Timothy Ferriss (born July 20, 1977) is an American entrepreneur, investor, author, podcaster, and lifestyle guru.[1][2] He was known for his 4-Hour self-help book series—including The 4-Hour Work Week, The 4-Hour Body, and The 4-Hour Chef[3]—that focused on lifestyle optimizations, but he has since reconsidered this approach.[4]
Tim Ferriss
Ferriss in 2009
Born
Timothy Ferriss (1977-07-20) July 20, 1977 (age 46) East Hampton, New York, U.S.
Ferriss grew up in East Hampton, New York. Throughout childhood, Ferriss experienced poor health, sparking an interest in self-improvement. After graduating from St. Paul's School, Ferriss matriculated at Princeton University, earning a B.A. in East Asian studies in 2000.[5] His senior thesis was titled Acquisition of Japanese Kanji: Conventional Practice and Mnemonic Supplementation, under the supervision of Seiichi Makino.[6] After graduating from Princeton, Ferriss worked in sales at a data storage company.[7]
Careeredit
In 2001, Ferriss founded BrainQUICKEN, an internet-based nutritional supplements business, while still employed at his prior job.[8] He sold the company, then known as BodyQUICK, to a London-based private equity firm in 2010.[9][10] He has stated that The 4-Hour Workweek was based on this period.[10]
Also in 2015, Ferriss declared a long vacation from new investing. He cited the stress of the work and a feeling his impact was "minimal in the long run", and said he planned to spend time on his writing and media projects.[22] In 2017 he stated one of the reasons he moved from Silicon Valley was that, "After effectively 'retiring' from angel investing 2 years ago," he had no professional need to be in the Bay Area.[23]
In December 2013, The Tim Ferriss Experiment debuted on HLN. The series focused on Ferriss' life hacking and speed learning methods. Although 13 episodes were produced, only a portion were shown on television.[24] Ferriss also hosted the 2017 TV show Fear{Less} with Tim Ferriss, in which he interviews people from different industries about success and innovation.[25]
Ferriss has raised funds for the Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and for the Centre for Psychedelic Research at Imperial College London. Since 2016, Ferriss donated at least $2,000,000 for clinical research into psychedelic drugs.[26][27] Ferriss has publicly advocated the value of Stoicism and meditation, crediting it with helping him deal with his bipolar disorder,[28][29] and states that his personal experience with psychiatric disorders and losing a friend to fentanyl drug overdose motivates his involvement in psychedelics research.[30]
In 2017, Tim Ferriss gave the TED talk "Why you should define your fears instead of your goals".[31]
He reevaluated his earlier ideas in a 2020 interview with GQ, concluding that "not everything that is meaningful can be measured."[4] In his turn towards resilience and even spirituality, he recommends three books, Radical Acceptance by Tara Brach, Awareness by Anthony de Mello, and Letters From a Stoic (Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium) by Lucius Seneca.[32] He calls the last one, “My favorite writing of all time”.[33]
Ferriss continues to release episodes of The Tim Ferriss Show, an interview-centered podcast running since April 22, 2014.[34]
In December 2022 Ferris launched an NFT project about roosters named "The Legend of CockPunch".[35]
^"Revisiting "The 4-Hour Workweek"". The New Yorker. 2021-10-25. Retrieved 2021-11-11.
^ abSkipper, Clay (22 July 2020). "Tim Ferriss Has Changed His Mind on What Success Looks Like". GQ. Retrieved 12 February 2021.
^Richards, Daniel. "'The 4-Hour Workweek' author Tim Ferriss reveals what he's learned after a difficult year of introspection, and how he built a passionate fanbase of millions". Business Insider.
Hartley, Matt. Ottawa's Shopify launches $500,000 Build-A-Business promotion, National Post, April 26, 2011. "This year, participants will receive advice on building their fledgling businesses from some of the most well-regarded names from the startup and technology worlds – including prominent angel investor Tim Ferriss."
