Amazon.com: Customer reviews: The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich

Top positive review

Which Life Changes are you Open to?

Reviewed in the United States on May 29, 2007

I was given a copy of Tim's book at a business conference I went to. I thought the title was catchy and the cover well designed. On top of that, several people in the room had recently read it and said it was a MUST READ.

As an active business person and somebody who relies on distilled experience from people in the trenches (often in their books or courses) I wasn't resistant to this book. However, based on my already full schedule, I wasn't sure when I'd fit a thick book into my reading program.

After ten day, the title kept nagging at me. I wanted to just get into this book if for nothing else to grab some ideas from the TOC. I told myself if I just got one idea I could put the book down and move on. What I found was more than one great idea.

First, the book is a VERY good read. It flows well with a mix of Tim's personal experience and resources. It took me two extended reading sessions over a weekend to finish it.. and that led to some interesting results.

I was able to immediately apply some of the ideas for outsourcing and virtual assistance to get ideas started that had been put on permanent hold. Tim's ideas gave me great content to share with others and I ended up giving my copy to a friend in my Toastmasters group - just requesting a book report in return.

She read the book in about a day and a half and gave me a three-page email report. It was solid. She wasn't a total believer of 100% of the content or Tim's approach but really liked the possibilities the concepts made her think of. We discussed it over the weekend and it made for great conversation about outsourcing.. what "work" really means and why the career track is wrong in so many ways given the internet, a global economy, and a 24/7 way to get your products and services into people's lives.

I realized after talking to another friend that I had indeed already met Tim. Of course, it was prior to his book's release and we only had a few conversations while at another conference, but Tim is the real deal. He's not as intimidating as the choke-holds on his web site pictures might intimate. He's clearly confident, fit, and well spoken. And now having read his book full of experiences, I can see why.

How to read this book: Okay, if you've read this far, let me share a couple of ideas. 1. You don't need to make $40,000 per month and work only a few minutes each day to be successfuly and happy. (But, when you start doing what I like to call "Internet Math" you'll see why these numbers aren't really impossible.

Tim's ideas work for him and many WILL work for you - making you more productive while increasing your income and your enjoyment. Even just thinking about what's possible puts me in an enjoyable frame of mind.

2. Get through the book and share it with a couple of friends who want more than their current job offers. You'll know these people because they can't seem to feel content building somebody else's dreams. The ideas lead to very stimulating conversations that will expand what you believe is possible.

Don't dismiss the book because of the title. A four-hour work week is a very real possibility given an internet-based business. If you're not already part of this culture, you will need to invest (to speed up the process) and learn. But that's true if you want anything.

3. Realize that the 4-Hour work week does not mean don't work as much as it means work SMARTER. I'm sure Tim has lots of things he's working on that he absolutely loves.. and thus spends more than 4 hours each week in action. But it's likely not considered "work" in the labor definition.

"If you love what you do, you'll never work a day in your life." Believe that.. let this book give you some ideas for that.

Finally, I think the book is in the wrong place in the bookstores. I found it on the Self-Help shelves in Borders. It should definitely be in the Entrepreneur or Business section - the publisher might need to re-classify.

At first, I wanted to keep this book a secret.. because some of the ideas seem so ... well.. valuable. Then I realized that if I shared the ideas with my friends, maybe we could all implement them and start some business projects that lead to us having more time to play. So far, I can say that it is happening. Thanks Tim for a brave title.

20 people found this helpful

Top critical review

Critical reviews›

Miami Dave

Nice title and if it worked it would be a good book

Reviewed in the United States on July 30, 2007

"OK stop and put your pencils down." Is a quote most commonly heard at the end of a test? Right? Well for me this is one where I have to say, "OK stop put your hard earned money back in your wallet."

Being at one-time an adjunct college professor of Economics I was naturally intrigued by the notion of a four-hour workweek, as the title suggests. So I purchased this book and I read it. In the essence of this theme on abbreviation my short review is, "Don't buy it!" "Save your money."

