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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)
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During a recent conference, I stopped at the local B&N to have a coffee and thumb
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.
Months later, when I was bored and browsing my library for an entertaining audio book,
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.
- reduce time physically at work to increase productivity and satisfaction
- look into alternate
- 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.
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
- 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
I did get a valuable insight or two from the book though, most notably:
- you don't want to become a
- 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...
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
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
* 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
* 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!
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.
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.
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.
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
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.