The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss

Who?

Read The 4-Hour Workweek if you are interested in productivity, efficiency, or entrepreneur.

When?

Don’t rush.

Why?

It’s a good book, but not everyone loves it.

Best Quote

For all of the most important things, the timing always sucks. Waiting for a good time to quit your job? The stars will never align and the traffic lights of life will never all be green at the same time. The universe doesn’t conspire against you, but it doesn’t go out of its way to line up the pins either. Conditions are never perfect. “Someday” is a disease that will take your dreams to the grave with you. Pro and con lists are just as bad. If it’s important to you and you want to do it “eventually,” just do it and correct course along the way.

Review

When I first read this book in 2010, I was very impressed. Some of The 4-Hour Workweek comes across like a get rich quick sales pitch from a young guy with far too much bravado. Once you get past that though, it’s easy to see that Tim Ferriss’ book is packed full of strategies and tactics that really can help you do a better job in your current position, make yourself more efficient, and help you to progress faster in a lot of different situations.

The most important aspect of the book is actually its structure:

1. Define – Define your objectives. What is important to you?
2. Eliminate – Eliminate distractions and inefficiencies.
3. Automate – Automate your cash flow byt building something that requires as little of you as possible.
4. Liberate – Liberate yourself from everything that you don’t want to be. Don’t want to work 9-5? Don’t. Don’t want to work in an office? Don’t. This is the step where you really start reaching your goals.

Last Word

Although I prefer audiobooks, I highly recommend that you get the paper or ebook version of the expanded and updated 4-Hour Workweek because this book is much easier to digest when you’re actually reading it, and the expanded and updated version has actual case studies from Tim Ferriss’ readers demonstrating the viability of his approach in many other circumstances.