3 things I learned from the 4-hour workweek book
The 4-hour workweek title sounds too good to be true. To me sounded more like a book with cheap tricks or a “special mindset” to work less. The truth is I read it because I saw a lot of people loving it as well as hating it, and that sparked my interest.
I will talk about the things I found interesting or provoking in this book and how they made me change things in my life or my business, and a final (little philosophical) note.
Retirement
In the very first chapter Tim Ferriss says that retirement is “Worst-case scenario insurance,” one should view retirement as the worst thing that can happen, and what really hit me was one of the reasons he thinks retirement is a flaw; it is based on the thought that you dislike what you do.
What is the problem with that? Well, I cannot stand the thought of doing something I dislike 40 years, which turns out to be more than 70K hours! That was the reason I decided to quit my job to follow my side hustle full time.
I’m not saying don’t plan for the worst case but don’t mistake retirement for the goal
But sooner or later you have to ask: what do you want anyway?
Here, Tim Ferriss proposes excitement as the opposite of boredom and states that boredom is the enemy, the thing we must avoid, and I couldn’t agree more. When I worked for a company, I got bored so easily that my goal was to be productive enough so I had no problems and could spare some time to do something more exciting.
After quitting, I discovered I was excited most of the days at what I did; that’s when I realized: I want to do something that excites me and keep away the need to think I should retire because of boredom.
The timing is never right
A couple of months ago, I was at an e-commerce company with a good salary, recently promoted, and with a quite good career path. My goal was to learn more about managing a team and what was needed to launch a business, and then… The opportunity to launch a business arrived.
I didn’t felt as prepared as I would want, but it was the opportunity of a lifetime, and Tim Ferriss’s phrase was so true to me: “For all the important things, the timing always sucks.”
If it’s important to you and you want to do it “eventually”, just do it and correct course along the way
Long story short, I co-founded the firm. Truth be told, I am constantly being challenged, and some days are tough. However, I don’t think I have ever felt so fulfilled.
Pareto’s Law
One of my biggest flaws is that I tend to be a control freak; it is difficult to delegate, which was my first lesson after starting a business.
What I learned from Tim Ferriss in this matter was that as a business owner, I had to do many different things, and some added more value than others; it is quite obvious that you have to concentrate on the things with higher impact.
Which 20% of sources are resulting in 80% of my desired outcomes and happiness?
While the book thinks of automation as a way for you to focus on more important things and delegate or automate the rest, I think that if you reach that level of excitement by delegating work to others, then you acquire a moral obligation to help those people to reach their goals and more exciting life.
Final notes
I think the 4-hour workweek is not possible for everyone, based on a selfish premise. After all, the automation step is based on delegating work to people in underdeveloped countries.
I liked those three ideas presented before, but I am also aware that everyone can't achieve them; then, the ones who achieve them have an ethical obligation with the ones who don’t.
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