As a New York Times bestselling author and entrepreneur, Tim Ferriss is known for inspiring and motivating people to succeed.
His latest book, “Tribe of Mentors” provides readers with quick advice from some of the most successful people in the world, including Arianna Huffington, Marc Benioff and Maria Sharapova. His podcast has been ranked as one of the top business podcasts on all of iTunes and is the first business/interview podcast to be downloaded more than one million times.
Like Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, Ferriss relies on books to not only enrich his life, but to also enrich the lives of those around him. In a recent episode of Lifehacker’s “The Upgrade” podcast, the 40-year-old shares the three books that he always finds himself gifting to other people.
Ferriss said “Moral Letters to Lucilius” is a book that has “changed [his] life so many times over and over again” and listed it as one of the top books he likes to give to other people. The three volume book is a collection of 124 letters written by Seneca the Younger to Lucilius on how to become a more devoted Stoic.
In fact, Ferriss loves Seneca’s letters so much that he turned them into a free audio book series titled “The Tao of Seneca: Practical Letters from a Stoic Master. In a blog post, he writes how many Silicon Valley leaders and NFL managers, coaches and players promote the benefits of Stoicism because its practices help them to be better competitors.
“I love listening to one letter per day — they average 10 to 20 minutes in length — as I walk to get coffee or go to the subway,” writes Ferriss. “It’s the perfect way to prime yourself for better results with less stress each morning.”
Like Seneca’s letters, Ferriss tells Lifehacker that “Zorba the Greek” is a book that has changed his life in many ways.
“I have recommended this outstanding book before,” he writes on his blog. “It pits the instinctive against the intellectual, the simpleton (brilliant at times) against the over-thinker. Finding myself with my head frequently stuck up my own a–, this book is a constant companion and reminder to step outside of my brain.”
Although the “The Baron in the Trees” is fiction, Ferriss says this book is still a great read for non-fiction enthusiasts. He describes it as a short and fun piece of literature that highlights a young man’s fight with his father and tells the story of him running up a tree in defiance and never coming down.
“It’s the story of all the adventures and misadventures that transpire and it is so whimsical, but told in such a way that it seems almost like an anthropological field report,” says Ferriss. “It’s very believable in a crazy fantastical way.”
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