Tribe Of Mentors: Transformative Wisdom From Icons and Innovators to Help You Navigate Life's Challenges Hardcover – November 21, 2017

Short Version of this review."Tribe of Mentors" is a book where Tim Ferris collects and shares deep, meaningful, practical and life-changing tips and hacks. These tools give you the power to positively improve or radically upgrade the way you live. Your upgrade will be on a personal, emotional, spiritual and practical level. Tim's teachers include a wide range of amazing people from legendary investor Ray Dalio to Navy Seal Jocko Willink (look him up) to Rabbi Lord Jonothan Sacks. These mentors become your mentors.You can spend decades trying to reinvent the wheel in order to improve your life. Or you can pick up this book and learn from Tim's "Tribe of Mentors" and exponentially accelerate your learning curve. Instead of pushing a stone-age vehicle, drive a Ferrarri!Long Version of the ReviewI don't write many reviews, but I felt compelled to write this review out of gratitude; gratitude to Tim for writing "Tribe of Mentors", an amazing and valuable book.I'm a big fan of Tim Ferris and his other books. However, due to some of the negative reviews, I considered not purchasing "Tribe of Mentors". Some reviews states that the information in the book was shallow and unorganized, etc....or at least compared to "Tools of Titans". But I am so glad I purchased the book. To understand why, lets look at "Tool of Titans" and compare its purpose to "Tribe of Mentors"."Tools of Titans" was a compilation of Tim's best interviews as well as how he has applied this knowledge in his personal life. "Tribe of Mentors" is Tim choosing his 10 or so best open-ended questions and emailing them to "Mentors" that he's never had the chance to meet in person.Since "Tools of Titans" is culled from podcasts which are off cuff, their spontaneous flow results in many low-hanging juicy nuggets. This contrasts sharply with "Tribe of Mentors" where Tim emails his mentors questions and they take hours or days to write thoughtful and sophisticated answers. Some of these answers are very deep. Many of these answers are very practical and can have an immediate impact on your life. At the same time, since the written answers are more thought out they often make more nuanced points and employ a more sophisticated vocabulary.It follows that "Tribe of Mentors" doesn't give you the same instant gratification feeling imparted by the conversational style of "Tools of Titans". Don't get me wrong, it flows and is easy to read. But at the same time, you need to apply yourself more.There is one aspect of the book that some reviewers criticized and I find fascinating; Tim asks everyone the same questions! While Tim only shares the best answers, the same questions do keep on cropping up over and over again. I completely understand how some can find this tedious. But let me tell you, "I love it". Here is why:Every Mentor gives different answers to the same questions, providing a breadth and range of personality and knowledge on the topics; a range that I have never seen paralleled. It also shows you the strategies and mindset that different leaders and heroes use to defeat failure and thrive. These are real poeple so it follows that some of their strategies contradict each other. To me this shows the authenticity of the human experience as well as gives you a choice of tools to choose from. What strategy works best for you? This diversity and color also opened my mind towards valuing the diverse and sometimes contradictory parts of my personality. (At the same time, even I get tired of the same questions over and over and over and over again! Mix and spice things up!)Some other really fun aspects of the book are that Tim has included links to interviews and other resources from many of the Mentors. He includes an index of the top books these leaders have purchased. There is also an index of best "under $100" purchases Tim's mentors have discovered.I've gained so much from this book. It's fantastic and life-changing. I give it my highest recommendation.If you'd read this far, thank you for joining me on this review. Leave me a reply after you've read the book letting me know what you think.

I don’t recall exactly how I was turned on to Time Ferriss, but he’s been a constant in my journey since I began seeking my true self and searching for my purpose. He’s directly or indirectly responsible for a large chunk of my influences and post graduate adult learning. I listen to most podcasts he releases and I own all his books. I haven’t read all the books cover to cover for various reasons, but all of his books aren’t designed to be read cover to cover from page 1 to “The End”. I did however read Tim’s latest book, "Tribe of Mentors", cover to cover. And I did it in a fairly short amount of time (for me) considering it’s 570+ pages.The full title is “Tribe of Mentors: Short Life Advice From the Best in the World”. Copyright 2017. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing New York, New York. I pre-ordered this book and received a 1st Edition Hardcopy. I can’t remember the cost; just shy of $30 probably.My first impression of the book was its familiar size. Very similar to rest of his books approximately 9” tall X 7” wide X 2” thick. It doesn’t weigh as much as it looks like it should. Mostly black and gold colored cover with Carolina Blue highlights. No jacket. The paper is off white, grainy, and kinda sticky. Got that good “new book” smell. (Come to think of it, old books smell good too.) It’s bound in a way to create ridges on the fore-edge so thumbing through the book and quickly flipping pages is easy.As I mentioned, Tim’s books aren’t story books. They more resemble reference books. This particular book is a collection of interviews and the table of contents is the list of 100’ish names of the questionees and where their answers can be found. As a cool twist Tim includes a few of the rejection letters he received from people he’d asked to participate. This addition emphasizes how folks with couth and courtesy say “Thank you but no thank you”.My favorite feature of the book is that all the interviewees were given the same 11 questions to ponder and respond. Tim dissects each question and reveals how and why he crafted them and what he’s looking to get out of them. The feature of repeated questions makes reading the book very rhythmic. The pages go by quickly and the mind switches to auto-pilot. It’s more like to listening to a conversation than reading. The 11 questions are:What is the book (or books) you’ve given most as a gift and why? Or what are one to three books that have greatly influenced your life?What purchase of $100 or less has most positively impacted your life in the last six months or recent memory?How has a failure, or apparent failure, set you up for later success? Do you have a “favorite failure” of yours?If you could have one gigantic billboard anywhere with anything on it—metaphorically speaking, getting a message out to millions or billions—what would it say and why? It could be a few words or a paragraph.What is on the best or most worthwhile investments you’ve ever made? (Money, time, energy, etc…)What is an unusual habit or absurd thing that you love?In the last five years, what new belief, or behavior, or habit has most improved your life?What advice would you give a smart, driven college student about to enter the “real world”? What advice should they ignore?What are bad recommendations you hear in your profession or area of expertise?In the last five years, what have you become better at saying no to (distractions, invitations, etc.)? What new realizations and/or approaches helped? Any other tips?When you feel overwhelmed or unfocused or have lost your focus temporarily, what do you do?Only high performers were questioned (some of which I was familiar, some not) and they lead us down a rabbit hole with their answers. They suggest enough books, TED talks, poems, articles, authors, etc. to keep anyone busy for years to come. Tim also lists each interviewee’s social media handle(s) so readers can connect and follow on the interwebz.Tim’s organization of the massive amounts of information in this book is meticulous. He includes a list of recorded conversations from respondents and where to find them online. He includes a mentor index. Not every respondent answered every question so Tim includes an index of questions answered by interviewee. He even includes blank lined pages for readers to use in making their own notes and indexes.Style and substance of “Tribe of Mentors” is lockstep. An amazingly informative book presented in a friendly conversational style. The books organization is on par with everything else TF has done. “Tribe” didn’t call for as many organizational asides as “Tools of Titans” and that was welcome in my opinion. No decoder rings necessary.“Tribe of Mentors” will appeal to anyone who’s looking for more shit to read, learn, and get better. It’s a red pill type book that I personally read through one time, took notes, and now leave lying around in the open to conveniently revisit. As a coffee table book intelligent friends will pick it up to read a few passages and instant meaningful conversation should break out. If not, you may want to re-think the folks you let hang out at your place.