Tim Ferriss and Gary Vaynerchuk are Complete Opposites, How are they Both Successful?
Posted by Amir Lehrer on September 24, 2009
Tim Ferriss VS. Gary Vaynerchuk
You may be a little confused. Yesterday I wrote an article about Gary Vaynerchuk and how his constant hard work is paying off as an incredible business strategy. He works non-stop and is reaping the rewards. In the past, I have also written about Tim Ferriss who I would say is almost the exact opposite of Gary Vaynerchuk. Tim looks for any way to minimize his actual work and automate processes so that he does not have to be involved. The only thing they have in common with each other is that they are both huge success stories.
Opposite Strategies But Both Successful
Both Gary and Tim are huge successes in their own right and I would say that the reason is that they are both consistent. They chose a strategy that worked for them and they stuck with it. I don’t think Gary would consider closing down his brick and mortar store, stopping to vlog and quit participating in social media to automate an online store. At the same time, I know that Tim Ferris is careful not to spend too much time on social media. When he started using Twitter, he followed 0 people and was heavily criticized since twitter is a new media communication tool meant for conversation. He finally caved and started following a limited amount of people but still believes that he shouldn’t be spending too much time in the social media space.
Dabble and You will Flop
Too many people dabble in so many things and become somewhat of a jack of all trades and a master of none. This brings me back to people striving to be average when the only way to get ahead is to be above average. It doesn’t make much sense but many people use messed up logic such as “John has an online store and is successful, therefore if I open an online store, I will be successful”. They go and open an online store, flop and then wonder why they failed, not even thinking about what John does that they didn’t do.
Seth Godin Likes to be the “Best in the World”
Seth Godin doesn’t have a Twitter account. Seth is one of the top marketing gurus out there and he does not participate on twitter because he will not participate in something that he cannot be the best in the world at. Seth has his own strategy and is successful as well.
Mixing Diets is a Recipe for Disaster
Imagine you are a few pound over your ideal weight and you want to start a diet. You look around for a diet and many times you start a diet because someone you know just lost a ton of weight on that particular diet. After suffering through a couple of months on the diet and not getting the results you’d hoped for you start to wonder “why didn’t it work?”. Chances are, you used some of the logic I spoke about earlier. “Well, the Atkins diet says I can have as much protein as I want but no carbs and the South Beach diet is very similar so it must be okay to have fries since they are ok on that diet”. People mix and match the parts they like and fail to stick to a single strategy.
Stick to One Strategy
You can be successful at almost anything but you need to choose a single strategy and stick to it. Don’t get sidetracked by shiny objects. You can work 20 hours per day like Gary Vaynerchuck or you can work 4 hours per week like Tim Ferriss and be successful. Just don’t mix up your strategy and you’ll be fine.
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
