Timothy Ferriss (born July 20, 1977) is an American
entrepreneur,
investor,
author,
podcaster, and
lifestyle guru.[1][2] He is 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]
In 2001, Ferriss founded BrainQUICKEN, an internet-based nutritional supplements business, while still employed at his prior job.[7] He sold the company, then known as BodyQUICK, to a London-based
private equity firm in 2010.[8][9] He has stated that The 4-Hour Workweek was based on this period.[9]
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.[21] 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.[22]
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.[23] Ferriss also hosted the 2017 TV show Fear{Less} with Tim Ferriss, in which he interviews people from different industries about success and innovation.[24]
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.[25][26] Ferriss has publicly advocated the value of Stoicism and meditation, crediting it with helping him deal with his
bipolar disorder,[27][28] and states that his personal experience with psychiatric disorders and losing a friend to fentanyl drug overdose motivates his involvement in psychedelics research.[29]
In 2017, Tim Ferriss gave the TED talk "Why you should define your fears instead of your goals".[30]
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.[31] He calls the last one, “My favorite writing of all time”.[32]
Ferriss continues to release episodes of The Tim Ferriss Show, an interview-centered podcast running since April 22, 2014.[33]
In December 2022 Ferris launched an NFT project about roosters named "The Legend of CockPunch".[34]
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."
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..."
Moran, Gwen.
Big Investors Are Helping Trippy Go the DistanceMSNBC. 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..."