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The Tim Ferriss Show

#474: Matthew McConaughey — The Power of “No, Thank You,” Key Life Lessons, 30+ Years of Diary Notes, and The Art of Catching Greenlights

The Tim Ferriss Show

Tim Ferriss: Bestselling Author, Human Guinea Pig

Lifestyle Design, Business, The 4-hour Workweek, Productivity, Timothy Ferriss Show, Startups, Tim Ferris, Entrepreneurship, Longform Interviews, Tools Of Titans, Timothy Ferriss, The Tim Ferriss Show, Tim Ferriss

4.617.4K Ratings

🗓️ 19 October 2020

⏱️ 103 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Matthew McConaughey — The Power of “No, Thank You,” Key Life Lessons, 30+ Years of Diary Notes, and The Art of Catching Greenlights | Brought to you by Wealthfront automated investing, Helix Sleep mattresses, and Magic Spoon cereal

Matthew McConaughey (@McConaughey) is a Texas native and one of Hollywood's most sought-after leading men. A chance meeting in Austin with casting director and producer Don Phillips led him to director Richard Linklater, who launched the actor's career in the cult classic Dazed and Confused. Since then, he has won an Academy Award for his portrayal of Ron Woodroof in Dallas Buyers Club, appeared in more than 40 feature films that have grossed more than $1 billion, and has become a producer, director, and philanthropist with his Just Keep Livin' Foundation—all the while sticking to his Texas roots and "jk livin'" philosophy.

McConaughey also serves as creative director for Wild Turkey and has co-created his own bourbon, Longbranch. He serves as Minister of Culture/M.O.C. for the University of Texas Athletic Department and the Austin FC Soccer Club, where he is part owner. McConaughey will launch his first book, Greenlights, on October 20, 2020.

He currently resides in Austin, Texas, with his wife Camilla and their three kids while he is a professor at the University of Texas in Austin.

Please enjoy!

This episode is brought to you by WealthfrontWealthfront pioneered the automated investing movement, sometimes referred to as ‘robo-advising,’ and they currently oversee $20 billion of assets for their clients. It takes about three minutes to sign up, and then Wealthfront will build you a globally diversified portfolio of ETFs based on your risk appetite and manage it for you at an incredibly low cost. 

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This podcast episode is also brought to you by Helix SleepHelix was selected as the #1 best overall mattress pick of 2020 by GQ magazine, Wired, Apartment Therapy, and many others. With Helix, there’s a specific mattress for each and every body’s unique taste. Just take their quiz—only two minutes to complete—that matches your body type and sleep preferences to the perfect mattress for you. They have a 10-year warranty, and you get to try it out for a hundred nights, risk free. They’ll even pick it up from you if you don’t love it. And now, to my dear listeners, Helix is offering up to 200 dollars off all mattress orders plus two free pillows at HelixSleep.com/Tim.

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This episode is also brought to you by Magic Spoon Cereal! Magic Spoon is a brand-new cereal that is low carb, high protein, and zero sugar. It tastes just like your favorite sugary cereal. Each serving has 12g of protein, 3g of net carbs, 0g of sugar, and only 110 calories. It’s also gluten free, grain free, keto friendly, soy free, and GMO free. And it’s delicious! It comes in your favorite, traditional cereal flavors like Cocoa, Frosted, and Blueberry.

Magic Spoon cereal has received a lot of attention since launching last year. Time magazine included it in their list of Best Inventions of 2019, and Forbes called it “the future of cereal.” My listeners—that’s you—get free shipping and a 100% happiness guarantee when you visit MagicSpoon.com/Tim and use code TIM.

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Past guests on The Tim Ferriss Show include Jerry Seinfeld, Hugh Jackman, Dr. Jane Goodall, LeBron James, Kevin Hart, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Jamie Foxx, Matthew McConaughey, Esther Perel, Elizabeth Gilbert, Terry Crews, Sia, Yuval Noah Harari, Malcolm Gladwell, Madeleine Albright, Cheryl Strayed, Jim Collins, Mary Karr, Maria Popova, Sam Harris, Michael Phelps, Bob Iger, Edward Norton, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Neil Strauss, Ken Burns, Maria Sharapova, Marc Andreessen, Neil Gaiman, Neil de Grasse Tyson, Jocko Willink, Daniel Ek, Kelly Slater, Dr. Peter Attia, Seth Godin, Howard Marks, Dr. Brené Brown, Eric Schmidt, Michael Lewis, Joe Gebbia, Michael Pollan, Dr. Jordan Peterson, Vince Vaughn, Brian Koppelman, Ramit Sethi, Dax Shepard, Tony Robbins, Jim Dethmer, Dan Harris, Ray Dalio, Naval Ravikant, Vitalik Buterin, Elizabeth Lesser, Amanda Palmer, Katie Haun, Sir Richard Branson, Chuck Palahniuk, Arianna Huffington, Reid Hoffman, Bill Burr, Whitney Cummings, Rick Rubin, Dr. Vivek Murthy, Darren Aronofsky, and many more.

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Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Hello ladies and germs boys and girls, lemurs and squirrels, all things under the sun. This is Tim

0:05.2

Ferris, welcome to another episode of the Tim Ferris show where it is my job to deconstruct world

0:10.1

class performers, people who are excellent world class at what they do to tease out all sorts of

0:15.4

things. Frameworks, questions they ask, favorite books, influences, you name it, lessons learned.

0:21.5

My guest today is Texas native Matthew McConaughey. He is one of Hollywood's most sought after

0:27.2

leading men, a chance meeting in Austin long ago with casting director and producer Don Phillips,

0:32.8

led him to director Richard Linklater who launched the actors career in the cult classic

0:37.3

Dazed and Confused. Since then he has won an Academy Award for his portrayal of Ron Woodruff

0:42.7

in Dallas Buyers Club, appeared in more than 40 feature films that have grossed more than

0:48.0

one billion dollars and has become a producer, director and philanthropist with his just keep

0:52.5

live in foundation. All the while stick into his Texas roots and JK live in philosophy. McConaughey

0:58.8

also serves as creative director for wild turkey and has co-created his own bourbon long branch.

1:04.3

He serves as minister of culture, MOC for the University of Texas athletic department

1:09.6

in the Austin FC soccer club where he is part owner. McConaughey will launch his first book,

1:14.7

Green Lights on October 20th, 2020. Currently resides in Austin, Texas with his wife Camilla and

1:20.8

their three kids while he is a professor at the University of Texas in Austin. You can find them

1:25.6

on Facebook, Matthew McConaughey on Instagram, officially McConaughey and on Twitter at McConaughey.

1:32.8

The book's official website is greenlights.com. Please enjoy this wide-ranging,

1:38.5

extremely enjoyable and entertaining conversation with none other than Matthew McConaughey.

1:45.4

This podcast episode is brought to you by Helix Sleep. Sleep is super important to me in the

1:53.7

last few years. I've come to conclude it is the end all be all that all good things, good mood,

1:59.6

good performance, good everything seem to stem from good sleep. So I've tried a lot to optimize it.

...

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