Books
4 Hour Work Week Book Review
I am always reading something. Books are a great resource to pick up new tips and tricks for your life whether it is motivation, business, relationships – anything. I have learned more in my life from reading good books than I have in all of my own formal education. My latest read is “The 4-hour work week” by Timothy Ferris. I know I am way behind the trend on this one, but here is my review.
4 Hour Work Week Book Review
I am not a big fan of the whole “work 2 hours a week – make a million dollars” or any other of the get rich quick schemes. I was taught that hard work pays of and is the only way to make money. My dad is a workaholic. Just like a drug addict or an someone who has a problem with alcohol, my dad has to work. He has to put in 60-80 hour weeks. It is in his blood. He will work himself so hard he starts having health problems (much like drugs or alcohol) then he starts to cool off. I am just like my father. First one in – last one out – 10 minutes early to a meeting is 5 minutes too late type mentality. I put off reading this book because I thought it was a bunch of crock.
And I was wrong.
This book really opened my eyes to a global economy. I always read these types of books with a keen eye just because of the situation the author is in usually cannot be applied to a majority of the world. And this is the case with Tim Ferris for the most part. However, this book can be applied by everyone. From business owners to averages joes, this books shows you how to free up your own time. And when it comes down to it, time is what we want in life.
I can see how an average joe can pick up this book and think it doesn’t apply to him. When I first read this book, I thought it didn’t apply to me at all either. But the more I looked around my life, the more I found little things I hated to do, that I could outsource for very little money and free up a ton of time.
Example 1: School. My time in school effects my education. I loved to learn, and sometimes, school doesn’t allow me to do that. Yes, I have learned quite a bit from my formal education, but I learn more in life. So, when I have a big research paper due at the end of a semester, I have two options: I can spend hours and hours of my time researching the topic at hand. Or I can spend $10 and outsource all the research. $10, or probably about 10 hrs of my time. I chose $10. I found an research person on Odesk, told them exactly what I needed using the parameters that Ferris shows in his book. The next morning I woke up to 10 pages of research on the topic at hand, weeks before the paper is actually due. I took the data, wrote the report, and saved a ton of time.
Example 2: Job. At a previous job, my boss gave me a very time consuming task to run a bunch of reports and create a spreadsheet based on the reports. I had no drive to do it. Again, turning to Odesk, I found someone good with data. At 10p I send them the reports (no personal data of course!) and what I needed. I woke up to an email my report is waiting. It was better than anything I could have ever imagined.
But I can’t do that! I would get fired! And isn’t that cheating at school?
Let’s say your boss comes to you because you posted on facebook that you outsourced work. First, why would you do that? Your boss really would never find out. If they did, why would they be mad? You just saved time wasting. You could have sat on the clock for hours finishing something up, instead you saved time and money. Isn’t that what businesses what to do? And for school, I did not have the person write my paper for me. I wrote it. I just had them centralize information that I would have spent more time trying to find on my own. Again, saving time and money.
This book isn’t about really working 4 hour weeks, although we would love to do that. It is about hacking your life. Automating aspects of your life and business to enable you to get what you want.
The 4 Hour Work Week is a great read – as are all of Ferris’ books.
Book Rating: 8/10 Highly recommended
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