The 4 Hour Workweek by Ferriss

Ref: Tim Ferriss (2009). The 4 Hour Workweek. Harmony Publishing.

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Summary­

  • Secrets and Shortcuts from CEOs, Psychologists, Personal Advisors, and experts on success with money, business, home, and dating.

  • The question you should be asking isn’t, “What do I want?” or “What are my goals?” but “What would excite me?”

  • To enjoy life, you don’t need fancy nonsense, but you do need to control your time and realize that most things just aren’t as serious as you make them out to be.

  • Options, the ability to choose, is real power.

  • “Someday” is a disease that will take your dreams to the grave with you.

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Dating/Relationships

  • Picking Up Women

    • It is easier to pick up the one perfect 10 in the bar than the five 8s. If you are insecure, guess what? The rest of the world is, too. Do not overestimate the competition and underestimate yourself. You are better than you think.

    • “Excuse me. I know this is going to sound strange, but if I don’t ask you now, I’ll be kicking myself for the rest of the day. I’m running to meet a friend [i.e., I have friends and am not a stalker], but I think you’re really [extremely, drop-dead] cute [gorgeous, hot]. Could I have your phone number? I’m not a psycho—I promise. You can give me a fake one if you’re not interested.”

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Relax

  • Distribute recovery periods and adventures (mini-retirements) throughout life on a regular basis and recognize that inactivity is not the goal. Doing that which excites you is.

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Taxes

  • Form 2555-EZ: Provides up to an $85,700 income exemption if you spend at least 330 days of a consecutive 365 days off U.S. soil.

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Startups

  • Creating demand is hard. Filling demand is much easier. Don’t create a product, then seek someone to sell it to. Find a market—define your customers—then find or develop a product for them.

  • The main benefit of your product should be explainable in one sentence or phrase.

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Misc Quotes

  • “Pareto’s Law” or the “Pareto Distribution,” in the last decade also popularly called the “80/20 Principle.” The mathematical formula he used to demonstrate a grossly uneven but predictable distribution of wealth in society—80% of the wealth and income was produced and possessed by 20% of the population.

  • Parkinson’s Law dictates that a task will swell in (perceived) importance and complexity in relation to the time allotted for its completion. Therefore, the end product of the shorter deadline is almost inevitably of equal or higher quality due to greater focus.

  • Train yourself to propose solutions instead of ask for them, to elicit desired responses instead of react, and to be assertive without burning bridges.

  • Don’t ever arrive at the office or in front of your computer without a clear list of priorities.

  • It is imperative that you learn to ignore or redirect all information and interruptions that are irrelevant, unimportant, or unactionable. Most are all three.

  • Just because something has been a lot of work or consumed a lot of time doesn’t make it productive or worthwhile.

  • It’s as easy as believing it can be done. It’s lonely at the top. Ninety-nine percent of people in the world are convinced they are incapable of achieving great things, so they aim for the mediocre. The level of competition is thus fiercest for “realistic” goals, paradoxically making them the most time and energy-consuming.

  • Time is wasted because there is so much time available.

  • Success can be measured in the number of uncomfortable conversations you’re willing to have.

  • Remember—boredom is the enemy, not some abstract “failure.”

  • ‘Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.’-Samuel Beckett.

  • Being able to quit things that don’t work is integral to being a winner.

  • What we fear doing most is usually what we most need to do.

  • Most people will choose unhappiness over uncertainty.

  • People are poor judges of importance and inflate minutiae to fill time and feel important.

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