BusinessNews Publishing - Summary: The 4-Hour Workweek: Review and Analysis of Ferriss Book

Book Abstract

There is a new subculture of people in the world who have figured out that the 9-5 grindstone doesnt really fire up their imaginations to any great degree. Instead, they organize their lives and follow a set of uncommon rules which typically allows them to work less than four hours a week but earn more in a month than most people do in a year. These people are the New Rich (NR). They abandon the conventional deferred-life plan (work now and retire later) and instead develop their own signature lifestyles which utilize the currencies of the New Rich: time and mobility.

There are four steps in the art and science of lifestyle design which will take you from being deferred-life oriented to becoming part of the New Rich:

About the Author

TIMOTHY FERRISS is a serial entrepreneur. In addition to speaking six languages, Mr. Ferriss runs a multinational firm from wireless locations worldwide. His eclectic passions include being a world record holder in tango, a national champion in Chinese kickboxing and a guest lecturer at Princeton University in high-tech entrepreneurship and electrical engineering. He has been profiled by The New York Times, National Geographic Traveler, Nbc and Maxim. Mr. Ferriss is a graduate of Princeton University and in 2007 turned 29 years of age.

The Web site for this book is at www.fourhourworkweek.com .

Important Note About This Ebook

This is a summary and not a critique or a review of the book. It does not offer judgment or opinion on the content of the book. This summary may not be organized chapter-wise but is an overview of the main ideas, viewpoints and arguments from the book as a whole. This means that the organization of this summary is not a representation of the book.

1. Definition

Before you can attempt to become part of the NR, you need to understand what the rules and objectives of this new game are. In practice, this means you need to replace the conventional self-defeating assumptions with concepts which are aligned with the overall NR lifestyle design.

People dont want to be millionaires they want to experience what they believe only millions can buy. Ski chalets, butlers and exotic travel often enter the picture. $1,000,000 in the bank isnt the fantasy. The fantasy is the lifestyle of complete freedom it supposedly allows. The question is then, How can one achieve the millionaire lifestyle of complete freedom without first having $1,000,000?

Timothy Ferriss

The New Rich think differently from Deferred Lifers. If you aspire to join the ranks of the NR, youll need to be prepared to abandon your old assumptions about work and career and strike out in a different direction. To be more specific about these differences:

The 10 basic rules of pursuing a NR lifestyle are:

1. Think of retirement as a worst-case scenario and not the goal of your entire career. By all means plan for your retirement as a fallback position but plan on living life to the full in the meantime. Take advantage of 401(k)s and IRA for tax purposes rather than as the sum total of your financial preparation for retirement.
2. Remember interest and energy are cyclical so you should break periods of intense commercial activity with mini-retirements where you go off and recharge your batteries. Work only when youll be most effective, not when youre jaded and washed out.
3. Its not lazy to do less work if youre focusing on doing the most productive things. Find workable ways to spend less time in the office but actually achieve more. Focus more effort on being productive and less on being busy.
4. The timing is never right to quit your job and start working for yourself so plunge into it now rather than waiting until the planets are aligned. Replace someday with today.
5. Its always much more fun to ask for forgiveness rather than asking for permission so plunge into things with enthusiasm. Get good at being a troublemaker but be prepared to say sorry if you really screw things up.
6. Find ways to emphasize your strengths rather than trying to fix your weaknesses. Focus on using your best tools wisely rather than attempting to repair what doesnt work.
7. Remember its possible to have too much of a good thing so plan on using your free time wisely rather than sitting around and doing nothing. Do what you want to do as opposed to doing what you feel obligated to do.
8. Remember money alone is rarely the solution so never use it as a scapegoat. Instead of saying Id do that if I had more money, create a life of enjoyment right now. Pursuing more and more money just for the sake of having more becomes a pointless illusion at some stage. Live the life you want.
9. Learn how to differentiate between absolute and relative income and focus on making more money for each hour you choose to work. Absolute income is the number of dollars involved. Relative income combines how much you earn with how long it takes you to earn that money. As long as you have enough absolute income to cover your expenses, always think in terms of increasing your relative income. The only way to achieve that is to make more for each hour you choose to work rather than working more hours.
10. Take advantage of positive stress or eustress the kind of stress which acts as a stimulus for worthwhile growth. While negative stress can be destructive and cause health problems, positive stress to realize your dreams can be helpful and beneficial. Since you wont make progress without it, the more eustress you create, the better. One way to do this is to focus on emulating role models who epitomize what youre trying to achieve yourself.

These rules challenge the status quo and help the NR define problems in different ways from the thinking everyone else uses. More than anything else, the NR crave excitement. The idea of doing the same thing day-after-day and year-after-year is pure boredom. Instead, the NR are intent on doing the kinds of things reasonable people dismiss as being unrealistically hard. The NR know that doing something bold and completely unrealistic is often easier than settling for the reasonable goals everyone else has.

To become part of the NR, its essential you learn how to apply timelines to your dreams and then to get to work doing the things today which will lead to your dreams being actualized. A good way to do that is by planning in this way:

Note that when using this kind of dream achievement outline, its helpful to think of your income and expenses from a monthly cash flow perspective dollars in and dollars out. Most things cost less than you might otherwise expect when they are financed on commercial payment plans or through installments. Sure, youll pay some interest, but paying $2,953 a month to drive a Ferrari sounds much more manageable than having to come up with $200,000 to purchase it outright.