Dan's Papers - October 12, 2007 - The Four-Hour Work Week

Timothy Ferriss is just thirty years old, but has already seen most of the planet and in less than five years has experienced what many of us hope to accomplish in a lifetime. Currently a New York Times best-selling author for advice books, Ferriss has had many professions. He has been a speed-reading teacher. He is a Chinese kickboxing champion. He is a Tango world-record holder. He owns a successful supplement company and he has seen almost every country in the world, traveling to all of them in style. Currently, he is overseas following the Rugby championships, while running his million-dollar-a-year business from his computer just four hours a week, of course. Not too shabby for a kid from Springs.

In his book, The Four-Hour Work Week, Ferriss claims that he has discovered valuable tips for those who slave away all day inside a cubicle and want to escape to become a member of "The New Rich" using a "muse" (a job or business that earns you money, but frees up your time and your mobility).

Ferriss is a Princeton graduate and former slave to the cubicle, and the first fifty pages or so of his book are dedicated to describing how much he hated working outrageous hours for a data storage company, a time when he felt that the most productive part of his day was the early mornings and late evenings. He found himself becoming a true philosopher about work and watched as his other friends from college dedicated 80 hours a week of the best years of their life to work and found that the logic did not add up. Why work just for the sake of working when being effective is what really is important? Why be so afraid of the unknown? What are the real consequences if a new business fails? In reality, not much, says Ferriss. He'd take a failed business and a fresh start over heading back into the rat race any day.

Using his passion for athletics, Ferriss started a vitamin business, outsourcing nearly every function via the Internet, and before he knew it, the company grew to a fifty thousand dollar a month business and it only takes him four hours a week to operate. He spends the rest of his time enjoying his passions and interests, which includes traveling around the world to exotic locales and becoming involved in dream projects, like writing a best-selling book, for example. And his book claims that you can do it, too.

Although it is a hard pill to swallow, Ferriss makes a compelling argument on how doable it is and reminds the reader that most compete for mediocrity, hence some of the smartest minds in the world are working for big companies as investment bankers when they are more then capable of starting their own business and working for themselves. His book is written intelligently and is designed to release you from that fear and gives you all of the tools to do it. From outsourcing web design and product development, to getting your own virtual assistant in India for four dollars an hour, Ferriss explains in great detail simple ways to run a company cheaply, the same way the big corporations do, using Internet outsourcing. He gives examples of websites that he uses for his own business and recommends others.

It is a fair argument that the reason Ferriss is down to working four hours a week is because his company runs itself now that he has spent countless hours, long nights and weekends, treading into the unknown and overcoming the fear of failure. He admits that when he first started, he dedicated all of his time and energy to his company, until he realized that if he worried a little less and took more deliberate actions without over analyzing, he could accomplish more every step of the way. He quotes Yvon Chouinard, the founder of Patagonia, "There's no difference between a pessimist who says, 'Oh it's hopeless, so don't bother doing anything,' and an optimist who says, 'Don't bother doing anything, it's going to turn out fine anyway.' Either way, nothing happens."

Whether you think it's possible or not, Ferriss achieved it and you can't argue with that. Either way, this book is an excellent read and unbelievably helpful to those in business or currently starting a business. The chapters on how to become an expert or about websites for outsourcing are worth the purchase price alone. It is very obvious while reading The Four-Hour Work Week why it is a best seller. I certainly couldn't put it down over the weekend, and applied immediate techniques at the office on Monday. I highly recommend this book - it excites and inspires.