What is the Four Hour Work Week

If you’re reading this blog, odds are you already know what I’m talking about. But if I have the dubious pleasure of introducing you to this topic, let me give you the Cliffs-notes of the Cliffs-notes version of the story. The Four Hour Work Week is a book written by Tim Ferris, an insatiable time managing entrepreneur who espouses the idea that the 40 hour work week is unnecesssary in today’s rat race. Why work 40 inefficient hours when 4 efficient ones will do? Why bother wasting your time with low-margin, high-time expense activities like reading email and meeting with inefficient co-workers when you can focus on the task at hand and as a result make MORE money in LESS time, giving you more time to do…. MORE.

The idea seems somewhat incredulous, especially when you think that you can spend 10% of the time now for a 50% or greater increase in income. While we can talk endlessly about whether or not this makes sense, I decided to do the logical thing. TRY IT. In the next few months, I’m going to shift from a 60+ hour work week to a 4 hour work day to a 4 hour work week, and in the process, greatly increase my overall revenue. Can this be done? Who knows. Let’s try. And I’ll make the mistakes for you. In the process, help guide me in the right direction. A true experiment in community collaboration… with benefits.

Who am I?
First, I’m not going to tell you my name. Why? Because I am already fully and gainfully employed and I don’t want to Cross the Streams. I’m not an employee… I am a serial entrepreneur. I am running a successful small business that is doing in excess of $1 Million a year. So, why should I bother with a 4 hour work week? Because I have no life.

To be more precise, I have no time. I am finding that the more time I spend, the more that the returns are diminishing. Yes, the company is doing 7 figures, but I’m not taking all that home! I’m splitting that with my partners and subcontractors, not to mention overhead and expenses. To keep the company running, I have to put in even more effort and time, but without seeing the multiple return for the multiple time investment.

Why am I doing this?

So, I want to find a better way. Not to make more money (that is a nice side-effect). I want to find a better way to manage my time. If all I accomplish is making the SAME amount in less time, that’s a win. If I can achieve MORE with my time, and still have a life, that’s an even better win. If I can make money while I sleep, that’s a real win. So, the story here is about time management and the financial return of time. If the equation of time in to value out can be optimized, then I’m all game.

Besides, I have other businesses I want to run, other ideas I want to flourish. And without time management, I have to be a SERIAL entrepreneur when in reality I want to be a PARALLEL entrepreneur.

What’s the purpose of this blog?

The purpose of this blog is to drag you along on my journey. Have you help me correct mistakes, suggest my stupidities, rant on how all this is vain or foolish or feeble, encourage me when things are going well, support me by forwarding the experiences here and traffic (and help me earn at least some modest income from the blog itself), and buy my funny FHWW merchandise (coming soon!).

But most of all, every experiment of value should have its results publicized, if the experiment is to have any worth. And since this experiment is an experiment in my life, I would be hard pressed not to say it’s of value.

Welcome!