October 29, 2025
#833: Jack Canfield — Selling 600+ Million Books, Success Principles, and How He Made The 4-Hour Workweek Happen
The Tim Ferriss ShowAbout this episode
Jack Canfield is the coauthor of more than two hundred books, including, The Success Principles™: How to Get from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be and the Chicken Soup for the Soul® series, which includes forty New York Times bestsellers and which has sold more than 600 million copies in 50-plus languages around the world. This episode is brought to you by: Monarch track, budget, plan, and do more with your money: https://www.monarch.com/tim AG1 all-in-one nutritional supplement: https://drinkag1.com/tim Helix Sleep premium mattresses: https://helixsleep.com/tim Timestamps: [00:00:00] Who is Jack? [00:01:57] How a single “yes” from Jack shaped my career. [00:04:55] A contract lesson: How Chicken Soup for the Soul sold millions in China with zero royalties. [00:06:45] Jack’s background: From poverty to Harvard. [00:09:43] Discovering Chinese history and the “easy A” that changed everything. [00:11:07] Winning “Teacher of the Year” teaching Black history. [00:14:35] High praise from Sammy Davis Jr. [00:17:37] W. Clement Stone: The $600 million mentor who turned motivation into a science (and insurance). [00:21:35] Stone’s challenge: Take 100% responsibility and stop watching TV (a 14-month year hack). [00:22:40] From visualizing $100,000 to a million. [00:25:42] Chicken Soup origins. [00:27:35] Mark Victor Hansen joins. [00:29:15] 144 rejections later. [00:31:28] The ABA miracle. [00:34:05] The Rule of Five. [00:36:05] Selling The Soul and splurging on sweaters. [00:37:27] The Soup sourced from the universe. [00:39:33] The big break. [00:41:22] Word-of-mouth magic. [00:45:37] Lessons from live feedback. [00:47:27] The burnout years. [00:49:25] Life after Chicken Soup . [00:51:05] Late-night typing marathons and pun-laden chapter transitions that led to The Success Principles . [00:54:02] How Jack’s love of transformation beats any royalty check. [00:55:07] Retirement reflections. [00:59:32] Jack’s longevity formula: Laughter, organic food, love, and letting go. [01:02:10] An ayahuasca awakening. [01:03:39] The story of Rythmia Life Advancement Center and how it’s affected Jack. [01:06:43] Breaking belief loops and understanding community as medicine. [01:10:06] E + R = O and strategies for taking 100% responsibility of one’s life. [01:22:27] Why “clean up your messes” is first in Jack’s list of productivity tips. [01:29:27] Where to begin if you’re unfamiliar with Jack’s work. [01:31:08] Ken Blanchard: “Feedback is the breakfast of champions.” [01:32:13] Parting thoughts. Show notes for this episode: https://tim.blog/2025/10/29/jack-canfield/ * For show notes and past guests on The Tim Ferriss Show , please visit tim.blog/podcast . For deals from sponsors of The Tim Ferriss Show , please visit tim.blog/podcast-sponsors Sign up for Tim’s email newsletter ( 5-Bullet Friday ) at tim.blog/friday . For transcripts of episodes, go to tim.blog/transcripts . Discover Tim’s books: tim.blog/books . Follow Tim: Twitter : twitter.com/tferriss Instagram : instagram.com/timferriss YouTube : youtube.com/timferriss Facebook : facebook.com/timferriss LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/timferriss See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info .