The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss (2007, Hardcover)

This is not a book on how to be Tim Ferriss. Rather, it is a book on how to increase your available time, income and mobility (oddly enough, T-I-M) to do the things you want to do. Tim shows you how to beat the traditional system of slave, save and retire by applying some commonsense but not common knowledge principles, such as: 20% of your efforts gives you 80% of the results, therefore eliminate the other 80% of your efforts (or customers).

24% of most office-workers' time is spent task-switching. Therefore, minimize the switching. 40% of those who switch never go back to their original task. Even more reason to minimize switching.

Tim uses the experiences of his short yet meteoric life (he wrote the book when he was 29) to illustrate his principles. His accomplishments as a mixed martial artist and tango dancer while running a very profitable company is living proof that his claims do work and can work for anyone willing to apply them.

One important factor to know is how to measure the value of your time. Once you compute that figure, any task less than that should be outsourced, if possible. To stretch the outsourcing dollar even further, he advises countries in which the dollar's value is multiplied, such as India. Despite what you may have read elsewhere, there is no exploitation going on here. These are established workforces that specialize in a wide variety of tasks that can be done remotely. Tasks such as spreadsheet and document preparation, internet research, phone calls, purchases, appointments and much more. Uh, poor people working on business plans? Get real.

Tim wants you not to be the pinnacle of the org chart but off to the side. When you are at the top, all of the work funnels through you. This is what he went through when he worked 80-hour weeks. If you cannot be the owner, but the employee (most of us), there are still ways to maximize the T-I-M.

It is easy to get caught up in envying the success, wealth and free time that Tim has. Occasionally, you have to remind yourself that you too, can have more disposable time, income and mobility if you follow his book, to do the things you want to do. If you don't remind yourself, it is easy to get caught up in accusing Tim of promoting a hedonistic, selfish and materialistic lifestyle. What Tim does not do is show you to how cheat others so that you can live the good life. Rather, he shows you how to restructure the system to your advantage. This is not a greedy ethic. Simply a way to bend the system to your will with everyone's consent.

This book is obviously not for those in service-related industries such as law enforcement, fire rescue, medical, where your presence is required.

This book is 99% fantastic and 1% flawed. Some shortcomings include his tacit approval of lying when he recommends calling in sick when you're not and his abysmal ignorance of political theory and philosophy (he shuns just about all news, reads a trade journal or two and fiction - not exactly a rigorous workout for the mind - contrast that with his physical workout). Happily, those deficiencies are avoidable in the way you apply his principles.

I read this book in just over a week and am reading it again. I bought 5 more copies to hand out. I like the fact that Tim is not a showman like other well-known motivational speakers; his audio interviews reveal a quiet, thoughtful, laid-back guy who accomplished much, learned a lot and has nothing to hide from the rest of us.