Tim Ferriss and I first met in person in Washington DC on my recent trip. He came up to me seconds after a presentation that I made and told me how he’d worked with a mate of mine and then asked if he could take me to lunch (hint – free food is always a good way to make a good impression with me).
The lunch that ensued was one that I won’t forget in a hurry – we hit it off and I quickly realized that I’d already heard about Tim (through a bizarre and surreal connection that I’m not allowed to tell you about – he IS a champion kick boxer and world champion cage fighter – I’m not going to break that promise).
Tim’s got a long list of accomplishments to his name – he’s a successful entrepreneur, he’s a Princeton guest lecturer, he’s a fighter, he’s a dancer (a world record holding one) and he’s an actor (among man other things) – however what got my attention most about Tim is that he’s the author of a book with a fascinating title – The 4-Hour Workweek.
After a long lunch, numerous other conversations and then dinner with Tim and my wife V you could say that I was pretty much sold on Tim and couldn’t wait to read his book.
My preview copy arrived this week and while I’m still only part of the way into it I can tell you that this is a book that is going to make a real impression on many thousands of people once it is launched (it’s being released this week).
Tim and I have been in contact since we met up and he kindly agreed to be interviewed via Instant Messaging this week. The interview was fascinating – in fact it was so interesting to me that I just couldn’t stop asking questions and it ended up being rather long. As a result I’m going to break it into three parts. The first one I’ll post in a few minutes – I hope you enjoy it!
While you’re waiting for the interview – get Tim’s book The 4-Hour Workweek at Amazon – it’s a great read.
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I love this guys thinking! I’m reading his ideas and realizing exactly what I need to do for my own aspirations. This is the kind of thinking that we need more than anything for the future.
We have all this unprecedented great technology and access to information, but we spend most of our time plugged in to what everyone else is saying rather than outputting our own contributions and building things for ourselves.
BTW my website is http://www.nolimitzentertainment.wordpress.com if anyone wants to check it out.
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Mmmmphhhh…. I got the book from Amazon, flicked through it and was disappointed to see that most of the text was URLs (hyperlinks don’t really work in print, do they?).
There is one good new-ish idea in the book: the outsourcing bit but most of it is a copy-paste of somebody else’s article. Everything else has been around the internet for quite a while… dropshipping, yawn, infoproducts, yawn…. And most of the time, Tim tells us to go to the companion website for further details.
Tim looks like a friendly chap. Besides that everything in the book reminds me of the stuff that appears in the Rich Jerk eBook – except that ebook covers a lot more ground in a lot more detail.
I just finished the book. I have to say it was provocative and forced me to re-think some long-held assumptions about the nature of work and career. I genuinely believe the guy has written down some really good ideas.
However, it is kind of creepy that the way he made his big money is by selling a so-called “neural accelerator” supplement called “cognamine”. Tim’s company claims that this substance “increases the speed of neural transmission and information processing”. Oh yeah, it is guaranteed to work within 30 minutes too. These claims are on the home page of his company, BrainQuicken.
Let’s be straight here. He is effectively selling a “snake-oil” product using pretty wild pseudo-scientific claims. Perhaps that was deliberate? Maybe his goal was to advance a ridiculous product, make a ton of money and write about it? Is the implication that if Tim can pull ~500K a year and live a “like a rock-star” by selling snake-oil, perhaps someone with a little less self-confidence and little more ethics could so the same thing with something _other_ than snake oil?
have you seen the spoof version of the 4 hour workweek? It is called the 100 hour Workweek: NEVER Escape Your Job, Live Alone, and Join the New Poor.
http://retiredat21.com/the-100-hour-workweek-never-escape-your-job-live-alone-and-join-the-new-poor/
very amusing.
I’ve changed my life after reading this book. I highly recommend it to anyone who has an open mind about change.
I’m just wondering if anyone has actually followed and had success with Tim Ferriss’s 4 hour Workweek.
Has anyone really followed this? If so, what happens?
My parents are following this, and I’m hoping it will work…
-Brad
I am a BIG fan of Tim and recently meet him. I am holding a giveaway of an autographed copy of his book, details here.
I just can not say enough about this guy and have been changing my life because of this book.