Tim Ferris: Tribe of Mentors Round 2

I cycled through a few of the first questions in a previous post, including most significant failures, my best purchase under 100USD in the last six months and what's my favourite book. Doing this exercise actually helped me reconnect with the Seven Habits and started rereading it again. Thing is, my wife bought the updated version a while ago - and this one has a foreword (eulogy) to Stephen Covey from his kids (he has 9, and 54 grandkids - put that in your pipe and smoke it).

It was beautiful to read their tribute to their late father - but this line, particularly, stuck with me: "Dad had a beautiful definition of leadership- he taught that leadership is communicating others’ worth and potential so clearly that they are inspired to see it in themselves."

Good stuff. Now, let me get onto three more questions, and see what it shakes loose for me for the next round:

4.) If you could have a 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. (If helpful, it can be someone else’s quote: Are there any quotes you think of often or live your life by?)

Hmmm... a guiding principle for me has been "Treat others as you want to be treated yourself" but I suppose this doesn't acknowledge that we are all fundamentally different, and our situations also determine how we would like to be treated. Maybe it would be E2FR - Effort to Fun Ratio. Introduced to me by my cousin some years ago, it has been a guiding principle: How much fun would this generate for me, and is it worth the effort? This can be applied to all walks of life, from the quality of the meal your prepare and consume, your choice of life partner, the investment you make in your time with your children and friends, work and personal fitness and self. Every time I need to do something that will require an outsize amount of effort, I ask the question: Will the fun had be correlated? If it isn't, why do it?

5.) What is one of the best or most worthwhile investments you’ve ever made? ( Could be an investment of money, time, energy, etc. )

This is easy. Going beyond early investments in Pioneer Foods, Naspers and pushing through on an MBA, I think my life investment in Caroline, my wife, has been number one. She has been a travel partner, business mentor, produced two incredible boys and with very little fuss changed a vague dream to a reality by smashing down the walls and giving us a functional open-plan kitchen. We live there. No contest on this one.

6.) What is an unusual habit or an absurd thing that you love?

Wow. Ok, it is well documented that my favourite time-wasting rabbit hole, firmly in the NOT URGENT NOT IMPORTANT quadrant - but I love it - is Youtube. Man, I can fall lose myself in there with movie trailers, Edward Norton interviews and absurd fan theories. But my current favourite, and I can't wait for Mondays so he can post a new one, is the Pitch Meeting series. This dude talks to himself about how stupid the plots are for some of our favourite movies - and it is hilarious. Don't judge me. Rather check out a favourite below: