I was anxious to read The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss. I had picked it up while waiting in line at my local Kinkos because something on the dust jacket caught my attention. I thought it would be kind of a "Getting Things Done" for the Internet Marketing set and once I got the book home, I couldn't wait to read it. Anticipation, unfortunately, turned into disappointment and eye-rolling.
Let's get the disclaimer out of the way: doing even a cursory search of Timothy Ferris reveals there is a lot of skepticism about his claims in both his accomplishments (champion cage fighter, Guinness Book record holder in Tango, etc.) and his lifestyle. Having said that, I'm not one to throw out the baby with the bathwater. So I was willing to give this author the benefit of the doubt and I approached the book with an open mind. But that was only going to get him so far.
Introduction
For those of you who haven't heard of this book, it’s a guide to "escaping the 9-5 life, living anywhere and joining the newly rich." And even though the title says "The 4-Hour Workweek," I was hoping it meant something different. I'm not one of those people who hate their job. I'm the kind of guy that gets antsy to do something productive on the second day of a three-day trip to Cabo. I have no idea what I would do with myself if I ever retired or only worked 4 hours a week.
I do want to say the book as a whole does have some value. For instance, in the best chapter of the book, titled "Outsourcing Life," he says essentially this: "Never do a task yourself that you can delegate. Never delegate a task that you can automate. And never automate a task that you can eliminate all together." You can read volumes of management and business books, and you'd be hard-pressed to find more concise and complete advice on streamlining a business. At the end of each chapter there are also little exercises you can do to get out of your comfort zone. And even though I never do them, I like it when books have these (actionable content is good content).
And for us internet types, there is also a nice little chapter on testing out different business ideas by investing a small amount in Adwords and analyzing the results. But it is probably below the scope of what most of us do on a daily basis. I also like his whole premise of taking "mini-retirements" - a fancy word for extended vacations or sabbaticals. (Ferriss tends to invent new names or monikers for things that already have perfectly good names. I think there might be an SEO strategy in this - but that will have to be a different YOUmoz post.)
So, now let’s talk about what is wrong with the book.
1) Don't sell people on what you haven't sold
Ferriss apparently made his fortunes by selling muscle and brain supplements (ingestibles) via mail order. He uses an assortment of virtual assistants and drop shippers to handle all of this and supposedly checks his e-mail only once a week. Everything runs as smoothly as possible and he's living the life of the newly rich (wealthy beyond measure, mobile lifestyle, and a portable/passive income). This is all fine and good and certainly something worth striving for.
So, what advice would he give if you were to ask him what kind of business you should go into? Informational products. We all know this euphemism as e-books. I’m not opposed to e-products as a group. I think the right kind - professionally done - can be a real value.
But to me this is like asking some guy who has made millions in the stock market where you should invest your money, and he tells you to go put all your money in real estate. There are too many differences between the two for anyone to think one is exchangeable with the other. In the case of ingestibles versus e-books, one is a recurring consumable (if it works) and the other is something someone buys one time only (whether it works or not), so the revenue model and customer acquisition costs will be different. (Unless he goes the SEOmoz route with subscription based premium content – but Ferriss doesn’t touch on this.)
Oh, and where does he suggest you get the content for this e-book? “Repurpose content that is in the public domain and not subject to copyright protection, such as government documents or material that predates modern copyright law.” How is THAT for a value added service?
2) How NOT to become an expert
On what amounts to not even two full pages of the book, Ferriss prescribes “How to Become a Top Expert in 4 Weeks.” His advice is basically this: join 2 or 3 related trade organizations, read the 3 top-selling books in your chosen field, give one or two free seminars at a local college or Fortune 500 company, offer to write free articles for a trade journal and get yourself on Profnet (a meeting place for journalists and experts). You’ll need this expertise of course to sell the “informational products” that he suggests you sell, and to me it is exactly this kind of quick and dirty mentality that breeds so many snake-oil salesmen on and off the internet.
To me, if you want to be an expert, you need a little bit more. Like maybe some demonstrable results where you’ve actually done or improved something for somebody. But that’s just me.
3) Selective ignorance is still ignorance
There is a very brief chapter in the beginning of the book where Ferris explains how he has so much free time: he pays attention to nothing. He doesn’t keep up on the news, politics, gossip, and only a little bit of industry happenings (two magazines a month max read for only a total of one hour). He claims to only read e-mail for one day a week for one hour exactly. And how does he compensate for all this? He talks to his friends and relatives a lot. For instance, when the elections roll around, who will he vote for? He’ll ask some of his more informed friends who they are voting for and why.
I’m all for a low-information diet, as he calls it. I think all of us could follow Rand’s lead and trim the fat from our RSS readers and Internet bookmarks, but there’s a low-information diet and there’s information anorexia. Ferris is clearly in the latter category, and I’m not sure you can claim to be an expert without being tapped in to your various spheres of influence and the information they provide.
4) Where is the SEO?
His whole book is built around the premise that you are going to drive traffic to a website, sell a product, and make lots of money. He even shows a diagram of how traffic is driven to your website by online and offline advertising – but he doesn’t once mention search engines or optimization thereof.
Maybe he should add one or two more information sources to his low-information diet.
The Takeway
My advice is two-fold:
One, if you're after this kind of lifestyle, your time is better spent reading pretty much anything on Tropical SEO (for some real motivation, I like to glance at his Class of 2006 post).
Two, if you're talking to a prospective client and they have this book on their desk, you now know they'll be in need of some good SEO advice.
Other YOUmoz stuff you should read:
A Brief History of SEO - Feedthebot uses Bill the Cat to bring us all up to date.
5 Ideas to Kick-Start Your Marketing Ideas... or Anything Else - Identity gives a good primer on thinking out of the box.
This must be kismet because just this morning I sat in a meeting where management was challenging the staff to embrace a four hour workday philosophy. As marketing/sales reps many of us became challenged to the point of discomfort. Questions of what to dismiss, and what to keep showed on the foreheads of each team member.
Management never revealed the entire concept behind the four hour work day, only that if we embraced it or attempted to embrace it, the theory is our financial benchmarks would increase and we would be a more productive lot.
I had to smile at your comment, "He uses an assortment of virtual assistants and drop shippers to handle all of this and supposedly checks his e-mail only once a week. Everything runs as smoothly as possible and he's living the life of the newly rich (wealthy beyond measure, mobile lifestyle, and a portable/passive income). This is all fine and good and certainly something worth striving for. "
The reason I smiled, is the author sounds like an MLM guru that made his riches off the backs of other camels. However, Ferris has accomplished what he set out to do, create enough buzz among management and onlline professionals to generate curiosity to stimulate a purchase of his book.
One thing for sure, he knows how to market a product, whether we agree with his methods or not.
It is not about the profit man and how to sell a book (4HW), it is about a lifestyle. Tim was with enough money before to write the book. I am agree he is hungry for celebrity and fascinated by rating audience, but I don't care what he do in his personal life, and this is my advise to you - take what is good, what you need from the book and move on.
It is hard to argue with some of the points you bring up -- these kind of books are light fare. The content, as you describe it, is mostly ambient knowledge that most insiders are unimpressed by and newbies don't recognize as off the mark.
But I disagree about your point on selective ignorance. There are essentially two kinds of information: "Things I need to know now" and "Things I don't need until later."
I consume information voraciously because the pursuit makes me happy on some level, but that doesn't mean that it is necessary. If you know who to talk to, or what to read, when "Things I need to know" happens you still have the information. In truth it saves time. Three months from now when you need a piece of information that you read in a blog this week you are going to reread it.
I think it is important to keep your mind open to different strategies for accomplishing your tasks. Experimenting is what much of search is about, bring that mentality to other aspects of your work and you may find a better path to success.
I accept that I may have been a bit harsh on his selective ignorance strategy.
I think one thing to keep in mind is that you never know where your next big idea is going to come from and that it could come from a source of information you likely would eliminate if forced to.
I also know - as far as I am concerned - that I like to have a long gradual learning curve instead of an abrupt steep climb. So if I know there are things I don't need until later - I'm likely to start getting my feet in those areas right now.
That way, I can at least know enough to know what I don't know.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wX3eJRwJqlc
Wow, there are people like this all over eBay, selling their "public domain" e-books - just in case people really want a PDF of The Pilgrim's Progress - hoping to strike it rich and do just a little work for a lot of money. The chances of success are almost nil.
Although I am a total testament to the fact that a very good living can be made selling e-products, I work a heck of a lot more than four hours a week.