If you want to know the reasons for my review read below:

In the spirit of the classic, and for our younger hipper readers `old school,' hustlers akin to snake oil salesmen Mr. Ferriss does a right fine job of adapting the techniques of yore to a new and fairly impressionable generation. The cure all? "Why step right up my friends and let me tell you about this new amazing concept of Breezing through life without ever really lifting a finger." In this case the sales pitch reads like a romp through an extreme sport, slacker dream come true, pseudo philosophical `seize the day' cursorily mention of details fairytale that it reminds me of a scene from the movie "Gladiator." Maximus is addressing the cavalry in the beginning of the movie just before a risky charge on the flank of the enemy, in this case the `Germanias.' He sits up in the saddle and says something like `Imagine where you will be a months' time and it will be so.' Or something about like that. Well Mr. Ferriss does no different. Except both fail to mention the huge casualty rates, in Maximus's gamble, or the utter impossibility of widespread success in Mr. Ferriss's.

The book is full of contradictions. `Cut back on Internet use.' But then he says to use the Internet. He spends a period of time telling "stories" of people who quit their jobs then gives rules on how to use your time in your cubicle wisely. Granted he may be saying not all can quit or want to quit their jobs and offering ideas on how to be more productive. But come on!! He uses quotes from a lot of famous hardworking successful people to justify his points. Most by my count could never have achieved the things they did in life if they followed his examples.

The most glaring thing he pointed out was he hired an assistant. (Now where did he get the money for that?) And tasked that person with buying stuff for him online. Now I can understand that if you're a busy executive sure, or the assistant to a busy executive hiring a personal valet, concierge or butler to run those `eat up your day' mind numbing errands sure makes sense. Mr. Ferriss boasts the wondrous achievement he made hiring an overseas assistant to order a toy for his child. Now the toy was a `tickle me Elmo' and it was apparently a much in demand product. The assistant could only find a `Chicken Dance Elmo' and ordered it. Mr. Ferriss commends the assistant on a wise move. Now let me break this down for you. He hired an assistant to look for a toy online that was in much demand the assistant got paid $20.00 USD per hour to do this and the toy cost about $20.00 USD and he didn't get the one he wanted. If the assistant spent three hours looking for this toy the total cost $80.00 USD. WOW!!! I need to set up an assistant business. Now lets address the fact that the toy purchased was not the one requested. Mr. Ferriss's simply answer is if you keep your expectations really low any type of success no matter how marginal is great.

I went shopping with my wife's brother's daughter (or another way of saying it our niece) and it was around springtime and the fall fashions were making way for the spring lines. We were in a fairly upscale mall and I was there for a specific purpose and she came along for the ride. She had just turned thirteen and was becoming acutely aware of fashion and the marketers were acutely aware of her becoming acutely aware. She asks to go look at some clothes and I said it would be fine. After some time she returns all excited and wants to show me something. When we get there it's a very cute (her words not mine) ensemble of bright colors and some design work. I look at the price and tell her I do not have enough money with me to purchase it. She looks at me un-phased and says, "Use your credit card." After a long discussion I learned she has little concept of where the money comes from and how it gets here. Her parents use credit constantly and maintain a huge revolving home equity line of credit. To her money is nothing more than paper or authorization to take things out of the store. And that is how Mr. Ferriss looks at this world. Say a lot cool sounding, buzz word-using phrases and play on people's greed and you'll get what you want. He sights a time he gave a lecture at a prominent university and after the lecture the students clamored him for more so he gave them a challenge the best one who fulfilled it world get a round the world ticket. To his shock after some time no one took him up on the offer. Mr. Ferriss took this as a sign of fear and defeatist attitudes in these gifted students. I argue far from the case. After coming down on the yarn spun by Mr. Ferriss the students sat down and really thought about his concepts and realized he was full of it. As do I. But Mr. Ferriss admonishes them for not taking him up on it. I applaud them for seeing through the curtain at the man pulling the levers. Smoke and mirrors folks nothing more.

