The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich

by Timothy Ferriss

Hardcover, 2009

Status

Available

Call number

650.1

Collection

Publication

Harmony (2009), Edition: Exp Upd, Hardcover, 416 pages

Description

Business. Self-Improvement. Careers. Nonfiction. HTML: Forget the old deferred life plan that has you working hard through the best of years of your life only to retire at the end. There is no need to wait, and every reason not to. Whether your dream is escaping the rat race, experiencing high-end world travel, earning a monthly five-figure income with zero management, or just living more and working less, this book is the blueprint. In this step-by-step guide to luxury lifestyle design, Tim Ferris explains how he went from working eighty hours per week for $40,000 per year to earning $40,000 per month in just four hours per week, allowing him to travel the world and fulfill his dreams�??and how you can, too. With more than one hundred pages of new, cutting-edge content, this expanded edition offers new tools and tricks for living like a millionaire vagabond, even in unpredictable economic times. Added features include templates for eliminating email and negotiating with bosses and clients, plus real case studies from readers who have doubled their income and reinvented themselves by following Tim's revolutionary paradigm.… (more)

Media reviews

Forget “follow your dreams.” Ferriss recommends creating intellectual property by searching Writer’s Market for obscure magazines with 15,000-plus circulations whose readers spend money in the same consumer patterns as, say, bass fishermen, then asking the magazines’ advertising directors
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to e-mail you rate cards while you search back issues for repeat advertisers who sell directly to consumers via 1-800 numbers and Web sites. I’m not kidding. That’s Step 1.
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The book's essential premise is that what Ferriss calls the "deferred-life plan" -- the path of working for 40 years to fund a 20-year retirement -- is both escapable and worth escaping.

User reviews

LibraryThing member adamallen
Let me begin this review by stating that, based on it's title, I avoided this book like the plague and turned my nose up at it snobbishly for months. I was certain that it was absolute crap of the worst self-help kind.

During a recent conference, I stopped at the local B&N to have a coffee and thumb
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through some books. I bought this one and Your Money and Your Brain by Jason Zweig. Needless to say, my opinion had changed.

The 4-Hour Workweek is a how-to manual for helping you unchain yourself from your desk, automate your cash flow so that you can work only four hours per week, and use your newly found time for whatever it is in life that truly makes you happy (the book focuses on using this time for travel). "Impossible!", you say. I would argue that it isn't impossible but it is difficult. Personally speaking, I believe in Ferriss' approach. That being said, I limited my rating to 4* because I fear that he made it sound easier than it actually is.

Ferriss takes you through the process in four sections: "D is for Definition", "E is for Elimination", "A is for Automation", and "L is for Liberation". "D is for Definition" describes why you'd want to stop coming to work everyday (not too difficult, right?) and frames the barriers/obstacles you will face in making this change (e.g. fear, motivational paralysis, your engrained perceptions of "the way it should be"). It provides practical ways to overcome these obstacles. I really enjoyed this section. For me, it was a reminder of what's important in life.

"E is for Elimination" works to change the reader's focus from managing your time to living the Pareto Principle. This principle states that we get 80% of our results from 20% of our work. So, Ferriss guides you through eliminating the wasteful 80% so we can focus on the fruitful 20%. While this is a great section, and worth the cost of the book in itself, there are pieces that I found to be easier said than done. For example, he talks about avoiding meetings and ways to go about that. With my micromanaging CEO, that would not be tolerated. He counters these situations by suggesting that it may be time to fire your boss/company. He may be right... That being said, I've found some of his other examples such as e-mail processing to be extremely helpful already.

"A is for Automation" helps you to identify new business opportunities and how you can test market your ideas for less than $500. Once you've found your idea that will produce cash flow, this walks you through putting this business on autopilot so that you don't become the workaholic entrepreneur. This is a great section but it's again made to sound easier than it actually is. I think it can be done - and I plan to try - but I don't expect it to be as simple as it's made to sound.

