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| Author: Timothy Ferriss
Publisher: Crown
Category: Book
List Price: $19.95
Buy New: $13.57
You Save: $6.38 (32%)
Rating:  791 reviews
Sales Rank: 163
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 320
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 8.2 x 5.7 x 1.2
ISBN: 0307353133
Dewey Decimal Number: 650.1
EAN: 9780307353139
Publication Date: April 24, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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| Customer Reviews:
 Had potential, but he went too far... June 21, 2007
46 out of 56 found this review helpful
The first 100 pages (as others here have said) is a good story and has some good ideas on living for the day. Beyond that, it's a get rich quick scam that may work for someone like Tim (young, energetic, intelligent, no ties, etc.) but for the vast majority of it, does not work.
He started to lose me when he said that he will travel the world with no cell phone so nobody can reach him (even in emergencies) and therefore emergencies avoid him. Must be nice to live in that world.
It's a good read, and interesting, but the plan won't work for 95% of people.
 Get "old rich" writing a book about the "New Rich"! June 27, 2007
42 out of 43 found this review helpful
Ultimately I enjoyed the first half of Timothy Ferriss' book The 4-Hour Work Week. It challenged me to evaluate my perspective on the cost and availability of my own dreams. However I couldn't help getting the self-promotion stomach pangs while I read it. Hopefully you'll be able to look past that and enjoy the book for what it is: a challenge to the way we as Americans think of retirement and money.
The first 70 to 90 pages of the book are extremely engaging and well worth the price of the book. After that the book turns into a "lifestyle-for-dummies" book on setting up a shell company to sell someone else's products. Although I find it noble that Ferriss is attempting to give people pragmatic steps for implementing his "New Rich" lifestyle, I also find his suggestions impractical for two reasons:
*His business ideas rely on tiny, niche audiences. This works well unless his book becomes a best seller and many people decide they want to do the same thing (can you say, We Buy Ugly Houses?). Anyone who figures out how to make 5 or 10 times their money on a product that they exert little effort to produce will quickly find competition popping out of the woodwork.
*His business ideas are not sustainable. They rely on marketing strategies and promotions that have to work forever without any change to profitability or response rates, in order to maintain the "4-hour work week" lifestyle. In my experience the market is fickle and changes frequently, especially as it relates to the internet and online marketing.
I can't help but think that the entire "New Rich" concept is a branding ploy to roll out a series of self-help seminars. Let's hope not. If it does, it will distort the message of the book, for it would require that Ferriss trade in his "New Rich" lifestyle to be back in the rat race on a quest for the millions that he claims are not necessary to achieve one's dreams.
Perhaps that's the real lesson to be learned from the book: no matter where you are, the grass always seems greener on the other side.
Jeremy Ames, Executive Editor
 Is it morally right to use deceptive tactics? August 18, 2007
41 out of 50 found this review helpful
I was skeptical about this book right from the start when he talked about how he won the kickboxing championship by using deceptive tactics of weighing in at a lesser weight using dehydration methods and then pushing his opponent off of the platform. He also tells people who have jobs to outsource their work to India or somewhere which while makes sense financially - the company hired people to do their work otherwise they would have outsourced it in the beginning.
Most of his ideas follow suit but he does have a few good points.
1. Find what you are passionate about - what excites you and do it.
2. Who ever created the 8 hour day? How did they know that everyone - everyjob- would require 8 hours?
3. Create an automated business online and sell someone else's products or ebooks.
4. Remote work
I can see his point about outsourcing to India but isn't that just another form of slavery but now we are just keeping our slaves in another country?
The thing is that he has a business that makes him $70,000 a month - you would think he wouldn't have to work at all and could hire people to do it all and he could afford to travel in style but he doesn't seem to think that is enough to live on.
 Brilliant & fun book about being financially independent May 8, 2007
38 out of 48 found this review helpful
This is a brilliant and fun book that I highly recommend.
He advocates many of the same theories as Alexandria Brown and Dan Kennedy -- being an entrepreneur, not trading time for dollars, outsourcing, protecting your time/access, leverage -- but adds that with a new idea of true independence to location and mini-retirements. The premise is to set up your business to such that you can answer your email 1x week, never check your voicemail, outsource almost everything, and live abroad 6 months at a time. And, instead of working like a dog for 30 years so you can retire "someday" - take mini-retirements now.
I do have to disclose that Timothy is a bit of a 29-year old bachelor punk, but I find him very entertaining (similar to Dan Kennedy old crotchety man-ness). :)
Some of his more entertaining tips include forcing yourself to be okay with being uncomfortable by placing calls to celebrities, making eye contact with everyone you meet for 2 days, and laying down on the floor in the middle of Starbucks for 10 seconds.
