The 4-Hour Work Week by Timothy Ferriss

Another book with a title that sold it more than the content I think.

Don’t get me wrong: there is much good advice in this book, but the reality is several examples mentioned are not those of someone who has been there and done it.

Add to this the fact that a ’4-hour work week’ simply does not exist and it has left a bit of a bitter-sweet taste with yours truly.

The reality is any decent business owner spends at least 4-hours a week checking the number and going over reports of business income and expenditure. Ferriss himself says he only chose the title of the book after testing its conversion ratio with a Google AdWords campaign.

I think he’s selling the dream, not reality with this book. Regardless, what follows are some bits I highlighted whilst reading it:

Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.

- Mark Twain

If I simply made all my calls from 8:00-8:30 A.M. and 6:00-6:30 P.M., for a total of one hour, I was able to avoid secretaries and book more than twice as many meetings as the senior sales executives who called from 9 – 5. In other words, I got twice the results for 1/8 the time.

Most people are fast to stop you before you get started but hesitant to get in the way if you’re moving.

Relative income is more important than absolute income.

Many a false step was made by standing still.

- Fortune Cookie

What we fear doing most is usually what we most need to do. As I have heard said, a person’s success in life can be measured by the number of uncomfortable conversations he or she is willing to have. Resolve to do one thing every day that you fear. I got into this habit by attempting to contact celebrities and famous businesspeople for advice.

Since all of them overestimated the competition, no one even showed up.

Doing the unrealistic is easier than doing the realistic.

It is easier to pick up the one perfect 10 in the bar than the five 8s.

I only read the sections of the book that were relevant to immediate next steps, which took less than two hours.

I can prescribe the medicine, but you need to take it.

Never check e-mail first thing in the morning. This habit alone can change your life. It seems small but has an enormous effect.

I have batched both personal and business tasks further and further apart as I’ve realized just how few real problems come up.

It wasn’t scalable because there was an information and decision bottleneck: me.

Create systems to limit your availability via e-mail and phone and deflect inappropriate contact.

Remember, your profit is only profitable to the extent that you can use it. For that you need time.

It is impossible to predict how well you will work with a given VA without a trial. Luckily, there are things you can do to improve your odds, and one of them is using a VA firm instead of a solo operator.

I don’t like being dependent on one person, and I don’t recommend it in the least.

I recommend you hire a VA firm or VAs with backup teams instead of sole operators.

Prohibit small-operation VAs from subcontracting work to untested freelancers without written permission.

Request someone who has “excellent” English and indicate that phone calls will be required (even if not). Be fast to request a replacement if there are repeated communication issues.

Sentences should have one possible interpretation and be suitable for a 2nd-grade reading level. This goes for native speakers as well and will make requests clearer.

Ask foreign VAs to rephrase tasks to confirm understanding before getting started.

Request a status update after a few hours of work on a task to ensure that the task is both understood and achievable.

I advise sending one task at a time whenever possible and no more than two.

…ask, “Could a VA do this?”

As to methods there may be a million and then some, but principles are few. The man who grasps principles can successfully select his own methods. The man who tries methods, ignoring principles, is sure to have trouble.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

The more competing resellers there are, the faster your product goes extinct.

…maintained a consistent profit margin by limiting wholesale distribution, particularly online, to the top one or two largest resellers who can move serious quantities of product and agree to maintain a minimum advertised pricing. Otherwise, rogue discounters on eBay and mom-and-pop independents will drive you broke.

The more middlemen are involved, the higher your magins must be to maintain profitability for all the links in the chain.

Besides perceived value, there are three main benefits to creating a premium, high-end image and charging more than the competition.

1. Higher pricing means that we can sell fewer units – and thus manage fewer customers – and fulfil our dreamlines. It’s faster.

2. Higher pricing attracts lower-maintenance customers (better credit, fewer complaints/questions, fewer returns, etc.). It’s less headache. This is HUGE.

3. Higher pricing also creates higher profit margins. It’s safer.

Don’t pretend to be strong. Make it clear you’re nervous and they’ll lower their guard. I often do this even if I’m not nervous.

You (at the very end of the call): Thank you so much for being so generous with your time. If I have the occasional though questions – very occasional – is there any chance I could keep in touch via e-mail?

…”dry testing”…

“What type of discount can you offer?”

…

Get them as low as possible then call them back later to indicate that your proposal was refused by upper management or otherwise vetoed.

…create a process driven instead of a founder-driven business.

I check reports from fulfilment each Monday and monthly reports from the same the first of each month. The latter reports include orders received from the call centre, which I can compare to the call centre bills to gauge profit. Otherwise, I just check bank accounts online on the first and fifteenth of each month to look for odd deductions. If I find something, one e-mail will fix it, and of not, it’s back to kendo, painting, hiking, or whatever I happen to be doing at the time.

The system is the solution.

- AT&T

Eliminate phone orders completely and direct all prospects to online ordering. This seems outrageous until you realize that success stories like Amazon.com have depended on it as a fundamental cost-saver to survive and thrive.

…the biggest time-saver of all: customer filtering.

By working faithfully eight hours a day, you may eventually get to be a boss and work twelve hours a day.

- Robert Frost, American poet and winner of four Pulitzer Prizes

All in all, I like the book and its matra. I also commend Ferriss’ marketing (book title).

The above quotes and conclusions are of course subjective to interpretation; yours will likely be different. Would I recommend it? Yes; but there are better, and more pressing books to be read out there.

Sincerely,

Sam