Oh sure there are some good strategies for improving some things but not to the level this book promises. Retirement, yes it is unfortunately an idea that is going the way of the Do-do bird. But it's an idea that only existed for a very small time for all workers. People of the twentieth century of all ranks could retire with a pension or Social Security but this is coming to an end. Mr. Ferriss manifesto on carpe diem is extremely superficial. It lacks specifics and how to's. Buy it and give this guy another buck so he can say see I told you it would work.

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From the United States

Brian Ball

Which Life Changes are you Open to?

Reviewed in the United States on May 29, 2007

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20 people found this helpful

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K. D. Chambers

If I knew now what Tim knew then …

Reviewed in the United States on August 15, 2023

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Welp. This book is so dense with life-cruising knowledge, I alternated between PUMPED and WTF I’VE MISSED THE LIFE CRUSHING TRAIN. It’s some of the most insightful writing + pragmatic solutions EVER …. but sometimes you feel like you have to have Tim’s DNA (he like pulled a big rig with his neck at 15 … not quite that but he’s like an Arnold S of business and basically breaks records for a living with his mind). Read this at the right time in life … and you’re on your way. Either way, I super enjoyed his writing — just feel like I’m at the bottom of the bunny slope and it would take a lot more than 4 hours to reach his black diamond heights). But 5 stars nonetheless. If anything, it’s like reading a biography of a superstar — and just realizing we’re really all made of different star stuff. Alright, well off to my 9 - 5.

3 people found this helpful

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Miami Dave

Nice title and if it worked it would be a good book

Reviewed in the United States on July 30, 2007

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39 people found this helpful

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Sweetpea Waterlilly

Learn to live life now

Reviewed in the United States on June 17, 2007

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I am a first time reviewer. I don't know Tim. I only know his book. That there are so many first time reviewers speaks volumes about the book. That said, here is my review:

It took a kid to get the grown-ups to acknowledge what everyone knew to be true: the emperor was naked. Tim Ferriss is a kid relative to most other "self-help" authors but, like the young boy in the fable, his simple, uncluttered collection of "information we already know" more explicitly and successfully states the truth: our idea of achievement that requires a slavish obsession with working ourselves into the ground is a naked religion. Success is joy.

Few books have the potential to inspire passion and fuel personal revolutions. The 4-Hour Workweek is one of them. This book speaks the common yearning to be liberated from the punishing work habits that our society has convinced us are compulsory for success. In simple, often humorous, terms, Tim Ferriss tells us how most of us lie to ourselves about why and how we work and shows us how we can become free.

The modern age promised to bring freedom to humanity. Automation would liberate us from the drudgery of many common tasks, allowing us to complete our work with lightening speed, reserving the rest of our time for leisure. Like millionaires who can afford servants to do the drudgery, the common person would be able to forget the mundane and engage in the profound, to travel, to explore, and most importantly, to be free of worry. Unfortunately, we humans forgot about freedom and became slaves to our machines. Machines increased productivity and the availability of things. We reacted by convincing ourselves that we had to have them all to be satisfied and so became slaves to the jobs we believed necessary to obtain those things. More recently, email and cell phones, which were intended to increase productivity and communication, did so by making us instantly accessible and required us to be instantly responsive at any time of the day or night. Cable television and the Internet also increased communications and the flow of information, but also resulted in an information bombardment that left us catatonic, unable to disengage, yet unable to absorb it all. The result? At the end of our working lives - many times not by our own choice but because of downsizing and outsourcing -- exhausted and demoralized, we cannot enjoy the delayed gratification that has been our beacon of light, our holy grail, for so many years.

