Continuing on through the questions from Tim Ferriss in his book “Tribe of Mentors” (see all of the questions here), we’re on to question number five:
What is one of the best or most worthwhile investments you’ve ever made? (Could be an investment of money, time, energy, etc.)
The first response that I’ll share is from Adam Robinson, who said:
The “problem” with meditation—I thought—was that it wasn’t “practical.” And worse, the time I spent meditating was time that I could have spent analyzing the world. But I eventually reframed meditation as a way to relinquish control of my conscious mind so that my more powerful unconscious mind could take over, and my analysis of the world would improve.
Next are some thoughts from Adam Fisher, related to coaching and mentoring:
The best investment I have made over the last year is a performance coach. I always believed in the concept of a coach, but I was slow to embrace it as part of my life for whatever reason. I strongly believe world-class performers need coaching. I suppose mentors function in this role for many, but coaches, in my opinion, are different. (Coaches) focus on you first. Mentors rightly focus on themselves first and you second. Lastly, a good coach builds regimens designed to make you better, (versus simply) providing advice, as a mentor would.
Lastly is Ben Silberman encouraging people to un-serialize their lives:
I feel like a lot of people in Silicon Valley serialize their lives. They think, “First I’ll do college. Then I’ll do a startup. Then I’ll make money. Then I’ll do X.” There’s some truth in that (approach), but most of the most important stuff has to be parallel-processed, like your relationships and your health, because you can’t make up the time by doing more of it later. You can’t neglect your wife for four years and then say, “Okay, now it’s my wife years.” Relationships don’t work that way, and neither does your health or your fitness. . . . Figuring out a system, so that the stuff you need to do all the time happens, even while you might be placing disproportionate focus on one thing, is pretty important. Otherwise, you’ll be setting yourself up to be lonely and unhealthy in your future.
For me, one of the best investments that I’ve made is this blogging ritual. Forcing myself to read, discover the benefits in books, and then try to figure out they’ll improve my life as been wildly helpful to me. I hope you’re seeing some value in these posts as well.
What would you consider to be your best investment?
Rather simple, but I believe it’s true: Books and audiobooks. Yet, none of my books are particularly valuable from a cash perspective — all could be easily replaced. (If the house were burning down, I wouldn’t give. much thought to saving any.)
Well said. That’s the amazing thing about books — for a book that you find value in, the cost of the book is a mere fraction of the value that it brings.