The 4-Hour Workweek, Expanded and Updated: Expanded and Updated, With Over 100 New Pages of Cutting-Edge Content.

Timothy Ferriss

Dec 2009 · Sold by Harmony

About this eBook

The New York Times bestselling author of The 4-Hour Body shows readers how to live more and work less, now with more than 100 pages of new, cutting-edge content.

Ever wonder, “How can I work smarter and not harder?” Forget the old concept of retirement and the rest of the deferred-life plan–there is no need to wait and every reason not to, especially in unpredictable economic times. Whether your dream is escaping the rat race, experiencing high-end world travel, or earning a monthly five-figure income with zero management, The 4-Hour Workweek is the blueprint.

This step-by-step guide to luxury lifestyle design teaches:
• How Tim went from $40,000 per year and 80 hours per week to $40,000 per month and 4 hours per week
• How to outsource your life to overseas virtual assistants for $5 per hour and do whatever you want
• How blue-chip escape artists travel the world without quitting their jobs
• How to eliminate 50% of your work in 48 hours using the principles of a forgotten Italian economist
• How to trade a long-haul career for short work bursts and frequent “mini-retirements”

The new expanded edition of Tim Ferriss’ The 4-Hour Workweek includes:
• More than 50 practical tips and case studies from readers (including families) who have doubled income, overcome common sticking points, and reinvented themselves using the original book as a starting point
• Real-world templates you can copy for eliminating e-mail, negotiating with bosses and clients, or getting a private chef for less than $8 a meal
• How Lifestyle Design principles can be suited to unpredictable economic times
• The latest tools and tricks, as well as high-tech shortcuts, for living like a diplomat or millionaire without being either

Ratings and reviews

Bill Gates could write a book entitled "How to become a billionaire" and write a biography emphasizing points in his life pertaining to creating his business and how he did that. This is essentially what the author, Timothy Ferriss, has done with his book "The 4-hour Workweek." I think people are just as likely to attain a 4-hour workweek as they would be to become billionaires by reading Bill Gates hypothetical book. The reality is, if Timothy Ferriss really only worked 4 hours a week it would take him a year to match a comparable amount to what other authors write in a month. It should have taken him years to be able to write this book. In other words, I don't think that even the author himself works only 4 hours a week on a regular basis. While actualizing the title of the book is not realistic for most people, there are some decent concepts of the book that are worth reading. Perhaps a more accurate title would be "Work Productively, Work Remotely, and Outsource." The author has decent tips and suggestions for doing these things. A lot of the things are just common sense while others are just personal preference that work well for him. Some of his suggestions have questionable ethics such as intentionally deceiving your boss or ignoring customers you simply don't want to deal with. The main points of this book are most useful for business owners, entrepreneurs, freelance workers, or traveling hippies. If you don't fall into any of these categories then you might be able to glean some useful concepts but overall this book will not do much for you. While I don't think this book is a self help cotton candy book (all fluff and no real substance), it certainly is not a life changing book based off values and principles such as "7 Habits" or "How to Win Friends." Bottom line: If you can work from home or do all your work on the computer, this book will have some useful things for you to consider. If however you have a standard 9-5 job or blue collar job, this book with do little more than nauseate you with all the self promotion and (not so) hidden adverts.

Let me just start off by saying that Tim Ferriss is totally crazy. But in a good way. The 4-Hour Workweek was the kick in the pants I needed to re-evaluate my plans for the future and how I'm currently living my life. If nothing else, this is a great book to challenge some of your implicit internal mental dialogs that might be holding you back from living the life you want. Personally - I'm aiming for running my business remotely while living on a sailboat and travelling around the world!

I want to clarify something about the outsourcing Tim Ferriss talks about. He writes about his experience which is something people have been doing for a very long time, paying others that want to do the work you don't. If it's not slavery or underpaying, it's not wrong. I actually contacted and conversed with the Indian company, Brickwork. I asked them about specific tasks for my side company and got a quote. They quoted me 20 hours of work for $340. They could have charged anything they wanted. It's a functioning company. So is it wrong that Tim Ferriss outsourced? I think not. It's not like he went to India, pull some person and made them work (judging from his writing). Brickwork is a legit company that sets their own prices. He simply did by himself what every company does on a regular. Check the tags on every item you have in your home and most of it comes from another country, correct? My opinion is, he thought like a CEO, just like the CEO of your company. Your CEO/President didn't want to do all the work, so he/she hired someone and paid that person a little less. Then, they hired another to help the first person. Later on down the line, they hired you, me and everyone else so more work could be done while that CEO/President relaxes. This isn't anything new so think about that before jumping down his throat. I will be leaving another review on my thoughts of the entire book, but i felt I needed to chime in on what some of these one-star reviews are saying.

About the author

TIMOTHY FERRISS is a serial entrepreneur, #1 New York Times bestselling author, and angel investor/advisor (Facebook, Twitter, Evernote, Uber, and 20+ more).  Best known for his rapid-learning techniques, Tim's books -- The 4-Hour Workweek, The 4-Hour Body, and The 4-Hour Chef -- have been published in 30+ languages. The 4-Hour Workweek has spent seven years on The New York Times bestseller list. Tim has been featured by more than 100 media outlets including The New York Times, The Economist, TIME, Forbes, Fortune, Outside, NBC, CBS, ABC, Fox and CNN. He has guest lectured in entrepreneurship at Princeton University since 2003. His popular blog www.fourhourblog.com has 1M+ monthly readers, and his Twitter account @tferriss was selected by Mashable as one of only five “Must-Follow” accounts for entrepreneurs. Tim’s primetime TV show, The Tim Ferriss Experiment (www.upwave.com/tfx), teaches rapid-learning techniques for helping viewers to produce seemingly superhuman results in minimum time.