The Tim Ferriss Show - #706: In Case You Missed It: October 2023 Recap of "The Tim Ferriss Show"

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Starting point is 00:01:35 So easy peasy. Again, that's tim.blog forward slash Friday. And thanks for checking it out. If the spirit moves you. Optimal minimum. At this altitude, I can run flat out for a half mile before my hands start shaking. Can I ask you a question? and thanks for checking it out. This is Tim Ferriss. Welcome to another episode of The Tim Ferriss Show, where it is my job to deconstruct world-class performers of all different types to tease out the routines, habits, and so on that you can apply to your own life.

Starting point is 00:02:18 This is a special in-between-isode, which serves as a recap of the episodes from the last month. It features a short clip from each conversation in one place, so you can jump around, get a feel for both the episode and the guest, and then you can always dig deeper by going to one of those episodes. View this episode as a buffet to whet your appetite. It's a lot of fun. We had fun putting it together. And for the full list of the guests featured today, see the episode's description probably right below wherever you press play in your podcast app. Or as usual, you can head to Tim.blog slash podcast and find all the details there. Please enjoy. First up, Arnold Schwarzenegger, legendary bodybuilder, actor, businessman, philanthropist, and 38th governor

Starting point is 00:03:06 of California, and bestselling author of Be Useful, Seven Tools for Life. So let's talk about one of the rules, never think small. You seem like the walking archetype of not thinking small. You've lived multiple lifetimes compared to most people. How would you suggest people think of never think small or what stories come to mind that from your life exemplify that? Just the very beginning. I mean, for me to go and say, I want to compete in the Junior Mr. Europe competition rather than just in the Mr. Austria competition.

Starting point is 00:03:46 I trained just as hard as everyone else in the gym. Their goal was just smaller. They said, I want to be Mr. Austria. And I said, I want to be Mr. Europe. So I'm going to start with Mr. Junior, Junior Mr. Europe, the best built man of Europe. I'm going to go to this competition. And I was thinking bigger.

Starting point is 00:04:01 And I was training as hard as they were. Everything was the same. But then when I won that competition, because I had a very clear vision, that's what I want to win. That immediately launched me into getting a job, become a trainer in Munich in a bodybuilding gymnasium. Now imagine how in heaven is that? You're a young bodybuilder, you're 18 years old. You just won your first international competition. you win some local competitions in Austria, you win some powerlifting competitions, some weightlifting competitions, but now you're a junior Mr. Europe, and you have this trophy. And now you're getting a job to train in the second biggest gym in Munich. So that was like absolute heaven. So with 19, I started training,

Starting point is 00:04:47 become the trainer in the gym. So now I had the opportunity to train day and night. When I wake up because I was sleeping in the gym, I was waking up and I was training. I was taking a nap in the afternoon. I was training before going to sleep at night after dinner, I was training. I was training day and night. So this is a dream. But it was all because I felt big. They were still stuck working for some bathhouse in Austria or for the government or being a trash collector

Starting point is 00:05:18 or being a teacher or something like that. They were still stuck in the same job. I was already moving on to Munich and I was already a trainer in a bodybuilding gymnasium, making this the launch pad to America, which was my ultimate dream. So this is what I'm saying. So it didn't take more work to think big.

Starting point is 00:05:37 It's just thinking big makes you bigger. And what my point is, is it takes just as much effort. And I learned again from bodybuilding, from that effort. And I learned, again, from bodybuilding. From that kind of thing, I learned that don't hold back. So when I went within age of 19, I was the youngest Mr. Universe competitor. I competed in the Mr. Universe contest. I placed second. I placed runner-up.

Starting point is 00:05:59 So that a year later, I went back with the age of 20 and won Mr. Universe, the youngest Mr. Universe ever. But this is all because I was thinking big. I wasn't saying, oh, maybe in a few years from now I'll go there, or I shouldn't go there right now, or something. Oh, it's too early, all this. And then I just started thinking right away, I'm going to go for the second Mr. Universe next year. I'm going to go to America. I'm going to go and make Joe Weider aware of me and, you know, make sure that I win another competition. So I was driven bigger and bigger and bigger.

Starting point is 00:06:28 And even when I got into acting, I didn't look at it as kind of like I'm going to get some character roles. I wasn't interested in character roles. I wanted to be another Steve Reeves or Reg Park. They were the stars of the Hercules movies. Clint Eastwood was the star. We always cleaned Eastwood, you know, in the fistful of dollars. Clint Eastwood in a dollar,

Starting point is 00:06:48 a few dollars more. Clint Eastwood in this movie. Whatever it was, it was like, that's what I wanted. Charles Bronson, I want to be like Charles Bronson. I want to be like Warren Beatty.

Starting point is 00:06:58 I want to be like these guys. They were the top stars. And that's what I saw myself. And they said, well, this ladder is very hard to build or to climb up to. I said, well, then I built my own ladder. I built my own ladder. And then I know exactly how to get up there.