Tim Ferris has the audacity to set the whole paradigm on fire in order to illuminate its true nature. Tim questions our assumptions about what progress is and what progress has done for us by highlighting the terrific costs we have imposed on ourselves. With gleeful delight Tim opens our eyes to the fact that we have become the cyborgs, less human rather than more. In a clear, step-by-step fashion, he presents elegant concepts and applies them to life in practical ways that have profound results. He reminds us that "the opposite of happiness is not sadness but boredom" and employs Pareto's 80/20 principle to demonstrate how we can identify those aspects of our lives that hold us back from being happy. He urges us to understand that life is not about the acquisition of things for later enjoyment, life is about happiness, fulfillment in the present, rather than in some un-promised future. Unfettered by useless jargon and overly academic presentation, Tim demonstrates how we can return to sanity and achieve happiness by finally becoming masters over the technology that was supposed to free us. He challenges us to give ourselves permission to quit the rat race and rejoin the human race. These ideas are not entirely new, but Tim's particular expression of them is like sparkling water to the parched souls of millions who now labor incessantly to achieve success yet yearn to quench their thirst for freedom. You don't have to be a millionaire to live a millionaire lifestyle, Tim says. Do you have a dream? Live it now.

17 people found this helpful

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Tenna Merchent

Spend your time where your values are

Reviewed in the United States on December 11, 2007

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Ferris is an entertaining and flamboyant character. As you read his story at the beginning of the book you can see he has always thought big, and had an entrepreneurial spirit. He takes us through his analysis of his job, insane hours, abusive clients, and no end in sight. He then focused on the 80/20 rule, where 80% of your business comes from 20% of your clients, and he paired his clients to a manageable and productive level.

One of my favorite parts of his book are all the pull quotes that start each chapter. They're really great such as "Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority it is time to pause and reflect." And "By working faithfully eight hours a day you may eventually get to be a boss and work twelve hours a day." They set the tone for each chapter.

He tells a funny story about how he won the national championship of Chinese kickboxing by exploiting a technical rule, and knocking his opponents off of the elevated platforms. The Chinese officials were not happy, but he won, legitimately. This is definitely thinking outside the box.

He goes through some thought provoking issues, such as saving your whole life to enjoy retirement. Why not have lots of mini-retirements now? He points out that less is not laziness, because he advocates doing less meaningless work, and focusing on what is important. The timing is never right, that's the case with everything, even having children, just bite the bullet and do it. Ask for forgiveness, not permission; don't give people an opportunity to say no. Emphasize your strengths, and don't bother fixing the weaknesses. This one is particularly important because most people do focus on their weaknesses instead of maximizing their strengths. There is a whole book written on this subject alone called First, Break All the Rules: What the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently .

He highlights unusual things such as 99% of people believe they are incapable of achieving great things. Therefore that is exactly what you should set out to do because the competition is low. That's hilarious! And, probably true.

He gives some good ideas on brainstorming before you start your own company, and making sure you do your research before you jump in. He talks a lot about outsourcing, and using things like a virtual assistant. It sounds like a really good idea to pay someone to do what you're not good at and focusing on what you are good at.

He has some cheesy exercises sprinkled throughout the book, such as go to a mall and ask people of the opposite sex for their phone number. To me they are the weakest part of the book, and they felt like they were added in afterward simply so there would be exercises in it.

But this is a book worth reading. He has lots of good basic tenets. Don't work at a job you hate. Everything popular is wrong. Don't spend all day organizing your e-mails into crazy little folders. Check your e-mail only a few times a day, and when you do, address the issue in the e-mail so you don't have to come back to it. That's like the old mail handling idea of only touch a piece of paper once, don't set it aside to come back to it.

He makes starting a business sound easier than it really is, but it is a thought provoking book. One that makes you look at how you are spending your day. I wrote down a question from the book at have it on my desk "Are you being productive, or just busy?" That and many others he raises are worth asking yourself.

5 people found this helpful

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A real wake-up call

Reviewed in the United States on May 9, 2007

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The book is a real wake up call for everyone chasing the "Amercian Dream".

The book starts off extremely strong with a real challenge to our accepted way of thinking. The first part of the book is the most powerful and really poses some soul searching questions. In my opinion he would have actually done better to write two books. The first to explain the philosophy of living life the way he sees it and then a second book to tell how to put the philosophy to work.

By trying to combine the two lessons in one book, I think the second part of the lesson - how to achieve the 4HWW lifestyle is a little weak.

I was really struck by the widsom of the philosophy in the first part of the book. Tim advises that we should not "...follow a model that doesn't work." And then he points out the number of ways that our current model is broken. We work til we are no longer capable and promise ourselves that "someday" we will enjoy life. As he correctly points out "Someday" is a disease that will take your dreams to the grave with you.

