Timothy Ferriss: Real(er) Life Aleksey Vayner

Impossible is Nothing! I do not mean to imply that Aleksey Vayner is not a real-life figure with an amazing video resume. He is a joke and a fraud, but the legitimate kind.

Timothy Ferriss (Wiki), author of The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich, brings Vaynerism to a whole new level. I don’t have much to say about the book itself, since I have not read it, but the leading Amazon review feels about right. Ferriss’ premise appears to be: “Outsource all your work to other people, then live a permanent vacation.”

A quick Googling of both their names shows that the IvyGate blog picked up on this connection before I did, but there’s plenty of room to expand. Why compare Ferriss to Vayner? Ferriss’ website shows him skiing, dancing, and engaging in martial arts – three of the exact same activities Vayner pushed! It’s uncanny. Most of all, Ferriss is a terrific fraud and liar.

“Ferriss’ book was released to the public on April 24, 2007. On the very same day, Ferriss’ book received 17 five-star reviews on amazon.com written by first-time amazon.com reviewers.” Clear, undeniable fraud. This simply does not happen. Ferriss likely had nothing to do with it. “Outsource everything” is a great get-out-of-jail free card. It’s just obvious he’s too busy cage-fighting to select an honest publisher or handlers to outsource his life to. Internet marketing is largely about manipulating algorithms, but manipulation that blatant is a sign of sheer stupidity. You can just picture a couple guys sitting in an office: “That’s it!! We’ll create a bunch of fake accounts and post great reviews for this book. We’re such geniuses, I can’t believe nobody ever thought of this before!” Amazon reviewing scams are nothing new.

“On pg 284 of Ferriss’ book, he shares with his readers a poem that he claims to have received from a terminally-ill girl. The poem, titled “Slow Dance”, is actually taken from a well-known email chain letter that was circulated on the Internet in 1999. The said poem was originally written in 1991 by David L. Weatherford, an adult male child psychologist.” The guy is so self-deluded that he thinks a poem attached to a chain letter was written specifically to him.

Ferriss claims that he is the “First American in history to hold a Guinness World Record in tango.” He does, in fact, hold a record involving tango spins. I did not find verification that he’s the first American, but if he meant “United States citizen” by American then it’s probably legit.

He claims that he has been a “Cage fighter in Japan, vanquisher of four world champions (MMA)” and a “National Chinese kickboxing champion”. I don’t doubt the guy knows his MMA, and could easily kick my ass. However, there’s no record of his MMA fights in Japan and my research found that nobody involved in MMA in Japan is aware of any organization that uses cages. Another person pointed out, which feels true given what I know about China, that you have to be Chinese to be a “National Chinese kickboxing champion.” If you have some money, you’re interested in MMA and also love to travel… fine. Go to China, or Japan, and practice with people over there. Soak in the culture, learn little ins and outs of their styles of fighting that might be different than mainstream MMA present in the U.S. today. That’s all cool, and there’s books to be written right there. No need to lie about your accomplishments.

Further claims include that he is an “advisor to more than 30 world record holders in professional and Olympic sports” and once “gained 34 lbs of muscle in 4 weeks”. No possible way to research that first one without names of said athletes. Seems like that would be a full-time job in itself though, what exactly are his duties as advisor? Not sure how you outsource that job. Internet fitness buffs question if you could gain 34 lbs of muscle even while “on”. Which is, apparently, a classy way to say “taking steroids in the butt.” Furthermore, Ferriss claimed to do it with only two 30-minute workouts a week, for 4 weeks and a grand total of 4 hours of working out.

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Where Ferriss and Vayner diverge is that Ferriss has accomplished certain things in life. He actually did, or does own a company that sells (unregulated) nutritional supplements. He has published a best-selling book. This is further proof that self-help is the easiest market to break into if you want to be a writer. He has tons of blurbs on his book written by other successful people. I will assume that he, or his publisher, would not just make those up outright. That kind of fraud is too risky. Ferriss has undoubtedly led a fuller life than I have. He’s traveled places I’ll never see and banged women that only money will bring into my league. Assuming he’s straight.

But it isn’t jealousy that gets me worked up about freaks like him. These self-deluded maniacs are dangerous; they are the snake-oil salesmen of modern life. His book is currently #17 on Amazon as I write this. People are buying and reading this drivel. He’s going to change lives, for the worse, with his lies. Timothy Ferriss… you are more of a douchebag than Vayner.

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