What happened to the 4HWW community?
Posted on April 24th, 2008 by rexreed
Update: You’re alive! So, i’ve made this post a touch more positive 
When I first started blogging on the 4HWW topic, there were quite a few bloggers… but now it seems they have (mostly) all stopped blogging and their blogs are idle. What has happened? Has the bloom fell off the 4HWW flower? Have folks determined that the 4HWW is mostly hype, or have they had reasonable success and squeezed 50% of out of your schedule, as I have?
I don’t want to be a pessimist, but I want to reach out to the community, and especially to you 4HWW bloggers. What happened? Has anyone else seen any success with the concepts in the book? Do you want me to keep on journaling my experiences?
Comment and let me know if you’re alive!
(1 votes, average: 5 out of 5)
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We’re still alive and kicking
Perhaps it has more to do with the trend of blogs in general (not just 4HWW-related ones)– so easy to start, so easy to stop. It’s amazing how often I find blogs with just a couple entries in them. Then the novelty wears off, people realize they don’t have much of interest to write about, and they go back to IMing with friends or whatever.
But there does seem to be a certain element of excitement and inspiration that comes from reading the book, which is then hard to turn into action. Readers are anxious to try things out, so they set up a blog to share their experiences. Then reality sets in, they realize it’s not that easy to set up an internet-based hands-off cash cow. It’s not easy to radically change your work habits. It’s not easy to outsource on a regular basis.
The concepts certainly aren’t snake oil, though the fantasies that some people have about easily implementing those concepts in their own situations might be.
Your readers are still here! I’m an avid reader of Jed’s blog and I just found your blog in recent weeks. I agree with Jed that the concepts are not snake oil at all! One of my colleagues said he thought it was rather unrealistic…but I don’t think he was willing to make the “drastic” changes that Ferriss suggests. Neither am I…but I have, as you put it, squeezed a lot of time out of my schedule. Just started with the outsourcing (Sorry, Jed. Couldn’t wait for your service, but I’m still willing to try it when you launch!)
Please continue! I am reading your website and Jed’s one on a regular basis and it’s always inspiring to see how other people apply Tim Ferriss’ ideas. For my part, I have managed to considerably reduce my working hours as a freelance translator (from 60 to 20) just by applying a few of the ideas (reading e-mails only twice a day, outsourcing…).
Hiya Rexreed,
Yup… I haven’t posted on my blog in about a month, but I’m still here!
I was working my way through the 4HWW book chapter by chapter and just got totally bogged down at the point of trying to think of a muse. Honestly, I think I had unrealistic expectations from reading the book. Tim makes it sound very easy. And it’s really, really not. -grins-
I still think the principles are all sound and I’m not quitting… I just got disheartened for a while.
Hopefully I’ll have something worth talking about on my blog again soon.
hilarycat
Still here…as you may know, I started as a 4HWW blog, but had decided early on to branch out. I completely agree with Jed’s assessment: “Then reality sets in, they realize it’s not that easy to set up an internet-based hands-off cash cow.” If it was so easy, everyone would be doing it! This was actually the part of the book that bothered me the most (I have alluded to Don Lapre on occasion). The big value, IMHO of the 4HWW was the very premise: that we can question unconscious assumptions, such as “work like hell until we retire, then live”. This “questioning of assumptions” theme is something I would like to spend more time on in my own blog.
Like most things worth having in life, it’s not as easy as it first seems. Or as Ferriss makes it seem, he worked his doo dads off to start a company that could eventually be profitable.
having said that the principles are sound,
keep working at replacing yourself bit by bit , enjoy the small victories along the way.
Gavin