out there taking all sorts of concoctions and doing mental stuff that I know, not for me, I won't do it because it's not natural for me, but I know you're going to be historically correct. Like I watch it and I'm like, fuck man, I wish I had that gear. Cause he's going to be like pee in 30 years. People are like fucking Ferris was doing that shit in 2007.

39:00You know that, right? No, well, I, a lot of it. I mean, if you look at for our body, 2010, a lot of that is now proven out. I mean, the vast majority of the book, which is cool. But I would also say that, uh, that if you look, whether it's hip hop or me doing all these weird experiments, are you doing your thing? it's easier for us to indulge that obsession and to do that thing no matter how weird it is than to hold it inside, right? Correct, we have no other option. No, right, and it's like when you have that feeling that's a really positive indicator in a lot of cases, right? Like people ask me, should I write a book?

39:36And I'm like, no, probably not. I mean, it's in the sense that I write books because I have these things trapped in my head and I have to get them out or I'll drive myself crazy. Do you feel like you, I, a couple other people are empowering people to do that for their thing? I think so. Do you feel like you're a motivator to others to go tried and true because you're so deeply tried and true to your thing? I hope so because I - Do you like that idea or is it, or that doesn't come to your mind? I like the idea of showing people both the successes and the failures so they can see net net that it's actually low risk.

40:11If that makes sense. Like net net. If you're, if you're developing skills and relationships and that's how you choose your projects and you're not trying to appeal to the entire world, you're trying to find your 1000 true fans who are just as crazy about cricket protein or whatever it might be as you are over time, you will make mistakes. You will have what people perceive as failures, but over time you will win. It's just, it's almost inevitability. And so if I can showcase that for people where they're like, Oh, I saw Tim Ferriss publicly face plant when he did a, B and C and television, that didn't work out.

40:42I saw him try this new thing with this one book. That didn't work out, but still, in between, he had this huge success and this huge success. You're talking about the Amazon thing? Yeah. No, really, I mean, listen, I mean, 90 % of the stuff we do doesn't work. When Sid and I are supposed to have an international domination tour in 2017 of all my content being transcribed all over the place, he texted me three days ago, he's like, really hope that we can get focused on the international tour, it's fucking November. Like, you know, like, we're losing all the time. Yeah. And it doesn't matter. Like if you get a few things right, you can screw up almost everything else.

41:18And one thing right sometimes. Yeah. Sometimes one thing right. If it's big enough. Yeah, for sure. And I think that, you know, for that reason, I don't, somebody asked me not too long ago, if I viewed myself as a role model, I wouldn't use that. I think I don't want people to try to be me, but if they can take lessons from watching my public successes and failures and that gives them the courage to try something because they've now realized that it's in fact very low risk or reversible tim great self-esteem yeah something i've been talking about a lot over the last 18 months more than ever before why do you think you had it mom dad environment something i don't know I don't know, I'm asking, I don't know.

42:02But you have it, you're talking right now, and I'm like, I connect with it tremendously because it is the drug. It is the one that, like, you're right. Like, let me ask you, I'm gonna ask a bunch of things because I'm gonna get it out here. Do you like the failures more than the successes? No. Okay, I do. Yeah, yeah. Are you gonna chocolate? I think. What is that? It looks delicious. Sorry. Arms reach, keep it out of arms reach. I felt that I was going ADD now. It's like a blood house. I knew I could feel the chemicals in my head. I'm like, I'm about to get random. Because I've been staying very calm for very long.

42:39I've been trying to keep this vibe and I'm like, I'm about to fucking explode. So real quick, but real quick, so I really do, and I'm not kidding. I mean, look, let me phrase, maybe I just like them the same. I definitely am not scared of them and I definitely like them a lot more than I think a lot of people. Why do you have self-esteem? Do you think, from your standpoint? Yeah. So let me answer a few different things. Uh, not necessarily in that order, but I would say, so I, I hate, I greatly dislike failure. Uh, I love being underestimated. So if someone says, Oh, Tim Ferriss is trying X. He's never, that's never going to work.

