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

Timothy Ferriss (Author)

Book Description

Release date: April 24, 2007

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.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"It's about time this book was written. It is a long-overdue manifesto for the mobile lifestyle, and Tim Ferriss is the ideal ambassador. This will be huge."
-Jack Canfield
Co-creator of "Chicken Soup for the Soul(R)," 100+ million copies sold
"This is a whole new ball game. Highly recommended."
-Dr. Stewart D. Friedman
Adviser to Jack Welch and Former Vice President Al Gore on Work/Family Issues
Director of the Work/Life Integration Project, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania
"Stunning and amazing. From mini-retirements to outsourcing your life,
it's all here. Whether you're a wage slave or a Fortune 500 CEO, this
book will change your life!"
-Phil Town
#1 New York Times Bestselling Author of "Rule #1
""The 4-Hour Workweek is a new way of solving a very old problem: just how can we work to live and prevent our lives from being all about work? A world of infinite options awaits those who would read this book and be inspired by it!"
-Michael E. Gerber
Founder & Chairman of E-Myth Worldwide and the World's #1 Small Business Guru
"Timothy has packed more lives into his 29 years than Steve Jobs has in his 51."
-Tom Foremski
Journalist and Publisher of SiliconValleyWatcher.com
"Thanks to Tim Ferriss, I have more time in my life to travel, spend time with family and write book blurbs. This is a dazzling and highly useful
work."
-A.J. Jacobs
Editor-at-Large, Esquire Magazine, Author of "The Know-It-All
""If you want to live life on your own terms, this is your blueprint."
-Mike Maples
Co-founder of Motive Communications (IPO to $260M market cap), Founding Executive of Tivoli (sold to IBM for $750M)
"Tim is Indiana Jones for the digital age. I've already used his advice to go spearfishing on remote islands and ski the best hidden slopes of Argentina. Simply put, do what he says and you can live like a millionaire."
"-"Albert Pope
Derivatives Trading," "UBS World Headquarters
"This engaging book makes you ask the most important question that you will ever face: What exactly is it that you want out of work and life, and why? Tim Ferriss is a master of getting more for less, often with the help of people he doesn't even know, and here he gives away his secrets for fulfilling your dreams."
-Bo Burlingham
Editor-at-Large, "Inc." magazine
Author of "Small Giants: Companies That Choose To Be Great Instead of Big
""Reading this book is like putting a few zeros on your income. Tim brings lifestyle to a new level-listen to him!"
-Michael D. Kerlin
McKinsey & Company Consultant to Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund
J. William Fulbright Scholar"
""Part scientist and part adventure hunter, Tim Ferriss has created a road map for an entirely new world. I devoured this book in one sitting-I have seen nothing like it."
-Charles L. Brock
Chairman and CEO, Brock Capital Group
Former CFO, COO, and General Counsel, Scholastic, Inc.
Former President, Harvard Law School Association
"Outsourcing is no longer just for Fortune 500 companies. Small and mid-sized firms, as well as busy professionals, can outsource their work to increase their productivity and free time for more important commitments. It's time for the world to take advantage of this revolution."
-Vivek Kulkarni
CEO Brickwork India and former IT Secretary, Bangalore
Credited as the"techno-bureaucrat" who helped make Bangalore an IT destination in India
"Tim is the master! I should know. I followed his rags to riches path and watched him transform himself from competitive fighter to entrepreneur. He tears apart conventional assumptions until he finds a better way."
-Dan Partland
Emmy Award-Winning Producer"; American High, Welcome to the Dollhouse
"""The 4-Hour Workweek" is an absolute necessity for those adventurous souls who want to live life to its fullest. Buy it and read it before you sacrifice any more!"
-John Lusk
Group Product Manager, Microsoft World Headquarters
"If you want to live your dreams now, and not in 20 or 30 years, buy this book!"
-Laura Roden
Chairman of the Silicon Valley Association of Start-up Entrepreneurs
Lecturer in Corporate Finance, San Jose State University
"With this kind of time management and focus on the important things in life, people should be able to get 15 times as much done in a normal work week."
-Tim Draper
Founder, Draper Fisher Jurvetson
Financiers to innovators including Hotmail, Skype, and Overture.com
"Tim Ferriss's book is about gaining the courage to streamline your life
... But even more than that, it challenges the reader to seriously consider an essential-yet rarely asked-question: What do you really want from life?"
-Rolf Potts
Author of "Vagabonding" and Travel Columnist for Yahoo! News
"Tim has done what most people only dream of doing. I can't believe he is going to let his secrets out of the bag. This book is a must read!""
"-Stephen Key
Top Inventor and Team Designer of Teddy Ruxpin, Lazer Tag
Consultant to "American Inventor" --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

