Book Review: 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss

Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, And Join the New Rich

Dec 10, 2008

The author shows how to create freedom of time and place and to use both however you want; a blueprint to live more and work less, an opportunity to change everything.

It is an easy to read book that shows how the author is living his dream and he notes: “People don’t want to be millionaires – they want to experience what they believe only millions can buy… $1,000,000 in the bank isn’t the fantasy. The fantasy is the lifestyle of complete freedom it supposedly allows”.

Millionaire Lifestyle without the Million

The author proceeds to describe his own experience in freeing time and automating income to enable his lifestyle choice – to have fun all around the world. Indeed, a number of stories are related from racing a motorcycle in Europe to dancing in Buenos Aires. To achieve this change the author describes DEAL – Definition, Elimination, Automation and Liberation – a four step process to live the dream.

Four Steps to Freedom

Definition goes into detail about the barriers to change and misconceptions, about the futility of the deferred life plan and defining the dream-line. The dream-line is a personal goal setting approach combining goals with the steps and costs to achieve them.

Elimination discusses key concepts such as time management with the direction to “forget all about it”. Instead, use Pareto’s 80/20 Rule to eliminate ruthlessly, avoid interruptions and information overload and only focus on the essential and doing work more efficiently in batches to dramatically improve productivity

Automation delves into outsourcing life, using other people to do all sorts of daily tasks and various tips to ensure it works smoothly. Putting income on autopilot is a quick precise on finding profitable business ideas, testing and automating them.

Liberation is about taking the freedom from automated income to explore freedom of place and working remotely. Then using mini-retirements to explore and enjoy life – adding life after subtracting work.

Mini-Retirements

Having achieved the steps in DEAL one is now free to enjoy mini-retirements and the author explains how this can cost a lot less than is expected. Long-term travel is also explored and as with other sections lots of links are provided to useful further sources of information. In addition, the author notes that having more free time can unexpectedly lead to frustration and boredom and he offers some words of advice as well as the Top 13 New Rich Mistakes.

About the Author

Timothy Ferriss is a serial entrepreneur and vagabond. He has been featured in the New Your Times, National Geographic Traveler, Maxim and other media. He speaks six languages, runs a multinational firm from wireless locations worldwide and has been a world-record holder in tango, a national champion in Chinese kickboxing and an actor on a hit television series in Hong Kong.

The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere and Join the New Rich by Timothy Ferriss. Crown Publishers 2007. ISBN: 978-0-307-35313-9

The copyright of the article Book Review: 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss in Business Books is owned by Roger Lever. Permission to republish Book Review: 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.