Tim makes an interesting distinction between absolute and relative income. He makes the observation that we are all consumed with absolute income. We work more and more to buy things we don't need and/or don't have time to use and work even harder to do more of the same.

We desparately need to simplify our lives. We are consumed with speed ... staying in touch, checking our voice mail and email way too many times each day. We collect too many things, clothes, cars, toys.

Success in life is not how much you have in terms of possessions but how much time you take to enjoy what you have. The less you have, the more time you have to enjoy things. Tim makes an excellent case for clearing out a lot of junk and clutter from our lives.

There are hundreds of quotes and gems of wisdom in the book. It is well worth reading and is an extremely easy book to read.

While it is true that we are moving from a pay for attendance to a pay for performance economy, the majority of jobs, particualrily in the lower paying arena that are still pay for attendance. It is not possible for the majority of people to do their job at home.

I found the section on internet marketing to be just the a brief overview. While he talks about the process and makes some resource recommendations, it is far short of a how-to book on internet marketing or really developing passive income streams.

I highly recommend the book. Developing a new outlook of life, based on the concepts in this book, could change your life and allow you to get a life before your life is over.

11 people found this helpful

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Wealth With Minimal Labor

Reviewed in the United States on November 13, 2007

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The 4- Hour Workweek is an interesting book written by a young and interesting guy by the name of Timothy Ferriss. Mr. Ferriss is one of the proclaimed "New Rich" that this book is written about. He has experienced the "too much work for too little pay" lifestyle and he wrote this book as a means to an end; the end being the liberation of every person who reads the book from the dregs of an eight to five existence.

I am a naturally skeptical person and I am often highly critical of books that lead readers to believe they can become rich very quickly and with little effort. But something about this book caught my attention. I don't know if it was the title or what, but I felt a strong urge to read this book. What I discovered with The 4- Hour Workweek was somewhat refreshing. This book doesn't bog the reader down with statistics; doesn't promise to end the cycle of poverty overnight; and doesn't claim to offer a single path to riches. What Ferriss teaches in this book isn't like other books about getting rich. It is more original than most, with an emphasis on finding ways to make a great living automatically: Sitting back and letting the internet, or some other tool, or other people, do the work that needs to be done while you, the latest member of the New Rich, reap the rewards.

Certain themes rise to the surface throughout this book and some of the important ones are the conservation of free time; the use of outsourcing and/or automated income; the importance of recreation; and the various unconventional ways to gain control over one's life. Ferriss is in favor of eliminating anything from your life that robs you of your most precious asset: your time. He feels the way to accomplish this is by seeking out opportunities that offer substantial rewards for the least effort and he believes with complete sincerity that there are ways that everyone can work less and make more.

Finding ways to get the cash flowing without devoting endless hours of time is a great idea, but I still have a few problems with the advice in this book. For starters, Ferriss makes the process seem a little too easy and he keeps holding himself up as an example that anyone else can do exactly what he did. One of the things he talks about in the opening section is that he was a national champion in Chinese Kickboxing. He talks about this accomplishment and his methodology for achieving it, making it seem like this is something anyone else with enough determination could have done. I have to disagree with him on this point. I think it's safe to say that the majority of the people in the world would not have the guts to do something like this, no matter how strong their will might be. And what about those of us with families? I don't think most spouses would be willing to jump up and move about the world with children in tow. Because it worked for him doesn't necessarily mean it will work for everyone.

Some of the book's other bits of advice is equally shaky, like the recommendation to employees to talk to their bosses and negotiate working from home instead of from the office. The author claims this is easier than you might first think, but I beg to differ. I have worked in many different businesses and, more often than not, a request to work from home would be met by a supervisor either with laughter or with a counter request to go home and not come back. If someone really wants to work from home and escape the eight to five life, entrepreneurship is really the only solution. To Ferriss' credit, he does spend a good deal of time talking about how to start and run your own company but I feel he should have gone directly to this and bypassed the idea of keeping your current job and working out of the home.