TIMOTHY FERRISS, serial entrepreneur and ultravagabond, has been featured in the New York Times, National Geographic Traveler, Maxim, and other media. He speaks six languages, runs a multinational firm from wireless locations worldwide, and has been a world-record holder in tango, a national champion in Chinese kickboxing, and an actor on a hit television series in Hong Kong. He is twenty-nine years old.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Harmony; 1st, First Edition edition (April 24, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0307353133
• ISBN-13: 978-0307353139
• Product Dimensions: 5.8 x 1.1 x 8.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1,027 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,941 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #5 in Books > Business & Investing > Business Life > Motivation & Self-Improvement
  • #98 in Books > Business & Investing > Job Hunting & Careers

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3,187 of 3,387 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars For Sale: One Bridge in Brooklyn --EZ Payments June 12, 2007

By Student VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

Well,

Where to begin? I actually had fun reading this book, to be honest. It is, if nothing else, a bit inspirational and motivational. To the author's credit he has (and I have emphasized this before) come up with a catchy title and gimick to sell you a book--good for him. What's inside, though, are things that you can find better handled by other authors in other books.

In the first part of the book one can't help notice what a great guy the author is. We notice this becasuse he tells us. We are to believe that he has gone through the Hero's Journey and back again before his late 20's. Now, dear reader, he has distilled the fruits of his vast experience and wisdom into this little gem. Read it, and you will never have to work again. Just be sure to purchase with the 8 minute ab workout.

We get a lesson on the Pareto Principle. If you have never heard of the Pareto Priciple before (otherwise known as the 80/20 rule) you should go back to junior high. BTW, Brian Tracy has discussed this principle and its implications ad nauseum. The author would have us believe that he personally redicovered in some forgotton tome (probably while motorcycle kung-fu rock climbing in Bora Bora--between kendo lessons) and was just about the first to ever apply it to his life.

Later in the book we get some basic info (all easily found in more detail in other books) about starting a web business, outsourcing your workload, etc.

I can appreciate some of this as I had a web business for several years. This section of the book is an interesting read, but little more. If anything, maybe it will inspire someone else to get started on their own enterprise. And that's perfectly fine. If the author accomplishes this, then good. After all, I don't necessarily think that he's a bad guy, just a shameless self promoter and a bit of a charlatan.

Authors such as Ferriss are common: someone falls a** backwards into a relatively easy existence and then decides that they are experts and proceeds to seel their "secret" to success to everyone else--which helps them get REALLY successful. But here's the deal: One hit wonders are not experts. When you've started 4 or 5 businesses and grown each of them to the point where they are self sufficient, THEN you can call yourself an expert. Striking it lucky one time in stocks, real estate during a bubble, or starting one business do not constitute experience.

In the end, I think that the author does his readers a bit of a disservice by telling them that work is not necessary to be financially successful. I have known both success and failure. I have seen others go, literally, from rags to riches (and sometimes back again). Over the years I guess I have given this subject some thought. My conclusion is that you will not get there (wherever "there" may be for you) by working four hours per week. Vision, hard work, and persistence are the 3 main "secret" ingredients for success. Just as exercise and eating right are necessary to be in shape. But telling people this doesn't sell books.

