Reflections on Unreasonable Success

This episode is a two-for-one, and that’s because the podcast recently hit its 10-year anniversary and passed one billion downloads. To celebrate, I’ve curated some of the best of the best—some of my favorites—from more than 700 episodes over the last decade. I could not be more excited. The episode features segments from episode #287 "Terry Crews — How to Have, Do, and Be All You Want" and episode #466 "Richard Koch on Mastering the 80/20 Principle, Achieving Unreasonable Success, and the Art of Gambling."

Please enjoy!

Sponsors:

LMNT electrolyte supplement: https://drinklmnt.com/Tim (free LMNT sample pack with any drink mix purchase)

Momentous high-quality supplements: https://livemomentous.com/tim (code TIM for 20% off)

Eight Sleep’s Pod 4 Ultra sleeping solution for dynamic cooling and heating: https://eightsleep.com/tim (save $350 on the Pod 4 Ultra)

Timestamps:

[00:00] Start

[04:48] Notes about this supercombo format.

[05:52] Enter Terry Crews.

[06:17] Terry's art background and growing up in Flint, Michigan.

[15:35] A favorite failure.

[22:40] Two ways of confronting an abusive father.

[30:41] Terry reflects on his favorite Ralph Waldo Emerson quote.

[34:20] How Terry coped with imposter syndrome on his first movie set — with Arnold Schwarzenegger.

[39:17] Enter Richard Koch.

[39:40] Richard's non-story story about wines, spirits, and chat shows.

[41:16] Exception to my "no book quotes" policy for Richard.

[42:10] Secrets revealed in Oxford's Bodleian Libraries.

[47:32] Richard's peculiar talent and its discovery.

[50:17] Richard's investing success despite weak numeracy: the star principle.

[59:48] Richard's $1.5 million investment decision.

[1:03:41] Business "segmentation" in The Star Principle.

[1:06:40] Principles governing Richard's portfolio.

[1:09:07] Richard's firing from BCG and meeting Bill Bain.

[1:19:03] The growth share matrix (Boston box) explained.

[1:22:50] What Bain and Company appreciated about Richard.

[1:36:07] Results of early partner-like behavior at Bain.

[1:40:00] Key takeaways from Perspectives on Strategy and other recommended books.

[1:44:06] Richard's preference for principles over knowledge and The 80/20 Principle's origin.

[1:57:58] Richard's happiness and time/energy allocation.

[2:01:16] Comparing journaling styles.

[2:07:24] Adventurers vs. controllers: who has more fun?

[2:10:36] Inspiration for Unreasonable Success and How to Achieve It.

[2:17:50] Richard's definition of success and nine landmarks of unreasonably successful people.

[2:20:56] Landmark one: self-belief.

[2:23:40] Landmark two: Olympian expectations.

[2:24:34] Landmark three: transforming experiences.

[2:32:52] Landmark four: one breakthrough achievement.

[2:35:36] Landmark five: make your own trail.

[2:35:50] Landmark six: find and drive your personal vehicle.

[2:45:24] Landmark seven: thrive on setbacks.

[2:47:54] Landmark eight: acquire unique intuition.

[2:48:15] Landmark nine: distort reality.

[2:48:56] How landmarks reinforce each other.

[2:51:24] Nelson Mandela's unique intuition during imprisonment.

[2:58:31] Richard's annual question instead of new year's resolutions.

[3:01:44] Parting thoughts.

*

For show notes and past guests on The Tim Ferriss Show, please visit tim.blog/podcast.

For deals from sponsors of The Tim Ferriss Show, please visit tim.blog/podcast-sponsors

Sign up for Tim’s email newsletter (5-Bullet Friday) at tim.blog/friday.

For transcripts of episodes, go to tim.blog/transcripts.

Discover Tim’s books: tim.blog/books.

Follow Tim:

Twitter: twitter.com/tferriss 

Instagram: instagram.com/timferriss

YouTube: youtube.com/timferriss

Facebook: facebook.com/timferriss 

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/timferriss

Past guests on The Tim Ferriss Show include Jerry Seinfeld, Hugh Jackman, Dr. Jane Goodall, LeBron James, Kevin Hart, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Jamie Foxx, Matthew McConaughey, Esther Perel, Elizabeth Gilbert, Terry Crews, Sia, Yuval Noah Harari, Malcolm Gladwell, Madeleine Albright, Cheryl Strayed, Jim Collins, Mary Karr, Maria Popova, Sam Harris, Michael Phelps, Bob Iger, Edward Norton, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Neil Strauss, Ken Burns, Maria Sharapova, Marc Andreessen, Neil Gaiman, Neil de Grasse Tyson, Jocko Willink, Daniel Ek, Kelly Slater, Dr. Peter Attia, Seth Godin, Howard Marks, Dr. Brené Brown, Eric Schmidt, Michael Lewis, Joe Gebbia, Michael Pollan, Dr. Jordan Peterson, Vince Vaughn, Brian Koppelman, Ramit Sethi, Dax Shepard, Tony Robbins, Jim Dethmer, Dan Harris, Ray Dalio, Naval Ravikant, Vitalik Buterin, Elizabeth Lesser, Amanda Palmer, Katie Haun, Sir Richard Branson, Chuck Palahniuk, Arianna Huffington, Reid Hoffman, Bill Burr, Whitney Cummings, Rick Rubin, Dr. Vivek Murthy, Darren Aronofsky, Margaret Atwood, Mark Zuckerberg, Peter Thiel, Dr. Gabor Maté, Anne Lamott, Sarah Silverman, Dr. Andrew Huberman, and many more.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.