Serial Entrepreneur & Ultravagabond
Timothy Ferriss, author of the 4 Hour Work Week, is a self-described “serial entrepreneur and ultravagabond” who lives a lifestyle that most of us could only dream about — until now.
Ferriss presents a step-by-step guide to his free-wheeling lifestyle, allowing us to follow in his footsteps and realize lifelong dreams. Albert Pope, derivatives specialist at UBS World Headquarters, has called him “Indiana Jones for the digital age”.
This interesting book has been number one on three different best seller lists: Wall Street Journal, NY Times and BusinessWeek.
Replace Obsolete Assumptions
His basic premise is that we need to adopt the “Rules of the New Rich” and let them bring power and choice into our lives.
Entrepreneurs need to replace limiting assumptions and learn to enjoy life now. We should replace limiting assumptions that waste our time and force us to live in a particular location.
Freeing our time and increasing our mobility are pathways to the lifestyle of the New Rich (NR).
Rules of the New Rich
According to Ferris, the “Rules of the New Rich” include the following:
- Retirement is Worst-Case Scenario Insurance
- Interest and Energy are Cyclical
- Less is Not Laziness
- The Timing Is Never Right
- Ask for Forgiveness, Not Permission
- Emphasize Strengths, Don’t Fix Weaknesses
- Things in Excess Become the Opposite
- Money Alone is Not the Solution
- Relative Income is More Important than Absolute Income
- Distress is Bad, Eustress is Good
The 4HWW Model
His model provides us with a roadmap for realizing our own lifelong dreams. He shows us how to:
- Live like a millionaire
- Free time and automate income
- Outsource our lives to overseas virtual assistants for $5/hour
- Travel the world without quitting our jobs
- Eliminate 50% of our work in 48 hours
- Trade a long-haul career for short work bursts and mini-retirements
He uses the DEAL acronym to describe his model, where:
- D = Definition
- E = Elimination
- A = Automation
- L = Liberation
He encourages us to use “Dreamlining” to design our own luxurious lifestyles. Using principles of elimination, simplification and outsourcing are keys to creating our own lives among the New Rich (NR).
Ferriss’ 4 Hour Workweek model relies upon the Lifestyle Design (LD) process including both art and science. Automation is another key component of the Lifestyle Design (LD) process, i.e., building a system to replace ourselves as bottlenecks. But never automate something that could be eliminated, and never delegate something that could be automated or simplified.
Carpe Diem!
This book shows how to recognize and seize opportunities that others miss. Having choice; i.e., choice gives us real power in life.
Personally, I found this book very easy to read – and very compelling.
Ferriss has shown us that it is possible to realize our dreams – faster and cheaper than we ever thought we could. I plan to implement many of his ideas into my own life.