43:16I'm like, great. Then it's nothing but upside. It's already assumed that it's going to be a worst case scenario. It's, I have nothing but upside. I love that. Uh, as your brand has grown, as your successes have grown, Do you like trying to do new things because you're trying to scratch that itch? In part, definitely. Yeah, me too. Yeah, because if I'm doing the same thing, then it's like, it's kind of like being Serena Williams. She's like, oh yeah, no, like if you don't win Wimbledon, we will be disappointed. No, no, the grand slam. Yeah, like you have to win everything because we expect you to or we're going to be disappointed.

43:44It's so ridiculous. My God. That's tough. That's terrible. But on the self-esteem bit, I'm going to give you an answer that might surprise you. Uh, so I have spent for a host of reasons that I don't necessarily want to get into right now, but some, some really like dark, bad stuff when I was a kid that, uh, I spent the most, the vast majority of my life disliking myself. And that's something that I've tried to, I've realized is not an optional piece of the puzzle. Like you cannot love other people fully if you just tolerate yourself 100 and so if not for yourself for other people your family your loved ones you have to reconcile bits and pieces inside of you and the reason i say that is the i think what i could attribute my successes to is more the fact that i was confident i could train myself to absorb or tolerate very high levels of pain to outwork other people to win in sports like wrestling, which is all pain, right?

44:54And so I chose arenas in which I felt like even if I lacked the technical gifts, even if I lacked certain coaching advantages, that I could still win because I could just outlast other people. And I enjoyed being an instrument of competition. And I still do. I mean, I love competing. I just, I'm better in competition than I am in rehearsal. I understand. Yeah, it's like, it's really weird, but that's just me. I feed off of it. How much time did you spend in your own head in your teenage years? A lot, because I was horribly, I mean, you and I, I've known of some of your backstory. And certainly, I mean, you're in this, right?

45:35And I'm talking about some of the bullying experiences and I was tiny kid until about sixth grade. I got my ass kicked. I mean, it was like Lord of the flies every day. I mean, I had to race my bike home so I wouldn't get the shit kicked out of me. And, uh, so that I think developed a lot of anger in me and I used that as a fuel. I was an angry kid. I was not, I mean, there were moments of happiness for sure. And I had a good family life, but I was an angry kid. And so in high school, uh, I was very, um, solitary. I did not, I wasn't a social butterfly at all. And I think I'm an introvert who can pretend to be not pretend to be an extrovert.

46:16I can, I'm an introverse. Yeah. I'm an introvert who, who recognizes the value of being extroverted for certain things. It's really interesting. I was to teach. It's very difficult to teach. I view myself as a teacher, not a writer. it's very difficult to teach well if I'm overly introverted it's interesting I was thinking about I knew we were going to hang today I was just like you reverse engineer I thought about all the time I realized something very interesting out of the people I know and we've gotten to spend some time together it's interesting how much of our time together has been one on one in the 13, 11, 9, 16 times we've hung out I'm like holy shit why is 75 % of that time in that coffee shop and say, on the grassy knoll at South by Southwest.

46:59Like I was like, wow, you know, it was interesting to me and it just made me think a little bit about that. Yeah, I don't do terribly well in groups. I shouldn't say that. I don't do well in big groups, but if I, for instance, if I do a book signing, I need two or three days to recover from that. It's so depleting for me because I want to be on. It's not like, oh great, nice to meet you, goodbye. Like I'm so in it. I mean, I'm looking through somebody, like into them, not just at them. Yeah, I get it. But yeah, I need a lot of solo time to recharge. I get it. Let's do one more question.

47:34Adam?

