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on October 20, 2016
Some interesting things, some less interesting. Good advice but hardly applicable in every job... Overall a good reading
on February 11, 2017
This book has some great and interesting ideas. I work in operations and can't execute these strategies but opening my own business in something other than what I currently do would allow the opportunity to utilize this more.
on May 8, 2017
Read the book. Then read it again. Then read the first 7 chapters again. Then start the chapter's challenges and pursue your dreams.
on May 29, 2017
After so many years of postponing this reading i was pleasantly surprised. This book has practical techniques to liberate you from the mundane 8-5 paradigm. Can't wait to begin my mini retirements by increasing my productivity and focus on passive income.
on January 28, 2017
This is an impractical and dishonest title. Any casual observer will instantly see the flaws in applying 90% of this to ones own life. I say this with full appreciation for some of his other work, and for efficiency tools in general. Yes, outsource what you can in life. Most of us are more than a personal assistant and a few apps away from a wealthy life on the beach. Check out 4 hour chef for some great cooking ideas instead.
on January 11, 2011
The title and cover draws people in. 4 Hour Work Week, it's too good to be true. Then we read the first couple of pages, maybe the first couple of chapters. The first chapters are the typical motivational, "you can do it" montage. I'm not going to lie, I felt motivated to give this book a try after reading the first part of the book without even knowing what this book is all about. But as I began to get out of the fluff, and actually found myself reading the core subject of the book, I was utterly disappointed.
D is for Definition
In this section Ferriss tells us to do an important task: define what you want. And I agree that most of us live through life not knowing what we want; just following the crowd like a herd of sheep. This section was the motivational, make you feel good section. This wasn't the how, it was the why, and it downright made me pumped.
E is for Elimination
Okay, so he basically says to eliminate all the junk in your life. For example: watch less TV, don't check your e-mail 50 times a day, don't look at your phone 100 times a day, don't surf the web 3 hours a day, etc. It's all good advice, nothing too fancy, or new, just plain old, "don't waste your time" advice. So far so good.
A is for automation
This is where I ran in to problems with Tim's method of creating a "4 hour workweek". First he tells us to outsource a big chunk of our lives using a VA (virtual assistant) from India or Shanghai or wherever. Basically a virtual assistant is a person who assist you in everyday task (checking emails, making reservations, doing research for your job that you got hired to do,set up appointments, etc) so basically an online-personal assistant you hire for dirt cheap. So if you are okay with some guy in India knowing your personal information (SSN, bank account number, phobias, any illnesses you might have, problems in life, and many more as Ferriss states) go ahead and outsource the things you can already do yourself to a guy in India you never met. But Ferris says that misuses of sensitive information are rare; well there could be bias behind that statement, but I'm not willing to find out if it's true or not. The irony of oustourcing your life is that you become dependent on your VA. You no longer have the urge to take control of your own life when it comes to paying bills, making reservations, or doing research for your job because your VA does it for you. So that's the paradox: out source your life, but become more dependent on a foreigner. And Ferriss quotes Ralph Waldo Emerson throughout his book as a motivational spice. But it's apparent that he never read "Self Reliance", the cornerstone of Emerson's philosophy. (Tim if you're going to use Emerson's words, how about not making a book that totally contradicts the philosophy of Emerson? Thanks).
A is for automation Pt. 2
Ferriss then goes on to tell us how we can make up to 40,000 dollars a month of automated income (little work). Basically you create a product and sell it. Plain and simple. He tells you to find a market, find the demographics of your product, make a product and sell it. Yup, your average entrepreneurship. It's nothing new, and Ferris is not an expert entrepreneur. He did have a company BrainQuicken which sells "Neural Accelerator" supplements. The site is 99% advertising and 1% scientific: It sells because it's precisely that. And the product that Ferriss started is not something revolutionary, I'll take my 200mg of caffeine before a workout any day than pay 50.00 dollars plus shipping for BrainQuicken. So if you want to make your own product, market it, sell it and make millions of dollars go ahead. Tim tells you exactly how, but what Tim doesn't tell you is that it takes a lot of work in the beginning, a lot more than 4 hours a week.
