Mr. Ferriss is a master at self promotion. That doesn't mean that there's not good stuff to be learned after you sift through the self-promoting crap in the book.
Tidbits I picked up:
* Throw a quick 3 page website up as a sales letter to market a $100 product. Point $200 worth of ad-sense at it over 10 days to see if you get any uptake. If you have more than 2 signups or "buy-ins", you've past the break even point and you're on the road to making money.
* Focus on developing a $50-150 priced product. You don't have to sell a ton of those products to make a decent living for yourself.
* 100 units sold * $100 = replace my monthly income.
* Focus intensely on what's going to make you cash. All the cool technology you're building doesn't matter to your business unless it helps the bottom line. This was apropos to me, because I have an acute case of... oh, look at this shiny new thing. Focusing on what makes money helps cut through some of that.
* People like to buy things. No, really. They like to pay for things. It makes them feel better about their lives. So, if you offer them a compelling reason to give you money, they will probably give you the money.
* Outsource as much as you can that isn't non-core business. e.g. Hire interns to do marketing and PR work for you. Outsource writing your copy. Outsource design work, outsource product development if appropriate. Outsource market research, outsource date finding, outsource travel plans, outsource, outsource, outsource everything away to make your life simpler.
* Filter out distractions as much as possible. i.e. no meetings, minimal email.
* Have balls. No, really, dude hacked a martial arts festival and won. Why? By hacking the weigh-in legally. He has a lot of legal cons that help you hack the publicity system. Put your balls to use by hacking a social structure and rules in a situation to your benefit. If you don't have the balls to try something, you're not going to achieve it.
* Chase the big dreams. Life is too short. If you want a Lotus Elise, test drive it, and find out how much you'd have to make a month to pay for it. Figure out how to make that money. If you want to go to Figi, figure out the cost, make the money to get there and then just go.
Yeah, the Taiwanese with whom he competed with are pretty serious about Face. When I read the excerpt about it, I rolled my eyes and thought Ferris was full of it, claiming to be a national kickboxing champion. After reading the account, however, I have to admit it was a good hack. Throw people out of the ring. There isn't much way for the judges to cheat on that either, heheheh.
Ferris recently got a new TV show on History Channel, airing as a pilot. It is called "Trial By Fire", where he attempts to learn skills that normally takes 10 - 20 years to master and learn them in about 5 days. The show is interesting to see how the strategizing works. I have no idea if there are going to be more made, but if they were, Ferris promised showing skills like car racing.
Of course it is probably a way to get all of the stunts he wants to learn financed by a TV Network, but that's the point. What he wants to do isn't necessarily what I want to do, and applying the skills of hacking to life is a good thing.
One problem with outsourcing is that people tend to have a lot of context to their tasks that whoever they hire to handle it for them won't have. There can be miscommunications about what needs to be done, the other person might not understand what the requester likes/dislikes, they might have to ask for extra details etc. and often it may be just faster to do it yourself.
I have a buddy who apparently took the 4HWW to heart and moved to Argentina to work as a freelance software engineer... he seems to be doing well.
Personally, I thought Ferriss made it seem a little easy, but who knows? Did you actually do all of the challenges? I guess you can't knock it until you've tried it.
Does your buddy need to travel back to consult with customers in the US (assuming that is where he is from)? Was he an established consultant before the move?
He does have to travel to meet with clients, but from what I've gathered, it is not particularly frequent. He had a pretty solid resume as an engineer and is definitely one of the most creative, smart people I know, but I don't think that he had much of a list of prior clients. As I recall, our school kind of set him up with his 2 main clients. Its quite a bold move on his part and inspiring to me. It's only one data point, but its certainly an example of how its possible to carve out a niche.
i took it to heart and am now living in Buenos Aires as a freelance software engineer. I communicate online with my clients, and work on my own projects with the free time that euros/dollars -> peso conversion gives. I recommend it!
No, because it's not true. Ferriss is probably the most marketed person on the planet, and 4HWW is talk about tons, but the book has good, specific information (that the reviews always leave out). Much of it isn't original, but if you haven't seen it anywhere else, it's new to you. Some of it is very detailed and original (or at least I haven't seen it anywhere) and worth taking a few hours for.
I really enjoyed the lifestyle message of the book, which I think is an interesting goal, but the "specific information" about how to implement it kind of upset me.
There's enough room in this world for a few people to be selling vitamins or "information products" via infomercials, but that's only because there are a lot of people doing other things. Good for him that he found his niche, but it's totally misleading to suggest to everyone else that we can all race cars, dance competitively and live all over the world by following the exact same path.
Also, the suggestion that all favelas are just like "City of God" was pretty offensive.
People have this strange tendency to read 4HWW like a recipe book. I don't understand it.