47:38Chips on shoulders, man. Yeah. They're such a fucking advantage. Jesus Christ. Like, you just, chips are good, boy. Chips are good. They're good until they're not. Yeah, of course, if you don't know how to control it. It gets real bad. You and I could have been real fucking friends. No, really, I mean, we could have been known for way, way more stuff than we were. Adam, it's Gary Vee, you're on the Ask Gary Vee Show with two guys with chips on their shoulder. Oh my God. Hey, Gary, hey, Tim. How are you? Hey, I'm doing great. I'm actually in class, I just walked out. That's a very good strategy.

48:17What can we help you with? Well, I was memorizing my questions, I can't remember what it was. Okay, my question is, for a foreign student, not foreign student, I'm sorry. I'm just like choking right now. No worries. We got you. We're not hanging up. Okay. So for someone like me who just traveled from Asia or Malaysia to US and I'm 20 years old, so I just started college and all that. And I watched many of your videos about being into hospital and basically going into this entrepreneurial land, like you said. So where do I start? I want to start doing things. I want to start experiencing things, but I don't know where to start.

49:08So real quick, and this seems like this could get real good, actually, for a couple reasons. Tim said something super interesting earlier about should I write books? And he was like, no. and I came out the gate with the hustle and the entrepreneur thing. For our work, you crush it. You have these moments where you've got a lot of more life to live to reconcile those headlines that people put you into.

49:36As I hear your question, and I've been doing a lot more of this over the last two years, which I think is a maturity that I'm happy with, do you have to be an entrepreneur? To me, I always think about the number eight at Facebook versus the number one of the nine million things that didn't work. You know, I want to make sure that I'm not inspiring something that sounds great but isn't really you. Or do you feel like you are and maybe the culture you grew up with suppressed that in school? Like, what's your read right now at a young age? Are you excited about that? Do you need it? Like, why are you gravitating?

50:12Because when I hear, how do I start an entrepreneur? I'm scared already because when you're a purebred, you don't, I don't know, fucking go buy something at the dollar store right now and post it on Craigslist. I mean, that feels very raw and real to me. The modern day entrepreneur of like making a deck and raising$4 million on an idea and this and that, that is student entrepreneurship, sometimes not, but like I'm curious where you are. Right now, obviously, I have no background experience in sales or being an entrepreneur. In fact, I just recently have the, not the urge, what's the word for it?

50:51It's like I just wanted to be an entrepreneur because you really inspired me to be there. And I saw because my mom, she's in marketing sales. So it kind of picks up from there. And for now, I'm actually in liberal arts, which I'm actually planning to change to business, international business major. but that was another question that I was about to ask you if it's the right path if I want to be an entrepreneur and I am very passionate to be an entrepreneur. Okay, Adam, let me jump in here for a second. Where do you live right now? Sorry? Where do you live right now? I'm living in Rochester right now in area.

51:31All right. So there are a few thoughts that I have for you. The first is that there are as many paths to entrepreneurship as there are entrepreneurs. There's no one right way. So the most important thing that I would want to convey first is that you're not going to make any fatal mistake at 20 that's going to prevent you from being an entrepreneur for the rest of your life. You could you could have 20 failed businesses and then still go on to be a billionaire all time. Right. You could be whatever you probably don't know who Wayne Gretzky is. But the Wayne Gretzky and Mike Tyson, maybe if you get that of of your chosen field.

52:06So I would say, number one, don't be afraid of your first steps because there really isn't any clearly defined path. My recommendation at 20 would be to not try to memorize the entire playbook and start from scratch. What I would potentially consider is finding a small, fast-growing company nearby and either interning or volunteering or doing something that allows you to be in any room with people who are negotiating and deal-making. Because at the end of the day, it could be real estate. It could be design. It could be web services. it really doesn't matter what the industry is. It's the skill set.

52:51So you want to get very good at crafting deals and persuading and negotiating. And the easiest way to get good at that is to observe someone who is doing that regularly, whether that's on the phone or otherwise. So I would suggest that you look for opportunities to learn from other people who are already good at deal making and negotiating, because you will use that in everything, whether you're buying, selling or anything in between. Just to answer your other question, and then we can hop around a little bit. Well, first, actually, to identify your obsession, if you want to do that, that could be part of your journey.