"L is for Liberation" tells you how to create a lifestyle of mobility so that you can travel or do whatever it is that makes you happy. Ferriss does provide ways to overcome the "but I have children" barrier (which was my first reaction). More importantly, your liberation doesn't have to be travel but he spends a good deal of time on that topic. As a person who loves to travel and someone who dreams of owning more of my time, I thought this section was wonderful.

I know, I know. It's too good to be true and must be bullshit. Don't be so hasty. While you may not subscribe to everything Ferriss lays out, you'll almost certainly take a few tips and principles from the book that make it worth twice what you'll pay to get it. I believe the book is terrific and I would highly recommend it. If you're skeptical, pick it up in your bookstore and skim it. You'll find yourself going home with it. I read it in two days. If I'd had more free time (read: irony), I'd have finished it in one. I plan to re-read it before the year's out. I've already implemented many of the "Elimination" suggestions. In 2008, I plan on using it to find my "Liberation". Wish me luck.
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LibraryThing member LyzzyBee
Helping people to leave the rat race, express themselves, etc. is a noble aim - helping them to bum around the workd while on their employer's time quite another. I had picked up this book from Mozfest and then read about it in A.J. Jacobs' "My Experimental Life", where Ferriss asks to - and ineed
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does - lift an entire chapter on outsourcing straight into his book, and this is seemingly typical behaviour. Ferriss boasts of using loopholes to "achieve", but is pushing people off a platform really achieving in Chinese wrestling? - I found this generally a bit unsavoury, to be honest. He does admit that one of his case studies was not keen on some of his methods, which is honest and fair enough. And I have taken an interest in some of the milder versions of his efficiency measures, such as checking email less often (but telling people you are going to do this: used today when I have a big work project in). I'm glad I didn't buy this book - but then the author would probably approve of that!
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LibraryThing member lithoglyphic
Tim Ferriss bends all the rules of the American workforce. By starting his own product-focused company and outsourcing as much of the process as possible, he remains free to travel the world and have all kinds of fantastic adventures. The lifestyle is probably not for everyone -- for one thing,
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it's not exactly a piece of cake to start a reliable business. But the tips are handy, regardless. It's a must-read for overstressed start-up founders, mobile technology workers, and anyone who wants more out of life but needs tips on the execution.
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LibraryThing member Lilac_Lily01
When you look at the title: "The 4- Hour Workweek" you can't help but think it must be some sort of scam. I certainly did. I couldn't be bothered to even look at the book when I first saw it on a bookstore shelf.
Months later, when I was bored and browsing my library for an entertaining audio book,
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this book stared at me again. And this time I decided to give it a listen.

From the first pages on, the author T.Ferris drew me in. He starts out by sharing his own story from "grossly overworked and severely underpaid office worker to a member of the New Rich". Ferris is only 30 years old, yet he has started multiple businesses and learned a few lessons in the process. One of them being: "Work smarter not harder" (I know, that's a new one.)
He explains that the members of "the New Rich are those who abandon the deferred- life plan and create luxury lifestyles in the present using the currency of the New Rich: time and mobility."
According to Ferriss our society has it all wrong. We work our butts off for 40- 50 years in the hopes of enjoying life once we hit retirement. By doing that we miss out on life and what if we never get to retirement?

For that reason the author proposes to start an income producing business that bothers us as little as possible. He gives the exact steps on how to find the right business. One where you will be able to take yourself out of the picture and let other people run the business for you. Sounds scary, but his ideas seem to work. And obviously this principle has worked for him.

Ferriss also included some chapters on Time Management (How to be more productive with less time), Cultivating Selective Ignorance (Only consume information from TV, newspapers and online sources if you will use it for something immediate and important),the Art of keeping people from interrupting you, and best of all a chapter on how to outsource your life.

