Comments on: Daily Links: Ask Tim Ferriss about His 4-Hour Work Week

By: Matt @ Corporate Hack

Matt @ Corporate Hack — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 06:32:00 +0000

Love Tim’s book - huge fan myself. Also liked the post from Penelope Trunk… some good steps in there and I linked to it myself. Thanks for providing!

-Matt

By: Niels

Niels — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 02:09:02 +0000

Why do all the internet marketing case studies seem to be releases of internet marketing products?

Is there a good resource for finding interesting foreign products worthy of import without the expense of traveling to the foreign country?

By: Adam

Adam — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 11:23:22 +0000

“4HWW” was an excellent book and Tim Ferriss is my hero.

what I’d like to know is what recommendations does he have for people who would prefer to save and invest of (or as well as) creating muses. More specifically, where would he save/invest his money if he had say $150,000 saved up.

By: sulingsi

sulingsi — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 02:17:42 +0000

@17 Brad:
Software development can be automated, as it see it, even if your job is to produce custom software, if you look at it as producing ‘custom’ software for a customer with multiple potential sites.

As example from a relative who does custom software - he was asked by one fast food franchise owner to develop a program that he could enter in accounting and stock. But of course there are hundreds if not thousands of these franchises nationwide, so once you have developed this product for one, you have a lot of potential clients to market it to automatically. So you can develop programs that are applicable to one client in a specific industry, then market them to other potential clients in the same industry, thereby using the same work over and over for different customers. To take this approach further - hire a ‘marketing intern’ to market your product to these clients, minimizing your involvement in the transaction. My dad does this using college students working for course credit to market his services.

That is just my opinion and I am not Tim Ferriss, but I thought I’d throw it out there.

By: Tsoniki

Tsoniki — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 01:31:40 +0000

It took my six year old DD one game of the game of life to realize that going to college got you a better paying job. Yay for that!

I just requested this book from the library - lots of people I know are interested in it or have already read it.

By: adfecto

adfecto — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 19:38:51 +0000

I may be the exception but a stable paycheck and 9-5 job sounds great to me. I would be stressed all of the time if I had to worry about how I would pay my mortgage/rent next month or 6 months from now. I want to know how Tim deals with uncertainty and risk.

By: TosaJen

TosaJen — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 03:28:30 +0000

Reading the first few chapters pushed us to think again about what we really want and what we can do to move in that direction now. We’ve been doing big picture planning regularly, anyway, but the book is so brash that what we want seems pretty tame and doable in comparison, so why not go for it?

I echo some of the questions about what might be different about the book’s advice for people who have dependents (I have a stay-at-home spouse with pre-existing medical conditions and 2 young children), and when we need to live in a particular geographic area for family reasons. If there’s more to say when risks affect more people, I’m all ears.

By: Mike

Mike — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 00:58:43 +0000

Tim: When you spend a mini-retirement abroad, how do you build connections with local people? I spent a summer in Holland and found it difficult to connect with people. I ended up internet dating my way through Amsterdam!

For my next mini, I’m thinking about Buenos Aires, one of your favorites, but also Cape Town & Sydney/Melbourne. Any thoughts?

As a professor at a research university, I found your book very applicable and great for thinking about my life. Thanks!

By: Brad Vrudney

Brad Vrudney — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 19:56:53 +0000

What if your ‘product’ that you are automating isn’t always the same, such as software development, where you might be able to find less expensive labor, but it seems much more difficult to automate.

By: Rich Money Million

Rich Money Million — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 18:59:53 +0000

Working less and focusing on quality of work rather than quantity of hours logged is great advice; however, I’m not sure if it holds water for the masses in the real world where employers pay by the hour or require that you be available during regular hours. Unless you work for yourself, telecommute, or your profession can be broken into a series of projects, you can’t really escape the 9 to 5. I’ll be taking a look at Ferriss’ book to see what he has to say. Great recommendation!

By: Matt

Matt — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 18:53:29 +0000

I’d like to know if he’s kept the business that originally let him live this lifestyle (I’m guessing he’s made some signiifcant money off the book).

Also if he were to start all over from scratch similar to Adam Shepard what would he do? How would he go about finding the resources, suppliers, industries that could allow him to duplicate his efforts. I guess I’m curious how his entrepreneurial mind/approach works.

By: Christo

Christo — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 16:21:11 +0000

I just requested this book through inter-library loan and am SO EXCITED to get it.

