The Half-Full Book Review: "The 4-Hour Workweek", by Tim Ferriss

I was at a bookstore about 6 months back and I saw this beckoning title on the shelves: "The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich"

Mmmmmm.....I said to myself. Who wouldn't want to do all those things?  I picked up the book and then I saw another tidbit on the back, something about the author going from 40-hour weeks earning $40,000 per year to 4-hour weeks earning $40,000 per month.

I somehow resisted the compulsion to buy the book on the spot, but filed it away for future reference.  A month later,  when my wife mentioned that she needed a few birthday present ideas, I dropped the name of this book, still curious about the secrets that were within it.

Sure enough, I did receive the book for my birthday, and on one of my trips west I cracked it open, expecting a breezy "how-to" that would at best net me a few money-making or time-management tips.

What I got instead was a great life and leadership lesson wrapped in a fairly rote "how-to" on starting an Internet business and outsourcing everything associated with running it to outside parties (so you can have that 4-hour workweek).

Ferriss makes an excellent case that we waste way too much time on our Blackberries, Cell Phones and computers. We should simplify our lives, so we can focus on the things that really matter.  Simple enough.   And he presents excellent advice on how to do such simplification (I have to admit his system of answering e-mail only twice a day was pretty compelling).

He writes with great verve and confidence about how he decided to go after what one would consider "post career" dreams DURING his career, and racks up a quite impressive list of accomplishments along the way (and a lot of frequent flier miles).

All fascinating, yes, but I didn't have a real "learning moment" that made me really think until I got to the part where he spoke about leadership empowerment.  As I noted in my blog a few weeks back, this particular Ferriss statement grabbed me:

"It's amazing how someone's IQ seems to double as soon as you give them responsibility and indicate that you trust them"

Why that particular sentence?

Because it was something that hit closer to my professional core than any other thing he said in the book.   My "core" is the art of leadership, and how it can drive success and happiness in an organization.

And while Ferriss was using it as a means of ultimate personal freedom (i.e. to outsource everything as to reduce a 40-hour week to 4 hours), I took it as another form of freedom - leadership freedom.

In other words, if leaders take on too much responsibility, they cease to be leaders - they just don't have the time.  If they can trust and delegate responsibility, they can be "free" to do what they should do best - lead and inspire. And talk about vision. And context.  And job fulfillment and happiness.

And for the person you entrust with responsibility, they also receive great riches- confidence and self-worth.

Great learning indeed!

I never would have expected to encounter such a helpful lesson in this book - after all, it was about escaping the 9 to 5 and joining the New Rich, right?

But I'm glad I did.  But sorry Tim, I'm not going to go down to a 4-hour week - I love my 50 hour week right now just fine, thank you!  :-)

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Terry Starbucker is an operations executive for a service company who lives in Connecticut, loves business trips to the Rocky Mountain west, is a founder of SOBCon, and posts his musings and observations about "the optimistic side of the daily grind" in Ramblings from a Glass Half Full. 

Comments

[Steve Sherlock]

Thanks, Terry. I'll admit to dismissing the book due to its title and hype as another quick sell and the only way it really works for the author is because we have bought his book. I'll give it a second chance now with your insights.

My personal email is answered only twice a day, before work and after work (primarily because I can't get at it during work, firewall and security considerations). This technique can save time processing the email. I try the same thing at work as much as possible, to answer email in a block of time rather than in the stream in which it arrives.

[Joanna Young]

Thanks for this review of the book Terry. I've got so sick of reading people gushing about it that I'd quite determined not to read it (being a bit contrary like that!), you've opened up my mind to what I could learn from it, and applying the learning that works for me, as you have done.

Cheers

Joanna

[Rosa Say]

Excellent review as a learner’s take-away Terry, and as someone who so wonderfully demonstrates that ‘work’ isn’t necessarily the evil 4-letter word many people relegate it to. I had read the posting you’d done on your own blog when you published it, and was hoping you’d carry your theme here, as you did :)

I’ve read this book as well, and have been watching the hype that has followed it as a pretty fascinating case study (wearing my Ho‘ohana Publishing division hat). It’s an example of the book’s “how to” really zooming past the “why to” in mainstream perception, and as productivity bloggers go wild about The 4-Hour Work Week it seems to me that Mr. Ferriss has gotten caught up in it as well— on his blog, his “why” writing does take a back seat. One could make the argument that he is responding to his reader’s wishes, however it does make me wonder just how many hours he has now begun to “work” in the way he defines it for himself now due to the book’s wild success.

I have often thought it unfortunate that many miss or gloss over Tim’s message that we don’t have to wait until retirement to truly enjoy our lives; we can enjoy life right now. Therefore, as someone who works daily to elevate the professions of managing and leading, I LOVE your counterpoint that working more than those 4 hours a week can be part of the life you love when there is Ho‘ohana connected and woven into it.

From our archives, this book is mentioned here too: Start a Bigger Thinker’s List: “What I Want to Learn” —I will add the link to my name in this comment.

[Terry Starbucker]

Hi Steve, Joanna, Rosa and Rowena - thanks for stopping by!

Steve, Joanna, and Rosa, I thank you too for your kind words about my review of the book. There IS a deeper message in there that ultimately should be more useful to all of us than the "how to". Unfortunately it's only a small part of the book.

Rowena, I've forwarded your request to the appropriate person - we'll be in touch.

All the best to you all!

[Andrew Rondeau]

I don't think I'll ever get down to a 4-hour week but it certainly sounds like a book I need to add to my list. Was there anything in the book about how to afford all this outsourcing or was it self-funding?

Andrew

[dave]

Joanna & Steve - precisely the reason that I haven't picked up the book either. I believe the fact this book is popular speaks to a real state of how much unhappiness there really is in the workforce.

I so get "that particular sentence" Terry. Given that most of my experience and background has come from the school of "how not to lead and manage," I've seen folks initially receive the responsibility, only to have it yanked away when it became uncomfortable for the person in charge. This method is actually well documented in science...it is the precise method for turning a person into a robot.

[Terry Starbucker]

Hi Andrew and Dave - my humble apologies for being so tardy in thanking you for your comments.

Andrew, supposedly the outsourcing is self-funding - you don't actually do that until you've tested your online concept and have some revenue already coming in.

Dave, my biggest leadership pet peeve is turning people into robots - I just plain refuse to do that.

Thanks again to you both, and all the best!

[Dwayne Melancon]

This is an awesome book. I must admit, even though I haven't done more than about 10% of the things Tim recommends in this book, it's still made a significant impact in my life.

I often get into discussions about this book with some coworkers who've read it, as well.

By the way - the audio book is also quite good.