Diary of a Self-Help Dropout: Flirting With the 4-Hour Workweek

http://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/magazine/17-01/mf_self_help?currentPage=all

by qaexl • 18 years ago

66 18 18 years ago

jwesley2• 18 years ago

Can't we all just proclaim in unison that The 4 Hour Work Week is crap and never mention Timothy Ferriss again?

No, because it's not true. Ferriss is probably the most marketed person on the planet, and 4HWW is talk about tons, but the book has good, specific information (that the reviews always leave out). Much of it isn't original, but if you haven't seen it anywhere else, it's new to you. Some of it is very detailed and original (or at least I haven't seen it anywhere) and worth taking a few hours for.

Don't confuse the man with the message.

toby• 18 years ago

I really enjoyed the lifestyle message of the book, which I think is an interesting goal, but the "specific information" about how to implement it kind of upset me.

There's enough room in this world for a few people to be selling vitamins or "information products" via infomercials, but that's only because there are a lot of people doing other things. Good for him that he found his niche, but it's totally misleading to suggest to everyone else that we can all race cars, dance competitively and live all over the world by following the exact same path.

Also, the suggestion that all favelas are just like "City of God" was pretty offensive.

tptacek• 18 years ago

We can talk about that after you actually read the article.

medearis2• 18 years ago

I have a buddy who apparently took the 4HWW to heart and moved to Argentina to work as a freelance software engineer... he seems to be doing well.

Personally, I thought Ferriss made it seem a little easy, but who knows? Did you actually do all of the challenges? I guess you can't knock it until you've tried it.

rtw2• 18 years ago

Does your buddy need to travel back to consult with customers in the US (assuming that is where he is from)? Was he an established consultant before the move?

medearis2• 18 years ago

He does have to travel to meet with clients, but from what I've gathered, it is not particularly frequent. He had a pretty solid resume as an engineer and is definitely one of the most creative, smart people I know, but I don't think that he had much of a list of prior clients. As I recall, our school kind of set him up with his 2 main clients. Its quite a bold move on his part and inspiring to me. It's only one data point, but its certainly an example of how its possible to carve out a niche.

maneesh• 18 years ago

i took it to heart and am now living in Buenos Aires as a freelance software engineer. I communicate online with my clients, and work on my own projects with the free time that euros/dollars -> peso conversion gives. I recommend it!

iamelgringo• 18 years ago

Mr. Ferriss is a master at self promotion. That doesn't mean that there's not good stuff to be learned after you sift through the self-promoting crap in the book.

Tidbits I picked up:

* Throw a quick 3 page website up as a sales letter to market a $100 product. Point $200 worth of ad-sense at it over 10 days to see if you get any uptake. If you have more than 2 signups or "buy-ins", you've past the break even point and you're on the road to making money.

* Focus on developing a $50-150 priced product. You don't have to sell a ton of those products to make a decent living for yourself.

* 100 units sold * $100 = replace my monthly income.

* Focus intensely on what's going to make you cash. All the cool technology you're building doesn't matter to your business unless it helps the bottom line. This was apropos to me, because I have an acute case of... oh, look at this shiny new thing. Focusing on what makes money helps cut through some of that.

* People like to buy things. No, really. They like to pay for things. It makes them feel better about their lives. So, if you offer them a compelling reason to give you money, they will probably give you the money.

* Outsource as much as you can that isn't non-core business. e.g. Hire interns to do marketing and PR work for you. Outsource writing your copy. Outsource design work, outsource product development if appropriate. Outsource market research, outsource date finding, outsource travel plans, outsource, outsource, outsource everything away to make your life simpler.

* Filter out distractions as much as possible. i.e. no meetings, minimal email.

* Have balls. No, really, dude hacked a martial arts festival and won. Why? By hacking the weigh-in legally. He has a lot of legal cons that help you hack the publicity system. Put your balls to use by hacking a social structure and rules in a situation to your benefit. If you don't have the balls to try something, you're not going to achieve it.

* Chase the big dreams. Life is too short. If you want a Lotus Elise, test drive it, and find out how much you'd have to make a month to pay for it. Figure out how to make that money. If you want to go to Figi, figure out the cost, make the money to get there and then just go.

qaexl2• 18 years ago

Yeah, the Taiwanese with whom he competed with are pretty serious about Face. When I read the excerpt about it, I rolled my eyes and thought Ferris was full of it, claiming to be a national kickboxing champion. After reading the account, however, I have to admit it was a good hack. Throw people out of the ring. There isn't much way for the judges to cheat on that either, heheheh.

Ferris recently got a new TV show on History Channel, airing as a pilot. It is called "Trial By Fire", where he attempts to learn skills that normally takes 10 - 20 years to master and learn them in about 5 days. The show is interesting to see how the strategizing works. I have no idea if there are going to be more made, but if they were, Ferris promised showing skills like car racing.

Of course it is probably a way to get all of the stunts he wants to learn financed by a TV Network, but that's the point. What he wants to do isn't necessarily what I want to do, and applying the skills of hacking to life is a good thing.

bemmu• 18 years ago

One problem with outsourcing is that people tend to have a lot of context to their tasks that whoever they hire to handle it for them won't have. There can be miscommunications about what needs to be done, the other person might not understand what the requester likes/dislikes, they might have to ask for extra details etc. and often it may be just faster to do it yourself.

Diary of a Self-Help Dropout: Flirting With the 4-Hour Workweek

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