My question is:
I am almost 24. I started a green energy business successfully a few years ago, but learned the hard way what happens when you expand too quickly. I now have 18,000 in personal credit card debt - and want out. What is your advice about CH 7 bankruptcy? I think my choices are that or finding an investor.

Thank you for writing this book, & THANK YOU for writing this blog!! I share it with everyone.

Peace,
Chris

By: Tom

Tom — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 15:37:59 +0000

JD - I enjoyed your review of the 4-hour workweek so much that I bought and read the book. Like you, I enjoyed several of his ideas but disagreed with others.

I look forward to your interview.

By: Canadian Dream

Canadian Dream — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 14:50:51 +0000

I did enjoy Tim’s book. So here is my question: how would you suggest you outsource parts of a consulting engineer job where face time with the client is important and most of your work requires interaction with your follow employees in person (aka: review of drawing is next to impossible remotely)?

Thanks,
Tim

By: BobMcC

BobMcC — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 14:32:36 +0000

I would like to know as best he can give, what Tim’s average non-mini-retirement day entails?

From one of the quotes in the book says somthing along the lines of “to increase your chance of success you must first double your rate of failure” with that idea in mind, I was wondering if he could give a recent example of a time that he has failed?

Also as a matter of interest how much his sales of brainQUICKEN and speedreading material have increased?

By: catherine the great

catherine the great — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 14:20:12 +0000

Love the book! My hubby and I recently read it and have found it really inspiring. We are puzzled however about how we can really apply many of the ideas when we have two small children. Not only do they require a stable living situation, but great schooling as well. We think that means private school, and that is going to max out our income. How can we take baby steps to a freewheeling lifestyle, and how free can we realistically be? Any tips, insights or examples of families taking Tim’s advice? This is our question of the day! Thank you!

By: Ron@TheWisdomJournal

Ron@TheWisdomJournal — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 12:51:17 +0000

I’d like to know more about how he started the business that paid him over $70,000 per month, BrainQUICKEN. How did he find suppliers? He didn’t have his book as a reference, so how did he get to his current point?

By: Andrea >> Become a consultant

Andrea >> Become a consultant — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 08:07:50 +0000

Eric, if you’re carrying on business in Canada, you would be taxed as a Canadian business (including sole proprietor). Same goes for most other countries. IANAAccountant.

By: Eric F.

Eric F. — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 07:41:59 +0000

I would like to know how Ferriss deals with international taxes? If I become a freelance professional and obtain contracts in other countries, how can I ensure that I still remain on track with my state’s fiscal system ?

I know that I probably don’t have the knowledge and should definitly ask the experts. But it will probably cost a fortune and I won’t be able to outsource my canadian accounting to India…

By: Master Your Card

Master Your Card — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 06:26:45 +0000

I’ve outsourced several design and programming jobs to providers in India and China - jobs that would cost me 10 times as much to have produced in my backyard, or take me literally thousands of hours to accomplish myself.

I agree with Ferriss’ contention that entrepreneurs in ‘developed’ nations should probably outsource as much as they can provided it’s economically viable and the quality of work produced is high, and those who consider this as somehow exploitative lack a fundamental understanding of economics, even if their hearts are in the right place.

Having said that, I most certainly don’t agree with the idea that the ultimate goal of outsourcing is for the outsourcer to work any less hard than he or she would otherwise. The idea of using cheap foreign labour simply as a means to work a 4 hour work week borders on the offensive.

By: Kathleen M.

Kathleen M. — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 06:17:35 +0000

I loved the “stop dreaming and do it” attitude of the book. But he comes from a starting point of already having a successful company and his goal was for it to not consume him. This doesn’t speak much to the majority of us who are trying to reach a point where we can keep afloat without selling our souls to the 9-to-5 gods. Would love to hear his thoughts on how to achieve freedom without that starting point…

By: Minimum Wage

Minimum Wage — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 05:41:32 +0000

Dear Tim:

How do you do a 4-hour work week in retail?

By: Neil Kelty

Neil Kelty — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 04:52:43 +0000

So will Tim be answering these questions or will his virtual assistant?

No, seriously - What are you recommendations for college students? Are we out of luck for 4 years or is there something we can do?

By: Fred

Fred — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 04:52:35 +0000

Ask him how many hours he works in a week, and where his income comes from. I suspect the answers will be more than 4 and not from sources/techniques from his book.

If so, consider whether a person who makes money telling you how to make money is worth listening to.

By: Hugh Bien

Hugh Bien — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 03:54:11 +0000

Great book, I ended up reading the entire thing front to back in the bookstore.