I finally read The 4-Hour Workweek. Here’s what I think.

When it comes to business books, I’m like the anorexic girl at the five star restaurant. Always order, never eat. Push the food around on my plate.

My shelves are lined with interesting books, but I only ever read a small subset of fiction (usually urban fantasy or sci-fi). I told myself I would not buy any more business books, because I never read them, and because I already went to an expensive business school that assigned those classic HBR essays where 90% of the material from most business books are derived. At this point, if I want to learn more about business, my time would be better spent studying philosophy.

So the 4-Hour Workweek has been out forever, and it’s not like I hadn’t heard of it until now. My former boss Penelope knows the author, Tim Ferriss, and wrote a scathing blog post about him that has received over 600 comments to date. On the flip side, several of my co-founders and closest online friends at Untemplater (a lifestyle design blog for young people) are those I-will-buy-anything-that-Tim-Ferriss-recommends-because-he-is-Tim-Ferriss kind of raving fans. They talk about him a lot. And I don’t think they are crazy, but they do seem crazy about his work, and they might be onto something.

So I knew Tim Ferriss was smart and I knew the book was an NYT bestseller. It still wasn’t enough. It was only this past week that I saw Tim Ferriss somewhere online and noticed: “Hey… he’s really, really cute. (!)” It hit me out of nowhere. And I realized, it is so rare to find smart, world-changing writers who are also attractive. So I broke my rule and bought his book to learn more.

Wait a second! You bought a business book because you thought the author was cute?! Two points:

• For those who disagree with my assessment, watch this video. At some point in the last year, Tim went from being a semi-goof ball who wore webbed-toe shoes and hung out of trees in the city, to a bearded GQ-styled Chinese-speaking cross between James Bond and Brad Pitt. (Note: The former is kind of cute too, but it’s a more subtle cute that didn’t stand out to me at first.)
• For those who think it’s shallow of me to buy a book because the author is good-looking… I have already stated that Tim is really smart. The attractiveness was the tipping point to actually purchasing the book, not the main reason. Also, I get a comment at least once a post pairing physical attractiveness and smartness. Like this one: “Good information. You’re also gorgeous by the way. Its always fun to read smart posts by a pretty woman.” and this one: “Monica, you’re cute and you’re smart and you didn’t seem to be full of propaganda. And now this. Please.” We are all guilty.

The Best of The 4-Hour Workweek

The overall concept of The 4-Hour Workweek has nothing to do with four hours. The main idea is that you can work much less if you minimize distractions and focus on the 20% of things that create 80% of results. Both the workplace and the school system in the US are built on the archaic culture shifts of the Industrial Revolution; The 4-Hour Workweek is an anthem to circumvent the ineffectiveness of these systems while still negotiating in a world that clings to them.

I don’t want to summarize the book, so I’m going to share a few of the lessons that resonated with me most:

1. “Don’t show dedication, demonstrate results.” Dedication is showing up from 9-5, working longer hours, and wearing the “workaholic” badge. This doesn’t necessarily produce results; in fact, it generally demonstrates a lack of focus and inability to get shit done. The New Rich (the tribe identifier in Tim’s book) just get important stuff done in the shortest amount of time possible.

2. You can accomplish a lot with credibility, and credibility is viral. There are four easy ways to develop credibility quickly:

• Group affiliations
• Client lists
• Writing credentials
• Media mentions

3. If you think you have a lot of work, you suck at two of the steps in the book – eliminating the unnecessary and automating the repetitive. There are three reasons you can’t get out from under your work:

• Time wasters
• Time consumers
• Empowerment failures

4. On creating and selling products:

• “Be a part of your target audience.”
• Don’t put your customers on a pedestal – simply “Provide an excellent product at an acceptable price that solves legitimate problems in the fastest manner possible.”
• Profile the top 20% of your customers and find more of them
• Put the other 80% of your customers on autopilot, and fire the ones who suck all your time
• Sometimes it’s better to choose your distribution strategy first

5. On going on a media diet (I already do this, big time – but I like that other people think I’m not crazy):

• Don’t check your email constantly (it’s other people’s tasks to be processed, not cocaine to be snorted)
• Don’t consume a ton of media (you can get by on headlines and lunch time conversation)
• Don’t watch a ton of TV (this is not from the book, but a friend recently told me that most people only consume nine channels. I personally watch three television shows via the internet and have completely cut my cable bill)
• Stop buying stuff (it weighs you down, and you are able to take more risks when you see how easy it is to live like a poor person)

6. Efficient vs. Effective – “Don’t confuse efficient with effective. The best door-to-door salesperson in the world can be incredibly efficient, yet nowhere near as effective as a bad spammer. Someone who checks email 30 times a day, has an elaborate system of organizing, might be incredibly efficient but not effective.”

