★★★★★ 5
A guidebook for escaping the rat race
Format: Kindle
This book provides a completely new way of looking at your job and potential residual income. It's a guide to help you shift your focus to your residual income which can set you free.
Our school system teaches kids that, until they're in their late teens or early 20s, they're going to spend their days in school and college. These habits of showing up and punching the clock (via attendance) are so ingrained by this point in life that few question whether there's another realistic option. And adults go into jobs that perpetuate this cycle of clocking in early in the morning and checking out late in the evening.
Timothy Ferris shows that it is indeed possible to escape this rat race. He shows a clear step-by-step plan to do so. And it's there for the taking if you're bold enough to grab the steering wheel of your life.
This is quite a comprehensive book discussing everything from your job transition to your travel, and how to set up your company and manage it without taking too much financial risk.
He talks about guarding your time, which I believe is one of the most valuable points in the book. He mentions throughout the book strategies to reduce getting caught up in time-wasting activities such as meetings, spending too much time on email at the wrong times, or wasting time on phone calls. He details out his techniques to keep distracting people on the sidelines while he's living his life and doing the things that his heart desires.
This book is an instruction manual for escaping the rat race. It's somewhat of a memoir, and a work in progress, of how he's doing it. He has examples throughout the book of how different people have applied his principles and changed their lives. He included a few people who had kids, which is great because a lot of people will use that excuse as a reason to not be able to do what he's doing.
He's so open in the book revealing how he takes care of many personal matters in his life, even down to giving his travel checklist and his preferred brand of underwear, relevant for people who want to travel light. He's probably one of the world's most eligible bachelors. That is, if he's willing to let someone get any time on his calendar? I like him. I'd love to run into him in a coffee shop in a foreign country and have some time to just chat with him.
He warns that some people really don't know what to do if they aren't working. This is a vital component of the book. He's going full-force at experiencing life in different cultures and getting involved in many different activities that give him new life experiences and perpetuate more new ways of thinking. It's important to know what to do when you are free. Otherwise you just have a vacuum of time which can feel like a boring retirement, where you're available, but all your friends and family are at work.
I'm a writer, so I wasn't interested in setting up another company, but he also addresses intellectual property and its intrinsic value. Despite the fact that I don't want to set up a product-based business, many of his strategies are completely applicable and I've begun to apply the techniques right away. Yesterday, I choose to schedule a quick phone call instead of an in-person meeting when the in-person meeting would have been much more time-consuming, for example. He reminded me that I really need to guard my writing time. I certainly can't spin out books on 4 hours a week, but I could if I were willing to farm out the writing activity. He gave me a whole new appreciation for time and what I do each day of my life.
If you're not satisfied with your work, or if you're searching for more ways to expand your income and free up your time, this book will be well worth your time. It's urgent for parents to put their kids in a different situation if they don't want them to get caught up in the same rat race that hasn't been fulfilling for them. If they change their own happiness level, it will certainly inspire their family and everyone they know as well.
I love the title--The 4-Hour Workweek. At first it seems so absurd, like how could anyone do that? Yet after I read the book, I have tremendous respect this man who is the architect of his own freedom. And he shares his path for others who want to follow.
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Reviewed in the United States on February 2, 2016
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