Answering 11 Questions from Tim Ferriss' Tribe of Mentors

I read "Tribe of Mentors" book by Tim Ferriss two years ago and I found it's interesting because you can extract unique insights from various succesful people by giving them the same questions.

And I wonder if the same eleven questions were thrown at me, what my answers would be. It's also a good exercise to understand the weight of each question before I try to adapt this style of interview to numerous successful friends of mine. So here they are..

"Tools of Titans" and "Tribe of Mentors" by Tim Ferriss

1. What are one to three books that have greatly influenced your life?

Almost all books that I read are non-fiction which around personal development, psychology, business, and economic books. So I have two categories of books that influenced me.

For my personal life:
  1. "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" by Stephen Covey
    → Summary: How to Be an Effective Person
  2. "How To Win Friends and Influence People" by Dale Carnegie
    → Summary: Mastering Interpersonal Skills
  3. "Atomic Habits" by James Clear
    → Summary: How to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones

For my professional life:
  1. "The E-Myth Revisited" by Michael E. Gerber
    → Summary: Building a Small Business That Works
  2. "Rework" by Jason Fried & DHH
    → Summary: 16 Lessons Learned from "ReWork"
  3. "The 4-Hour Workweek" by Tim Ferriss
    → Summary: 11 Lessons Learned from "The 4-Hour Workweek"

2. What purchase of $100 or less has most positively impacted your life in recent memory?

There were so many books that I need to read but I didn't have enough free time. So, I've subscribed Blinkist for $40 / year since two years ago and just read the book summaries first. If the summary was interesting, then I read the whole book. This way I can learn more things faster.

3. How has a failure set you up for later success?

I went to a mediocre high school in Bandung, and I felt it was a failure. However, it helps me build my mindset not to compare with others, but to compare with ourselves. We don't need to be better than others, we just need to be better than our previous self.