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The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich | 
 enlarge | Author: Timothy Ferriss
Publisher: Crown
Category: Book
List Price: $19.95
Buy New: $11.89
You Save: $8.06 (40%)
New (64) Used (25) Collectible (3) from $11.75
Avg. Customer Rating:  781 reviews
Sales Rank: 325
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 320
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 8.2 x 5.7 x 1.2
ISBN: 0307353133
Dewey Decimal Number: 650.1
EAN: 9780307353139
Publication Date: April 24, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Also Available In:
| • | Audio Cassette - The 4-Hour work Week: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich | | • | Audio CD - The 4-Hour work Week: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich | | • | Audio CD - The 4-Hour Work Week: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich | | • | CD-ROM - The 4-Hour work Week: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich | | • | Kindle Edition - The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich | | • | Audio Download - The 4 Hour Work Week: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich (Unabridged) | | • | Audio Cassette - The 4-Hour Work Week: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich |
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Product Description
What do you do? Tim Ferriss has trouble answering the question. Depending on when you ask this
controversial Princeton University guest lecturer, he might answer:
“I race motorcycles in Europe.”
“I ski in the Andes.”
“I scuba dive in Panama.”
“I dance tango in Buenos Aires.”
He has spent more than five years learning the secrets of the New Rich, a fast-growing subculture who has abandoned the “deferred-life plan” and instead mastered the new currencies—time and mobility—to create luxury lifestyles in the here and now.
Whether you are an overworked employee or an entrepreneur trapped in your own business, this book is the compass for a new and revolutionary world. Join Tim Ferriss as he teaches you:
• How to outsource your life to overseas virtual assistants for $5 per hour and do whatever you want
• How blue-chip escape artists travel the world without quitting their jobs
• How to eliminate 50% of your work in 48 hours using the principles of a forgotten Italian economist
• How to trade a long-haul career for short work bursts and freuent "mini-retirements"
• What the crucial difference is between absolute and relative income
• How to train your boss to value performance over presence, or kill your job (or company) if it’s beyond repair
• What automated cash-flow “muses” are and how to create one in 2 to 4 weeks
• How to cultivate selective ignorance—and create time—with a low-information diet
• What the management secrets of Remote Control CEOs are
• How to get free housing worldwide and airfare at 50–80% off
• How to fill the void and create a meaningful life after removing work and the office
You can have it all—really.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 776 more reviews...
 Excellent life check up August 7, 2007
52 out of 61 found this review helpful
First off this book is not a get rich scheme, although I can see how that impression is easily given, it's a book about how to rearrange your life in such as way as to give more time and energy to what is important and less time to what isn't. The author goes into details about an internet business strategy that can lead to wealth, and while it's true any business can lead to wealth, an internet based business can be set up in such a way as to lead to more free time to pursue other things besides making money.
I don't think that the author intended to say that it's easy or guaranteed or that nobody fails, he just gives his advice on how to get it done in that chosen field. I've been to plenty of presentations of wealth generating schemes from product sales to insurance sales. I've read many books on business including those on direct marketing, real estate, stock trading, etc. Some are well intended; some are scams through and through. This book is no scam and it's not trying to sell any snake oil. Perhaps the author does downplay the time and risk and money it takes to start and run a successful internet based business, perhaps people just hear what they want to hear and it doesn't matter anyway.
I personally know someone that runs an internet based business, he has put plenty of time and money and energy into the business, and it's successful, at least I know he doesn't have a day job and he gets to travel and do things he likes to do when he wants to do them. The ideas that the author puts into this book show how to get into the business or improve one you have running, but this is only a part of the book.
Much of what I got out of the book was a reminder to myself about how important it is to spend time wisely. The 80/20 rule is gone over. Advice is given: quit watching so much television, ignore the nightly news, don't spend too much time reading fiction and keep non-fiction down to a list of good books and work them one at a time. Stay off the internet going to check email constantly or checking the news web sites. This all may seem like basic advice, but it's just part of the practical plan that the author goes over in adjusting your life to free up time.