L is for Liberation
More like L is for not showing up to work, and being cynical. Now I'm against the 9-5 hours of work. I think that human beings are more efficient enough to get things done in a short period of time, and I believe that society is slowly catching on. But here's Tim's idea of "liberation". Escaping the office: not doing your job or worse, not showing up. Killing your job: quit your job. Mini retirement: take a month vacation every 2 months of work (or pattern that works best for you). Filling the Void: filling in the emptiness and the boredom you feel with fun stuff like becoming a horse archer, learning tango, and winning a fight championship by cheating.
So okay, let's say everything goes well: you are making 40,000 dollars a month, you are working no more than 4 hours a week... now what. Even Ferriss says that you will feel a void... well that sucks doesn't it? Why don't you go and talk to your VA about your problems?
Now obviously I'm against Tim's advertising methods, it's misleading. The book only sells because of the hope it gives 9-5 workers that it's possible. Oh, it's possible but unlikely. Tim is no Bil Gates, Steve Jobs, Warren Buffett, or Clint Eastwood he is nowhere close to them. You see great testimonials from people from Yahoo!, Wired, Silicon Valley, and hell, from Jack Canfield about Tim's book, but not from people like Gates, Jobs, Buffett, Eastwood, or any other highly successful people, why? Because those four know that true success comes from years of hard work, and building lasting relationships with people. Those four know that decreasing your work hours, outsourcing your life, and making a tons of money is not the road to true happiness. Those four people, even if they read this book, will probably throw it in the fire. But for the cynical, "how do I work little and make tons of money" people out there (which is most of the population) this book will initially look like the next Bible. The fact that this book sold well says a lot about our society.
This is a misleading book, there are tons of other great books you can read for true success: Talent is Overrated (no BS way how people become great at what they do), 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (classic), and How to Have Confidence and Power in Dealing with People... to name a few. Very few will read this review before buying, and more copies of this book will sell due to the cynical and lazy nature of people. Don't be one of those people, don't buy this book.
D is for Definition
In this section Ferriss tells us to do an important task: define what you want. And I agree that most of us live through life not knowing what we want; just following the crowd like a herd of sheep. This section was the motivational, make you feel good section. This wasn't the how, it was the why, and it downright made me pumped.
E is for Elimination
Okay, so he basically says to eliminate all the junk in your life. For example: watch less TV, don't check your e-mail 50 times a day, don't look at your phone 100 times a day, don't surf the web 3 hours a day, etc. It's all good advice, nothing too fancy, or new, just plain old, "don't waste your time" advice. So far so good.
A is for automation
This is where I ran in to problems with Tim's method of creating a "4 hour workweek". First he tells us to outsource a big chunk of our lives using a VA (virtual assistant) from India or Shanghai or wherever. Basically a virtual assistant is a person who assist you in everyday task (checking emails, making reservations, doing research for your job that you got hired to do,set up appointments, etc) so basically an online-personal assistant you hire for dirt cheap. So if you are okay with some guy in India knowing your personal information (SSN, bank account number, phobias, any illnesses you might have, problems in life, and many more as Ferriss states) go ahead and outsource the things you can already do yourself to a guy in India you never met. But Ferris says that misuses of sensitive information are rare; well there could be bias behind that statement, but I'm not willing to find out if it's true or not. The irony of oustourcing your life is that you become dependent on your VA. You no longer have the urge to take control of your own life when it comes to paying bills, making reservations, or doing research for your job because your VA does it for you. So that's the paradox: out source your life, but become more dependent on a foreigner. And Ferriss quotes Ralph Waldo Emerson throughout his book as a motivational spice. But it's apparent that he never read "Self Reliance", the cornerstone of Emerson's philosophy. (Tim if you're going to use Emerson's words, how about not making a book that totally contradicts the philosophy of Emerson? Thanks).