Starting point is 00:07:13 That's exactly what I did. I created my own way of getting up there. I took five hours that I learned in bodybuilding. I took five hours every day of working my ass off to train and to train and to train and to pose and to pose and to do all the stuff that I needed to do. I said, I'm going to do

Starting point is 00:07:31 the same five hours, but I'm going to go and learn English. I'm going to learn acting, speech lessons, voice lessons, accent remove lessons. Well, I should get my money back for those. But in any case, I took all of those lessons, accent remove lessons. Well, I should get my money back for those. But in any case,

Starting point is 00:07:53 I took all of those lessons, one hour every day, and I was grinding it out. And then I remember, eventually it happened. People started hiring me. And the great thing was that I felt that I should not be financially vulnerable. So I first got into real estate and I worked my ass off in real estate. My first million actually made in real estate before I really got into acting. And that helped me because now when they came to me with stupid parts and said, do you want to play a bouncer? I said,

Starting point is 00:08:18 fuck no. Why would I play a bouncer? They said, well, what about a Nazi officer? You have a great, if the German accent. I said, no, I don't want to be a Nazi officer. I said, I want to be a star. I want to be a leading man. I want to get rich and famous. Just like in the East with Charles Bronson.

Starting point is 00:08:33 And they said, you're crazy. It would never happen. Well, I applied the other rule, which is don't listen to the naysayers. So I worked my ass off. I did exactly what I did in the bodybuilding. I did in the movies. Eventually the bodybuilding I did in the movies eventually it happened I started doing the Jane Mansfield story

Starting point is 00:08:49 I started doing it with Kirk Douglas and Anne Margaret the villain I was doing Streets of San Francisco I was doing Stay Hungry and Pumping Iron all in the 70s and even with Lucille Ball doing Happy Anniversary and Goodbye

Starting point is 00:09:03 so I did all of those kind of things and then that led to the big role and now I've arrived starring role in Conan the Barbarian. You know, when John Milius saw me, he says if we wouldn't have

Starting point is 00:09:19 Schwarzenegger, we would have had to build one. So all of a sudden the body that everyone said would ever ever become famous in the movies because the movies no one is seeing muscle movies anymore all of the opposite came true my accent became very welcome when they determined that they loved the german accent they were jim cameron called schwarzenegger is talking like a machine that's why it worked, being the Terminator. So things like that.

Starting point is 00:09:47 So all of a sudden, the things that they said would never make it in Hollywood, the accent, the name, the body, all of those things became big blusters and it made it. So that's my own ladder that I built. That's why it's important. Don't just worry about climbing a ladder that someone else has built. No, build your own ladder. Just don't wait for anyone else. So that's what I did. Next up, Morgan Housel, author of The Psychology of Money, and his new book, Same as Ever, a Guide to What Never Changes.

Starting point is 00:10:31 What we didn't cover in our last conversation was how you draft your first drafts or your rough drafts. Because you have these ideas, you're at the grocery store, you're out on a walk, you're in the shower, whatever it might be. What does it look like when you put first words on paper or screen? Because that is where I often procrastinate, facing the empty screen, the blinking cursor. What's your move there? I first need to disclose that what I'm about to say is probably the worst writing advice you could give someone. So if you are a new writer or an aspiring writer, plug your ears and fast forward this. But I've always been- That'll be in the headline.

Starting point is 00:11:08 I've always been- Including the worst advice for writers. I've always been like this. I don't think it's a good strategy, but it's been my strategy. I'm kind of a first draft and published writer. I think the best way to write is to write a shitty first draft, get it done, and then go back and edit and clean up and rewrite and whatnot. I've always been one sentence at a time. And when I'm done with that sentence, it's final. So by the time I get to the bottom of the article or the bottom of a chapter, it's pretty much done. But that's not because I can write a perfect first draft.

Starting point is 00:11:39 It's because I'm not going to leave this sentence that I'm writing until it's perfect. I'm not going to move on to the next sentence until every word is perfect. So that's always how I've been. I believe Kurt Vonnegut talked about swoopers and plotters. I may be getting the wording wrong, but swoopers are the vomit a first draft, refine, refine into a diamond. And then the plotters are the line at a time, one small facet at a time, and then they're kind of done. I tend to err on the side of being closer to that myself. However, that doesn't seem to work unless you have a clear idea of what your structure is going to look like, or at least of where you're going to start, so that you're not then endlessly swapping things around or

Starting point is 00:12:23 scrapping the first half, in which case you're edging more towards that refine, refine, refine. So how do you figure out the structure of a piece or what your lead is going to be? When I start an article or a chapter even, I really, I have no idea where it's going to go. It's not like all the ideas are in my head and I just need to put them out on paper. And I feel like the process of writing is the research process for me. And so that's kind of where the plotter style comes in, which is I write one sentence and I sit there and stare at it. And it's like,

Starting point is 00:12:53 oh, that reminds me of this. Oh, like that prompts another thought that I had that paragraph I just wrote reminds me of something else I can pull in. That's really where it comes from. So coming up with a, with an idea,

Starting point is 00:13:03 honestly, I think most blog posts, I start with a headline. And I'm like, I want to write an article called everything is cyclical, whatever it might be. And let's just run with that. That idea, because everything is cyclical. And I'm sure I could put together a story about why that is and a couple examples of that.