I always come away wondering if people like this sense the irony in the fact that they are promoting e-books as a source of income, when their own primary source of income is probably real books about e-books.
I hear what you're saying (and I had a similar uneasiness with much of the book and I didn't like many of his goals - I have different ones at this stage in my life / career).
Having said that, I enjoyed much of the book - and the quote about delegation / automation is worth the cover price, in my opinion.
My personal experience was that the bits I liked, coupled with his obvious talent for personal branding and marketing made for an inspiring read, even if I didn't want to take (almost any) of his advice literally.
I haven't created an 'information product' from existing information, I haven't hired an overseas pa, etc. but I am trying to learn some lessons in moderation.
While I suspect he may not know a lot about technical SEO, he is clearly a very good marketer...
Yes, while I too don't have the same goals the author does, and I disagreed with many things in the book, I think there's certainly some things we can learn from him in terms of marketing. He's never written a book before, and now he writes this one and it's a huge seller.
I'm all for achieving work / play balance in life and delegating tasks to the lowest common denominator, however if anyone really believes that you can work for a bit to put some information products together and then sit on your laurels and collect the dough - please pass what you're smoking this way - because that's some good stuff!
What is most amazing is that taking a quick glance at these recommendations, you will see there are some very noteworthy authors and business people putting a positive spin on this garbage. I'll never cease to be amazed, however this also speaks to something Rand said in his recent Wikipedia post about people simply accepting things.
The fact that this book is a bestseller is a testament to that. The irony is that although I can believe this guy put about 4 hours into whipping this thing together, he probably put about 60-70 hours a week into marketing it on the circuit.
Ok that's the negative.
On the positive side, I am more excited than ever about the release of my upcoming book:
"12 Nanoseconds To Rock Hard Abs", where I discuss how you can eat fast food, drink lots of beer, watch tv and still have the six pack of your girlfriend's (or boyfriend's) dreams! (Of course, you'll need to find 12 billionths of a second per week to work the routine). :)
Hehe. Thats interesting. I am particularly interested in that 12 nanoseconds. :P
Vingold, nice dissection, o the Myth...
Wish it did exist, I am doing 24/7 and dreaming it to boot.
I read T4HW and designed a bussiness in 3 days using his metodology. 18 months later i got a valuation for 240 million USD. Best book ever.
Also worth saying, invested only like 1,500 USD, 95% automatic (my job is practically taking my money from PayPal to my bank account), operating in 19 countries since the first month.
I am agree with you Frese, if you apply the book in a bad way it is not Tim fault, and not mean the theory is wrong. The author of the article here just read in a superficial way the book, like many other. I am not rich but can live in a confortable style everywhere after 4HW, with all the problems. For example I was in Portugal when some thiefs visit my deposit, and I was forced to come back in my origin country to take everything from almost zero. We can't learn every lesson for free. But it is ok now I am in Cyprus as a turist and after that Ghana next month :). We must learn from our mistakes and with little luck the result will be good.
This article is exceptionally well written. Very well don.
I have read the book and had an uneasy feeling for about 90% of it. To me, it just felt too much like it was targeted towards folks to which get-rich-quick schemes and "make money in your sleep!" type offerings appeal.
For the vast majority of the population, this simply doesn't work (as you noted, most endeavors require that you actually create value). For most of the rest, they don't really need this kind of advice.
Let's assume you spend four hours working per week. Let's also assume you dedicate the entire four hours to writing and editing. How long does it take you to complete a book?
I see Sean's guess as based on the quality - 1 week. :)I've actually worked on editing/publishing and know a couple people who have authored books, and unless he outsourced his book too, working 4 hours/week would have taken him a heck of a long time to finish.
I guess there are a lot of these types of books floating around out there, and why not? Isn't it most people's dream to leave their 9-5 and sit under palm trees in a hammock all day, just like on the cover? Selling a book, or selling a dream? What can I say... I suppose bathrooms need books too.
Bingo!
My wife just spent approximately 100 hours working on the flipping index for her book. It was a complex academic tome (help!) but still!
I spend four hours a week just staying organized enough to get the rest of week done in 60 hours. :-0)
-OT
"I spend four hours a week just staying organized enough
to get the rest of week done in 60 hours. :-0)"
Amen to that. Sunday afternoons at Chez Vin is all about planning out the upcoming week. Sending out faxes, e-mail and regular mail - making sure everyone knows the game plan. Without it - nothing would get done.