A is for automation Pt. 2
Ferriss then goes on to tell us how we can make up to 40,000 dollars a month of automated income (little work). Basically you create a product and sell it. Plain and simple. He tells you to find a market, find the demographics of your product, make a product and sell it. Yup, your average entrepreneurship. It's nothing new, and Ferris is not an expert entrepreneur. He did have a company BrainQuicken which sells "Neural Accelerator" supplements. The site is 99% advertising and 1% scientific: It sells because it's precisely that. And the product that Ferriss started is not something revolutionary, I'll take my 200mg of caffeine before a workout any day than pay 50.00 dollars plus shipping for BrainQuicken. So if you want to make your own product, market it, sell it and make millions of dollars go ahead. Tim tells you exactly how, but what Tim doesn't tell you is that it takes a lot of work in the beginning, a lot more than 4 hours a week.
L is for Liberation
More like L is for not showing up to work, and being cynical. Now I'm against the 9-5 hours of work. I think that human beings are more efficient enough to get things done in a short period of time, and I believe that society is slowly catching on. But here's Tim's idea of "liberation". Escaping the office: not doing your job or worse, not showing up. Killing your job: quit your job. Mini retirement: take a month vacation every 2 months of work (or pattern that works best for you). Filling the Void: filling in the emptiness and the boredom you feel with fun stuff like becoming a horse archer, learning tango, and winning a fight championship by cheating.
So okay, let's say everything goes well: you are making 40,000 dollars a month, you are working no more than 4 hours a week... now what. Even Ferriss says that you will feel a void... well that sucks doesn't it? Why don't you go and talk to your VA about your problems?
Now obviously I'm against Tim's advertising methods, it's misleading. The book only sells because of the hope it gives 9-5 workers that it's possible. Oh, it's possible but unlikely. Tim is no Bil Gates, Steve Jobs, Warren Buffett, or Clint Eastwood he is nowhere close to them. You see great testimonials from people from Yahoo!, Wired, Silicon Valley, and hell, from Jack Canfield about Tim's book, but not from people like Gates, Jobs, Buffett, Eastwood, or any other highly successful people, why? Because those four know that true success comes from years of hard work, and building lasting relationships with people. Those four know that decreasing your work hours, outsourcing your life, and making a tons of money is not the road to true happiness. Those four people, even if they read this book, will probably throw it in the fire. But for the cynical, "how do I work little and make tons of money" people out there (which is most of the population) this book will initially look like the next Bible. The fact that this book sold well says a lot about our society.
This is a misleading book, there are tons of other great books you can read for true success: Talent is Overrated (no BS way how people become great at what they do), 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (classic), and How to Have Confidence and Power in Dealing with People... to name a few. Very few will read this review before buying, and more copies of this book will sell due to the cynical and lazy nature of people. Don't be one of those people, don't buy this book.
on September 16, 2007
In some way, I am living the kind of work life the author suggested (40 hour week but can live and work wherever I choose and no need for commute or even putting on a shirt to go into the office). However, I am realistic to know that I am in a very fortunate situation and majority of the U.S. workers can never work like this. Majority of U.S. workers, despite what they wish, have demands and standards established by their employers and clients, like it or not, unless you are a high value content contributor or owner of your business, it is not up to you to dictate the work week. To have something like a 4 Hour Work Week may sound nice but realistically, impossible.
Toward the end of this book, the author offered litany of additional research material (these are truly gems), however, 90% of this book came across like the author's bragging of how great and how exciting a life he has (or his friends'). It is like Donald Trump teaching you real estate trade by telling you how great he is.
I admire success but not bragging. This is a bragging book. I have to give credit to the author, he got me to put down my hard earned dollar to purchase this book and spent some honest time to read it cover to cover.
Toward the end of this book, the author offered litany of additional research material (these are truly gems), however, 90% of this book came across like the author's bragging of how great and how exciting a life he has (or his friends'). It is like Donald Trump teaching you real estate trade by telling you how great he is.