Starting point is 00:13:18 So let's just start there and see what happens. And I just start throwing things on the page. And usually within the process of a blog post or a book chapter, I'll go for three walks around my neighborhood. And during that walk, I'm a hundred percent focused on what I'm writing and thinking about. What did I just write? Is that true? Oh, it actually, that reminds me of something else. So that's always a process. If I'm sitting at my desk, I really can't get my brain to work as well as it is, is when I'm getting up and walking around. So very often too, if the weather's bad outside, in the middle of writing,

Starting point is 00:13:48 I'll get up and fold the laundry or get up and do the dishes. Get up and just walk around the house. I think movement is really critical to forming new thoughts and moving the piece along, which is so critical when you don't know where it's going to go when you started writing it. Next up, Apollo Robbins, the world's most famous pickpocket. I knew that I could figure out how to put something inside of a bag of M&Ms and then reseal it in real time without anybody noticing. And I thought, what could I do with that? Let's just find out. Yeah, yeah.

Starting point is 00:14:29 And that's where it started to become a jazz. So this interaction with this guy Jamal, when he came up, he says, so you can steal something from me? And I said, I don't really know. What was your name? He goes, Jamal. I said, how do you spell that, Jamal? And he said, J-A-M.

Starting point is 00:14:42 I said, could you write that down for me? And he pulls out his pen and goes to write it down. pen wasn't working and as we've heard before yeah and up to this point my stuttering the break of my speech the break of my sight lines with him has been very low status but break of your sight lines meaning eye contact yeah i didn't keep straight eye contact with him very much i asked him about his suit that's really fancy it was all low status and then everything just changed. Then it's this thing I said, would this help you out, Jamal? And it's straight eye contact, and it's the refill to his ink pen.

Starting point is 00:15:12 And he had way underestimated and stepped way too close, he realized suddenly. And when that moment happened to him, you saw him holding his pen with one hand and his refill with the other, and he was just looking, and he's stunned. He's in this cycle of trying to make that. Because the only solution it could be is the one he didn't want to accept, right? So he's canceled out the truth. So where is he going to go from there? That I had stolen it, taken apart, put it back together and put it back on him. Couldn't be that. So what else could it be? Pausing time, time travel. So in that, now at that moment, while he's in that bewildered state, I just said, well, at least you didn't lose your money or your wallet. And when I did that, I just glanced down because I noticed he has a watch on his left wrist, so he's probably right-handed, so he's probably going to keep his wallet in his back right. So I just glanced back toward his back right pocket, and he jumped on that big, he reached in, pulled out his wallet real quick, checked to see if he had everything still in his wallet. And I laughed, and I saw his attention shift back to the pen, and I pushed down his hand. I said, you still have everything.

Starting point is 00:16:05 And he put it away. And he says, you've got to do this to Lisa. I said, yeah, great to meet her. And I just looked over his shoulder to where I thought Lisa might be. And he took off to go get Lisa. Comes back and he shoves this lady towards me and this agent. Dance monkey dance. Yeah, I'm having, well, I'm there to perform.

Starting point is 00:16:22 No, I know, I know. And I'm talking to the agent. I have a drink. And this is an important thing, the drink, because it's a part of the style. No, I know. And I'm talking to the agent. I have a drink. And this is an important thing, the drink, because it's a part of the style. It's not alcohol. It's just water. But I don't need anything from him. I'm not being invalidated.

Starting point is 00:16:34 And a lot of performers will try to spoon-feed the audience. But it's letting them bring a thing to them, letting them have a reaction without you needing to feed back off of it. And letting people have this experience for themselves. And so when he pushed the lady up, I didn't quite look at her at first. I said, sorry, it's nice to meet you. I looked over and I said, what was your name? She goes, Lisa. And she hadn't quite come close to me at all. I said, she said, what's happening? I said, sorry, Lisa, he wants me to steal something from you. She says, what? I said, do you like chocolate? She says, chocolate? I said, yes, there's some chocolate in your purse she said what she opens her purse and

Starting point is 00:17:05 she finds a bag of m&ms in her purse and he's reacting very strongly to this and he's watching this third party he thinks and then she said how did those get in my purse i said the same way jamal's driver's license got out of his wallet now he's jumped back into the equation he rips his wallet out again realizes his license is missing and he goes where in the fuck is my driver's license? And I said, it's in the chocolate. As I take a sip of my water, I just walk away. So I let them piece it together themselves.

