The 4 Hour Work Week
 

Anyone else read this? (I saw the book mentioned in another thread)

I just finished it over the holiday break. It's an interesting read. I am curious to know what others on this forum think.

Here is a description from Amazon.com:

Product [book] Description
What do you do? Tim Ferriss has trouble answering the question. Depending on when you ask this
controversial Princeton University guest lecturer, he might answer:

“I race motorcycles in Europe.”
“I ski in the Andes.”
“I scuba dive in Panama.”
“I dance tango in Buenos Aires.”

He has spent more than five years learning the secrets of the New Rich, a fast-growing subculture who has abandoned the “deferred-life plan” and instead mastered the new currencies—time and mobility—to create luxury lifestyles in the here and now.

Whether you are an overworked employee or an entrepreneur trapped in your own business, this book is the compass for a new and revolutionary world. Join Tim Ferriss as he teaches you:

• How to outsource your life to overseas virtual assistants for $5 per hour and do whatever you want
• How blue-chip escape artists travel the world without quitting their jobs
• How to eliminate 50% of your work in 48 hours using the principles of a forgotten Italian economist
• How to trade a long-haul career for short work bursts and freuent "mini-retirements"
• What the crucial difference is between absolute and relative income
• How to train your boss to value performance over presence, or kill your job (or company) if it’s beyond repair
• What automated cash-flow “muses” are and how to create one in 2 to 4 weeks
• How to cultivate selective ignorance—and create time—with a low-information diet
• What the management secrets of Remote Control CEOs are
• How to get free housing worldwide and airfare at 50–80% off
• How to fill the void and create a meaningful life after removing work and the office

You can have it all—really.

Hmm, I'm sure some of that may be possible sometimes in some circumstances.

But it sounds too good to be true. It sounds like it's geared towards the same folks that read get rich quick books and take quick weight loss pills.

"You can have everything without doing anything!!"

Maybe my preconceptions and conditioning are holding me back.

Sorry, not possible.

This "plan" may work for people who are in some subset of jobs or those that don't really like what they do. But if you give a crap and want to do something important with your life, this isn't viable. If you just want to make money, maybe it is...

amway?

This was discussed here last year; good theory - lots of holes.

As a concept, it sells a lot of books.

Someone mentioned this book to me at a Xmas party a few weeks ago. I need to check it out. But when I think long and hard about this stuff, I really have accomplished a lot of what I set out to do long ago.

No, I don't have a lot of money in my bank account and I need every paycheck. But I work from home, haven't seen my boss in almost two years, ride my motorcycle to my meetings, even those several hundred miles away, can wrench on my Porsche during the day if I feel like it and I even had to forfeit a few vacation days in 2009 because I couldn't use them up by the end of the year and had more than I could carry over. Yes, I work a lot more than four hours a week. But some folks wouldn't consider it work. I like what I do and I like it even more when things are busy. But I like taking naps in the afternoon and then heading to the gym, having no commute at all deal with ever. When I lived in VA, I had a soul-crushing commute into DC to look forward to even on my best days. Getting home in rush hour was a nightmare. Taking a nap in the afternoon was unthinkable. I couldn't leave the office without walking past my boss's office door. Yes, I was there for eight hours a day, but I accomplished a lot less than I do now in far less than eight hours per day.

Still, I need to check this book out.

Yea, I'll agree some of the bullet points are not possible for many people, and the list does sound pretty cheesey the way I cut-and-pasted it.

But, consider a few of the points the author makes:

"New Rich" can/will be defined as those who free themselves from the 9-5 routine. Someone making $40K per year who is free to chase their dreams may be more "rich" than someone who makes $400K and is a slave to the office.

Or how about the idea that the traditional "deferred life" plan (save enough money doing something you don't like so that you can stop doing it forever and do something you do like in retirement) is a fools game?

I liked the emphasis in the book on the Pareto principle and Parkinson's Law (two of my favorites). I see a lot of time wasted by business people who do things (have meetings) because they have to be in the office 9-5.

A lot of posts in this forum occur during "normal work hours", no? Would we be doing something more productive if we weren't chained to a desk all day?

I searched (a little) but couldn't find the thread. I'll look again.

People who have it all figured out don't try to sell books books telling everyone how they did it unless selling books is how they did it.

The same goes for people who know how to make a furtune in the real estate business or stock market.
If they really knew how to get rich they wouldn't need to sell books or charge for seminars.

Believe it or not, they aren't sharing their secrets because they like you and want you to be rich too.

That seems good, but I assume the long term plan is to work until you drop dead?