Hill, Kashmir. Taking My Measure. Forbes. April 6, 2011.
Tim "The 4-Hour Workweek" Ferriss On Angel Investing (Video). TechCrunch. "Some of the companies he's invested in and/or acts as an advisor for are Digg, Twitter, StumbleUpon, Posterous, SimpleGeo and DailyBurn."
Bertoni, Steven. Tim Ferriss On Facebook, Twitter And Building A Huge Web Brand, Forbes. April 14, 2011. "Q: You were an early investor in Twitter, what did you see in the company? A: I'm involved with the Tech scene and companies ranging from Facebook, Stumbleupon and Twitter. I knew a number of the guys and a number of the investors. I decided to invest when I saw Twitter..."
Wauters, Robin. Tim Ferriss Joins Startup Evernote As Strategic Advisor. TechCrunch. May 18, 2010.
Moran, Gwen. Big Investors Are Helping Trippy Go the Distance MSNBC. June 9, 2012. "First, he approached Tim Ferriss, author of the bestselling book The 4-Hour Workweek, to be an advisor. Ferriss wanted in—and also wanted to be part of the seed investing team..."
Busque, Leah. "The Best $750 I Ever Spent Bootstrapping My Startup: One Plane Ticket West", The Huffington Post, January 18, 2012.
Rao, Leena. Kevin Rose Invests In Facebook On SecondMarket, TechCrunch.com, January 29, 2011.
Kingcaid, Jason Feel the DailyBurn TechCrunch. May 26, 2009.
^Byrnes, Brendan (2 January 2014). "An Interview With Tim Ferriss, Author of 'The 4-Hour Workweek'". Motley Fool.
^Mangalindan, JP. "Tim Ferriss: Tech has too much 'dumb capital'". Fortune.
^Constine, Josh (23 September 2013). "Betaworks And Tim Ferriss Among First Using General Solicitation To Ask Crowds For Investment". TechCrunch.
^Kumparak, Greg (27 September 2013). "Shyp Raises $2.1M To Pick Up And Ship Your Stuff". TechCrunch.
^"AngelList Unveils Maiden Lane, A $25 Million Fund For AngelList Deals". TechCrunch. 16 April 2014. Retrieved 2019-03-16.
^"Ranking the Top Angel and Venture Capital Fund Managers (Part 1)". Financial Poise. 2016-08-12. Retrieved 2019-03-16.
^Gibbon, Kevin (March 27, 2018). "I Can't Wait for You to See What We Do Next". LinkedIn.com.
^ abHa, Anthony (11 November 2013). "'4 Hour Workweek' Author Tim Ferriss Is Becoming An Audiobook Publisher". TechCrunch.
^"Tim Ferriss Book Club". The Blog of Author Tim Ferriss.
^"How to Say "No" When It Matters Most". 30 October 2015.
^"Reddit AMA". 22 November 2017. Retrieved November 22, 2017.
^Lebowitz, Shana. "'4-hour Workweek' author Tim Ferriss plans to donate $100,000 toward studying how to treat depression with psychedelics like magic mushrooms". Business Insider.
^Carey, Benedict (2019-09-06). "Tim Ferriss, the Man Who Put His Money Behind Psychedelic Medicine". The New York Times. Retrieved 2019-08-09.
^"Tim Ferriss, Ray Dalio & Gary Vynerchuk – Managing life with Bipolar", Sean Galla
^"Tim Ferriss' simple 3-step strategy for managing fear is his secret to business success", Catherine Clifford
^"Tim Ferriss, the Man Who Put His Money Behind Psychedelic Medicine", Benedict Carey 2019
^Ferriss, Tim (2017-06-12). "Why you should define your fears instead of your goals". Retrieved 2021-11-11.
^Adriana Huffington (26 April 2021). "Tim Ferriss on Giving Up Control" (Podcast). Apple. Retrieved 26 June 2023.