Starting point is 00:17:31 She tears over the M&Ms, and she finds the license in her thing. Next up, Guy Laliberté, co-founder of Cirque du Soleil, and founder of One Drop Foundation and Loon Rouge. I still had to play business. I had fun playing business because it was always about the game. You know, it was like, we come from nothing.

Starting point is 00:18:00 So what was the situation? Go back to nothing. I couldn't live that. That's where I come from. And while i was seeing successful people failing because they were starting to nurture to not having tomorrow what they have today and start to nurture fear and it was like no could you explain that a bit more i've seen a lot of successful enterprise there's many things that kill success right the first one i've seen is about once you have success you get a lot of successful enterprise, there's many things that kill success. The first one I've seen is about once you have success, you get a lot of reward financially, economically, and then you're

Starting point is 00:18:32 starting to nurture the fear of not having tomorrow what you have today. And that changed your entire way of addressing things. So suddenly you're not the same person. You don't address your business the same way. You don't address your vision and things because you nurture fear. Okay. So my say or that is like danger there is, but please evaluate danger. Don't nurture fear because at the moment you nurture fear. There's a good chance that you call your fear and the result of the fear. So that's one thing. And I've seen a lot of entrepreneurs shifting their way of being, shifting or transforming what they are and deny where they come from. So at the end, not being themselves and having a business of success, changing their soul, their way of doing things and become other people, which again could affect the result company. And the other one is more recognizing or realizing that a certain moment, you're not the person to

Starting point is 00:19:31 bring your business or your baby to another level, to be able to step out when you realize that you maximize for different reasons, your contribution to the success of your enterprise. So let's talk about the first part of that just a little bit longer, because I lived in Silicon Valley for 17 years and I have a lot of friends from that period of my life. Many of them have shifted, I would say, into trying to defend what they have or have experienced more fear because they don't know who to trust, et cetera. I mean, there are many stories about it. Yeah, trust is a big factor also. So what else would you say to those people?

Starting point is 00:20:08 They're people you care about. You see them maybe changing or feeding the fear. What else would you say to them? You mentioned something about trust. There's a thin line between wasting time of doubting versus trying to see the best side of a person and work toward making emerge of a person this best side and this is a conversation i still have whatever with my kids with my ex and the actual business

Starting point is 00:20:33 is this notion of to which level you trust without compromising the fundamental and this is very difficult to conclude because i've lived the two spectrum of that in life. I got some of the best reward by trusting people and focusing on their beautiful soul versus their dark side. And that has been very rewarding. when you have give them trust, they will fell in the trap of failing in the greed, ego and power side of life versus the love, respect and trust side of life, which is what we had built our things with. And that brought me a lot of deception

Starting point is 00:21:17 to people I really trust, that I believe that we had enough experience together and they fell on that part. And again, it happened in my own little ethos, but look what's going on in the world. You know, we're driven by this tension between the two sides of it. And obviously the people who are driven by greed, ego, and power, every morning they wake up and they're thinking about how they could be better. Us, you know, on the side of the love, peace and love and stuff like that, we get it on

Starting point is 00:21:45 the face. We look at the sun, we meditate and we're a little more slow to react to that. So I guess we have to be a little more organized. If I'm understanding you correctly, I mean, it sounds like you're suggesting maybe defaulting to trusting people and expecting sometimes you're going to get punched in the face, but that's just the tax you pay for being optimistic? Or are there other ways that you protect the fundamentals? No, I would say at the end, there's more success than failure, but the failure are more touching than the win of trust because it's usually attached to deception. So I'm talking more about the deception. You know, you're in business you win you lose you make good decisions you do bad decisions that's part of it nobody's perfect and nobody's perfect

Starting point is 00:22:30 in the choice of who you work with who you trust or not it's part of doing business it's more deep than that what i'm saying it's just like so this is why i guess as much honest conversation at the beginning to establish not the contract this is why in my contract, I always not put just the legal part. I always start the first page by the assumption, the spirit of how a deal is done. Because my wish that if there's conflict before going on the legal battle, you look at what the spirit of the deal was. And if you have sensitive people, intelligent people, they will relate to this foundation version, the word of the legal things. And that's actually a page

Starting point is 00:23:10 in the document that has the contract. It's a page in the contract. It's a page in the contract where the first page is not about legal stuff. It's about the philosophy, the spirit of why

Starting point is 00:23:20 we're doing the dream. What brought us to that deal? What is the spirit of the deal? Okay the dream. What brought us to that deal? What is the spirit of the deal? Okay, I made a mistake to forget that sometime. And this was the most chaotic thing because I'm telling you, it's like, if you're not attached to the spirit and it's just legal,

Starting point is 00:23:37 we're living in a country, you know, not America, especially in the States, hit and me will make me happy, make mistakes and not clear. It's much more difficult for a person to deny the spirit if it's been written down. Absolutely.