There was so much more in the book that I didn’t include here because it wasn’t necessarily new to me. I am pretty happy though; as a fairly unconventional type, it takes a lot for me to get six somewhat life-changing points out of one book. I think it was worth it.

The Worst of The 4-Hour Workweek

Although I got a lot out of the book, it would be unfair to leave out a few things that almost kept me from finishing it. Mainly, there were a couple chapters that were really difficult for me to get through! The first is a chapter about outsourcing to virtual assistants in India. I’ve had a virtual assistant before and they can be great, but the tone of this chapter made me want to throw things. The only reason I didn’t is because there was a snippet of a particularly famous Esquire column (My Outsourced Life) from AJ Jacobs, who I’m a long-time fan of.

The second one that made me put the book down is a chapter about email processing. There is actually an entire chapter about just this topic. Tim suggests you set up an auto responder that tells people you do not constantly check your email and lists the times when you will respond. Completely unnecessary. Instead, check your email whenever you want and don’t waste other people’s time telling them when that is. You don’t need to tell people that they can call you in an emergency. If they needed a response in an hour and don’t receive one, they will call and ask if you got their email, to which you respond no. So much easier.

A final minor annoyance that people may want to be aware of is that the Kindle version of this book is hard to read. I think this is mostly the fault of the Kindle. But I covet the paper edition that’s floating around in my head (I’ve never actually seen it) where everything is laid out nicely in tables, with little tip boxes scattered throughout. Definitely buy the real thing if you want to read the book. It will save a headache.

How my life has changed so far

I’m amazed that I finished this book. I love Seth Godin, but I only made it to the second chapter of Meatball Sundae. Finishing a business book is a huge accomplishment for me – and actually, I can’t remember the last time I did it.

So far, I’ve implemented three things in two days from the book:

1. Fixed an empowerment failure – I realized that the reason I’m not moving along in a specific project is because I haven’t given the guy I hired enough autonomy. He has to write emails and wait for me to revise them and approve them before sending. I am terrible at doing this on a regular basis and have been a huge bottleneck. So I gave him his own email address and asked him to send emails on my behalf, saying whatever he wants to get the results we are going for.
2. Profiled my customers – I changed my complete marketing strategy for a product I’m working on based on initial feedback. Instead of redoing the product to market it to the people I already have relationships with, I figured out who really loved the product just as it is. I’m now going to find more of those customers (part of a fairly large market segment) and market the product to them instead.
3. Started eating a slow-carb diet - so this is not actually from the book. It’s from the blog, but I wouldn’t have explored the blog if it weren’t for reading the book. Also, the book convinced me that Tim is a strategist and obsessive tester, so I decided to try the diet he recommends to lose 20 pounds in 30 days. I don’t expect to lose 20 pounds, but if I lost 10 I would probably start reading the blog religiously. So this is also kind of a test – is this guy really so good at hacking life, and should I pay more attention?

Any one of these improvements is more than worth the $9 and the weekend worth of time I spent on this book. I would highly recommend this book for just about anyone – there are case studies throughout of people from all walks of life implementing the techniques.

Click here to get The 4-Hour Workweek

My last confession: I didn’t really want to write this post. I am afraid I’m becoming too much of a fan. If there’s anything I’ve learned from meeting interesting people online, it’s that when you put them on a pedestal it just gives them a longer way to fall. I remind myself that people are just people. And I test with my friend who has met Tim Ferriss: “I finally read Tim Ferriss’ book. He’s hot. And interesting.”

He replies, “Too bad you didn’t have this epiphany a month ago. You could have met him and gotten his book for free at SxSW.”

Later in the conversation, we are talking about the novel I am writing. He says, “Oh, I have a fiction book you’re going to love. It’s called Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman.”

“I love Neil Gaiman!” Pause. “Wait… isn’t that the book Tim recommended in his last video?”

“Yeah, that’s why I read it!”

Monica O'Brien is the author of the book Social Pollination: Escape the Hype of Social Media and Join the Companies Winning At It. Social Pollination provides a strategic blueprint that helps businesses leverage social media for crazy growth! For a limited time, purchase Social Pollination and get a free membership to Monica's private coaching forum.

© Monica for Social Pollination, 2010. |
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