Tribe of Mentors: 3 Things Almost Every Thought Leader Does

In the summer of 2018, at a record low in life, I read Tribe of Mentors, by Tim Ferriss. I was starting to read quite a bit at the time because I had just lost my job and suddenly found myself with less to do during the day. I was trying a couple of different things and also trying to feel grounded without a permanent home, a job, a partner, or any real next direction. 

Tribe of Mentors was a big book (over 600 pages!) and overall, I thought it was great. I have a love-hate relationship with Tim Ferriss, which I’ll get into later, but he does write good, engaging, thought-provoking books. That’s helped by the fact that he has access to some pretty amazing groups of successful and influential folks. 

The thing that’s interesting about this book is that it’s not one long narrative. Instead, it’s a series of short bits of advice from lots of interesting, successful, creative people - based almost exclusively from his podcast interviews. 

A few things stood out to me when reading the book--yes, I read the entire book--and since they’re relevant to a lot of what we focus on here at Myrth and in building the MyMoai app, I thought it made sense to share them with you all.

1. Meditation.

   While the book didn’t explicitly point this out, almost every single interviewee meditated regularly. The tough army guy, the nerdy author, the multi-millionaire entrepreneur--all meditators. It seemed to come up in every interview. It wasn’t a direct question like, “Do you meditate?” But inevitably by the end of the interview, it was mentioned as a regular habit. I figured if it’s that much of a constant, I should give it a try, too. So I started, right then and there--poorly and inconsistently at first, but as I have learned in the past, that’s not that big of a deal. And with the help of the Myrth Protocol, I began to meditate more consistently.

2. Reading for pleasure.

   Some read more than others, and maybe some spoke more truthfully about this than others, but they all had book recommendations and books they were reading. Many of them had indeed written books as well. I was reading quite a bit at that point, but I had gone the previous few years of hardcore working life without looking at a book much. My Kindle was gathering dust. I had been overtaken by work and didn’t have the time to read. And yet here were concrete examples of successful, seemingly very busy and oversubscribed individuals reading regularly. My conclusion: smart people read. Better get at it, Emma - and I did (Click for a small sample of the books I read)!

3. Habits.

   Habits, morning routines, productive hours, tricks of productivity, all varied enormously across everyone that Tim interviewed. Yes, there were some trends, as mentioned in point 1 and 2, but there was also just a ridiculously large discrepancy between what these folks actually did and how they did it. In a way, you could do a million different things - get some or none of it right - and still be massively successful. What mattered was just that you had some habits to give yourself structure. And this is why the MyMoai app is so important and will hopefully improve your life, the way it has mine.

I gleaned a lot of helpful information and ideas from this book, and overall, I was glad I took the time to read it. It helped me sort through some things, take up new practices, and figure out some questions I had.

That doesn’t mean it was a perfect book, though. In the sequel to this post, I cover what I found frustrating about Tribe of Mentors and how that frustration helped push me into action.

Have you read Tribe of Mentors? Did you find it helpful? Share your thoughts in the comments below.