Starting point is 00:23:51 It was denied to say, it's not what I say. Because when you try to bring the spirit in an oral conversation, they will always find a way to justify that it's not what they say. Yeah, that's smart. But to write the thing, it's very difficult for them. Then it's betrayal. Yeah. You understand write the thing, it's very difficult for them. Then it's betrayal. You understand? Then you know it's a betrayal.

Starting point is 00:24:08 It's not a misunderstanding. Is that first page, I'm very interested in this, is it almost just like regular text, like it's paragraphs, or is it bullets? Yeah, it's understanding that we desire to conquer planet Mars. We will do everything to, you know, it's like very poetic sometimes, very philosophic. It's very mission oriented. You know, we all do document in business

Starting point is 00:24:33 a mission and vision and stuff. Why are we not putting those principles, right, in the contract when two parties do things? Because this become a new mission. This is built on new value. And I think this is, I believe, an antidote against persecution or a legal process. Yeah, that's very smart. Well, I've not been that smart all the time because I'm in some case that I forgot to

Starting point is 00:24:59 put it or my family office, I forgot to put it. But now I'm telling you, this will be for no on. Even with experience, I did forget to put it because I guess I even trusted more that I believe that I should not put it in it. And that became the biggest betrayal in business I ever did. So now it's there forever. next up rich paul power broker and superstar agent behind lebron james and draymond green you said in a gq interview which had a great title so rich paul power broker of the year that the biggest obstacle or one of the biggest obstacles for young players in learning how to become a pro or be a pro is establishing infrastructure. What do you mean by infrastructure? Most guys, that's athletes especially,

Starting point is 00:25:54 they've come from an environment to where everyone along the way has made it about them. And so if you have the mentality that it's only about me, then you're not going to value other people and what their capabilities are, what their expertise is. But if you're a walking corporation, we can't name one corporation that does not have infrastructure. Organization, they have an organizational chart. They have people that do certain things and there's clarity within that infrastructure, but it comes with the costs. And so most athletes don't want to do what? They don't want to pay anybody to do anything because along the way, everyone has did things for them for free, but it wasn't really for free.

Starting point is 00:26:36 It was to be able to be standing there next to them at a time where there was actually something to gain. So I'll sacrifice this now, when you're an amateur, to be able to stand next to you to get some crumbs or whatever the case, when you become a pro. And whatever their aspirations were, if it was to hang out, the girls, to travel, whatever it is, the money, whatever it was, but you see what they did. Basically, you created something that ultimately became your own demise because upfront, you taught them wrong. You taught them, oh, I'm doing this out of love. I'm going to pick you up. I'm going to do this. I'm going to do that, all to turn it around on them when they start making money and say, remember when I did this

Starting point is 00:27:21 or I did that? Well, that's not fair to the player. And it's also not fair to yourself. What the conversation should be like is, look, I understand you don't have the ability to pay for anything. And if you're a parent, I'm doing it out of love. I love you. You're my kid. But if you're somebody else, just be honest with it. Hey, look, I'm going to do all I can to help you get to where you need to go. Once you get there, if there's an opportunity for me, then I'm going to do all I can to position myself to where if you give me that opportunity, I can then be of value to you. Very simple.

Starting point is 00:28:00 Yeah, when free isn't free, right? It's an unclear prepayment for things to come later. That's when it seems like things can get extremely messy. How do you help them when they say sign with you or even just start to develop a relationship with you to take the first steps for building out infrastructure? What are some of the first steps that you might recommend? I would say checks and balances, really getting the proper financial team in place. And that's everybody from a CPA to the guy who manages your investment portfolio or the company that managed your investment portfolio. Really having somebody monitor that because

Starting point is 00:28:37 that's a very fragile thing there. But at the same time, deciding what it is that you want. I like to live a certain way now that I understand better on how to live. And so if you are a single man with no family, do you really need a 20,000 square foot home? Probably not, right? You're not going to be home half the time. Do you really need to fly private? Probably not. So there's different ways to go about it. But what's most important? Should you hire a chef? Yes, you should. Should you take a shortcut on that? No, you shouldn't. Do you know the difference between a chef and a cook? You should find that out because this is very important. Your chef should then go and sit with your nutritionist on your team and figure out,

Starting point is 00:29:23 you should do all the testing, everything you need, because your body ultimately is the engine that keeps you running. That's how you make your money. What are some of the key ingredients for sort of emotional support and stability? I'm just imagining young athletes who are suddenly in the limelight. They have all the temptations. They have a lot of pressure. There must be, and I know a few professional athletes who've gone through these periods, periods that are very challenging. And certainly after retirement or the end of their playing years, some very challenging times. What have you seen in terms of the best ways to support?

Starting point is 00:30:02 That could be from your side. It could be other ingredients, player health on that side of the best ways to support. That could be from your side. It could be other ingredients, player health on that side of the ledger. Nowadays, I think there needs to be someone that players need to talk to and be open-minded to having a therapist to get stuff off their chest. They deal with a lot. They deal with a lot.

