The 4-Hour Workweek

"The 4-Hour Workweek" by lifestyle designer Timothy Ferriss will be a real eye-opener for anyone who wants to escape what he calls the "deferred-life plan." Let me ask you something: how do you answer the question "what do you do?" If you have a simple answer ready, then you're likely a participant of the deferred-life plan, meaning that like most of us you're spending the bulk of your life being someone's slave, in hopes that you'll get to enjoy your life just before you die.

Well, that's awfully grim, isn't it? So how does Tim Ferriss answer the question "what do you do?" It depends when you ask him. Some of his answers have been "I race motorcycles in Europe," "I ski in the Andes," "I scuba dive in Panama," "I dance tango in Buenos Aires," and my favorite, "I'm a drug dealer" (that last answer he gives just to have fun with a question he doesn't know how to answer). Tim is a member of the New Rich, the class of people he describes as those who create the luxury lifestyles of multimillionaires using time and mobility instead of money.

What's the problem with the traditional path to retirement? Mainly that we're putting the pot of gold off until the very end, and spending our whole lives suffering from ADD (Adventure Deficit Disorder). Then when we finally find the pot of gold, we may find that we're totally unprepared for enjoying it. Enter "The 4-Hour Workweek."

Ferriss came up with the title by testing different versions using pay per click and seeing which title performed best, then gave the people what they wanted. However, I doubt many people will actually be able to implement his method of creating a hands-off system for cranking out cash with minimal intervention. Does that mean that the book is useless to most people? Not at all. The average person will find great tips for identifying what they really want, improving their effectiveness, freeing up more time, and getting a taste of retirement now instead of waiting till the end.

Ferriss is a staunch advocate of elimination. What should we strive to eliminate? All the unimportant tasks we fill our time with. He applies Pareto's Law (better known as the 80/20 rule) with brutal efficiency, eliminating many tasks that most of us would consider important, but which he says can be avoided with little or no consequence. By prioritizing, avoiding interruptions, eschewing multitasking, batching activities, delegating, and limiting our availability by phone, email, and in person, he claims that we can achieve the bulk of our results in much less time. Be warned that some of his suggestions may make your heart stop, like checking email no more than twice a day.

In explaining how to create an automated system for making money, he suggests using autonomous rules to let other people handle all but the most important decisions, then sitting back and enjoying the free time. He goes into great detail on how to use a virtual assistant based in a country such as India. Virtual assistants can carry out many business and personal tasks ranging from online research to writing apology emails to a spouse, all for a much lower per-hour cost than in the U.S., and depending on the time zone, possibly while we sleep.

The goal of using all these techniques is to create the freedom to enjoy frequent mini-retirements, which are vacations for a couple months in a foreign country. He does say that mini-retirements are not required and just one example of what you can do, and introduces the concept of dreamlining to help identify what you really want to do with your life. But after reading about mini-retirements, I'm more inclined to take a closer look. I was amazed at how he was able to live like a rock star in Buenos Aires for only $1,500 U.S. a month, which included a posh penthouse, VIP tables, and daily private lessons in Spanish and tango.

While his zany sense of humor alone makes the book a worthy read, this is the first book I've read that really addresses the problems with waiting for the end of a career and then being bored with too much idle time. "The 4-Hour Workweek" is essential for those who want to strive for the pursuit of excitement (Ferriss' more practical synonym for happiness) and enjoy their life now, not someday.