I used to work many hours a week on my offline business, aware that this beautiful dream that had me so radiant was transformed into a prison, but unable to find a way to escape. Read The 4-Hour Workweek me both permits 1) FINALLY find solutions in order to escape from the prison that I had created, 2) Create in me a burning desire to escape from my condition and fully experience The 4-Hour Workweek and 3) reconciled me with the business books, as for some reason I did not saw also and did not read.
Since then I have automated much of my offline business, I created four muses in 2009, on which 2 are profitable and make me earn about 1,000 of income per month. It is little, but it is encouraging, particularly because they ask me something like one hour of work a week to take care of them;). I apply for more than one and a half media diet that saves me considerable time and avoids me to get influenced by pessimism and gloom of the media. And of course, I started reading business books (beginning with those recommended by Tim Ferris, like The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Do not Work and What To Do About It also put me a huge slap in the head), and I discovered the Personal MBA. And last but not least, I created the Act & Succeeding club whose success has been phenomenal.
In short I do not screw The 4-Hour Workweek, but I greatly reduced the time I spend to do the labor for work ', and I can assure you that it is only a matter of time' it will be for 2011 at the latest that I can fully live my dream: to travel and devote myself to writing.
For automated business are not a myth. My two museums are a prime example, even if they do not bring me enough to live decently, especially the video case studies published on the blog of Tim Ferris (24 case studies in total) show that possible. And that's not including the case studies given in the second edition of the book, and the hundreds of videos that can be found by searching for '4hww' on Youtube.
While the book is not without flaws. The first obstacle on which spoil readership is somewhat oversized ego of the author (which is also reflected in its presentation at TED), who likes a lot about him and his exploits to the point that I wonder if sometimes it does not add a little. But to stop this would refuse to taste the sublime cuisine of a 3-star chef on the pretext that it is a little too proud of his creation. We do not do harm to anyone except to ourselves by doing this, refusing to look at what we can bring this book under the pretext of the emotions aroused in us the ego of the author.
The second default, and it is the main in my opinion, is that Tim Ferris does not talk enough about the difficulty and time and energy to set up a museum. For a muse can require a lot of it before being completely automated. Admittedly, unlike a conventional business, once this time and energy spent, your muse will ask for the bare minimum of these two resources to continue to run, but underestimate the time the scalability of your muse and now where it will become profitable could lead you to turn away too soon, while the key is perseverance and determination, and once the first results arrive, the others follow very quickly.
Tim Ferris has nevertheless made an extraordinary tour de force that counterbalances this defect: it is the only book I know that arouses so many people burning and fierce desire to leave their condition to live their dreams. Of all those who read about me (and they are many;)) this book did not please everyone, but it leaves very rarely indifferent, and those that are usually hung permanently transformed, and can achieve radical changes in their lives, sometimes very quickly. For there is nothing like it to bypass obstacles and move mountains to have a burning desire to succeed in its goal, and Tim Ferris manages to create a motivation as I never saw in any another book. This may be enough to pass the difficult step which puts a lot of energy to few results, but better be well aware that we must hold on and not give to possess a muse who files every week from money to your account while you do what you like;).
Finally, the main criticism that I have read on the web Anglophone seems both justified and unfair: the fact that The 4-Hour Workweek is primarily a collection of superficial many tips, tricks and methods addressed in much more depth in other books. After reading and chronicled a good thirty pounds Personal MBA and many more outside, I can tell you that, indeed, many things mentioned in this book are superficially addressed as they are treated in much greater depth elsewhere (like the laws of Pareto and Parkinson's, Seneca and Stoicism, market research on the Internet, the art of making a sales page, how to use Adwords, how to travel in ultra-mobile, etc.).
It's true, and it is unfair to blame the Tim Ferris. Because to begin with, when I read this book for the first time, I knew absolutely nothing about this and the discovery of all these concepts explained so simply was a revelation for me. And thanks to the extremely catchy title that he found, I think a lot of people who did not know or knew little of these concepts have been led to read the book and I have taken as a slap in the head, while they of them would never even read books explaining these concepts in more depth, but in isolation and often with a title to push you a fright grimace at the prospect of trouble ahead.
But beyond the fact that it simply and concretely present all these concepts, the main interest of the book, and this is where it definitely brings something compared to all existing books, is that it puts all these concepts in relation with each other to offer a system that allows to break free from the obligation to work for a living in order to fully and finally live her dreams flourish. Tim Ferris has built-in a consistent and efficient system tips to know that a lifetime would be needed to understand fully, focusing only on what can be useful for you ACT, while blowing an extremely powerful motivation wind inflate your sails. The 4-Hour Workweek is from this point of view a truly remarkable work, which is an incredibly intelligent and practical application of the ideal of life Stoic applied to modern life and entrepreneurship.
At the level of ethics and the individualistic approach of this book, I find that a thorough reading allows us to see that Tim Ferris responds quite well to these questions, and in the end it will be up to you to set your own limits this level.
Like Will we Immortals? Even The 4-Hour Workweek is the essence of 'rare book and demanding to change their lives.' But unlike him, he is really not hard to read, but difficult to implement, especially because like all the books he asks that you put up for ACTIONS TO ACT. Act, act, act and act again: Here the only secret you need to arrive one day to apply The 4-Hour Workweek. Because, believe me, if it requires a lot of time and energy today, we live still in a blessed era when the Internet is a vast wasteland where everything remains to be done, and therefore it is probably much easier to start a muse now that this will be the case in 10 or 20 years.
And do not sink into denial as some do: having one or more fully automated and fully live muses The 4-Hour Workweek is quite possible, and reject this principle will not stop you from living it which could well be the dream of your life. And even if have a muse or live The 4-Hour Workweek is not your goal, I think everyone, whether workers, overworked part, student or breeder of penguins'll get something to apply to his life.
You understood, this book is for me a must-read, and more than that: it has the place of honor in my library, because it is the epitome of a non-fiction book must push do for me: ACT. A Bible, a reference that everyone should have read at least once in his life).
Strengths:
* Motivating and very exciting
* Complete system to eliminate the useless, his muse create and live the life of his dreams
* An approach that showcases the practical and tangible aspect, action-oriented,
* Many brilliant and very interesting ideas
* Simple and accessible summaries of much more complex concepts
Weak points:
* The somewhat individualistic approach of the book somewhat put off some readers
* The full implementation of the system advocated by the author is not as simple as it suggests
* Not suitable for everyone and to all trades (but everyone will find something)
* Somewhat oversized ego of the author