At one point in the book, Ferriss himself (indirectly) provides the explanation for why his own book focuses so much on his particular experiences and goals: He prefers to read books written by people that have actual experience doing something, rather than theoretical extrapolations. And so he's written such a book. He offers you a recipe for doing what he did because that's what he knows how to do. What more can you ask from one book? If you want a book about how to live a happy life as a hacker or a priest, perhaps you need to buy a second book.
To me, the fact that Ferriss has a very different personality from mine is a big selling point. If I wanted a book on how to think like I already do, I could write it myself!
The misleading aspect you mentioned is exactly what irks me about the book. It is a fantasy being sold to every person working a dull job. The glorification of the no-work, jetsetting lifestyle is misleading as well. To have a profession and be a member of a community should be a source joy and accomplishment, not something to run away from. I think most people would find traveling the world alone, constantly indulging fantasies, would become boring and meaningless after a few months.
That doesn't really have much to do with the article. It's actually about a freelancer trying three different time management techniques, including the ones found in 4HWK. It was meant to be tongue-in-cheek. In fact, the author said,
"Ferriss' system basically amounts to finding ways to avoid doing your work." which I imagine you'd appreciate it for its intended humor.
With regards to the social implications of 4HWK, As had been said in many of the comments here about it, the idea is to be able to do what you want to do, whether it is to indulge in what you consider as fantasies, or to throw yourself back into doing another time-consuming, socially-productive startup.
I think you underestimate the difficulty of having nothing to do. In those moments, there is nothing to distract you from taking a good, hard look at yourself. There are many things that come up, assumptions about what is socially acceptable (getting a job) and what is not gets examined. I've done a bit of that in the past before, and I recognize it in Ferris's words at the beginning of his book. If after going on this imposed exile for a year, you come out of it going after a new dream, or a new project, that is often more true to yourself than running around being "productive". It is the equivalent of reaching the self-acualization stage of Maslow's ladder, and being ready to go beyond that. This experience is life-changing enough that I think people should have the opportunity to give it a try. Yes, it requires the cooperation of other people helping you out. What of it?
The other side of it is that American society may value egalitarian hard-work, but much of the middle-class affluence is founded on those living in harsher working conditions. Basic things as simple as running water, toilet paper, nutritionally-balanced meals, junk food, iPhones and news.ycombinator.com are all taken for granted here. They are not universally available. It is one thing to criticize Ferris's method for resembling an unsustainable Ponzi scheme, it is quite another to describe it as indulging in fantasies and gloficiation of no-work when the average, mainstream American middle-class is affluent by world standards.
When something becomes boring and meaningless, whether it's a dull job that should be a source of joy, or the globetrotting you thought was what you wanted, you do something else.
I'm not sure if you meant it this way, but personally I'm not going to joyfully embrace the glorious opportunity to throw away 45+ hours of my life every single week to help make some rich people richer.
Personally I wouldn't just travel (maybe 2/3 months a year), I would write libraries to help the programming languages I like and do various CS research. I think there is so much more to discover in our field.
Tidbits I picked up:
* Throw a quick 3 page website up as a sales letter to market a $100 product. Point $200 worth of ad-sense at it over 10 days to see if you get any uptake. If you have more than 2 signups or "buy-ins", you've past the break even point and you're on the road to making money.
* Focus on developing a $50-150 priced product. You don't have to sell a ton of those products to make a decent living for yourself.
* 100 units sold * $100 = replace my monthly income.
* Focus intensely on what's going to make you cash. All the cool technology you're building doesn't matter to your business unless it helps the bottom line. This was apropos to me, because I have an acute case of... oh, look at this shiny new thing. Focusing on what makes money helps cut through some of that.
* People like to buy things. No, really. They like to pay for things. It makes them feel better about their lives. So, if you offer them a compelling reason to give you money, they will probably give you the money.
* Outsource as much as you can that isn't non-core business. e.g. Hire interns to do marketing and PR work for you. Outsource writing your copy. Outsource design work, outsource product development if appropriate. Outsource market research, outsource date finding, outsource travel plans, outsource, outsource, outsource everything away to make your life simpler.
* Filter out distractions as much as possible. i.e. no meetings, minimal email.
* Have balls. No, really, dude hacked a martial arts festival and won. Why? By hacking the weigh-in legally. He has a lot of legal cons that help you hack the publicity system. Put your balls to use by hacking a social structure and rules in a situation to your benefit. If you don't have the balls to try something, you're not going to achieve it.
* Chase the big dreams. Life is too short. If you want a Lotus Elise, test drive it, and find out how much you'd have to make a month to pay for it. Figure out how to make that money. If you want to go to Figi, figure out the cost, make the money to get there and then just go.