Feed the Ever Growing Ego of Tim Ferriss: What’s in it for Mr. Ferriss and Will We Make Him Richer?

Feed the Ever Growing Ego of Tim Ferriss: What’s in it for Tim Ferriss?

I have made it very clear on this site about my conflicted feelings toward Tim and his holier-than-thou attitude. It is almost a love/hate relationship; on one hand I admire his “life hacking” abilities and on the other I find it abhorrent for his complete lack of shame.

Recently, I caught wind of a “high-end” event— Tim being egocentric enough to refer to this event as being comparable to TED—that Tim will be holding for 200 “followers” willing to dish out a cool $8,500 (based on an average of his three-tier pricing model of $7,000 for week 1, $8,500 for week 2 and $10,000 for week 3).

Assuming that he fills this event—and he most likely will—Tim will net a staggering $1.7 million! Now, he claims to be providing some surprise “goodies” at this event, so assuming the venue and goodies amount to $850 per person or roughly 10% of the ticket price, Tim still pulls in $1.53 million for one evening… half an evening really. This equates to $191,250 per hour. Man, he better tell me something revolutionary. Even if one were to look at it from the micro level of their own investment, they are still paying Tim in excess of $1,000 per hour.

I have met with some very influential people in my life; entertainers, musicians, athletes, authors, you name it, and in each case the out of pocket expense to me was zero. Never once did have to, or was I asked to pay for the “privilege” to meet them. They were willing to dispense advise, shoot the preverbal shit, and in some cases be downright jerks, but in every case, jerks or not, they never had the audacity to ask for money. Why? They make their living elsewhere. They are not public speakers, they are authors, or actors, or musicians, or athletes. Now, should they be public speakers, then yes, I would need to pay for their time, as this is their primary source of income.

Think about it, what is in it for Tim? OK, besides the $1.7 million? Here are a few ideas:

Free advertising, need I say more…
Additional plugs for side projects (just see his personal page)
Potential growth in popularity (take one look at Amazon reviews)
Additional revenues for existing products
Venue to promote new ventures (more advertising and he is a master at this)
Exploiting you (the best sales people in the world can sell you something without you knowing it)

If Tim is opening the kimono (I bet a lot of you don’t understand the cultural relevance of this statement) then why should I purchase and read his books? I thought he spells all this out in his books? Additionally, I recall many posts on Tim’s website explaining how he has done it. Hmmm, makes one think what $8,500 buys. I have said it before and I will say it again, Tim Ferriss is selling us a bill of goods, but man, you have to not only admire his tenacity, but also how smooth he is at it… then again; I am a cynic.

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