Overall, the 4- Hour Workweek is an interesting book with a catchy title and an unorthodox approach to making money. Ferriss deserves credit for formulating his methods in original ways and for avoiding the tendency to push this as a get rich quick scheme, but he also deserves a small amount of criticism for making his plan sound so simple that anyone can do it and for his insistence that anyone can be anything with the right attitude. Life and financial overachievement are not quite that simple, but I applaud Ferriss for approaching this age- old issue from a fresh perspective.

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Jon Gillespie-Brown

The 4-hour workweek: review by Jon Gillespie-Brown, Author "So you want to be an entrepreneur"

Reviewed in the United States on October 24, 2008

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What an interesting book. I have to say that I bought this as I was intrigued by the title and the strong claim as I am sure most people must be - A triumph of copywriting for a start!

I also have to say I have got my money's worth from it already - some of the references in the book reminded me to take some actions on outsourcing that I when actioned made me significant savings in time and money.

And frankly some of these lessons or reminders in my case were the best bits about the book for me. I wish I had read this many years ago when I was single and "footloose and fancy free", unlike now with kids in school and a number of demanding businesses that root me to the spot.

The reminders worked to re-kindle some of my needs to re-focus certain areas of my life and time plus to try and push out time wasters and distractions.

The rest of the book was fun to read but will not help me until maybe later in life now when I can once again roam the world to my heart's content and setup businesses to enable that to happen on automatic pilot - as the heart of the book suggests is the way to go!

I have been lucky to do many of the things suggested in the book like travel and live many of my dreams already but for most of us this book points to some extraordinary things we could if we just asked "why not" and got on with living our dreams rather than holding back. If you are in a dead end job and have nothing to lose then why hold back and look at ways to live your dreams?

If I my kids were in their 20's I would hand them this and tell them to get on with it - start a business that is totally focused on delivering what you need financially without preventing you doing what you want, when you want and where you want...a great way to fund round the world travel and to drop out of the stereotypical view of life after university!

That could lead to a life lived like that forever or maybe just a spell of total freedom financed by the right type of business. Frankly some of these ideas are discussed in my own books "So you want to be an entrepreneur" i.e. "create a business that works for you and not the other way around"

On the flip side, for many of us in middle age this is less likely to be the tonic we hope for as we have the need for stability and a routine we have to stick too - think school holidays!

However, it still makes for great reading and real world advice on how to achieve the lifestyle - the only thing it can't really help you with is creating a business to finance the idea. But hey if the book lights your fire for travel and freedom you will work something out.

In summary, it's a fun book with real insights and it covers ground for those wanting to become "time rich" now rather than waiting until they retire to achieve all their goals in life while having the time do them.

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Challenge Your Assumptions

Reviewed in the United States on October 26, 2008

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Ask yourself if it is necessary to work forty hours; ask yourself if you should work your whole life to provide for a few lean, relaxing years at the end of it. Timothy Ferriss comes back with some surprising answers in "The 4-Hour Workweek". Take mini-retirements throughout your career, or the fact that 10% of your customers will create 90% of your headaches, so get rid of them! Outsource everything and follow your passions around the globe. He has done it, and in a way that works for Tim Ferriss, and he tells you exactly how he did it. Sure, Mr. Ferriss is young and brash, a 30-year-old with all the answers, and judging by some of the venom in the 1-star reviews, he rubbed a few people the wrong way. But that's fine, if you disagree with Ferriss just continue your forty hours chained to a desk, and those who grasp what Ferriss is telling them will be scuba diving in Tahiti while web sites fill their bank accounts. The beauty of modern technology is that it is smart and barely needs us, and can work basically unsupervised. By synthesizing a way to exploit computers and globalization Timothy Ferriss is a part of the future, and the stalwarts from the past are not going to like it. If you read Thomas Friedman's "The World is Flat", or his new "Hot, Flat, and Crowded" you might begin to see Ferriss as a part of the solution. Tim Ferriss' carbon footprint is probably quite minimal as he uses existing infrastructure to produce his products rather than building factories and warehousing. Now he is living on a beach somewhere in the tropics using no electricity, "off the grid" and being lambasted for it by people living in 5000-square-foot McMansions.

