The Four Hour Work Week
I got this audiobook last night and blew through most of it in my day job today. Wow, I will have to listen to this one some more and take serious notes. A lot of great tips on streamlining your daily workflow, that will come in handy for me this summer as I am finally cutting said day job loose, 3 weeks to go!
The hardest part is going to be not compulsively checking the e mail and OSP every hour!
Really good book, a slow spot or two, but valuable. Get it!

My Dad picked up this book the other day and was giving be quotes and synopsis from it. It sounded really great.

This is the best book I have read/listened to in years.

I recommend getting both the audio and printed versions.

It may change your life.

Sean

Glad to hear all the great reviews on this book. Just downloaded it in iTunes, hopefully can start listening today!

Ty

Hi Sean!

My copy arrived last week, so I will "dig" into it. From your experience with this material, is it really possible to create the same changes that the author created in his life using his recommendations?

WOW WOW WOW WOW WOW!

I spotted this one in the bookstore in the International wing before hopping a long flight to Greece last month but picked the fiction bestseller instead since it WAS mostly vaca..

...now I'm back to biz and DEVOURED this jem.

From a biz standpoint, it's pretty darn solid .. advising a lot of the same methods practiced by smart entrepreneurs and biz folks. Outsource, Automate, Birds-Eye-View Management, 80/20 Rule...

Personal standpoint? I'd have to agree with a lot.... i.e. "Human beings weren't made to stare at a computer for 8 hours a day" (wait, that's from "office space" not this!!), don't wait until retirement to enjoy life - enjoy it now, take mini-retirements, it's not about Getting Rich but about living life (making a contribution)...




You know, I think it is. When I read through his stories and then looked at my own situation I realized I was already living the "New Rich" life to some degree. No, I'm not making 40,000 per month but I'm regularly traveling to places I want to go (ie Brazil last November, Greece for the later half of July... and all those Caribean islands in-between) and I don't have to report to a 9-5 desk and fight traffic anymore.

Finding the right systems and people to outsource though is NO SMALL TASK. It takes a lot of time and trust and testing to find out who you can let run your business, home, and life while you're out living it.

So far this year I've also outsourced the following (in addition to the regular Print stuff, etc) :
- lawncare
- house cleaning
- around-the-house fix-its
- video production
- web stuff
- office & file organization (in process now... so exciting!!!)
- closet organization
- calling companies to change address from move
- calling companies to come fix things / service house
- shipping

(and "in-sourced" too many things to list like workflow, photoshoots, editing, albums, email, blogging, research, ordering, filing, marketing materials, communications, etc...)

Okay... just realized this post is getting Veeeery Lonnnnng... must go figure out what else I can outsource .....

reading this now and coming at a good time, very inspirational since I too am leaving my job in a little over a month.

OK Liana, let me dig a little deeper (Oh, and it's great to chat with you again!)

During my time at 3Com I learned to LOVE outsourcing - it was almost a mantra there.

But, on a personal level it does appear that your biz needs to be operating at a certain level of profitability to have the funds to outsource certain tasks. Therefore, is this lifestyle really possible without a fairly high degree of funds and/or monthly cash flow from another source to support it?

Again, I just started reading this book so let me know if this question is answered later on inside. From what I've read so far, Tim had sold his company before he began outsourcing his life and thus had a large degree of disposable income to support his lifestyle. Does my question make sense? I haven't had much sleep so I may be rambling or just having a "duh" moment.

bump...this is a great discussion, let's keep it going!

I was thinking the same thing! I practice having positive thoughts regularly, but right now I can't even outsource a $5 manicure.

I suppose it takes time and patience - a real belief that you can/ will get to a place where you can afford to outsource those tasks and enjoy life a little more.

Indeed - cash flow is always a beast.

Plus, we don't want to outsource EVERYTHING or we won't have any life because everyone else will be living it for us!! LOL.

I'd dare to disagree about the "must be operating at a certain level of profitability" before outsourcing. I think it's a very tricky balance to achieve and takes a lot of thought put into what makes sense to outsource and what doesn't... but it's often at a time when we don't have the funds that we need to outsource the MOST.

I signed up with Pictage when I was still in debt, having a hard time making ends meet, before I had any bookings and only a few previous events to post. The entire time I've been with them, I've only had to pay a bill to them ONCE. It was the first month. Every other month I've received a royalty check. Because I was able to get that part out of my hands, I added sales and exposure that I would not have had otherwise.... plus I was working a full-time 9-5 then and needed to spend all my free time on the important stuff like building relationships, networking events, and education. That's just one example... there are so many more I could not even begin to explain...

Another immediate example is outsourcing my organization these past few weeks. After being gone for months shooting, it's a MESS here. They found checks that were uncashed and lots of important stuff I'd lost sight of. While they were doing that, I've had the time to get caught up on communications and merchandising... finished a chapter of a book that's due for a PR thing, talking with other vendors, and created a video that allowed a MOB in another state to see our albums. She ordered one the next day - 2 k in sales that we were not expecting in the least - they already have the digi negs!! So we spent $300-500 on organization (which isn't even due yet) and have cash inflow of over $3k. My only regret is that I hadn't hired them sooner!! Oh, time for OSP is a plus too!


I think it's important to take Tim's advice in chapter 8 to heart about being careful of delegating things that could be automated, batched, or eliminated. In the end, I believe it's important to look at the opportunity cost of what we do - if someone else can do something we don't like to do (and probably are not good at) for cheaper... that's a great thing to start outsourcing

I've outsourced sex with my girlfriend. (Actually, she's the one who outsourced it, but it does free up a lot more time.)

Most people can only afford to outsource if it will help bring in more money than it costs - and soon.