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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: 166
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:
 some good ideas, but ... June 25, 2007
37 out of 47 found this review helpful
I agree that there are some good ideas here and as there are many, many positive reviews, I'll only point out my gripes to balance things a bit. One problem is that some people can not or do not want to be mobile all the time. Ferriss seems to believe this is the holy grail. Got dogs? Got kids? Not considered here.
Also, I object strongly to the idea that work in and of itself is time wasted. As a previous reviewer mentioned, Ferriss' premise is that people are stuck in boring white collar jobs that they hate. While that may be true for some, many people do work that they believe in, not just to pay the bills.
Further, there seems to be no mention of charity in any of his posts/blogs. I can't imagine being wealthy and only pursuing individual goals such as learning to tango or climbing Mt Fuji exclusively. That would be fun for awhile, but eventually I think that would be a rather empty existence ... I would certainly spend a good deal of my time doing charity work and trying to make the world a better place if I were wealthy and had a lot of time on my hands. But Farriss is young and his book seems to cater to the unattached, many of who are also young. He seems to be a bright fellow, so he may get it eventually.
In short, if you are short on inspiration, feel totally trapped by your job, or just want a few good tips to make your life at the office easier, then this is a good read. Perhaps the 30 hour work week would be a more reasonable goal for most though? The key point that life is short can be easy to forget of course. So enjoy life, but all things in moderation, yes?
clever title, nothing special July 3, 2007
37 out of 42 found this review helpful
This is one of those "new manifesto", "new paradigm" books where everything conventional is wrong. Written from a young and high performing author's point of view.
His ideal lifestyle is living rich, no attachments, travel, and outsource everything. Sounds good to me.
The main methods to accomplish this are to simplify things, reduce workweek to 4 hours, automate a side biz.
Simplifying is nothing new. His book doesn't follow that rule. A full 3/4ths of the book is pure filler. Points are dragged out in long email dialogs and embellished stories.
Reduce work week to 4 hours: not convinced. Supposedly you can outsource everything to India then keep the boss at bay by email and other technology. Meanwhile you "live anywhere" by using your laptop and only contact the boss when you need to show end results. I guess there's nothing wrong with dreaming.
The only real meat in the book is building your automated side biz. This is just building your website, testing it, and outsourcing all tasks. There are many books devoted to this subject, or free on the net.
Conclusion: there's no "New Rich". You have to build your side biz(es) and hopefully you can quite your job. The net is one way to go. Once you become wealthy enough or have everything on autopilot you can travel whenever you want. My advice: just read up on biz/net.
 Directions for Hiding from the Boss, Starting an Automated Internet Business, and Being a Global Vagabond September 10, 2007
35 out of 41 found this review helpful
Did you know that if the trends of the last two centuries hold, everyone's workweek will be four hours by 2407? What will people do with all that free time? It's a good question that this book recommends you consider.
Mr. Ferriss does a favor for those who hate their jobs but cannot find work they like by explaining how you can still draw a salary while working very few hours (by hiding from the boss and using the 80/20 rule -- 80 percent of results come from 20 percent of efforts). His method is deliberately manipulative (possibly fraudulent is another possible description that comes to mind), so you'll have to watch out that you don't get caught or you might have to repay some of that salary.
What do you do while you are hiding from the boss? Mr. Ferriss recommends starting a highly profitable online retail business that's so highly automated it can be operated in only four hours a week. You'll find details of how to do this that matches what I receive in lots of spam e-mails every week.
After you've got half a million a year rolling in by selling expensive items at a high profit margin, Mr. Ferriss provides lots of advice on how to take six-month miniretirements in cheap places around the world (Argentina and Berlin are his favorites). I'm still puzzled by why Berlin can be a cheap place to live. The rest of Germany when I've visited certainly isn't.
The book's come-on explains how Mr. Ferriss has accomplished all kinds of world-class things to boost his credibility. Unfortunately, you'll find that it isn't always classy how Mr. Ferriss does this. For example, he won the Gold Medal at the Chinese Kickboxing National Championships in 1999. He dehydrated himself more than the other competitors did the day before the competitions for the weigh in so that he could compete against men much smaller and lighter than he was, and he then simply used his quickly regained weight the next day to push competitors off the platform (three times off the platform and you are disqualified).
