What I learned from the latest book by Tim Ferris

Tim's book Tools of Titans was awesome.

It can only be best described as action-packed and full of lessons that would be hard to find elsewhere.

In Tools of Titans, Tim took a whole bunch of his incredible interviews and broke them down into two articles of 2 to 3 pages in length.

This enabled him to focus totally on the highlights from each interview.

In the book, Tim talks about the concept of “superheroes”.

He makes the fascinating observation that most superheroes are nothing of the sort.

In fact, they’re often weird neurotic creatures who do big things despite lots of self-defeating habits and self-talk.

To become a superhero in your business here are three lessons Tim wrote about.

I use these three lessons in coaching our Mastermind members all the time.

Lesson number 1: You are the average of the five people you most associate with

You should never underestimate the detrimental effects that your pessimistic or unambitious friends have on you.

If someone isn’t making you stronger, they’re probably making you weaker.

Ferris says that “giving your time and energy to negative people is masochistic”.

In a nutshell, and I’m sure you’ve heard it before, you are the average of the five people you most associate with.

Have a look around at the five people you most associate with.

They are building you up.

Are they optimistic?

Do they celebrate your successes and motivate you toward more?

This doesn’t mean that you need to suddenly wipe out all your friends, but it does mean that you need to be very careful about how much time you spend so that you increase the odds that the average impact on you is supremely positive.

It’s probably worth remembering that the list of your five people is probably constantly changing.

Tim says that it depends on what area of his life he wants to work on, physical, emotional, psychological, and financial as examples.

It’s a great way of looking at that lesson.

If you feel that you need to work on your financial aspect, then modify the closest group to reflect that objective for a period.

It’s not about getting rid of your friends but it’s about adjusting your inner circle.

Lesson number 2: Don’t wait until you’re ready

I was having this conversation with one of our Mastermind members just yesterday where we were talking about his desire to have everything perfect before he launched a new program.

It’s worth remembering that often, reasons come first, and answers come second as Carl Brian often says.

Waiting until everything is perfect before making a big change is just a self-protection mechanism.

It’s a bit like Tony Robbins says that clients often tell him “I’ll hire a coach when I’m ready”.

Tony’s response is,

“You will never be ready!

Hire them now in the business will magically appear and you’ll have someone to help you.”

When we are flat out working “in” our business we sometimes think that it’s just not the right time to get out and enjoy our life.

Tony observes that “someday is a disease that will take your dreams to the grave with you”.

The stars will never align, and all the traffic lights will never be green at the same time so sometimes you just have to make the hard decision to bring about change in your business, to employ that next level to help you scale out; to put systems and structures in place so that you can spend less time in your business and more time in your life.

Making big changes can be daunting.

The situation will never be perfect.

You will make big mistakes but try just stepping forward and then correcting along the way.

That’s where having a tribe of people around and supporting you and giving you access to individual accountability and collective momentum will help you to correct your course as you go.

This means you will be able to take that big step right now.

Lesson number 3: Be the best at one thing

Dabbling is for poor people.

Focusing on one thing at a time and being great at it is the fastest way to scale your business.

Bruce Lee once said that he didn’t fear the man who knew a thousand kicks but the man who knew one kick and had practised it a thousand times.

Focus on perfecting one thing at a time in your business and don’t get distracted by implementing new features or new products all the time.

Tim says that lots of companies already have a successful product or service in the marketplace and instead of identifying the cheapest and most successful avenue for acquiring customers or focusing on polishing this product, they focus on adding 10 new features that really don’t add much to the user experience.

I guess the bottom line is that if you create a winning product or service and then fine-tune the most important aspects of it you will win.

Then spend your time effort and energy finding profitable customers in an efficient way.

If you want to cut through the white noise, you must be absolutely great at one thing.

Create a niche whether it’s in a market or a product or knowledge but stop trying to be everything to everyone.

Narrowing your focus will help you broaden the lens and see even more opportunities for success.

ALSO READ: The five types of people you meet on path to success

About Mark Creedon Mark Creedon is Director of Metropole's Business Accelerator Mastermind and business coach to some of Australia's leading entrepreneurs - each who call him their "unreasonable friend"
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