Archive for June, 2011

(Photo: Royce Bair)

Hello lads and lasses. This post is intended as a morsel, a sugar high and respite. Life is serious enough, so this post will require zero calories of brain power.

Not to worry, of course, as we’ll be back to our regular content with the next how-to post.

In the meantime, some goodies: the “Kimono” winners and a $1,000 travel voucher giveaway.

KIMONO SPOTS

Congratulations, after much tallying and consideration, to the winners of the $10,000 spots to the “Opening the Kimono” event! Please keep an eye on your inbox for follow-up details:

- Sheila McCarthy (votes)
- Jacqueline Biggs (“wild card” views)

First, sincere thanks to all who submitted video case studies, even those who re-submitted old videos and therefore weren’t eligible. Second, HUGE thanks to Dustin “America’s Trainer to the Moms” Maher for making the “wild card” scholarship possible — you rock!

Three honorable mentions for the “wild card” seat are below (out of dozens of great videos), and one includes a pic of me drunk at my London book launch. Oh, Internet, you hurt so good T_T

Two of them highlight post-4-Hour Workweek (now 2,172 reviews!) travel adventures:

$1,000 TRAVELOCITY TRAVEL VOUCHER — GIVEAWAY DETAILS

Alright, moving on…

I wanted to have some fun and get people traveling. “But I can’t travel… it costs too much!” is a common refrain. Partnering with a new start-up called PunchTab, I wanted to remove this barrier.

Here’s how it will work, as PunchTab explains:

Entering the giveaway is simple and takes only 30 seconds. Register by connecting to the giveaway widget below using Facebook. For each step you complete, you’ll earn a giveaway entry:

1. Like this blog post by clicking on the Facebook Like button (+1 entry).
2. Become a fan of Tim Ferriss on Facebook (+1 entry).
3. Leave a comment telling me where you’ll go and what you’ll do there (+1 entry).
4. Tweet about the giveaway (+1 entry).
5. Unlimited bonus entries by pasting your invite link everywhere you can. For example:

- For every friend who clicks the invite link you Tweeted in step 4, you’ll earn +1 entries.
- For every friend who then joins the giveaway, you’ll earn +5 entries.

Giveaway ends June 30, 2011 at midnight PST. Open to residents of North America.

Enjoy! Attack! Discuss!

(Photo: Stuck in Customs)

For the last two years, one name has come up again and again when talking with A-class start-up investors: Pivotal Labs.

See, Pivotal Labs quietly helps dozens of the fastest-growing tech companies in the world, including freight trains like Groupon and Twitter. If your start-up needs to get good coding done quickly, as in lightning fast — or if new hires need to get good at coding quickly — top venture capitalists are likely to look over their shoulder and confide: “Call Pivotal Labs.”

I first met the Founder of Pivotal Labs, Rob Mee, when one of the start-ups I advise, TaskRabbit, began working with them.

One thing is immediately clear: Rob is obsessed with how to get obscenely high output. But that’s nothing new. Here’s the differentiator: he’s obsessed with how to get obscenely high output with sustainable effort. One of his first remarks to me was “3am with Jolt and pizza can be fun, but it’s a myth that it’s the fuel behind scalable success…” Read More

(Photo: Markal)

NOTE: VOTING HAS ENDED — THANKS!

Please find below the finalists for the scholarship spot to the $10,000 Opening The Kimono event (all semi-finalist videos here).

There are nine contenders, listed in no particular order. Please watch the videos and vote on your single favorite at the bottom of this post. Two important things to note — achtung!

1) Voting ends next Thursday, June 9, at 11pm PST.

2) Because there were so many outstanding videos, I’m offering a second “wild card” scholarship. That’s right — another $10,000 spot, though you’ll need to cover flights and hotel, just like the other scholarship. Here’s how it works… Read More