And, if that's the case, do you intend to drop dead early, and if not, what job do you see yourself in when you are 83 years old?

I'll probably move to China when it's totally certain all is lost in the US. IF my wife and I can take our retirement money with us or at least access it from afar, we should be able to live very well. In fact, this will probably happen long before we reach retirement age.

Do something important with your life?

We as humans could hardly be any more insignificant than we are in the grand order of things. Doing "something important with your life," is a delusion of grandeur IMO.

The advice i give is, "if it makes you happy, go for it." This notion that a person should, "make something of himself," is goofy. We're here for but a blink in the eye of time. So enjoy it, don't kill yourself living up to anyone else's ideals or trying to fit into someone else's norms.

Clearly that's where the money is. Being the snake oil peddler who sells his books to idjits looking to get rich fast. ;)

That's how i try to live life. I could give a fk less about money, what i care about is free time. I have more of it than anyone i know.

If you are living paycheck to paycheck without a lot of money in your bank account, where is the retirement money going to come from?

I'm very curious about this mindset, in many ways I admire it (because it is so foreign to me and seems so dashing and carefree).

How do you intend to live when you are 70 or 80? Same question I asked Rick. Do you just intend to keep working until you drop dead? If so, do you really see yourself repo'ing cars when you are 80, or what other job?

I am not living paycheck to paycheck. Even when I was (many years ago), I still maxed out my 401k contributions. I'm just fine there as long as our ruling regime doesn't nationalize retirement assets and we don't get hyperinflation (I know that's a tall order). I can get by without a paycheck for a little while, but not for as long as I should be able to get by. Of course, moving to China would entail selling my house and all my toys, so there'd be some cash from that. I could teach English there to keep myself busy in my later years. It's not hard to get by there on a meager western income.

I like the part about outsourcing flowers to his Mother. Some of his ideas are pretty good some are a bit out there - all-in-all he is really trying to shift work and automate. I think the amount of time, effort and talent required to do what he suggests would take much longer than actually just doing it in the first place.

Its like a crimminal - they spend a bunch of energy breaking the law when all they really have to do is re-direct the energy to the task at hand.

He does have some good ideas. Anytime you can have someone else do your work for you and get away with it has to be a good idea right?

I guess my ace in the hole is my folks' house. They're retired and rich. If I outlive them and inherit their estate, even splitting it with my sister and paying off the gov't., I could retire tomorrow on that investment income. Of course, I'm not planning my life around that. But it is a possibility.

I had a buddy in high school who was a pro at this stuff. A neighbor's house was for sale for a very long time and they had a huge yard. The realtor paid my buddy $100 every two weeks to mow it. He, of course, subbed it out to a younger kid for $50 and kept $50 for himself. I don't know what he's doing now, but I'm sure he's rich.

This book, from what I can understand, makes a lot of sense. To me, it more represents a way of thinking and existing, than a tangible lifestyle.

Life and work should be about balance; which I am learning the hard way as my current position as a managing editor for a monthly newspaper is completely and utterly doing me in.

I'm thinking of giving the whole profession up, denying existence of my Master's degree, and going to work in a bicycle shop.

Because it's all about balance.

Thats the story of America - why do you think we have such opportunities for Mexicans to work here? Tyhey ain't cashing in, el jefe is.

I don't even know that i will ever make it to 70 or 80. What i do know however, is that i am here now.

I am healthy now. When i'm 70 or 80 i might not even remember my name, or be some drooling Alzheimer addled invalid. So now is when i'm going to enjoy my free time. Now is when i'm going to spend the fruits of my labor.

Not some day 40 years from now that may very well never come.

For "retirement" i'll have a social security check and whatever state care the gov't throws at us(by then the US will probably be full on socialist, so i may actually want for very little), plus my VA benefits, and a very modest 401k, etc. If i need more coin i can work part time in some little guard shack listening to Phillies games on the radio. I know plenty of old fellas that work, and they say that they prefer it that way. It gives them something to do with themselves. Which is interesting in and of itself, because IMO most "workaholics" WON'T retire when they're 65 anyway, they'll work themselves literally to death. That's what workaholics do.

But back to me...65 might never come. Fk, 41 might never come....

So i live life for now. For today. For next week or next month, but i never plan out farther than a year, and rarely even that far.

I don't have a lot of money, but i don't care about money. Again, i care about time....and i have more of it than anyone i know. And i'm happy. Happier than most i know, despite- again- not having much money (I'm on fixed income right now on workers comp).

