Last month I finished listening to The 4-Hour Work Week on Audible.
This month I’m a different person.
It’s a real game changer.
The author, Timothy Ferriss, takes a sledge hammer to preconceived ideas about work and success – shattering them (I enjoyed the breaking noise). It didn’t take me long to start making notes.
Tim talks of the ‘New Rich‘ (NR) – people who escape the deferred life plan and make a fortune in the process through the art of ‘Lifestyle Design’ (LD). As an entrepreneur it’s always encouraging to soak up material like this, especially as just the thought of saving the best parts of my life until retirement genuinely scares the sh*t out of me. I first realised this fear a few years ago when a friends dad, who had worked relentlessly hard to retire at 60 and then travel the world with his wife, suddenly fell critically ill once he retired and died a year later. Although I didn’t know his dad, the tragedy hit me hard, mentally. I decided that banking on a deferred life plan was way more of a risk than trying to live and work on my own terms, right now. The 4-Hour Work Week showed me how to make more of running my own business.
I loved the first few chapters about Tim’s personal experience with work: running his own business, burning out and realising that there had to be a better way to work and live. I found his introduction to the idea of ‘lifestyle output’ really powerful, especially as I know a number of people who are on a significant salary but only get to live life on the weekend and even suffer from stress and anxiety.
Tim provides the stepping stones you need to realise your lifestyle dreams, whatever they may be and unlike many lifestyle books, packed with pseudo spiel and shiny cliches, The 4 Hour Work Week actually details what you need to do (with tangible actions) and lists the tools and resources to help you do it; it’s all actionable. This section is really inspiring.
Whilst I’m not planning to work a 4 hour week just yet, the principles I picked up in this audiobook made complete sense and have helped me to become more productive, more efficient and significantly more opportunistic. I’ve started using some of these principles to improve work processes at BrightByte Studio, delegate tasks accordingly and to empower employees to make decisions with confidence.
The 4-Hour Work Week helped me to realise that as a company director (working a lot more than I did at a 9-5), I need to stay focused on the bigger picture, make plans for growth and be less of a bottleneck for each and every internal decision. This ‘hands-off’ approach takes some courage but I can already feel the many benefits creeping in.
Tim pays homage to the Pareto Principle (the 80-20 rule) with explanations and examples that illuminate its strengths in away I haven’t come across before (I turned the page on my notepad to scribble more ideas). This made me re-evaluate our business strategy ahead of 2016 and I’m now more confident than ever for another record-breaking year.
Tim gives significant promise to the idea of outsourcing which, if I’m honest, was the least convincing section for me; although I’ve no doubt this can bring substantial time freedom when applied to certain businesses, something about it just doesn’t feel right to me (but hey, what do I know?).
The 4-Hour Work Week and its wisdom has already started to change my life for the better. Its really helped my mindset too because when you don’t ‘have’ to go to an office or answer the phone it’s easy to feel like a bit of a fraud to the working society; The 4-Hour Work Week reminds me that I’m not and that I’ve taken the steps in life that so many people strive for and dream of doing… but never will. It’s a reminder that I made the right choice.
I’ll leave you with an awesome quote and, who knows, maybe you’ll listen to the audiobook and use its teachings to change your life in a way you never dreamt possible. I say do it.
“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.” Timothy Ferriss – The 4-Hour Work Week