{"id":1289,"date":"2007-08-28T05:00:13","date_gmt":"2007-08-28T12:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/getrichslowly.org\/blog\/2007\/08\/28\/book-review-the-4-hour-workweek\/"},"modified":"2023-10-25T22:37:24","modified_gmt":"2023-10-26T04:37:24","slug":"book-review-the-4-hour-workweek","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.getrichslowly.org\/book-review-the-4-hour-workweek\/","title":{"rendered":"The 4-Hour Workweek review and summary"},"content":{"rendered":"

When I picked up The 4-Hour Workweek<\/i><\/b><\/a>, I was worried it was some sort of “get rich quick” book. The first few pages didn’t do much to change my mind. \"\"<\/a>The author, Timothy Ferriss, makes a lot of bold claims, such as: “How do you create a hands-off business that generates $80,000 per month with no management? It’s all here.”<\/p>\n

But something happened during the first few chapters. When I read a book, I use small sticky notes to mark interesting passages. After the first 100 pages of The 4-Hour Workweek<\/b><\/i>, the book was thick with stickies. By the time I was finished, I had used an entire pad!<\/p>\n

Ferriss does<\/i> make a lot of bold promises, and some of the details along the way do<\/i> read like the confessions of a get-rich-quick scammer. But I believe that an intelligent reader can easily extract a wealth of useful ideas from the book. For me, it’s a keeper. I’ve read it three times already, and will probably read it again before the end of the year.<\/p>\n

<\/span>Let’s Make a Deal<\/span><\/h2>\n

After college, Ferriss took a soul-sucking sales job at a tech firm. He left to start a soul-sucking business of his own. He went from working 40 hours a week for somebody else to working 80 hours a week for himself. He hated it. The pay was good, but the business left him drained.<\/p>\n

After learning about the Pareto Principle<\/a> (more commonly known as the 80-20 Principle), Ferriss had a revelation: he streamlined his business, eliminating distractions and automating systems until it was not only more profitable, but also took less of his time. Much<\/i> less. He took a “mini-retirement,” and then decided to write a book about “lifestyle design,” about creating a life that balances work and play, maximizing the positives of both.<\/p>\n

The 4-Hour Workweek<\/b><\/i> is divided into four sections, each of which explores one of the components to lifestyle design:<\/p>\n

Definition<\/h3>\n

Define<\/b> your objectives. Decide what’s important. Set goals. Ask yourself, “What do I really<\/i> want?”<\/p>\n

Elimination<\/h3>\n

Eliminate<\/b> distractions to free up time. Learn to be effective, not efficient. Focus on the 20% of stuff that’s important and ignore the 80% that isn’t. Put yourself on a low-information diet. Learn to shunt aside interruptions, and learn to say “no.”<\/p>\n

Automation<\/h3>\n

Automate<\/b> your cash flow to increase income. Outsource your life<\/a> \u2014 hire a virtual assistant to handle menial tasks. Develop a business that can run on auto-pilot. (This is the weakest section of the book.)<\/p>\n

Liberation<\/h3>\n

Liberate<\/b> yourself from traditional expectations. Design your job to increase mobility. This could mean working from home, or it could mean using geographic arbitrage<\/a> to take mini-retirements in countries with favorable exchange rates.<\/p>\n

The 4-Hour Workweek<\/i><\/b> describes the specific actions Ferriss took to implement these steps. Sometimes these specifics aren’t particularly useful. However, I think it’s a mistake to let the details get in the way of his broader message. If you’re able to look past the details, to look at their meaning<\/i>, you may discover principles that can change your life. For example, I don’t like much of what Ferriss has to say about automation. I question the virtue of virtual assistants, and I think that his business model works for his<\/i> business, but probably isn’t applicable to most others.<\/p>\n

However<\/i>, it was while re-reading this section the other night that I began to think about automating my personal finances, about making them paperless. By absorbing Ferriss’ ideas and not<\/i> his specific details, I was able to apply this to my life.<\/p>\n

<\/span>A Kick in the Head<\/span><\/h2>\n

Most of the time, The 4-Hour Workweek<\/i><\/b> is like a kick in the head. The flow of ideas is relentless. Here’s one of my favorites:<\/p>\n

Emphasize strengths, don’t fix weaknesses.<\/b> Most people are good at a handful of things and utterly miserable at most. […] It is far more lucrative and fun to leverage your strengths instead of attempting to fix all the chinks in your armor. The choice is between multiplication<\/b> of results using strengths or incremental<\/b> improvement fixing weaknesses that will, at best, become mediocre. Focus on better use of your best weapons instead of constant repair.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Maybe this is obvious to most of you, but it’s a revelation to me. I spend a lot of time worrying about my weaknesses. Yet when I look at my life, it’s clear that everything rewarding and profitable comes from enhancing my strengths. Here’s another example:<\/p>\n

Relative income is more important than absolute income.<\/b> Absolute income is measured using one holy and inalterable variable: the raw and almighty dollar. Jane Doe makes $100,000 per year and is thus twice as rich as John Doe, who makes $50,000 per year.<\/p>\n

Relative income uses two variables: the dollar and time, usually hours. The whole “per year” concept is arbitrary and makes it easy to trick yourself. Let’s look at the real trade. Jane Doe makes $100,000 per year, $2,000 for each of 50 weeks per year, and works 80 hours per week. Jane Doe thus makes $25 per hour. John Doe makes $50,000 per year, $1,000 for each of 50 weeks per year, but works 10 hours per week and hence makes $100 per hour. In relative income, John is four times<\/b> richer.<\/p>\n

Of course, relative income has to add up to the minimum amount necessary to actualize your goals…<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I want to believe that if I had to choose between $70,000 per year earned with 70 hard hours per week, or $42,000 per year earned with 37 easy hours per week, I’d choose the latter. I’m not there yet.<\/p>\n

<\/span>A Garden of Tips<\/span><\/h2>\n

I don’t buy into everything that Ferriss writes, but I love how he shatters conventional wisdom. I love that he makes me think<\/i>.<\/b> Even if you reject his central thesis, there are dozens of tips and tricks here that can be extracted and used to optimize your life. Here are a few:<\/p>\n