To directly answer some of the outsourcing criticisms: outsourcing your labor to where it is cheaper, "Chindia" as Friedman calls it, is not exporting slave labor. The reason GM sold more cars in China last year than it did in the U.S. is because of the sweatshops that pay $2 a day. That may sound bad, but it's more than double the amount the same young lady could make breaking her back in the fields. Now she can take that money and get an education, feed her family, or join the middle class and buy a GM product. The new middle class of Chindia is the salvation of American manufacturing.

There is no way a book like this could rate 1-star, as it challenges all of the assumptions that make up your life, the use of your time, working through to retirement, and retirement itself, a very important subject for millions of Baby Boomers. Sometimes it hurts to question all of those rules that you have lived your life by, but it is healthy to do so. So read the book, take a couple of its points on board, or dive in and join Ferriss in some exotic locale base jumping off cliffs while the automated market works for you. And remember, all of these current free market experts, the 80-hour-week guys who have been operating without oversight for so long are the same guys who just crashed our economy into a brick wall at 100mph. The 80-hour-week guys got it all wrong, maybe "The 4-Hour Workweek" guy has some better ideas.

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Random Bimms

We all should be living more, and working less

Reviewed in the United States on June 12, 2007

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American society is currently living a self-imposed nightmare. Most Americans are working more and more hours at jobs they despise, in order to pay for their overpriced houses.

And the ironic part is, everybody gets so happy when their house's value rises. Hello, people? McFly? Anybody home? Leaving aside the higher property taxes, let us stop and use our brains for a second.

The ever increasing rise of housing prices is exactly why you have to work 80 hours a week. Rising housing prices help NOBODY! You think your rising house value is going to give you more money? It won't because everybody else's house is also rising, so if you sell your house, you still have to buy another equally expensive house, and you have gained NOTHING.

Which brings me around to this book by Ferriss. Ferriss has thought WAY "outside the box." He refused to accept the socially defined norms. He did not wish to defer life untill he was too old to enjoy it.

He saw through the scam of working 80 hourse per week your entire life to pay for your super-jumbo house so you can sell it and gain nothing because all the other houses are rising just as fast, which means you won't be able to buy one in the clear.

So, Ferriss has decided to live NOW, not later. And he has some great points. To tell you the truth, the best part of this book is the "comfort zone" stretchers.

I applaud Ferriss for his ideas. However, I think a more viable way to escape being a wage slave is to simply build your own house. I am currently reading "Mortgage Free" by Rob Roy. I think that is the way I personally will escape the ridiculous wage-slave mentality.

But to each their own. I do recommend this book, along with the classic Walden by Thoreau. Break your mind out of the cramped box! Stop thinking, "must have career, must have house, must take only "too weak" vacation every year, cannot enjoy life until I retire, which unfortunately will also be precisely when my health begins to fail, and I won't be able to enjoy any of it."

American workers are at least twice as productive than they were a few decades ago. If they are twice as productive, they ought to be able to take six months off every year with pay, to go travel the world. So why has not this obvious thing happened? Because of the outrageous rise of housing values! People CAN'T enjoy life, because their mortgage (death pledge) keeps them enslaved, like serfs in medieval times.

Break out, be happy, and serve God (If you believe in Him, like I do.) Think about eternity, and the eternal value of whatever you do. This can even apply to atheists, by the way. If you are an atheist, you can still think about leaving this world slightly better than you found it.

But in order to truly impact the world for good, you need FREE TIME and FREE MOBILITY. These two factors... time and mobility.... are addressed by Ferriss. They are also addressed, in a different way, by Rob Roy's book.

You can try the ideas of Ferriss, or you can try his ideas in combination with those of Rob Roy's "Mortgage Free." I recommend you combine BOTH ideas, live free, and use your life to its fullest, most beneficial potential.

One life to live. Live now, not later.

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