Starting point is 00:30:17 I think it's also important for players to not feel entitled to do things. You know, oftentimes they feel like they have to take on all of this onus to do something for other people, and that's not real. Because when it comes down to it, if you ask probably 80% of the players that aren't in the position they used to be in and ask them who can do for them, it's not going to be many, if any, for that matter. Meaning people who are willing to help them? Yeah, of course. Yeah. And then how are they positioning themselves to where when the ball

Starting point is 00:30:48 stops, it's not about just having a ton of money. How can I do something else? How can I be perceived while playing as someone who can transition and do something else? There's this idea that I made a lot of money, I don't have to do nothing else. Well, that's not true because you made a lot of money, but you didn't diversify your portfolio. Unless your money is making money for you and you live a lifestyle in which your 8% or your 10% or whatever it is, return each year is able to pay your bills and your taxes on your home and stuff like that, then you got to go to work. You have to go to work. And it's a big difference when you've made $50 million this year and then next year you made nothing.

Starting point is 00:31:32 It's just tough. Last but not least, a special episode all about coffee featuring ethnobotanist and author of Tales of a Shaman's Apprentice, Dr. Mark Plotkin. About the same time that coffee was being introduced into South America, the Dutch East India Company began importing large shipments of coffee from Java, then in the Dutch East Indies, now part of Indonesia, into Holland in the year 1711.

Starting point is 00:32:10 And, as had happened in the Muslim Middle East, demand for coffee soared in Christian Europe. Artists, writers, and composers began singing the praises of coffee, sometimes literally. Johann Sebastian Bach composed the Coffee Cantata, one of his most beloved pieces. As part of the libretto, he wrote, How sweet coffee tastes, lovelier than a thousand kisses, sweeter than muscatel wine.

Starting point is 00:32:46 Henri de Balzac, the famous French playwright and author, penned an essay entitled The Pleasures and Pains of Coffee. I believe Balzac provided the best explanation as why artists fell so deeply in love with mocha java. Quote, once coffee hits your system, ideas quickly march into motion like the battalions of a great army. This underscores a point I've been emphasizing throughout the Plants of the Gods podcast series, that these substances are ideogens, not just hallucinogens. Ideogens, they help create new ideas and concepts. To repeat Balzac's quote, since it is so fundamental, once coffee hits your system, ideas quickly march into motion like the battalions of a great army. Much of Balzac's prodigious output was turbocharged by his coffee consumption.

Starting point is 00:33:39 According to some reports, the Frenchman was downing 50 cups a day. His death at the age of 51 might in some part be due to his coffee addiction. After all, one must wonder how the poor man ever got to sleep. Yet his countryman, the philosopher Voltaire, was even more addicted and more prolific. The author of over 20,000 letters, 2,000 books and pamphlets, he was said to have consumed as many as 72 cups of coffee a day. To understand why coffee had an even more profound impact in Europe than it did in the Middle East, two topics merit a bit of discussion. The first is potable water. As the human species began to relinquish the hunter-gatherer lifestyle, people began to live together in greater numbers and in greater proximity than ever before. With no understanding of hygiene or the germ theory of disease, one's pristine water sources like streams, rivers, and lakes became ever more polluted, if not just outright toxic and poisonous. This at least

Starting point is 00:34:46 partially explains why beer was invented at the same time in the same place as agriculture, the Fertile Crescent of Mesopotamia, about 8,000 years ago in what is now Iraq. Because the preparation of beer and later coffee involves boiled water, microorganisms were reduced or killed. And because beer and wine were alcoholic, microorganisms were reduced or eliminated. Hence, beer, wine, and coffee were much safer to drink than water. Prior to the advent of coffee in Europe, and given the absence of the Islamic prohibition of alcohol, many Europeans drank the equivalent of near beer all day long.

Starting point is 00:35:32 The result was a population which lived and worked in what was essentially a constant state of mild befuddlement. The advent of coffee proved to be a revelation. Thanks to the caffeine, coffee, in moderation at least, enhances alertness, concentration, cognition, and productivity. In the words of Anthony Wilde, they, quote, exchanged a state of permanent inebriation for a state of permanent caffeination. I love that quote. Not only was coffee safe to drink, but consumers could think more clearly and work better, harder, and longer hours. The increasing availability of coffee and the growing number of coffee houses in which it was consumed and new ideas were proposed and debated has been hailed as, quote, a brain explosion, not unlike what most certainly happened when our pre-human ancestors first consumed magic mushrooms,

Starting point is 00:36:31 fermented fruits, and coffee beans in East Africa. As had been the case in the Muslim world, coffee houses became wildly popular and proved to be a meeting of the minds and different classes and cultures with endless conversations literally fueled by a botanical stimulant. And now, here are the bios for all the guests. My guest today doesn't really need an introduction, but I'll lead into it this way, and I'm going to keep my preamble short. The world's greatest bodybuilder, the world's highest paid movie star, the leader of the world's sixth largest economy. These are

