It isn't enough to think outside the box. Thinking is passive. Get used to acting outside the box.
Tim FerrissRead
People are fond of using the its not what you know, its who you know adage as an excuse for inaction, as if all successful people are born with powerful friends. Nonsense.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Connections can help, but success also depends on individual effort and skill.
Tim Ferriss highlights the common belief that success is solely dependent on knowing influential people, arguing against this notion. He asserts that while having a network can be beneficial, it does not replace the importance of personal effort and capability in achieving success, thus encouraging individuals to take initiative rather than rely solely on connections.
Themes
SuccessConnectionsActionEffortSkill
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a motivational speech about entrepreneurship to emphasize the importance of hard work.
More from Tim Ferriss
All quotes →The way we measure productivity is flawed. People checking their BlackBerry over dinner is not the measure of productivity.
Tim FerrissRead
It's just astonishing to me, but not surprising in some respects, how dependent we are on the somewhat meaningless and certainly ephemeral feedback that we get from strangers on the Internet. I think that's a dangerous dependence to develop.
Tim FerrissRead
I always point people to the article '1,000 True Fans' by Kevin Kelly. If you choose your thousand ideal customers or readers properly and find the single author blog that targets that audience, you never have to do any more marketing. You're done. That is a lesson that very few product developers and marketers have learned, and it's unfortunate.
Tim FerrissRead
By using money as the scapegoat and work as our all-consuming routine, we are able to conveniently disallow ourselves to do otherwise: 'John, I'd love to talk about the gaping void I feel in my life, the hopelessness that hits me like a punch in the eye every time I start my computer in the morning, but I have so much work to do! I've got at least three hours of unimportant email to reply to before calling prospects who said 'no' yesterday. Gotta run!
Tim FerrissRead
Being busy is a form of laziness - lazy thinking and indiscriminate action. Being busy is most often used as a guise for avoiding the few critically important but uncomfortable actions.
Tim FerrissRead
Similar quotes
If you can count your money, you don't have a billion dollars.
J. Paul GettyRead
You can't find returns in investments you haven't made.
Clayton ChristensenRead
There is no hope of success for the person who does not have a central purpose, or definite goal at which to aim.
Napoleon HillRead
To make the future demands courage. It demands work. But it also demands faith.
Peter DruckerRead
Starting and growing a business is as much about the innovation, drive and determination of the people who do it as it is about the product they sell.
Elon MuskRead
To stay ahead, you must have your next idea waiting in the wings.
Rosabeth Moss KanterRead