Summary
Overall, my mental and emotional experience reading the The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferris felt something like this:
I’m having a chat in a coffee shop with Tim, the author. He suddenly flips over the table, screams “Eighty Twentyyyyyyyyyyy!!!!!!!!!!”, punches me in the face, injects an adrenaline shot into my neck, and throws me into a Ferrari that flies off into space.
In other words, it was moving.
Context
I finished a this book sitting at the foot of my pregnant wife’s hospital bed listening to the sound of the IV machine pump fluids into her dehydrated veins while she got some well-deserved rest from the effects of Hyperemisis Gravidarum. Because of her condition, she wasn’t able to care for our 2-year old while I was at work. We moved in with her parents. Life was hard, but good. Hated to see her that way. As she fought to give life, I pushed even harder to work for a better life for our family. Tim’s book entered my life at the right time.
Take Aways
I had an idea of what the book was about from friends and reviews. My general impression was something about traveling, business and four hours. I was pleasantly surprised to find more depth than I expected. Yes, there were business tips and travel how-tos that were very helpful, but what stood out to me were Tim’s ideas about lifestyle design. Here is a brain dump of my lingering impressions of how the book affected me:
- gave me hope
- opened my eyes to a new world of possibilities in business
- made me feel like I CAN do something different with my career if I choose to
- revived dreams I’d almost completely let go of
- gave me permission to pursue the life-STYLE that I think is best for me and my family instead of accepting what someone else expects of my time
- informed me about how to start a product-based business
- informed me about traveling smarter
- explained the power and purpose of automation
- helped me understand the reason big businesses outsource parts of their business to other countries
- made me realize that I’m not alone when it comes to ideas and feelings I’ve had about a drastically different work and life style
- inspired me to be more focused while working
- made me question my current lifestyle
- confirmed ideas I’ve had about restructuring my work life because the current 8-5 structure that keeps you away from family all day doesn’t seem natural (most people were in the “family business” a short few hundred years ago)
- confirmed ideas about the benefits of fasting from media and information
Live Smarter
Although I don’t agree with all of Tim’s philosophical ideas, I appreciated his honest logical approach to everything, including spirituality. Whatever Tim’s spiritual beliefs are his book came into my life at the perfect time. It may even have been a God thing. I could see his book being extremely helpful to missionaries because of the international lifestyles they live.
I recommend it. Read it: Buy The 4-Hour Workweek here
References/Resources/Footnotes
- The Four Hour Workweek by Tim Ferris
- 80/20 Pareto Principle[1] (Tim mentions this in the book)
- Hyperemisis Gravidarum[2]
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