As for the parts about outsourcing, it never ceases to amaze me that some people are so ignorant about economics that they would take the authors advice as being a means to exploit others. The more things that are outsourced to the third world, the more it grows economically and the more we prosper here at home. For those that think job loss is a bad thing, throw out your refrigerator so the ice man can have his job back. And if you really think people are being exploited when they take low paying jobs, next time you order a burger, tip the short order guy ten bucks.
Anyway, I highly recommend this book, it's not just about making money, it's not just about quitting your nine to five job, it's about making life more livable and more meaningful.
Ferris Says Stop Procrasturbating and Live! September 19, 2007
18 out of 20 found this review helpful
The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferris is a very timely challenge to the dilemma of traditional workplace captivity and at the same time feeds on just about anybody's dream of working less and accomplishing more. I've been a follower of David Allen's Getting Things Done methodology for a few years, falling off the wagon occasionally, but generally sending my to-do's through his filters and even customizing my own techniques to the point that I could probably devise my own hybrid and start selling it on an infomercial or something. In fact, that's the sort of thing Ferris encourages and teaches. The idea is to have the end in mind when starting a business in the first place, that being to eliminate work (by actually focusing on the 20% that creates 80% of the profit, and then outsourcing everything possible) and automate the rest, becoming a "ghost" in the equation. He doesn't only write for the would-be entrepreneur, but also gives nearly equal time to the employee who might actually want to remain one while working more often "from home" or some other unknown locale, presumably more productive than ever but on one's own terms, specifically place and time. Ferris writes a significant portion of the last part of the book for those who are serious about freeing up most or even all of their time spent on "work for work's sake," or W4W, and abandoning civilization for a lower-cost adventure to remote places, learning new languages and skills, or simply doing whatever one dreams of doing in their "mini-retirement." Many will find the ideas very alluring and he presents them as perfectly doable, which I believe. The caveat for me and many readers, if not most, is that we have families that are not only a higher priority than leaving it all behind, but they are in fact the dream itself. I think Ferris acknowledges that not everyone is single and 30 years old like he is, and so he does offer some scattered aids for those of us living in a different reality. In fact, as a dad of four kids and a wife I'd rather spend my time with than anybody else, I still found everything useful for leading my family in adventures without waiting for retirement several years down the road. It is a worthwhile and very enjoyable read. While Getting Things Done is a very practical and based on years of research and consulting, The 4-Hour Workweek is a far more entertaining read with all the practical steps but from the vantage point of a younger rogue and first-time author who's right in the middle of living what he's writing about.
A great new perspective on business and life ... April 24, 2007
54 out of 67 found this review helpful
Tim Ferriss has traveled the world, started a successful business, appeared on national television shows, won elite fighting competitions, and set world records. All of this by the age of 30.
To add to these accomplishments, Tim Ferriss has now written a great new book on business and life. The title of the book is unfortunate. It is about much more than creating a 4-hour work week (although it delivers on that promise as well). I want to discuss briefly my favorite parts of the book: motivation and focus, business planning, and life planning.
Motivation and focus - Tim has a lot of great advice for getting motivated and focusing on important tasks. He makes use of the 80/20 principle and Parkinson's law. Both of these ideas have been written about before, but Tim takes them to the next level. He gives specific advice on how to get moving and get the most out of your time.
In this section, Tim also points out why big goals are often easier to reach than smaller ones. This was an "Aha!" moment for me. Tim says that smaller goals are often harder to reach because there are a lot of people competing for them (think middle management positions at most large companies). However, big goals often have less competition and are easier to motivate yourself towards achieving.
Business planning - Tim goes into detail on how to create a low-maintenance business. Tim takes you through the entire process - from idea creation, to testing, to order fulfillment. It is a process that has worked for him and several of his friends, and Tim gives real-life examples for each of the steps. Tim also includes contact information for companies and organizations that can help you every step of the way. In my opinion, the most important part of this section is the low-cost method of testing business ideas before making large investments of time or money.