Anyway, some will look at me and say "In 30 years your life will be ****." And maybe so, but today i have more time than 10 full time working men my age combined. Now...while i'm still young. I have time for women, for hobbies, for TV, for the internet. I can do whatever i want, whenever i want.

How can you ever put a price on that?

The truth is that i've been semi-retired since the day i ETS'd from the US Army some 2 decades ago.

I have a V-8 Porsche "super car", a decent daily driver car, plenty of zombie guns, a computer, an Xbox360, and a bevy of women at my call. I'm liking my formula for life so far. Honestly, though i am what many here would consider "poor," the reality is that i live better than the King of England did just a mere 150 years ago.

I can live with that.

Same here. My dad is what i consider quite rich. If he died i'd get probably about a quarter million out of it. Not that i ever want to collect it....but it is the truth.

Well played use of the word!

Newspapers are not for everyone - stress junkies more like it. I bet there are aspects of your job you like. Any way to re-focus on those to achieve balance?

So the book is more than just "live for the day", although that is an important component.

The idea is, keep your job, your 401K, and get the fk out of the office where you are dying a "slow death of mediocraty". Keep your job, and do something else with the remaining hours you're not wasting.

FWIW, I'm already half-way there: I work from a home office, and I consider myself lucky to have that freedom. I've worked in the cubicle farm, and I can promise you it takes a fraction of 40 hours to do the average corporate job, once you're good at it. (We waste a lot of our lives in worthless meetings, etc.)

But I want more money, so now what? Go back to the office (makes me want to put a gun to my head) and climb the ladder, or do something else with my "free" time?

I have also given a lot of thought to taking on a second full-time, work-from-home job. As long as I were doing it in totally different industry, I could probably keep both jobs a secret from the other one. But I haven't found the right gig yet. I did see an ad on Craigslist a while back for a German document translator, which would have paid $40 per hour. But it required the person to be a member of the DC bar and to work in their DC law office. I emailed the lady, told her I could do that job in my sleep from home and did she know any lawyers I could hire for $40 per hour? No response.

Sounds great! Are those jobs available?

Yeah, I mentioned it in another thread and I'm currently about 3/4's way through it. I love it and I'd HIGHLY recommend it too.

I only grabbed it because I liked the title, a concept that I introduced to myself in my early 40's, only it was a 30Hr work week; ha, ha.

Try not to read the book from a defensive angle, but instead from an angle that you may be able to get something from it. We do tend to defend our life patterns, as I found myself thinking along the same lines while reading it; but the book has opened me up to many new and exciting conversations about business and lifestyle choices. Most of Tim's concepts are spot on imo.

If I can read a book and get one thing out of it, then I'm ecstatic! This book has given me many new concepts to think about and an awesome amount of info that I've learned too. Tim gives actual websites, quotes and contact info and substantiates everything he says. It is very well presented, imo again.

In fact, over our morning coffee today I asked my wife, "What would we be doing right now today if money was no object." She replied, "What do you mean no object, how much are you talkin about?" I said, " Ten Million cash in the bank." She said, "We'd be getting ready to take a ski run from our mountain side ski chalet I guess." ha, ha. And we WILL.......

LINK: The 4-Hour Workweek and Timothy Ferriss for more info.

Definitely one of Rob's picks for 2010 must reads!
I also recommend Robert Kiyosaki's newest book, "Conspiracy of the Rich".... oooh, it's good :) That will twist a few heads for sure!

As for our lifestyles; I believe 110% that it's Lifestyle by Design, our design. We all get to choose what we want. If you look at something and say NO that wont happen, then NO it wont. If you look at something and say YES, then it will. I really appreciate authors like Tim Ferris and his book is outstanding. BTW, he was making $80K a month when he wrote it, so it wasn't just for the money imo.

Better get back to work......... ha, ha.
Enjoy the book, thanks for posting Martin.

Here's the books I've read in Nov/December, 2009:
Business Striped Bare by Richard Branson
Excuses Be Gone, By Dr. Wayne Dyer
The Four Things a Service Business Must Get Right - Harvard Review by Frances Freil
How to Create Your LIfe by Dr. Wayne Dyer
How to Get What You Want by Zig Ziglar
Learn to Remember Names by Tony Wrighton
Living Without Limits by Dr. Wayne Dyer and Deepak Chopra
Asset Protection 101 by J.J. Childers (Trump U)
Too Small to Ignore by Dr. Wess Stafford
Living your Bliss by Dr. Wayne Dyer
Making Your Thoughts Work For You by Dr. Wayne Dyer and Byron Katie
Conspiracy of the Rich by Robert Kiyosaki
The Success Principals by Jack Canfield
The Vortex by Esther Hicks

Current Reading List:
The 4 Hour Work Week by Timothy Ferriss
The REAL Book of Real Estate by Robert Kiyosaki (text book)
The Astonishing Power of Emotions by Esther Hicks
The Shack by Wm. Paul Young
Screw It, Let's Do It by Richard Branson
The New Rules of Marketing & PR by David Meerman Scott
Real Estate Investing in Canada by Don R. Campbell (re-read 4x)
Pelican PPOT - Interesting Daily Reads, ha, ha.

