The 4 Hour Work Week - A must read!

[Justin]

I just finished reading a book called The 4 Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss. He was on one of the blogger panels at South by Southwest, and just blew up in popularity after it. This book applies directly to with what all of us are doing, and is an absolute must read.

On the surface this book is about outsourcing your life, cutting out things that are non productive and taking mini retirements all year..... but the overall message is more about going out and living the living the life you actually want right now. What use is there to have $10 million in the bank when you're 70? Why not have fun with that money now?

One of the main ideas I took away from this book was the 80/20 rule. Most of our companies would be much more profitable, if we focused on the 20% of things we do that actually produce results. Tim also has a great theory about a lot of people who do "work for works sake". You're basically just being busy, but not being productive. I know I do this all the time, and it's a lot easier for me to actually see that now.

Seriously, go buy this book now. Grab a highlighter and mark it up. Then re read it again. I've read it 3 times in the past week and I pick up a few more ideas each time. This might end up being the next Freakonomics or Tipping Point.

[Beanie]

I will pick it up but I learned some similar things when I was in the mortgage business. Here are just a few:

Most of this is a time value equation, its like when Jennifer Aniston asked Vince Vaughn to do the dishes and explained to him "that she wanted him to want to do the dishes", no one wants to do this stuff.

So I pay for all of these services

I have an assistant
I pay for landscaping
lawn mowing
house cleaning
web development
web moderating

Essentially anything that is below my paygrade takes me away from the things that are more important. Even with that I fill up my time with things that "keep me busy". I recently read "awaken the Giant within", its a little long winded but more specific than the quick hit books.

[Dave]

I highly recommend "Awaken The Giant Within" by Tony Robbins.

Beanie, the audio version is only 120+ minutes long and does a good job of covering the most important material.

Very inspiring stories and life changing info on there.... and I will not go mountain biking without TonyR on the headphones.

"The 4 Hour Work Week" sounds like my kind of book.

Thanks for the tip Justin.

Are you studying those marketing ebooks I sent you?

edit..... Are you applying those marketing ebooks I sent you?

[RCNastermind]

I picked up the audio version today on Itunes. Listened to about 3 hours of it so far while playing. This is pretty much exactly how I would like my life to be set up. I've done a pretty good job so far, but think this book will help me finish the job.

[Beanie]

i think the cool thing about books like this is it can be a refresher of things you already know.

[toktok]

Thanks for the tips! I've bought both the books.

[JohnH]

Listening to the audio book right now, pretty good so far!

[Dave]

Got this link from Yanik Silver today.

A phone interview he did with Tim Ferriss, the author of "The Four Day Work Week" about the book.

http://www.surefiremarketing.com/4hourweek/call/

Very interesting stuff.

[hoursurfing]

Originally Posted by Justin

What use is there to have $10 million in the bank when you're 70?

Exactly! Which is why I've begun cutting back on working a ton. You always feel like you never have enough so whats the point. I feel that once you can comfortably live off interest on the money you have then you have enough. Which when you think about it really isn't all that much. But, everyone is different.

Some people are only happy working, but me, I'd much rather be playing golf.

[Dave]

Exactly! Which is why I've begun cutting back on working a ton. You always feel like you never have enough so whats the point. I feel that once you can comfortably live off interest on the money you have then you have enough. Which when you think about it really isn't all that much. But, everyone is different.

Some people are only happy working, but me, I'd much rather be playing golf.

Exactly, hoursurfing!

I just found it in ebook format here:

http://www.powells.com/biblio?isbn=9780307394392