I also really liked Tim's advice on automating a business. Tim has successfully used a network of associates and outsourcers to put his business on autopilot. With this support network, Tim only has to spend a few hours a week working in his business. He includes website and phone numbers of many of these organizations and also gives advice on how to deal with outsourcers. In this section of the book, Tim also includes a few pages written by some of his "Virtual Assistants" giving their perspective on outsourcing.
I am a bit more conservative than Tim. I would personally want to have a significant amount in savings or be generating income well in excess of my monthly expenses before relying solely on the business income to cover my expenses. However, Tim seems to have done well and profited nicely from his BrainQuicken supplement.
If you aren't interested in starting a business, Tim gives some great advice on how to get time away from the office (with pay). I have personally seen several of these techniques work, and I am glad Tim included this section for those who aren't entrepreneurially inclined.
Life planning - Once your income needs are met, now what? If you were able to successfully create a business following Tim's instructions, you probably have a lot of extra time on your hands. Tim talks a lot in this section about what to do with that extra time. Tim seems to prefer traveling, and he gives readers a good bit of advice on working and traveling abroad. His personal preference is to spend a month or so intensely working and then spend a couple of months traveling. Of course, you could just as easily use your time to grow other businesses or spend time at home with your family.
Working for yourself, you may become socially isolated or bored. Or, you may start to ask The Big Questions (like "What is the meaning of life?"). Tim gives some great advice for all of these situations.
I don't know Tim, nor do I have any financial connection to this book. I only found out about the book by reading a blog from someone who listened to Tim's talk at this year's South by Southwest festival in Austin. I have never written a review on Amazon before, but this book compelled me to write my first. I highly recommend you get it, and I guarantee it will get you thinking about making changes in your life.
The Title Should Tell You What to Expect March 5, 2008
13 out of 14 found this review helpful
I saw the last couple of one-star reviews and thought I should comment.
The title of the book is The 4-Hour Workweek.
Certainly, the world does cease to function if everyone attempted to outsource all actual manufacturing of goods and delivery of valuable services to others. Yes, taken to an extreme, there would be nobody left to actually do anything, and societies would collapse.
That is a macro view of things. And its rather faulty. We all focus on specific means of producing our own income, and outsource other vital functions of living to other members of society. Think about it. Did you go out in the fields and pick your own grains (that you tilled and planted) to make cereal this morning? Did you milk your own cows on your own farm to have milk to pour over that cereal? Are you sitting in a house you built yourself, from lumber you harvested with tools you smelted yourself? Wecome to Outsourcing 101. Society depends upon "outsourcing." To think anything less is to miss the reality of living in a complex economy and society.
This book is written to individuals who seek to use new paradigms to craft a life of their own choosing. It is not a be-all, end-all, and there are some snake-oil patches around the edges of the book, but his premise is strong and well-supported by his personal stories and advice.
Far too many people buy into the whole "work hard and you will be rewarded" mantra in America, or even more potentially damaging to the human soul, "work is its own reward." Ferriss doesn't. I don't. Knowledge, effectiveness and efficiency help to determine the final financial value of a person's time, not how many hours they work. Only a true communist would insist an unskilled day laborer's time and value to a house-building project is the same as that of the general contractor with 20+ years experience, who may not physically build the house, but is charged with the duty of making sure the house gets built.
True, in a manufacturing segment, or in a doctor's office, a person must physically be present and actually doing something in the physical world at a specific point in time in order to produce value. That point is not lost. But again, that is not the premise of the book.
The premise of the book is "Escape 9-5, live anywhere, and join the new rich." There are means of making a living that does not require an individual to be physically present in a specific location, interacting with the physical world or interacting with people in-person.
Ferriss' definition of the new rich in his book is someone who has a high level of personal freedom over where he lives, and what he does with his time. A young man with $10k a month of semi-passive income, surfing in Fiji in the middle of a beautiful afternoon, seems to fit Ferriss' definition of "rich." That is not a traditional definition of rich. To the established rich, $120,000 a year for a young man shows future potential, but does not qualify one under the standard definitions of rich. A partner in a major San Francisco law firm would certainly scoff at this assertion of what is "rich." Top-of-the-class new attornies may make this amount (and more) in first year employment at a major firm. But if the career is not all-rewarding, why should an individual follow a path where the time they commit to earning a living becomes all-encompassing?