I find several problems with this book:
1. There's almost nothing original in it. You're just reading summaries that might have been written by a $5 an hour researcher in India. And much of what he draws on isn't acknowledged. For instance, he uses some of Dr. Stephen Covey's seven habits as chapter subtitles . . . but never references or credits Dr. Covey once in the book.
2. He provides so little information on each aspect of his ideas that I doubt that very many readers can really implement what he recommends.
3. There's no moral center to the book. Mr. Ferriss comes across as a con man in several ways.
4. He achieves a 4-hour workweek by simply skimming the cream of a business model that any one of two billion literate people can implement at some level. Are we to believe this business model will be highly profitable for the next several years? I doubt it.
5. I've met very few small business people who simply wanted to retail something on the Internet so they could work only four hours a week. Usually, small business people see their businesses and work as a creative activity that energizes them.
I do admire the book's title. It's a real grabber. It's too bad that there's not more substance to go with it.
If you want to learn how to make breakthroughs in personal and organizational productivity that allow you to live the life you want, there are better resources out there such as The E-Myth Manager by Michael E. Gerber, The Success Principles by Jack Canfield and Janet Switzer, How to Get Control of Your Time and Your Life by Alan Lakein, and Photoreading by Paul R. Scheele.
Join the New Rich by Old Means -- the Internet Salesman June 26, 2007
34 out of 40 found this review helpful
Do you really want to spend your work life flogging products like vitamin supplements aimed at the workout crowd and bodybuilders? That's apparently what the author did between his trips to exotic locales. He seems highly intelligent and articulate and I feel he could have contributed greatly to the improvement of the world with his Princeton education. But he became a kickboxing champ in Taiwan or someplace and sold tons of "stuff" online. Isn't there more to life than this? My 60-hour job looks pretty good from here because it is helping people move forward into alternate energy. I'm no worldbeater but it's better (to me) than selling sports supplements as the key to a successful life. I wanted to like this book, but found it disconcerting. Sorry.
 This book will change your life! May 7, 2007
30 out of 36 found this review helpful
This book is NOTHING LESS than incredible! If you want to change your life forever, then it is a must read. Buy it! I have purchased both the audio and print book (I first bought the audio book and was so impressed, I wanted the print version as a `workbook' to help work through the material.)
Why should I buy this book you ask? There are many reasons:
1.He provides a solution for taking back control of your life if you have the determination and drive to do so. It's that simple.
2.He illustrates a step by step plan for doing the above and provides a plethora of resources to use.
3.He doesn't just tell you (like many other books) that money will give you back control of your life. Instead he truthfully and accurately explains that it is your freedom, time and passions that fill you with life. As Tim says, "People don't want to be millionaires - they want to experience what they believe only millions can buy" (p.8). At the same time, for those interested, he provides ways and ideas to increase your financial resources by using more efficient methods - but the point is made clear that you don't need gross amounts of money to really enjoy the good things in life, including travel, nor do you have to wait until the golden years.
4.He gives you practical, useful tools for achieving what YOU want out of life; and these tools are immediately applicable. For example, how to go on the "Low-Information Diet" and eliminate unfocused, wasted time.
5.Much of what he teaches is applicable to your life in general, not just your career or financial future. From overcoming fear to focusing your efforts on truly important tasks, he provides REAL LIFE solutions. I love the way this guy thinks!
6.He reminds you to think with your OWN brain and not follow the crowd. To question everything and come up with your own answers and then test them to see what happens. That's what he did, so he practices what he preaches. Now granted, he's not the first person to do this, but he does it in a new way, one that caught my full attention and I think will catch yours too.
7.The proof is in the pudding (or in this case, in the kickboxing ring or on the dance floor). Tim IS and has proof that his methods work, if YOU work his methods. He provides case studies and examples.
Tim asks the question, "Why do it all in the first place? (i.e. work 9-5 or longer hours in the corporate world, save, wait, and then retire later in life when you are too old to really enjoy it). After examination and experimentation he concludes, "The commonsense rules of the `real world' are a fragile collection of socially reinforced illusions" (p.9). I happen to agree with him and have always dreamed of the lifestyle he shows how to live - not one where I'm just pursuing money to become a millionaire, but one where I have the freedom and resources to live a life of adventure and challenge WHILE I'm growing older - to travel, to do, to be what I want. I didn't know how to achieve this type of lifestyle. Tim shows you how. Thank you Tim, I've been searching for these answers for some time and now I'm going to seize the day!!!
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