Starting point is 00:37:11 all the same person. It sounds like the setup to a joke, but this is no joke. This is Arnold Schwarzenegger. And for those who don't know, he is an Austrian-born bodybuilder, actor, businessman, philanthropist, bestselling author, and politician. He served as the 38th governor of California. His new book, Be Useful, Seven Tools for Life, is out October 10th. And his daily newsletter, that's email newsletter, Pump Club, recently passed 500,000 subscribers and is growing quickly as a positive corner of the internet. Schwarzenegger has made it his mission to give back since his time in the governor's house. He's been working heavily to combat climate change, anti-Semitism, ensure fair voting practices, help youth work with veterans, and inspire healthy

Starting point is 00:37:54 living, among other things. Now, if you want, in addition to all of that, some footage of his incredible accuracy with killing flies, his shepherding of various animals around the property, including pigs and dogs, you can go to my YouTube channel. That's youtube.com slash Tim Ferriss. You can find him on social at Schwarzenegger. That's on Twitter, Instagram. TikTok is at Arnold Schnitzel on YouTube, Arnold Schwarzenegger. The website for the book is BeUsefulBook.com, and the newsletter is Arnold's Pump Club.com. Today we have a repeat guest, and good lord, did his last episode do well. It did spectacularly well. You guys loved it. So back by popular demand is Morgan Housel. You can find him on

Starting point is 00:38:43 Twitter at Morgan Housel, H-O-U-S-E-L. He is a partner at the Collaborative Fund. His book, The Psychology of Money, which we really dug into in depth last time, has sold more than 3 million copies and has been translated into 53 languages. Didn't even know there were that many languages. I'm kidding, of course. He is a two-time winner of the Best in Business Award from the Society of American Business Editors and Writers and winner of the New York Times Sydney Award. I might be jealous, I might be jealous. In 2022, MarketWatch named him one of the 50 most influential people in markets. Good friend to have. He serves on the board of directors at Markel. Morgan's new book is Same as Ever, subtitled A Guide to What Never Changes. You can find my first,

Starting point is 00:39:29 and as I mentioned before, widely popular interview and very tactically dense interview with Morgan at Tim.blogs.com. Going meta very briefly for those who have not listened to the show, this is a show about deconstructing world-class performers across many different disciplines to tease out the habits, routines, frameworks, etc. that you can borrow and apply to your own lives. And sometimes you find gems in the most unusual of places. And today's guest may be an example of that. Apollo Robbins. Apollo Robbins is often referred to as the gentleman thief. He first made national news when he pickpocketed the Secret Service while entertaining a former U.S. president. And we will get into that story. Forbes has called Robbins, quote, an artful manipulator of awareness, end quote. And Wired has written that, quote,

Starting point is 00:40:20 he could steal the wallet of a man who knew he was going to have his pocket picked, end quote. And that is an understatement, a vast understatement. And if you want to get an idea of what that looks like, you can also check out the video that we took for this podcast on my YouTube channel at youtube.com slash Tim Ferriss. So listen to the audio, but definitely also check out some of the visuals. Robbins' entertainment credentials include the Warner Brothers film Focus with Will Smith and Margot Robbie, along with appearances in Brooklyn Nine-Nine and the TNT series Leverage. He was a producer and co-host for National Geographic's Brain Games, which was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Informational Series. Robbins applied his expertise in magic and misdirection beyond entertainment,

Starting point is 00:41:05 pulling back the curtain to show how the principles behind these illusions can enhance strategic thinking and decision-making. And we get into how much of what he has cultivated can transfer to other areas. And that really at its core is what this podcast is about, to train you to see those hidden threads or those through lines. His contributions to attention and perception research have been published in Scientific American Mind and Nature Reviews Neuroscience. He has delivered lectures at Harvard Kennedy School, MIT Sloan School of Management, and the Society of Neuroscience. He has been profiled by The New Yorker, which is an amazing profile, and featured in The New York Times, The Atlantic, National

Starting point is 00:41:43 Geographic, and The Wall Street Journal, among others. Robbins' TED Talk, The Art of Misdirection, is ranked in the 20 most watched TED Talks of all time and has been hailed by the TED editors as a revelation in the flaws of human perception. You can find all things Apollo Robbins at apollorobbins.com, and you can find him on Twitter at Apollo Robbins. My guest today is Rich Paul. Rich Paul is the CEO and founder of Clutch Sports Group, the powerhouse agency representing some of the biggest athletes across major professional sports. Paul founded Clutch Sports in 2012 in his hometown of Cleveland, Ohio, where he forged a unique and personal approach to representing top NBA talent, putting athletes first and empowering them to build careers and brands on and off the court. And some of his numbers are just unbelievable.