P.S. Can't help noticing how many 5 star reviews there are for this book from people who have only written one review. Hmmm...

510 of 547 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Get "old rich" writing a book about the "New Rich"! June 27, 2007

By Nuwire Inc.

Format:Hardcover

Ultimately I enjoyed the first half of Timothy Ferriss' book The 4-Hour Work Week. It challenged me to evaluate my perspective on the cost and availability of my own dreams. However I couldn't help getting the self-promotion stomach pangs while I read it. Hopefully you'll be able to look past that and enjoy the book for what it is: a challenge to the way we as Americans think of retirement and money.

The first 70 to 90 pages of the book are extremely engaging and well worth the price of the book. After that the book turns into a "lifestyle-for-dummies" book on setting up a shell company to sell someone else's products. Although I find it noble that Ferriss is attempting to give people pragmatic steps for implementing his "New Rich" lifestyle, I also find his suggestions impractical for two reasons:

* His business ideas rely on tiny, niche audiences. This works well unless his book becomes a best seller and many people decide they want to do the same thing (can you say, We Buy Ugly Houses?). Anyone who figures out how to make 5 or 10 times their money on a product that they exert little effort to produce will quickly find competition popping out of the woodwork.

* His business ideas are not sustainable. They rely on marketing strategies and promotions that have to work forever without any change to profitability or response rates, in order to maintain the "4-hour work week" lifestyle. In my experience the market is fickle and changes frequently, especially as it relates to the internet and online marketing.

I can't help but think that the entire "New Rich" concept is a branding ploy to roll out a series of self-help seminars. Let's hope not. If it does, it will distort the message of the book, for it would require that Ferriss trade in his "New Rich" lifestyle to be back in the rat race on a quest for the millions that he claims are not necessary to achieve one's dreams.

Perhaps that's the real lesson to be learned from the book: no matter where you are, the grass always seems greener on the other side.

Jeremy Ames, Executive Editor

591 of 646 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars 21st Century Snake-Oil Salesman May 15, 2007

By John K

Format:Hardcover

First, I have to say that I was very enthusiastic about the first part of this book, as Tim suggests that people should consider other ways of living their life instead of working hard toward an eventual retirement. But later I realized after reading the book that the "live your life now, don't wait until later" concept is not new, and has been preached by everyone from philosophers to life coaches for decades now. [...].

Second, while the advice he has for people who already have a business is good (automating certain administrative tasks, checking e-mail less frequently even if you think your world might end if you do that), the ideas he dishes out to would-be entrepreneurs is much more troubling. Specifically product development, which he labels "finding a muse", could mislead some people into believing that you can make an instant-business every month with the help of affiliate marketers, drop shippers, and faking credibility (just check the forums on the book's website). Many things he suggests doing just contributes to the amount of crap we see every day on the internet and in infomercials, and probably isn't a very rewarding way for an entrepreneur to live their life or make their money. It's the equivalent of a how-to-become a 21st century snake oil salesman.

Finally, I know there is a lot of criticism about his ideas on outsourcing tasks, but we live in an outsourced world. The shirt your wearing was made in Indonesia, your fruits and vegetables were picked by migrant workers from Mexico, and your computer that you're reading this from right now was manufactured in China. Adjusted for the cost of living, the Indonesians, Chinese, and Indians make a good amount of money doing what they do to live the "middle-class" versions of their lives in their respective countries, just as you do mundane tasks and get paid much less than corporate shareholders to live the middle-class life in your own country. So don't talk about outsourcing as if it's a bad thing, cause if I can pay Jimmy down the street to mow my lawn for less than a landscaping service, he's gonna get that ten dollars so I can have the extra cash to buy Tim's book and waste time writing a bad review of it on Amazon.