The Four Hour Work Week
The Four Hour Work Week:
The alternative is the deferred life plan
I am 24 and have not retired yet. But what I have done is blown the doors off of the prospect by delving head first into the concept of a four hour work week. When Tim Ferriss talks about a four hour work week it isn’t meant to be literal, but to show that a work week can be pared down to four hours, with the same or better result using the tools provided in his book. This then leaves time for you to do what you really want to do. The Four Hour Work Week is meant to be more of a manual then a one time read. I have read it three times through, and reference it regularly.
I started my path to the four hour work week with the use of a Virtual Assistant (VA) from Elance.com to further my goals in this regard. I love to speak to this fact specifically, and how it seems nearly impossible to achieve these goals with limited time by yourself. When you realize that you now have unlimited time and expertise at your disposal everything is up for grabs.
I have used my native fluent English speaking VA, at $8 an hour, to:
1.Write me a detailed business plan for a low maintenance business ($8).
2.Implement the business plan and run it for me.
3.Do any research for any other ideas I have for businesses, websites, and products.
4.Help plan my wedding.
5.Help my mom do research to help her start her book.
Which has allowed me to:
1.Spend more time writing on my blog, Http://seansrant.com.
2.Come up with more ideas, because I’m not bogged down by the details, and I know someone is researching the ones I already came up with. This gets them out of my head and creates room for the next idea. I have had some amazing ideas come with this open space in my head.
3.Practice managing staff, which I have previously not had the chance to do.
4.Build a trust relationship with someone remotely, learn how to manage a remote worker. Starting with small budgets of half an hour and working up to approval only if its more than 2 hours.
5.Skydive, which most people that say they want to, but postpone doing just like life.
The reason I prefer to pay more to get a native English speaking VA is because there tends to be more than language differences, but conceptual differences that have to be learned over time. I have seen the loss of utility by paying more for the lower cost VA and getting less product. I am currently putting together a business plan, and using VA’s to do this. I am also tapping into connections through friends and family. Friends and family can be like free VA’s in this respect if they are familiar with what you are asking them and if you are sincere.
There is no final destination. There is only a road. Once we retire we still have to find what that road leads to, so why wait. If you had $100 million what would you do? The real question is after you buy and do everything you want, now what are you going to do? The next person that says they want to sky-dive before they die, ask them why they are waiting.
Related posts:
Sean,
Thank you again for your willingness to share your experiences with the 4HWW concept. I had reached out to Sean to ask his opinion of WordPress; the conversation branched from there. Some of my take-aways from the conversation were:
WordPress: You would recommend WordPress but like any product has a learning curve. Being an installed product vs. hosted is a key benefit. The availability of plug-ins set it apart from other leading site/blogging platforms. Based on the conversation I’ll be installing WordPress as well on my site.
Google Analytics: I use Google Analytics as well; it is a great resource. Offering insight into what people find interesting and what they don’t. More importantly it also let you know where people are coming from.
Law of Atraction: It’s not magic, it’s reality, by paying attention to things that interest us most we are drawn to the people who share similar interests. I’ve learned personally the importance of filters also play a key roll. Our beliefs, desires and hopefully goals enable us to filter out what’s not important to us. I say “hopefully goals” because to many of us don’t take the time to really understand what our goals are and write them down! If we don’t have a clear picture of our goals we get distracted by our ‘interests’ vs. our passions. If we have a clear picture of the results we want, then we more focused and capable of avoiding distractions. Goal power is far stronger than will power.
Google Reader: Another tool we both use to keep up with lots of areas of interest. One feature you reminded me was trends. Which shows what your really reading vs. just collecting. If you not reading it, ditch it.
Blogging: I have a blog (smallpastures.blogspot.com) for years but confess I have been more of lurker vs. a participant on other people’s blog. Posting relevant comments is the best way to attract people with similar interests. Leaving a post is like a bread crumb trail leading people to learn more about shared interests. If you have something to add to the discussion, put it out there.
Virtual Asssitants(VA): Having a VA is one of the tenets of the 4HWW. Finding VAs through eLance.com has help you to focus on what you enjoy doing and outsource the things that are of less value or you don’t enjoy doing. Because of cultural differences you recommend US based VAs over VAs from India.
After our conversation I thought of some words of advice that I will take to heart as well. If you follow your interests, you become a generalist about lots of different topics. If you follow your passion, you become an expert. While there is nothing wrong with being a generalist, it doesn’t serve the goal of launching a business. A business requires expertize. I gathered finding a passion is still a work in progress.
All the best to you and your endeavors,
Jim
Ex-Employee.com
Jim Littlefield
22 Aug 08 at
[...] by linkinparktv on Fri 19-12-2008 Jet Blue Is Dead To Me. Saved by xreader on Thu 18-12-2008 The Four Hour Work Week Saved by kinoshi on Tue 16-12-2008 Tape Delays Not For Real Fans Saved by randomaze on Fri [...]
Recent Links Tagged With "rant" - JabberTags
30 Dec 08 at