I admire success but not bragging. This is a bragging book. I have to give credit to the author, he got me to put down my hard earned dollar to purchase this book and spent some honest time to read it cover to cover.
on May 1, 2017
T. F. thinks outside the box. His book presents a different ancient perspective which is seldom used to achieve anything, and to estimate the process and the goals of life.
on March 8, 2013
The 4-Hour Workweek doesn't beat around the bush: it gets to the point in making a statement that the fastest way to get wealthy is by hiring other people and building an online business. It even says that outsourcing is the way to go to save money and to get rid of the nonsense in your life by having other people do the work that you don't want to and you can focus on the bigger wins, which is most likely building a new business or managing the future of an existing one.
Tim Ferriss uses rogue and immoral practices such as trying to get your boss to let you work from home more so that you can work remotely from a cheaper country. I don't know about you, but I can imagine that this would be extremely difficult to execute in the line of business that I am in--since it is super-collaborative. I don't agree with everything in this book, and a lot of it's theories seem immoral to me and "fly-by-night" or "get-rich-quick" methods. It does have merit though, and it tells you the best websites to use to build your own website and market your product and do market analysis on your customer purchases.
Here are some notable sections of the book:
-New rich are people who are self-made and have built a business or success from nothing. They are people who like to have fun and be more flaunting with their wealth and have more fun. They are the live fast, die young crowd but they do it with large paychecks. I may not agree with flaunting my money everywhere whenever I become rich, but I would rather be someone who is a new rich and has more fun than the traditional corporate world high-paying and stressful job. The new rich don't associate time with money, but rather results with money and understand how to do more with less (which is most likely utilizing technology or paying someone else to do it). If a video goes viral on Youtube, it may have only taken an afternoon to make, yet has more credibility than a product or service that has taken years to craft. It is mostly about leverage in the new-rich age.
-There is an example in the book about a comparison between two different strategies for selling products. One person does not use any data analysis and does not focus-test their product before revealing it to a broader audience. The other person does not spend much time developing their product but spends most of their time analyzing the marketing data and customer actions such as PPC, or pay per click in Google ad-words. They test which wording is the best on their site and the structure of the website and the button placement. This person ends up winning more customers in the end, because they understand the psychology of selling and what customers are more likely to do when presented with certain information. Just like the name of the book "4 hour:" Tim said that he did countless testing to see which search inquiry had the most popularity online whenever he was determining a new title for his book. It didn't matter what he thought, it mattered what the customers wanted more. He knew that the title and the information in the book would be desirable and an easy sell before he even started selling it--as opposed to spending all of his time thinking that he himself is making the right decisions and then trying to fix a broken product once it is released.
-Anyone can be an expert. He claims that with the digital age that everyone is an expert, because knowledge is so readily available. The only difference between an expert and someone who is not one is positioning: selling yourself as an expert and marketing yourself by giving seminars or appearing in talk shows to build hype around yourself. I used to think that this was immoral, but if you look at all of the marketing that goes into rising singing stars then you will know that there is a lot of hype that was built for nothing and most of the part of greatness is marketing and convincing others that you are great and to want the service that you have. This is why you must micro-est everything and leave nothing to chance when going to market.
-Mini-Retirements. Quite the quirky section of the book. Tim talks about taking vacations for cheap and staying in more poor countries than America so that the exchange rate is lower. He claims that for a vacation to truly be life-changing, it must be long-term and around two months rather than two weeks. I think this idea is interesting but I'm not sure if it is for everyone: me included. I'm sure that living abroad is life-changing but I don't think that many people would have the drive to keep doing that and still be able to build a successful empire if they are relaxing too much.
I began reading this book being defensive and not wanting to believe it's practices. I still don't know if there is such a thing as a four hour workweek but the book does prove that time does not equal money and that by being smarter and being scale-able with your approach to life that you can leverage other people's time and money to gain more with your own contributions. If you look at all major companies or businesses owners, they have already been using these practices for quite some time yet did not put it in blunt and clear terms that this book does. In order to get the life style that you want you have to change your approach to life and utilize automated systems and the new technology that we have at our fingertips. In order to be successful you have to test your product and hire others to do work that would take you too long to learn on your own. This book is essentially calling everyone to break free from their employee status and to work for themselves and be an entrepreneur. Many like the idea, but only a few make it happen. I believe that this book is a wealth of information and is the sort of knowledge that you won't learn in school, but is the ultimate lesson in "street smarts."
