Quotes from Timothy Ferriss

As a builder, as an entrepreneur, how can you create something for someone else if you don't have even enough glancing familiarity with them to imagine the world through their eyes?

Must-watch documentary The Gatekeepers (2012)

As chef Mehdi Chellaoui says, "I use lemon like I use salt." Mario Batali would agree: if something is missing, it's probably acid.

Exact numbers aren't needed to realize that we spend too much time with those who poison us with pessimism, sloth, and low expectations of themselves and the world. It is often the case that you have to fire certain friends or retire from particular social circles to have the life you want. This isn't being mean; it is being practical. Poisonous people do not deserve your time. To think otherwise is masochistic.

So much of the job is more emotion and 'heart work' than it is 'head work.' The head comes in after, to look at what the heart has presented and to organize it. But the initial inspiration comes from a different place, and it's not the head, and it's not an intellectual activity.

I can't give you a surefire formula for success, but I can give you a formula for failure: try to please everybody all the time. —HERBERT BAYARD SWOPE, American editor and journalist; first recipient of the Pulitzer Prize

Someday" is a disease that will take your dreams to the grave with you.

I've even been known to go to bed while my guests are still partying.

The difference between winning and losing is most often not quitting.

It's always the hard part that creates value.

I will often write "GO FIRST" in my morning journal as a daily prompt.

Have you outgrown your systems or beliefs? Is it time that you upgraded? Or, on a personal level, as Jerry Colonna, executive coach to some of the biggest tech stars in Silicon Valley, would ask: "How are you complicit in creating the conditions you say you don't want?

One wrong person in your circle can destroy your whole future.

stick to what excites you no matter what people say. It's your life, live it the way you know is right for you.

Don't pay any attention to what they write about you, just measure it in inches."—Andy Warhol

Things in Excess Become Their Opposite. It is possible to have too much of a good thing. In excess, most endeavors and possessions take on the characteristics of their opposite. Thus: Pacifists become militants. Freedom fighters become tyrants. Blessings become curses. Help becomes hindrance. More becomes less.4 Too much, too many, and too often of what you want becomes what you don't want.

The Purpose of Life Is a Life of Purpose." This is Stan's answer to "If you could put a billboard anywhere and write anything on it, what would it say?" It is a quote from Robert Byrne.

Dreamlining is so named because it applies timelines to what most would consider dreams.

Named must your fear be before banish it you can. —YODA, from Star Wars:

If you don't make mistakes, you're not working on hard enough problems. And that's a big mistake.

The concept of lifestyle design as a replacement for multi-staged career planning is sound.

As someone who read exclusively nonfiction for nearly 15 years, I can tell you two things: It's not productive to read two fact-based books at the same time (this is one), and fiction is better than sleeping pills for putting the happenings of the day behind you.

What we fear doing most is usually what we most need to do. As I have heard said, a person's success in life can usually be measured by the number of uncomfortable conversations he or she is willing to have. Resolve to do one thing every day that you fear. I got into this habit by attempting to contact celebrities and famous businesspeople for advice.

Believe it or not, it is not only possible to accomplish more by doing less, it is mandatory. Enter the world of elimination.