Book SummaryTribe of Mentors, by Tim Ferriss

1-Page Summary1-Page Book Summary of Tribe of Mentors

If you want to know how to live your life, who better to ask than people who have lived life to its fullest? Tribe of Mentors is distilled life advice from more than 130 world-class experts in a wide variety of fields, including artists, athletes, entrepreneurs, and more.

Author Tim Ferriss got the idea to write Tribe of Mentors around the time he turned 40. Facing a mild existential crisis, uncertain about how he wanted to live going forward, he decided to solicit advice from the wisest, most successful people he could think of....

Tribe of Mentors Summary How to Take Advice

First, let’s discuss a topic that may influence how you read the rest of this guide: how to interpret and apply advice. We’ll begin by explaining why you shouldn’t completely trust any piece of advice, no matter who gives it to you. Then, we’ll detail an alternative: trusting your intuition more than the authority of others. Finally, we’ll explore a counterpoint some of Ferriss’s experts offer: Continually challenge your intuitive assumptions rather than trusting them implicitly.

Don’t Fully Trust Any Advice

Some of Ferriss’s experts argue against blindly accepting any advice because no single piece of advice applies to everyone. Writer and speaker Julia Galef asserts that the exact same advice may be helpful to one person and unproductive to another who’s in a different situation. Learn to critically judge the advice you receive, tailoring it to your unique circumstances or rejecting it if it doesn’t apply to your situation.

Similarly, philanthropist John Arnold recommends largely ignoring the advice of others. He says that nearly everyone who gives advice is drawing solely from anecdotal experience. Consequently, they make statements that seem objective but are...

Tribe of Mentors Summary How to Spend Your Time Well

Now that we’ve discussed how to interpret and apply advice, let’s examine some of Ferriss’s experts’ advice on the broad topic of purpose: What should you do with your life? More specifically, how should you spend your time?

To answer these questions, we’ll first explain why it’s necessary to identify what matters most to you and prioritize meaningful causes over other ways you could use your time. Then, we’ll discuss why it’s best to work as hard as you can in pursuit of these meaningful goals (while resting enough to do so effectively).

Identify What’s Most Important to You

Many of Ferriss’s experts argue that assessing what you truly care about is the key to spending your time in a fulfilling way. Rabbi Jonathan Sacks asserts that once you dedicate yourself to a noble life purpose that’s greater than yourself, you’ll feel fulfilled no matter what painful obstacles are in your way.

(Shortform note: Mark Manson’s book Everything Is F*cked explores how having a meaningful, future-oriented purpose gives humans the hope they need to endure painful situations. To build this kind of comforting hope, he recommends...

Tribe of Mentors Summary How to Build a Fulfilling Career

Now that we’ve covered why it’s important to spend as much time as possible on the goals you care about most, let’s apply these ideas to professional work—how do you build a career that you’re happy to spend time on?

In this section, we’ll discuss whether or not passion for the work should be your highest priority when searching for a job. Then, we’ll explore how some experts advise rejecting the traditional path to success and embracing a more risky lifestyle.

Follow Your Passion

Many of Ferriss’s experts agree that a job you’re excited about is the core of a fulfilling life. Political commentator Tommy Vietor argues that true passion should be your number one priority when looking for a career. Record producer Rick Rubin notes that if you follow your passion, you won’t care whether you find success or not since you’ll be doing something you love.

Design expert Debbie Millman takes this idea further, arguing that if you’re truly pursuing your passion, you’ll have no reason to worry about maintaining a work-life balance. The work itself will feel like all you need in life. Fantasy author Neil Gaiman voices a similar opinion, stating that work is there to center his...

Tribe of Mentors Summary How to Fail Well

If you choose to pursue work you’re passionate about, you’re likely to experience some failure along the way. What’s the best way to handle these failures? Ferriss’s experts explain that to push through failure, you just need to focus on the following upsides:

• Upside #1: Failure Teaches You
• Upside #2: Failure Pushes You to Get Creative
• Upside #3: Failure Gives You Freedom

Let’s discuss each of these upsides in more detail.

Upside #1: Failure Teaches You

Physician Gabor Maté (When the Body Says No) asserts that failure shows you how to improve yourself. Being fired from his job as a medical coordinator helped him discover that he was far more self-absorbed and less personable than he had realized. This prompted him to improve himself and find success in his next job. Similarly, CrossFit athlete Mathew Fraser lost a championship that he was certain he would dominate, which taught him he was prideful and complacent. This motivated him to work harder, allowing him to win the championship the next year.

(Shortform note: In Ego Is the Enemy, Ryan Holiday...

Tribe of Mentors Summary How to Say No

As you build a fulfilling career, learn from failure, and attain valuable skills, people will likely begin to put more demands on your time. Many of Ferriss’s experts agree that if you want to devote your life to the priorities you care about the most, you have to aggressively defend your time against these requests.

Actress Aisha Tyler acknowledges that it’s difficult to deny people asking you for help; however, every distraction you allow into your life takes you further from your meaningful goals. Chef Samin Nosrat agrees, adding that the clearer your personal goals are in your mind, the easier you’ll find it to deny people making requests.

Overly Strict Boundaries Push People Away

In Set Boundaries, Find Peace, Nedra Glover Tawwab agrees with Tyler that it’s difficult to set boundaries. She adds that when you’re denying requests on your time, you should [avoid setting boundaries that are too...

Tribe of Mentors Summary How to Recenter Yourself

Sometimes, even after you’ve identified what matters most to you and are happily pursuing it, you’ll feel too tired or scattered to focus and do the work. Ferriss’s experts offer a few options for putting yourself back into a positive, productive mindset:

• Option #1: Take a Break
• Option #2: Engage the Body
• Option #3: Meditate
• Option #4: Shift Your Perspective

Option #1: Take a Break

Filmmaker Darren Aronofsky contends that you should never feel guilty about taking a break from work when you need it. When you’re having an off day and feel stuck, just go do something else—anything that allows your mind to wander and rest. Even if you’re not thinking about the problem, you’ll be unconsciously working through it in the back of your mind.

(Shortform note: Even if your unconscious mind works on problems while you’re taking a break, you may not want to spend all your breaks away from work idly daydreaming. Consider practicing what Cal Newport calls “productive meditation” in Deep Work: When doing a mindless physical task such as...

Tribe of Mentors Summary How to Be Kind to Yourself

While you may feel pressured to follow all this advice to the letter, many of Ferriss’s experts acknowledge that this is an extremely difficult task. Be kind to yourself and don’t feel the need to try too hard, these experts advise.

Activist and businesswoman Muna AbuSulayman asserts that it’s easy to feel like you have to be perfect and achieve wild success in every area of your life every day. However, this unrealistic expectation will cause you to suffer. Instead, try your best, then quit worrying. This peaceful acceptance of any outcome helps you enjoy life and ensures that instead of getting discouraged and quitting if things don’t go to plan, you’ll be happy to try your best again next time.

(Shortform note: You may worry that practicing self-acceptance by embracing your imperfections and taking it easy will prevent you from pushing yourself to your full potential. Not necessarily: In _[The Happiness...

Shortform Exercise: Apply the Mentors’ Advice

Since the advice in Tribe of Mentors is so wide-ranging, something in the book is likely relevant to your life situation. Complete and repeat this exercise whenever you need to translate some of the wisdom in this guide into productive action.

Which piece of advice from Tribe of Mentors feels the most useful for your current life situation, and why? (For example, perhaps Drew Houston’s advice to track how you spend your time resonated with you because you can’t seem to find the time to make progress on the side business you want to start.)