Overall, this book had some great ideas and it will certainly help you to redefine what success looks like to you. I doubt you will only work 4 hours a week, but you might become more productive with your time and learn to enjoy life while it's happening.
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LibraryThing member beatgammit
This seems targeted more towards entrepreneurs and sales (people for whom time is flexible), but I, as a salary employee, found it interesting and motivating. From this book, I now feel motivated to:

- reduce time physically at work to increase productivity and satisfaction
- look into alternate
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revenue streams that have flexible time commitments (read: income is not tied to time spent)
- outsource boring tasks, even personal ones

Tim Ferriss gives lots of helpful suggestions as to how to accomplish a fulfilling life where time is spent precisely how you want to spend it. I will likely reread this once I've made some of the changes above.
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LibraryThing member pbirch01
There are a lot of really good reviews for this book already, and besides - your time is money and you are wasting money reading a long review.

Summary:

- Its okay to be abrupt with people, your time is valuable
- Unless that person is a TA, their time is worthless. Feel free to waste it by asking 3.5
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hours worth of questions about why you got a B.
- Randomly Capitalize Words - it makes you look more motivational
- Start a business already!
- Its also okay to stereotype (well maybe just for fat old guys in red BMWs)
- Don't ship overseas - customs is a hassle
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LibraryThing member bbbart
Not entirely convinced about this book. It was ok, but again I was put off by the US-centric approach to everything. I think I should stop reading non-fiction books by American authors... :-)

I did get a valuable insight or two from the book though, most notably:
- you don't want to become a
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millionaire to hat one million sitting at your bank. you want to be a millionaire to live the lifestyle linked with it. and you don't need a million dollar to have just that.
- don't build a company that is as big as possible (while trying to avoid a burn-out). try instead building a company that bothers you the least (while making it provide you with enough income).

Easy read, some good ideas, but many sections I just flipped through...
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LibraryThing member tmariereads
I just finished The 4-Hour Workweek, by Timothy Ferriss, and I have to say, despite all the hype surrounding it, I can't give the book more than 5 cheers!

The title is a great hook- who wouldn't want to have a 4 hour workweek? But the contents just weren't fabulous. I mentioned before that I thought
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it read very much like an infomercial- "Act now, and YOU could be a rich tango-dancer/kickboxing-champion/linguist/bull fighter, TOO!"

I don't mean to bash the guy in anyway; the book just wasn't my style. I found him very arrogant, and the whole time I read I was thinking, I would not be friends with this guy in real life.

But then the book isn't about him trying to be your friend. It's about motivating you to find happiness in your work and free time to do the things you care about most. He does offer some excellent tips on time management, as well as good advice for new entrepreneurs, although his strategies seem a bit cut-throat at times.

I know many people have been moved by this book to go out and try things they've never thought of before, but if that's the kind of book you're looking for, I would recommend you check out some of Dan Miller's work.

As for me, I think it's time I switch gears and read for fun again. I'm finished with the career and business genre for a while...

Final Score: 5/10
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LibraryThing member shawnd
This changed my life. Not sure what else to say. I happen to be a work-at-home person already and have some unique advantages that make me able to pull this off. Didn't like/didn't buy the success of the Indian outsourcing; my experience is that it's more expensive and less successful. And he does
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well to talk about what I hit, which is that I don't like travel (a lot of the book assumes the person likes travel, honestly, which is one criticism), and so I don't really have an all consuming alternate activity I want to fill my life with. Working is as enjoyable as any other activity, and he covers what happens if you do the process, get to fewer hours, but don't have something to fill it with. However, all these a nit criticisms. Over all this is a revolutionary book and I suspect it will affect a lot of readers.
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LibraryThing member tintinintibet
I spent an hour reading this book in a barnes and noble and i was pleasantly surprised -- the author's personal experience is at times laughable but often perceptive and clever (or at least compels you to at least consider a very different perspective from the norm). For example, it would be one
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thing (and a bad thing) to be told to simply take advantage of the global outsourcing trend by outsourcing my life to an assistant in India -- I'd roll my eyes and put the book down. But to read of this author's amusing series of outsourcing tales and to be able to draw out insights from the experience -- what it taught him in terms of how to seek out capable staff, how to manage and manage remotely -- well, that's worth something. A chuckle. A moment to reflect on a new perspective. I don't know, I wouldn't buy this book (though it is exhaustive in providing additional contacts, resources, and references to his ideas) -- but it was definitely an interesting hour in the bookstore.
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LibraryThing member storming
Tim Ferriss' new book The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich isn't for everyone but I thought he made some really good points.