53:30There's a book called Small Giants by Bo Burlingham, which I would recommend checking out, which profiles a number of different businesses that are not intended to scale. So you might have a woman who makes leather pants for the most famous rock musicians in the world and she makes a hundred of those a year and she makes a few hundred thousand dollars and she only accepts clients she loves and that's it that's a real analogy you made that's real that sounds cool and like cheryl crowe's like one of her whatever one of her clients and so that's one you can take a look at and just to your question about college and majors so i was a liberal arts major and i was in neuroscience that didn't work out and then i went to east asian studies and studied japanese and chinese that has from the outside looking in nothing to do with what I'm doing right now.

54:15However, I would say that it is very hard to learn business in a school setting. That's just, it's like learning how to play football by reading books about it and then trying to go to the Super Bowl. It just does not tend to work out very well. So if you are going to stay in school and I'm of the mind that there is some value in that depending on your circumstances and certainly your parents would probably like that if I had to guess. So view college as a way to become a better rounded human being. And also if you are interested to develop certain skills, like I would, if you were to say to me, my passion is entrepreneurship, a hundred percent, that's all I want to do.

54:54I would probably tell you to take computer science and math classes before business. Cause if you have those skills, you can figure out the businessy stuff in a three day tutorial from someone. Uh, so those are, those are a few thoughts, but just my perspective based on my life experiences. Brother, let me tell you something. Entrepreneurship is tricky right now because it feels like anybody can do it. You don't see Steph Curry at 20 and say, I'm inspired now, I'm gonna be an NBA player and think that that's tangible. Entrepreneurship has zero cost of entry. It's awfully cool right now. And it's very scary for me.

55:33One of the things I'm trying to combat, Adam, is people jumping in because I'm an inspiring character but it was what I always was and always will be. And so I think that there's a lot there from Tim that's important. You can't think it's that easy to just be inspired and be successful at something. I would spend more time tasting. I think you should try to do as many things as possible and to Tim's credit and point, try to surround yourself. I would really pour on the extrovert nature. I'm empathetic, immigrant in a new country or an exchange or whatever you want to call it. So it might not come as natural to roll up on anybody.

56:12You might just be introverted by nature. But I would take advantage. Well-rounded person in college, I get it. I know that's a narrative. To me, it's just take advantage of a captive group of people in the same place and try to meet as many people as possible. Entrepreneurship is hard. Being a successful entrepreneur is stunningly rare. Way more than people think, Adam. So I think patience also, 20 years old, I mean, to Tim's point, the next 10 years you can taste fail. It's why I'm pushing people to get closer to big time mentors because what you will siphon out of them is gonna be so much more ROI positive.

56:45Don't put pressure on yourself to thinking it's either school or entrepreneurship. There are so many twists and turns. Yeah, there's a lot on the spectrum, which is, you know, Gary, you and I, I think see this a lot in our respective audiences where people make a false dichotomy out of full-time employment or full-time entrepreneurship. That's it. And no, there's actually a spectrum in between. So as a student, for instance, one thing that I did when I was in college, which you might consider, is becoming a part or beginning a student club or a student union of some type. Love that. So that you have to sell membership.

57:21You have to actually take notes, keep track of records, right? So if there's something, it doesn't matter what it is. Like if you are, say, the graphics editor of the school newspaper, you're going to have to learn how to deal with deadlines. You're going to have to learn how to maybe interact with ad sales because so-and-so is buying a two-page spread. Now you have to integrate and reflow the entire design of the magazine. These are all experiences that mimic the real world, meaning non-school world. So I would encourage you to learn on someone else's dime. At school, you aren't necessarily paying a lot for your mistakes, which relates also to my recommendation to maybe work within a smaller company where you have the opportunity to observe a really good deal maker, where you can make mistakes and someone else is paying for that education.

