Hello, boys and girls, ladies and germs. This is Tim Ferriss. Welcome to another episode of the Tim Ferriss

show, where it is my job to interview world-class performers to break down how they do what they do.

What are the frameworks, tools, influences, so on and so forth that have helped make them who they are.

My guest today is back. At long last, he is one of my most requested guests

for a follow-up, Robert Rodriguez. He is a film director, screenwriter, producer, cinematographer,

editor, and composer. He does everything, absolutely everything. And to give you an idea of

the Genesis, while a student at the University of Texas at Austin,

U.T. Austin, that's right here in my backyard. In 1991, Rodriguez wrote the script to his first feature

film while sequestered at a drug research facility as a paid subject in a clinical experiment.

I'm not making that up. That paycheck covered the cost of shooting his $7,000

film El Maraci, which won the coveted audience award at the 1993 Sundance Film Festival

and became the lowest budget movie ever released by a major studio. If you want the full story on

that, listen to our first conversation, which you can find in the show notes. Rodriguez wrote about

these experiences in Rebel Without a Crew, a perennial guide for the independent filmmaker.

Really, it is a guide to bare bones bootstrapped entrepreneurship of any type. It's worth

reading. Then he went on to write, produce, direct, and edit a series of successful films,

including Desperado, from Dusk Till Dawn, the Faculty, and the Spy Kids franchise, which is huge.

Once Upon a Time in Mexico, Frank Miller's Sin City. We Can Be Heroes, and he's also collaborated with director James Cameron on the film adaptation of Alita Battle Angel.

His films have grossed more than $1.5

billion at the box office. Then, in 2000, I suppose somewhere in the middle there, Rodriguez

founded Troublemaker Studios in Austin, Texas, which I've visited a number of times.

It's worth checking out if you're out of the chance. He recently directed the Lady Gaga,

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