-Ken Flemming
Author, How to Get a Job in Video Games
Tim Ferriss uses rogue and immoral practices such as trying to get your boss to let you work from home more so that you can work remotely from a cheaper country. I don't know about you, but I can imagine that this would be extremely difficult to execute in the line of business that I am in--since it is super-collaborative. I don't agree with everything in this book, and a lot of it's theories seem immoral to me and "fly-by-night" or "get-rich-quick" methods. It does have merit though, and it tells you the best websites to use to build your own website and market your product and do market analysis on your customer purchases.
Here are some notable sections of the book:
-New rich are people who are self-made and have built a business or success from nothing. They are people who like to have fun and be more flaunting with their wealth and have more fun. They are the live fast, die young crowd but they do it with large paychecks. I may not agree with flaunting my money everywhere whenever I become rich, but I would rather be someone who is a new rich and has more fun than the traditional corporate world high-paying and stressful job. The new rich don't associate time with money, but rather results with money and understand how to do more with less (which is most likely utilizing technology or paying someone else to do it). If a video goes viral on Youtube, it may have only taken an afternoon to make, yet has more credibility than a product or service that has taken years to craft. It is mostly about leverage in the new-rich age.
-There is an example in the book about a comparison between two different strategies for selling products. One person does not use any data analysis and does not focus-test their product before revealing it to a broader audience. The other person does not spend much time developing their product but spends most of their time analyzing the marketing data and customer actions such as PPC, or pay per click in Google ad-words. They test which wording is the best on their site and the structure of the website and the button placement. This person ends up winning more customers in the end, because they understand the psychology of selling and what customers are more likely to do when presented with certain information. Just like the name of the book "4 hour:" Tim said that he did countless testing to see which search inquiry had the most popularity online whenever he was determining a new title for his book. It didn't matter what he thought, it mattered what the customers wanted more. He knew that the title and the information in the book would be desirable and an easy sell before he even started selling it--as opposed to spending all of his time thinking that he himself is making the right decisions and then trying to fix a broken product once it is released.
-Anyone can be an expert. He claims that with the digital age that everyone is an expert, because knowledge is so readily available. The only difference between an expert and someone who is not one is positioning: selling yourself as an expert and marketing yourself by giving seminars or appearing in talk shows to build hype around yourself. I used to think that this was immoral, but if you look at all of the marketing that goes into rising singing stars then you will know that there is a lot of hype that was built for nothing and most of the part of greatness is marketing and convincing others that you are great and to want the service that you have. This is why you must micro-est everything and leave nothing to chance when going to market.
-Mini-Retirements. Quite the quirky section of the book. Tim talks about taking vacations for cheap and staying in more poor countries than America so that the exchange rate is lower. He claims that for a vacation to truly be life-changing, it must be long-term and around two months rather than two weeks. I think this idea is interesting but I'm not sure if it is for everyone: me included. I'm sure that living abroad is life-changing but I don't think that many people would have the drive to keep doing that and still be able to build a successful empire if they are relaxing too much.
I began reading this book being defensive and not wanting to believe it's practices. I still don't know if there is such a thing as a four hour workweek but the book does prove that time does not equal money and that by being smarter and being scale-able with your approach to life that you can leverage other people's time and money to gain more with your own contributions. If you look at all major companies or businesses owners, they have already been using these practices for quite some time yet did not put it in blunt and clear terms that this book does. In order to get the life style that you want you have to change your approach to life and utilize automated systems and the new technology that we have at our fingertips. In order to be successful you have to test your product and hire others to do work that would take you too long to learn on your own. This book is essentially calling everyone to break free from their employee status and to work for themselves and be an entrepreneur. Many like the idea, but only a few make it happen. I believe that this book is a wealth of information and is the sort of knowledge that you won't learn in school, but is the ultimate lesson in "street smarts."
-Ken Flemming
Author, How to Get a Job in Video Games