58:06Adam, do me a favor also. Buy something on Craigslist or eBay or a store and resell it on the internet. Figure it out. Just go through the exercise. The exercise of buying something and selling it for a profit is an incredible, incredible indicator and exposes a lot in the game because it's always some level of buying and selling, just do that. It's a very easy, fun or not fun venture and it will be quite telling in the success or non-success you have if you do it a couple of times. I'll give one more. Good. Which is actually, so Adam, I don't know you but I've spent a good amount of time in Singapore and Malaysia.

58:47So another exercise I would suggest because entrepreneurship, if you choose to take that route, is full of uncertainty and what I would suggest and also nervousness in many cases. So when you go out to get a cup of coffee or tea or whatever it is, and this is borrowed from a friend of mine named Noah Kagan, ask for 10 % off. So like for the next 10 coffees that you get, each time you get to the head of the line, I don't care if it's Starbucks, it doesn't matter if they say yes or not, but ask for a 10 % discount. You can't say you're doing an experiment. You can't say that Tim Ferriss told you so.

59:22You just have to ask for 10 % off. and just sit there and wait for them to respond. Did you do this, Tim? Yeah. And what were the conversions? Well, it makes you more comfortable with discomfort. And you also realize the downside is so limited. The downside is you just - I respect the macro amazingness. No, no, no. What were the conversions? Oh, the conversions. Yeah, how'd you do? Oh, the conversions are surprisingly high. I mean, like 70%. Seven of the 10 people at a Starbucks or Pete's Coffee or some random place were like, okay, sir. Yeah, or they're just like so stunned that they're like, wait, this is Starbucks.

59:54and I'm like, I know. I would still love, I would really appreciate 10 % off and like half the time there's like, okay, okay guy, sure. Yeah, I don't want to fight this fight right now. So okay, fine, 10 % off. Yeah, knock yourself out. I love it. And try some of those things, get back to us, okay? All right, thank you very much. Good luck, good luck. What else, Timmy, as we're wrapping up? What else? What else is going on in your world? Anything else. How are your start, your investment? Are you still investing? I haven't really done any investment for about two years. Yeah, me neither. Yeah, yeah.

1:00:23I've been out for about six. I've stepped out. Me too. You just think it's overpriced, it's hard to pick the winners as much? Yes. Too much supply in terms of cash. And too much, this is going to sound like a crushy old man, but maybe that's me. A lot of also entitlement. If my startup isn't valued at pre-money 30 million because I had an idea while I was taking a dump 10 minutes ago, then I'm insulted. It's like, no, no, no, you have to earn that. And so I like to wait. I mean, things go in cycles. I will definitely be investing again, but I'll wait until there's blood in the streets. What about voice?

1:00:58That seems to me like the closest thing to social I've seen in a long time. I'm going to probably invest in that space. The platform building on top of Alexa and Google Home. I'm real bullish on it. Oh, I think it's going to be a super active space. I think it's probably also going to be a very crowded space. Just like, say, blockchain and AI and all of that. So when you move into a crowded space, you just have to make sure that you have an informational or analytical advantage so that you can pick reasonably intelligently. And at this point in time, I'm allocating my brain space to, you know, more of the writing and the podcast and so on.

1:01:32So that I don't have, I think, I don't have enough bandwidth to do a financially responsible job. I would just be spraying and praying or being like, Oh, my 10 friends are in. Okay, fine. Yeah. I mean, we did a lot of that, which I don't want to do because all of my friends who have funds have too much money. So they're, they're spending more money than I should as an individual. So I would say, um, uh, you just, just maybe as an overlay on everything we've been talking about that a lot of folks look at me and some people assume that I'm a risk taker. Oh, he's loves risk. He loves taking no risk, no reward and all this.