* We work from 9-5 because we are supposed to work 40 hours a week from 9-5.
* We are very unproductive at work. How many hours did you
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spend this week in meetings, answering emails or surfing the web?
* We are busy working hard and saving for retirement when we should be figuring out how to do what we want to do now.
* We have way too much information to digest from blogs to news to email.

What he suggests, among many other things, is:

* Be more productive. Figure out what you do when you are not working (like blogging emailing or reading blogs and news) and cut it out.
* Get lots done in a little time so you have lots more time for things you enjoy. He suggest working just an hour a day.
* Outsource anything and everything possible including all your errands.
* Figure out what excites you so you know what you want to be doing. (He stresses excitement over enjoyment. Like I've said, too much hanging out on the beach can get boring.)
* Work towards a positive monthly cash flow instead of a large sum of money you'll use during retirement.
* Take lots of mini-retirements or mini-vacations - so save up for those and then do them.
* He advocates lots of travel and lots of learning - especially other languages.

In order to accomplish all this, he suggests starting a business selling a product. Then outsource everything from creating the product to marketing to order fulfillment to others.

I bet if you read the book, you'd get at least one really good idea out of it. I bet most people that read the book don't end up quitting their job and starting an outsourced product company, but you never know!
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LibraryThing member peterclark
I found this to be a very overrated book. it's key take aways are "outsource everything" and "if you're doing what you love technically that isn't work so then you can only spend 4 hours a week doing boring tasks"
LibraryThing member rlwillis
Overall I liked the book, though I thought his suggestions for creating an income stream were a little gimmicky and his criticism of deferred compensation seems overly optimistic after the economic crisis. On the positive side, you can gain a lot of useful ideas for time and task management. Also,
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it has a lot of good financial information showing how one can afford to take “mini-retirements” from their career – cheap travel, insurance, maintain finances remotely etc, etc. The book is also backed by a web site with good resources for analyzing your situation. Though I would not follow his entire method, I picked up a lot of good ideas and it encouraged me to attempt a few things I thought I would never have the money or time to do. Recommended.
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LibraryThing member Peggy72
This is a MUST for any budding entrepreneur or anyone wanting to get out of the rat race. Full of tips and tricks as well as step by step guide of how to do it. Listing plenty of useful websites too to make life easier. Highly recommended!
LibraryThing member stevetempo
My preference for this book is very uneven. It's not what I expected exactly. I very much enjoyed the discussion regarding paradigm shifting lifestyle choices and strategies. This includes things like thinking globally, divesting yourself from some of the never used "energy sapping material things"
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in your life, and focusing your efforts on the things that you really enjoy doing. The author is very much the extrovert (I am not) though and the book is written from that point of view. The business creating stuff was of some interest (and might more be to others) but did not hold my fascination and I found myself flipping through these page rather quickly.
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LibraryThing member silvastar
Heaps of different website links that are very helpful.
LibraryThing member briandarvell
The thing to take from this book is that modern work methodology is changing. Still, I found much of this book to be all about self-interest. Furthermore, it must be realized that not all work can be relegated so easily and when it actually comes down to it, someone still needs to get the real work
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done.

Some contradictions also exist:

1) Somehow, the book begins by attracting the reader with all sort of materialistic advances but in the final pages the author says that a simple life is what one should really strive for.