Yikes. Anyone with the intelligence, drive and enthusiasm needed to create wealth working a four hour week would rather quickly realise working Monday to Friday, and quite probably evenings and weekends as well. I probably wouldn't sleep at all.
It was the title which made me more interested to read the post. Though there can be some controversies on the critics given, still enjoyed it.
Nice work Vingold.
Well man, I read a thousand of books in my life, most of them good stuff, and I finish two universities, psychology and philosophy, but I NEVER read a book like Tim 4HW, sorry. Your words against the book are incredible weak. You criticize the less important things. There are some bad aspects in the book. For example the biggest mistake is “you can do everything you want with your new free time.but....you must travel”. A logical mistake. To understand “lifestyle design” like something with necessary expeditions travel don't have sense. And the real problem is Tim life now, he doesn't seem to learn the conclusions of his only good book. For me was gold mine 4HW and in the last 6 years my life was changed completely. I manage from everywhere my small business (in Romania), and can say with my all mouth at least 60% of my hapiness is because of this guy, Tim. I am surprised how someone could believe about the first idea of the book is to work exactly 4 hour. I work more than that, so? Don't read litteraly the text people, adapt it into your life, use your brain to modify. With all his mistakes, it is the best book ever, if you know how to apply what is necessary. I travel a lot, met a great girl partner, have anough money to live how I want and a lot of places are beyound my imagination. With all my efforts I was never able to see what I learn from him, his brain was more useful than my own hands. TNX Tim.
I do realize this is an old topic, but have to say that this post just saved me the purchase of the book.
I recently went to a one day training where this was mentioned and I thought, well, why not, just look at the book and see what exactly it was all about. Then before buying the book I stumbled upon this review and it confirmed all that I was worried about. So - thank you, I am totally on the same page as you are with this.
Like a lot of books, they assume that u money when you start, without SEO or Viral marketing you can´t succeed on internet, at least not today.
There are a lot of people looking what is the best topic to get in is, the most easy, the most profitable. If you really want to work only 4-hour then you need to know that you can´t work that little and be successful.
I hope this book becomes available as a bundle deal with the Kindle. Then I can really waste some money.
Ahhhh...
That's the relieved sound coming from someone who can now take at least one book off of the "list of books I should probably read soon." I had my doubts about Ferriss anyway.
If you want to base a business on "informational products," my gut instinct says "Go directly to Brian Clark's Teaching Sells program, do not pass go, do not collect $200." But I haven't fully explored that one either.
Oh, and where does he suggest you get the content for this e-book? “Repurpose content that is in the public domain and not subject to copyright protection, such as government documents or material that predates modern copyright law
Somewhere, my high school creative writing teacher is spinning in her grave like a powerdrill headed straight to Mordor.
Yeah Kat, don;t read the book because Vingold believe it is a bad one :)
I agree that the best elements of the book center around outsourcing and automation. And for that I think the book is worth reading. However, the advice provided for employees to follow to gradually reduce the time they spend working is unrealistic. Anyone in a management role or involved with work that requires interaction with people is not going to be able to work from home 100% of the time while not actually being available 100% of the time.
You know, I didn't even mention that part about the employees, but I was thinking about it.
My whole problem with the plan he outlines about deceptively going about convincing your boss that you should be able to work from home - is that he put into a book. Any manager with their salt should at least be up on the books their employees are probably reading. And this was a best seller.
Chances are as soon as an employee started the whole "I'd like to work from home because of this somewhat fake issue" is that a boss would come back and say "yeah, I read the same book so the answer's no".
I read this book and honestly, I agree that outsourcing and automation are good ideas, but reducing work time will never bring money. First the system needs to be build: means working more and not less. And then when outsourcing brings money, reducing work time makes sense.
Marios, when the book said to work from home that's not mean to never visit the office again . How it is posible to understand "100% at home" and "0% at office"? So dissapointing, read the book again, think and adapt what you read.
The idea of living in another country with a depressed economy while making American dollars is valid in theory, but very difficult in reality. Ferris skimps on the details. I lived in Central America for a year while my American business was run by a friend. The result? Disaster. When I got back from my glorious excursion, all the money was gone. You just can't run a business by ignoring it and hoping all will be well.