The point of the book, is that our societies have changed, and specifically, there are opportunities for individuals who can reframe their paradigms and leverage their skills in brand new ways for massive competitive advantage. For Ferriss, his view was that changing his organization of his financial life he could work less actual hours while still maintaining a good income, and live more while young.
Regarding criticisms of virtual outsourcing overseas--again, criticisms tend to come from a macro perspective that is beyond the scope of the author. Is it exploitative to employ the services of a virtual assistant and pay them what is a handsome wage in their home country, just because your biased paradigm insists you should value their time based upon income expectations in the United States? That's a weak argument in my book. Granted, protection of domestic jobs in the U.S. is critical to maintaining a high quality of life across the social spectrum of the domestic economy. But again, this is far beyond the perspective of the individual entrepreneur.
More to the point, outsourcing is beyond the control of large corporations as well. Apple Computer used to build Apple Computers in Silicon Valley. When market forces made it infeasible to continue making computers domestically, should the company have simply shut its doors and stopped creating and innovating? Would that have been better off for the stockholders or the employees of the company? What Ferriss advocates is done across many business sectors. He is only advocating it on a much smaller scale that hasn't really been explored that well, until now.
Overall, this book is well worth its admission price. Anyone with interest in pursuing entrepreneurial endeavors should give this book a thought. You may not choose to only work 40 hours a week, or pare your existence back to become a persistent world traveller, but you just might pick up a few ideas that could add up to significant time savings and higher efficiency at the same time.
This book will change your life! May 7, 2007
29 out of 35 found this review helpful
This book is NOTHING LESS than incredible! If you want to change your life forever, then it is a must read. Buy it! I have purchased both the audio and print book (I first bought the audio book and was so impressed, I wanted the print version as a `workbook' to help work through the material.)
Why should I buy this book you ask? There are many reasons:
1.He provides a solution for taking back control of your life if you have the determination and drive to do so. It's that simple.
2.He illustrates a step by step plan for doing the above and provides a plethora of resources to use.
3.He doesn't just tell you (like many other books) that money will give you back control of your life. Instead he truthfully and accurately explains that it is your freedom, time and passions that fill you with life. As Tim says, "People don't want to be millionaires - they want to experience what they believe only millions can buy" (p.8). At the same time, for those interested, he provides ways and ideas to increase your financial resources by using more efficient methods - but the point is made clear that you don't need gross amounts of money to really enjoy the good things in life, including travel, nor do you have to wait until the golden years.
4.He gives you practical, useful tools for achieving what YOU want out of life; and these tools are immediately applicable. For example, how to go on the "Low-Information Diet" and eliminate unfocused, wasted time.
5.Much of what he teaches is applicable to your life in general, not just your career or financial future. From overcoming fear to focusing your efforts on truly important tasks, he provides REAL LIFE solutions. I love the way this guy thinks!
6.He reminds you to think with your OWN brain and not follow the crowd. To question everything and come up with your own answers and then test them to see what happens. That's what he did, so he practices what he preaches. Now granted, he's not the first person to do this, but he does it in a new way, one that caught my full attention and I think will catch yours too.
7.The proof is in the pudding (or in this case, in the kickboxing ring or on the dance floor). Tim IS and has proof that his methods work, if YOU work his methods. He provides case studies and examples.
Tim asks the question, "Why do it all in the first place? (i.e. work 9-5 or longer hours in the corporate world, save, wait, and then retire later in life when you are too old to really enjoy it). After examination and experimentation he concludes, "The commonsense rules of the `real world' are a fragile collection of socially reinforced illusions" (p.9). I happen to agree with him and have always dreamed of the lifestyle he shows how to live - not one where I'm just pursuing money to become a millionaire, but one where I have the freedom and resources to live a life of adventure and challenge WHILE I'm growing older - to travel, to do, to be what I want. I didn't know how to achieve this type of lifestyle. Tim shows you how. Thank you Tim, I've been searching for these answers for some time and now I'm going to seize the day!!!
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