2) The author advocates speed-reading through much of the book but also states that a much slower living pace should be striven for by people. I cannot help but notice that these two items are closely related.
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LibraryThing member cultivatingthemind
The 4HWW isn't a book about doing nothing and relaxing. Tim writes about how he changed his lifestyle so he could pursue what made life interesting for him. Tim writes about abandoning the deferred lifestyle plan (waiting till retirement), the currency of the New Rich- time and mobility and
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maximising the 80/20 rule- focusing your efforts on the 20 percent of things that create the moth results.
What makes the book really interesting is all the examples. Tim doesn't write about hypothetical examples, he writes about what has worked for him.
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LibraryThing member AtrixWolfe
This book raises interesting questions about work and free time. While I have not implemented the methods in the book (and may not be able to in my present occupation), the concept of outsourcing the work that you don't have to do has merit, as well as taking advantage of off-season travel
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opportunities.
The main usage of books like this is to shake up your routine and promote self-examination. There's always something that could be done better, or at least differently.
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LibraryThing member clevercroc
After reading this book I can't say that I can start my own business and work only 4 hours a week, however, I think the overall theme of taking control of your life is on point. Tim Ferris' story is at the very least inspirational and gave me reason to reflect on various aspects of my life and the
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direction I should be taking to reach my goals. This is a quick read and book that I will pick up again for inspiration.
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LibraryThing member stringsn88keys
Some very good parts to this book, and generally a quality examination of productivity and what's important versus looking busy and being a materialistic zombie.However, there are many "Carlton Sheets Late Night informercial" parts to this book, and the martial arts example early in the book sounds
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like playing basketball against 7th graders.
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LibraryThing member ericlee
Very disappointing. I was hoping for much more than the accumulated wisdom of someone barely out of their teens, whose only claim to fame seems to be that he made a lot of money and is now spending it.
LibraryThing member JeremyPreacher
This was an entertaining book but not really a helpful one. The solution to all of life's problems seems to be "start a $10k a month internet business", and while I'm sure that works, if it was that easy the economic climate in America would look very different. I also kind of don't believe a word
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this dude says, because he seems to have only the most tenuous grasp on basic ethics. It wasn't a waste of time to read, but I would not spend a dime on it nor seek out his other work.
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LibraryThing member smcamp1234
Believable? Yes I can see how all of the information taken seriously you could end up doing exactly as he states and be working a four hour work week. Many naysayers may state otherwise, but you have to have a drive and commitment in yourself before you can finally take that leap. I may not have
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that drive currently, but if the opportunities present themselves then ill have Tim Ferriss' book to look at for guidance and proceeding to the next step. He's included numerous excellent resources and information to also look into so this book is just a cornerstone to achieving your dreams.
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LibraryThing member Scarchin
WOW!

I don't know how I can possibly explain this book without getting into what will sound like hyperbole.

Let me first explain why I read it - It was a free audio book lying out on a table in the library. I was feeling particularly overwhelmed and frustrated - especially regarding my profession
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(public school teacher) that day, so the title appealed to me. Plus - the price was right up my alley!

To be honest, I expected to hear a lot of "bumpersticker-bullshit" early on and figured I'd quit after the first 15 minutes.

It was like nothing I've heard/read before.

Ferris gets into DETAIL. SPECIFICALLY explaining how to get away from the grind.

Ferris also speaks from experience - he's done and is doing what he teaches in the book and is more than happy to share his methods.

You want the quickie summary? Here it is - think of your time as money. Are you living the life you want? Are you maximizing your talents? We are ALL very good at something - why not get paid to do it? Why not LIVE YOUR LIFE?

Oops - there I go - getting excited and over the top - so let me bring it back to a plain closer to the average reality.

If anything, this book will cause you to RADICALLY re-think what you do with your time every day, what things you have and activities you engage in that are not helping you succeed - and taking away from precious TIME you should be spending with family, friends, and doing what you love.

And yes - we all have excuses why we can't make changes right now. Ferris confronts all of them and dissects and destroys them all.

Get this book.
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Awards

Audie Award (Finalist — 2011)

Language

Original language

English

Original publication date

2007

Physical description

416 p.; 5.78 inches

ISBN

0307465357 / 9780307465351
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