1:02:09I am so focused on risk mitigation at all times, you know, and, and, uh, because in the height of everything, we're living it. I decided to build a client service business. No, really? No, I get it. But I think that's in part because you and I have had so much practice capping the downside and like walking through that rehearsal. Like, all right, can I, can I actually stomach and handle the worst case scenario? If so, all right, I'll cap my downside. And then eventually the upside will take care of itself. And, you know, like you shared, um, in, in a tribe mentors, this is another one I think about a lot, which is when you feel overwhelmed or unfocused, you know, what do you think, what do you do or what do you think about?

1:02:47and your answer was, if you're going through something very difficult, you imagine your family dying in a terrible accident and it puts it in perspective. It's like, there are problems that we put in quotation marks and we make a big deal out of on a day-to-day basis and then there are tragedies and crises and real dark things that can happen. And when you put it in perspective, you're like, oh yeah, whatever, getting my coffee 20 minutes late and it's cold, maybe not a big deal. Maybe that should not occupy any of my mind. Big, lost a huge account. Lots of million dollars. Yeah. And you know, one thing that came up again and again when I was talking to these various mentors in different fields is the idea that sometimes you need life to save you from what you want, to give you what you need.

1:03:30So sometimes losing that account, you look back five years later and you're like, best thing that ever happened. The best. Tim, you get to ask the question of the day. All the guests on the show get to ask the question of the day. It's a great opportunity for you to get thousands of answers on Facebook and YouTube. I know you like to get consumer insights and things of that nature. Oh, I do. Or a favorite color. I could care less wherever you want to go. Timmy fired away. All right, Timothy, Timothy, camera one. Is that where I'm looking? I think that one actually, right? Yep. This one. All right.

1:03:56Uh, question of the day is what failure or disaster, or so it seemed at the time actually was a blessing in disguise and set you up for later success. I love it. Tim, you said something earlier about you've gotta be right to be able to do the right thing by others. It was interesting, and you know this, we have an interesting, great, long relationship, but I really wanted to use this medium to publicly apologize to you. This is something I've done to you personally a lot of times. I am so thankful for the life that I live. I am such a happy man because I really have crazy good intent and have been able to execute it a bunch.

1:04:44This is something nobody knows here. I'm excited for everybody. I'm Tyler and people that know who I am and I know you know who I am. But I wanted to do it because I thought it was important for me because I want you to know how much it means to me because I've done it a bunch of times personally. Early in my career, I was giving a speech at Blogs with Balls, which is funny in itself. And I think I got overzealous. I did get overzealous and I was talking about hard work and hustle. And in it I said, fuck four hour work weeks, you gotta work your ass off. And the level of intent was extremely low.

1:05:20But in reality, it was just not the right thing to do, especially because out of all the people I know, the thought that I haven't offended or hurt or even did anything slightly wrong to millions of people that I have no respect for or compassion for or desire for friendship or how I feel about them. The thought that that happened. And I just want you to know, because I know I've said it a bunch of times privately, but in my everlasting quest for you to know how deeply I'm hurt that I could have done anything that hurt you or miffed you in any certain way, I wanted to put it super out there into the universe and never let there be any confusion.

1:05:59I admire you tremendously. I've really enjoyed our friendship through the years. and that is, when I do die, that is something that will still run through my mind. I've lived it pretty good. I've lived it pretty good and have all the right intents. I hated that that happened. I hate that that happened and I want you to know on this big of a stage, or at least my little micro big stage, that I mean it with every ounce of my soul. Thank you, Gary. Accepted. I know you do. We've talked about it personally. But it means a lot to me, man. Honestly, as I continue to get older, there's not that many people doing it.

1:06:36You know? Yeah, totally. You know, the level of, I get put into a lot of, a lot of people use my name and associate it with other names, and I have no interest. But every time people are like, oh, you know, on Twitter or in real life, when people are like, oh, I like Tim and Gary, and every time I'm associated with your name, it means a lot to me. Thank you, Gary. You're welcome, brother. Yeah, man. I love you. Many adventures ahead. 100%.