[5] Ferriss grew up in East Hampton, New York, and credits his poor health in childhood for sparking an interest in self-improvement.

[22] Ferriss was an advisor to Shopify,[23] helping them to launch the "Build a Business" competition that fostered web-store startups in 2010 with a $100,000 prize.

[28] Other books include Ego Is the Enemy and The Obstacle Is the Way by Ryan Holiday, Daily Rituals by Mason Currey, and What I Learned Losing a Million Dollars by Jim Paul and Brendan Moynihan.

He cited the stress of the work and a feeling his impact was "minimal in the long run", and said he planned to spend time on his writing and media projects.

[30] In 2017 he stated one of the reasons he moved from Silicon Valley was that, "After effectively 'retiring' from angel investing 2 years ago," he had no professional need to be in the Bay Area.

"[4] In his turn towards resilience and even spirituality, he recommended three books, Radical Acceptance by Tara Brach, Awareness by Anthony de Mello, and Letters From a Stoic (Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium) by Lucius Seneca.

[42] Popular podcast guests include Brené Brown,[43] Jamie Foxx,[44] Arnold Schwarzenegger,[45] Maria Sharapova,[46] LeBron James,[47] Margaret Atwood,[48] and Matthew McConaughey.

[5][54][55] In 2020, Ferriss donated $1 million to the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies for research into PTSD treatments using psychedelic-drug MDMA.

[58] In 2018, Ferriss founded the Saisei Foundation[59] to provide funding for early-stage science in the areas of mental health, life extension, and psychedelics.

[61] The fellowship provides ten annual grants of $10,000 each to journalists working on in-depth print and audio stories focused on psychedelics.

[66][67] Ferriss won a National Chinese Kickboxing Championship by technical knock-out,[8] and is the first American to hold a Guinness World Record for tango spins.