The 4-Hour Workweek

I finally got around to reading The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich. I had been meaning to do so for awhile just because the title sounded catchy and I figured the author would have some good tips for making a living on the internet. I ended up reading part of the book at a local Barnes & Noble and found it interesting enough to buy. I am glad I did because it contains a lot of good information about how to structure work, live a fun life and get yourself out of the rat race of 9-5.

In a chapter entitled "Chronology of a Pathology," I learned that the author, Tim Ferriss, had problems with authority since day one; I can relate, having cursed at my first grade teacher for giving what I thought was too much homework and realizing early in life that with my personality, I would need to become an entrepreneur and work for myself if I wanted to make a decent living. The 4-Hour Workweek teaches you to do just that, more or less.

Ferris starts by telling the reader to make a "System Reset" and he offers platitudes such as "Doing the Unrealistic Is Easier Than Doing the Realistic." He explains this by stating "Realistic goals, goals restricted to the average ambition level, are uninspiring and will only fuel you through the first or second problem, at which point you throw in the towel." He helps the reader figure out which unrealistic goals are worth pursuing and has one draw up a "sample dreamline" to calculate the cost per month for each of one's dreams. He then launches into time management and gives great tips such as "the key to having more time is doing less" and "do not multitask."

You'll then learn how to escape the office, embrace mini-retirements without having a nervous breakdown and learn to avoid the Top 13 New Rich Mistakes. Some of these mistakes include micromanaging and e-mailing to fill time, striving for endless perfection rather than great or simply good enough, and blowing minutiae and small problems out of proportion as an excuse to work.

Do I think if you follow the steps in this book, you can become rich by working four hours a week? Probably not, but it's worth a try. My concerns about the book are that the things he has people doing to make money do depend on having the right product, the right advertising and enough people who will buy it to make it plausible. However, I learned a lot about how to go about doing those things in a better and more efficient manner, had some good laughs and imagined myself swinging from a hammock in the Caribbean while millions accumulated in my bank account. For that alone, the book is worth the purchase price.