Starting point is 00:42:37 And we get into stories from negotiations and much more in this conversation. In 2019, Clutch Sports partnered with United Talent Agency, otherwise known as UTA. Paul serves as UTA's head of sports and is an agency partner, and he was appointed to UTA's board of directors in 2020. In 2019, Paul was also named GQ's Power Broker of the Year and dubbed the Kingmaker on the cover of Sports Illustrated. In 2021, Time recognized Clutch Sports on its first-ever list of the Time 100 Most Influential Companies, and Variety recently named Paul to their Variety 500 list of the most influential business leaders shaping the global media industry. Paul is also credited with driving the reversal of the so-called Rich Paul Rule, which would have banned agents without a college degree from representing NCAA student-athletes. In 2021, Paul and three former Nike executives formed a

Starting point is 00:43:30 company called Adopt, a creative agency focused on sport, wellness, nutrition, tech, and other consumer-facing products. In 2022, Paul joined the board of trustees of LACMA and the board of directors of Funco and Designer Brands. And this year, in 2023, he joined the board of directors of Live Nation. He's also a minority partner of the Spring Hill Company. His latest book is Lucky Me, A Memoir of Changing the Odds. You can find him on Instagram at Rich Paul and on Twitter at Rich Paul 4. That is the number four. That is the number four. My guest today has been in the works for a long time. I'm thrilled to have him. And if I'm not mistaken, this is his first long-form podcast ever, Guy Laliberté, who is the founder of Cirque du Soleil, One Drop Foundation, and Lune Rouge. If I'm pronouncing

Starting point is 00:44:21 that correctly, my apologies for the French, which I do not speak. He was named by Time Magazine as one of the most influential personalities in the world and has been recognized as one of the most creative and innovative minds by Condé Nast. An artist, entrepreneur, and philanthropist, Guy is a three-time winner of the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award, which included World Entrepreneur of the Year. He is a Knight of the National Order of Quebec and an inductee of the Canadian Business Hall of Fame. He has been granted the insignia of the Order of Canada, the highest distinction in the country, and in 2010 received his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Guy now dedicates his time to his company, Lune Rouge, and his

Starting point is 00:45:00 international nonprofit, One Drop Foundation, which aims to ensure sustainable access to safe water, sanitation, and hygiene for communities everywhere through innovative partnerships, creativity, and the power of art. This is a wild conversation full of a lot of unbelievable stories. And we take a few minutes to warm up, but definitely stick around. There's a lot to learn. There are many, many negotiation tactics, philosophical tenets, and more that you can pick up from this conversation. You can find him on Instagram at GuyLalibertéDJ, and you can find his new projects, which are brand new projects, and they will contain descriptions of some different projects that we allude to at the end of the conversation.

Starting point is 00:45:45 And that is frugsoogs.com. And you can get to the English with slash en. So frugsoogs.com slash en. This is going to be a slightly different episode. This time around, we have a special edition featuring my friend, Dr. Mark Plotkin, famed ethnobotanist. Mark takes over my duties as host for this episode and shares an episode of his Plants of the Gods podcast, but you are hearing it before anyone else. You're hearing it before even his own podcast subscribers. So this is a

Starting point is 00:46:23 Tim Ferriss show exclusive. But let's back up. Who is Dr. Mark Plotkin? Mark, you can find him online on Twitter at Doc, D-O-C. Mark Plotkin is an ethnobotanist who serves as president of the Amazon Conservation Team, which has partnered with roughly 80 tribes to map and improve management and protection of roughly 100 million acres of ancestral rainforests. He is best known to the general public as the author of the book Tales of a Shaman's Apprentice, one of the most popular books ever written about the rainforest. His most recent book is The Amazon, What Everyone Needs to Know. And you can find my interview with Mark, where we dig into his history, his mentors, including Richard Evan Schultes, the legendary Richard Evan Schultes,

Starting point is 00:47:06 and so on at tim.blog slash markplotkin. This episode, however, this tightly packed episode explores all things coffee, which is the most widely consumed mind-altering plant product in the world. And it gets into all different aspects of coffee, many of which I think will surprise you. before the weekend. Between one and a half and two million people subscribe to my free newsletter, my super short newsletter called Five Bullet Friday. Easy to sign up, easy to cancel. It is basically a half page that I send out every Friday to share the coolest things I've found or discovered or have started exploring over that week. It's kind of like my diary of cool things. It often includes articles I'm reading, books I'm reading, albums perhaps, gadgets, gizmos, all sorts of tech tricks and so on that get sent to me by my friends, including a lot of podcast guests. And these strange esoteric things end up in my field,

Starting point is 00:48:22 and then I test them, and then I share them with you. So if that sounds fun, again, it's very short, a little tiny bite of goodness before you head off for the weekend, something to think about. If you'd like to try it out, just go to Tim.blog.com. Type that into your browser, Tim.blog.com. Drop in your email and you'll get the very next one. Thanks for listening.

The Tim Ferriss Show - #706: In Case You Missed It: October 2023 Recap of "The Tim Ferriss Show"

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