REVIEW

Tim Ferriss' The Four-Hour Workweek: How to Escape 9–5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich

Tim Ferriss, author of the bestseller The Four-Hour Workweek: How to Escape 9–5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich (4HWW), majored in East Asian studies at Princeton University. Soon after graduation, he found his self-imposed cubicle lifestyle wasn’t giving him room enough to breathe, much less twirl. In June 2004, Ferriss was working 80 hours a week to build his company and found himself burning out. So he put three days of clothing into a backpack and bought a one-way ticket to London.

Meltdown Leads to Riches

Ferriss spent the next few months traversing Europe before landing in Argentina and enrolling for his first tango class. Ferriss told the Princeton Alumni News that he dropped from 225 pounds to a lean 146 during four months of intensive tango training, which led him and his dance partner all the way to the semi-finals of the 2005 Tango World Championship.

In 2006, Tim Ferriss and his dance partner tangoed onto the set of the TV’s show Live with Regis and Kelly and like an Argentine tornado, they performed 37 spins in one minute, breaking their their own record of 27 spins, set in 2005 during the Tango World Championship in Buenos Aires.

In a whirlwind two years, Ferriss transformed himself from a flabby, overworked founder of a nutritional-supplements company called BrainQuicken to the first American to hold a world record in tango. Tango changed not only his body, but his outlook on life and his relationship with his business.

Passport to Freedom

Ferriss’ manifesto, 4HWW captures the wisdom and quixotic joy Ferriss found when he traded his cubicle for the excitement-packed lifestyle of his dreams. Published last year, the book quickly became a best seller.

According to Ferriss, the New Rich (NR) Are those who abandon the traditional “deferred-life plan” that requires people to spend the first halves of their lives working so that they may have a shot at fulfilling their dreams in the second. “What is the pot of gold that justifies spending the best years of your life hoping for happiness in the last?” Ferris asks.

Ferriss urges people to shed the traditional expectations that wedge them into cubicles and create luxury lifestyles in the present using the currency of the new rich: time and mobility.

This process is an art and a science that Ferriss refers to as lifestyle design (LD), and in 4HWW, he provides a recipe for achieving it that revolves around the simple mnemonic: DEAL. Each letter represents a transcendent step to attaining personal freedom and financial wealth.

• Definition: Requires you to determine what you want, conquer fears, look past society's "expectations," and estimate the costs of your desires. This is about beating the game rather than playing the game and emphasizing your strengths instead of trying to change your weaknesses. Here, the pursuit of happiness is the pursuit of excitement.
• Elimination: This section begs readers to forget about time management and embrace the possibility that you can accomplish more by doing less. When you limit tasks and work time, you’re free to effectively focus on completing the most important tasks in less time, Ferriss says. More time economy comes, he adds, by eliminating time wasted by constantly checking email and using personal electronics, When you do this, you’ll defeat procrastination and be free to focus on the minority of tasks that bring the greatest results.
• Automation: Ferriss defines efficiency and encourages that it be abandoned and replaced with true effectiveness. In this section, he discusses how to maximize overall effectiveness by outsourcing low-end tasks. This can free up valuable time for entrepreneurs to build businesses that provide a sustainable, automatic sources of income. Using the right process models, and effective marketing practices, Ferriss insists that we can maximize income and best manage businesses through absence.
• Liberation: When you’ve successfully defined your desires, eliminated unnecessary tasks, automated and outsourced your life, Ferriss says that liberation will manifest itself in many ways and you’ll be ready to join the ranks of the NR.

How does this Apply to Real Estate Entrepreneurs?

4HWW currently being translated into more than a dozen languages and continues to top best seller lists. Why? Because Ferriss breaks through social and self-imposed obstacles to answering the most loaded question individuals face: What exactly is it that you want out of work and life, and why?

Ferriss’ style transcends the rational and irrational fears many folks have about breaking out of their cubicles and creating the life of their dreams. For others, he provides elegant and practical solutions for those who have escaped 9 - 5 confinement and are asking, “Now what?”

The Formula for Success

For real estate entrepreneurs, 4HWW nails the formula for maximizing effectiveness in your endeavors. Your business may be surviving, but is it thriving? Many of us escape the regular grind only to become totally submerged in busywork that keeps us from accomplishing the more important tasks that fuel our business growth.

Control Your Time, Don’t Manage it

In the new grind, we easily can loose sight of the true value of our time. This is because we’re too busy working in our businesses to work for our businesses. This debacle is the line in the sand that separates real estate investors from real estate entrepreneurs.

Don’t Innovate: Liberate

To really excel in this business, no true innovation is needed. When you automate and outsource your grunt work and use systems that have been proven effective, you’re well into the metamorphosis from which you will emerge a true estate entrepreneur.

For most of us in the real estate game, marketing easily can become a central vacuum system that swallows time and energy and rarely pays off. How can you effectively run your business when you’re struggling with lists, copy writing, mailings and postage? If this is not your strong point, it may be time to follow Ferriss’ advice: Emphasize your strengths by delegating your weaknesses.

When you’re using your strengths to build your business rather than being forced to focus on your weaknesses in mindless tasks such as marketing, your business, your income and your self esteem can reach new heights.

SUMMARY
Tim Ferriss, author of the bestseller The Four-Hour Workweek: How to Escape 9–5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich (4HWW) found that his self-imposed cubicle lifestyle wasn’t giving him room enough to breathe, much less twirl. He jumped ship to take up dance in Argentina and became a tango world record holder. When he realized that his business didn’t fail in his absence, he wrote 4HWW, which has become the entrepreneur’s manifesto. Ferriss urges people to shed the traditional expectations that wedge them into cubicles and create luxury lifestyles in the present that emphasize time and mobility. His process to attain happiness is an art and a science for which a formula based on four steps to achieving personal freedom and financial wealth.

Bet on your Strengths

When you’re using an effective marketing system, such as SalesTeamLive, you know it’s working because you’re receiving an abundance of calls from motivated and qualified sellers and buyers every day. And you’ve actually got the time to make the deals you know will take your business to the next level.

In 4HWW, Ferris successfully reminds us that time is short and we only have one chance to live the lifestyles we desire. His DEAL mnemonic provides us with the framework to transform our businesses and to embrace opportunity without fear or regret.