Some great advice I have already put to use:
-Only check email 2x a day, at noon and 4 pm. Wow, how efficient I become when I keep my mail program closed. And, my business has not yet exploded.
-Stop work at 4 pm. I am spending 4-5 pm in an activity that I would do if I was financially independent. Not sure what those activities are yet -- so far I have spent the time shopping, at happy hour, and reading a book in the park.
-Act as if you could only work 2 hrs a day. Now I am spending the first 2 hours doing the most important work for the day, instead of spending it on email. As such, I am able to get my work for the day done by mid afternoon, if not earlier -- since I do the most important work first.
And re the outsourcing ... if you are a socialist, you may not like this book. If you think that outsourcing takes advantage of people, or if you think unions are great, you may not like this book. This book is for smart, independent, capitalist-minded people, especially those who want to change their life and outsource their business to people who want to work for them (whether they are located in the U.S or overseas).
 Easier Said Than Done June 20, 2007
38 out of 45 found this review helpful
But....it can be done: by a minute percentage of the population. But it can be done.
It seems this book recognizes symptoms of contemporary American life. Are the remedies in this book applicable to most of those that experience these societal and socially engineered symptoms? The "4-Hour Workweek" by Timothy Ferriss seems targeted to the millions of masses living in suburban sub-divisions, with 40+ hour workweeks + commute. Mortgages, insurance premiums, taxes, 10 days of allotted vacation time that most don't even take, high per capita debt ratios (consumer debt), mandatory licensing fees, regulations, rapidly rising medical, pharmaceutical, and education costs, etc. Ouch. The Average American worker is more productive today than in past decades. So why continue the two-week holidays? There's a false sense of choice held by many. There are many "Freedom Is Not Free" yellow bumper stickers on many cars today that are financed by car loans. :)
Sure, a lot of people want to, and can buy, this book - but few can actually make the changes prescribed in it. Again, it can be done. I don't believe in self-fulfilling prophecies. I also don't believe in waiting until I'm old until I start doing the things I want to do and enjoy, before health and medical issues creep up.
Millions that fit the above criteria are content with life statistically, but in their work-lives, unfulfilled. I also found the book's cover with the hammock between two palm trees quite cute. Reminds me of many other contemporary book covers on this topic. A glimmer of hope for Wage Slaves.
There are many books on the market today that are similar to this piece by Tim Ferriss. Some are more realistic than others. And similar to The 4HWW, most of these books make generalities, but lack the nuts-and-bolts. They're books about equity investment, Real Estate Investment (REI), entrepreneurship, Time Management, and Kiyosaki-like stuff. Here Ferriss advocates getting automatic cash flow (residual income). This can all be one in 1 or 2 weeks, he claims....Hmm....How to get cheap airline tickets, and create an Infomercial. the author also states getting financially secure does not need to involve "working for it." Not my style. However, I did agree with the concept of absolute vs. relative income and taking more frequent mini-retirements throughout life. The Information holiday is a keen idea. In general, I'm a firm believer in the Pareto Principle.
MOST FOLKS:
Most don't want to change their lifestyles that much. People like stability, routine, and security. There are obstacles for the likelihood of the 4 hour workweek: the size of the American family has decreased but the size of housing (square feet) has increased dramatically. There is a cost in keeping up with the Joneses. It's called debt. More working hours are needed to finance it.
This book is not targeted to those who don't want to change nor those who want to change but cannot, but it IS targeted for those who actually a) want to and b) can change. The latter will prove most elusive. The high-majority people that qualify for the 4-hour workweek anywhere in the world, started planning this lifestyle when they were very young. The are doing it now. Most of them were and are entrepreneurs, operating and/or selling their small, medium, or large businesses, receiving lucrative stock options in the 90s, or were and are prescient enough to get into Single Family Housing Real Estate ownership for the appreciation and the positive cash flow from the rentals. These folks, are the "new rich" the author is telling you to "join." And it's a club you can get into if you focus on it, work smart, and stay determined. It is a small club, however.
The people that are employees that are near or at middle age (let's say near 30), have many anchors. Financial and familial obligations and circumstances have secured them to their current situations. I did not say "trapped." Just anchored. To make the change to the 4-HWW, they'd have to give a lot up, and take a chance on the new things being successfully realized. There are stakes involved. Yes, people need to take risks, but there are consequences.
There are details in this but more details would have been helpful.
This book can give a glimmer of hope, to those that need or want it.
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