Waiting patiently to be read in my in-box for reading:
Awaken the Giant Within by Anthony Robbins (re-read)
Inspiration by Dr. Wayne Dyer
The Law of Attraction by Esther Hicks (re-read)
Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by being Remarkable by Seth Godin
The Sales Advantage by Dale Carnegie
The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success by Deepak Chopra
Think and Grow Rich by Napolean Hill (re-read 5x)
21 Great Ways to Become a Sales Superstar by Brian Tracy
25 Ways to Win With People by Dr. John C. Maxwell (one of my favorite authors!)

I know it seems excessive, but I love to read and it's my "at home" reading season; I'm lucky if I read one book in the summer months at the cabin. Also the Dr. Dyer books are for my spiritual feed, which has taken on a personal taste that he satisfies for me very much; not necessarily for everyone though?

I also took a speed reading course about 20 years ago, which I'd recommend to everyone. Tim gives a speed read method in his book too btw.

Well as Sniper says.... Enough of me talking about me, why dont you talk about me for a while now? Ha, ha.

Sit down and design your life guys, it works!
You can trust Rob, can't you? ;)

If i had 10 mil i'd be doing the same thing i'm doing right now, i'd just be doing it in a nicer house on a nicer computer.

LOL. ;)

I concur completely with 911Rob.

I have always charted my own course. I never followed the crowd. In HS instead of the expense of a POS "muscle" car, I had faster motorcycles and money in the bank for travel. In college I studied what interested me, not what I thought could be money makers. I have enjoyed life 99% of the time because I always did what I wanted to. Not what others wanted or expected me to do. I take good care of my family and friends, but that does not require a life of slavery.

Life is short and then you die. Live it like it means something.

Why do i find it somewhat disturbing that you and i have similar philosophies on life in many respects?

In most ways, you are the anti-me. But once in a while you really surprise me with your thought process.

who? me?

fwiw, I think you're a cool guy and I enjoy reading your posts. Your full of Bullsht, but a cool guy. ha, ha.

Nah, the frenchman.

I like you a lot, even if you are full of cuddly lovin feel good silliness. :D

With hotter chicks? ;)

Just finished the book; excellent read!

not much going on here, guess I'll go start another one..........
Cheers

PS
He finishes the final chapter with 17 books that he recommends for reading and that he used for research; of the 17 I've only read 2, so I'll be getting onto that list now too.

The main point to take away from this book is not to try to copy him hoping for success and endless free time. The book is merely to encourage you - to inspire you - to take action in your life. People often get into ruts and they never get themselves out.

"Tomorrow is never."

I enjoyed the book.

Take four and multiply by twenty and you have my minimum work week. So no time to read. Any Cliff's notes?

I worked in a bicycle shop, when I was a teenager.

II figure that most of the time if a person hates his job he's probably not very good at it. Mediocrity is an individual issue and not a job description.

My job is a PITA but I really like working because I'm good at it. I like being good at something, being the go-to guy, being looked up to and respected as a leader in my field and an SME. Don't care if that sounds arrogant, it's true. It took me almost 3 decades to get there.

IMO pretending that doing nothing or doing very little is better than working and growing and striving to be the best you can be is a little misguided and hopefully something that can be overcome with maturity.
It smacks of giving up and failure.

These two modes of thinking are both grand-slam home-runs, IMO. Time is absolutely the most valuable asset you can ever have, own and bank, because you can use it to do anything you want, limited only by your imagination and budget. Money will not set you free unless you use it to buy time, then to fill that time with what you want.

So in that sense, I agree with what Sniper's saying. However, I think filling that time with nothing more than hobbies, TV and video games is just a waste. Christ, you could do that from prison. Life gets enriched by enriching yourself, whether that's through family and emotional ties to other people, intellectual pursuits, the arts, travel, and yes, to lesser extent, leisure activities like hobbies and games. And the single most important thing you need for that is time.

It's the truly lucky among us whose work careers contribute to this enrichment.