The Displaced African

This is day 2 of My 4 Hour Work Week Journey

Now, below I will mention 4 things I liked about the book, the 4 hour work week and won’t talk about any negatives because I’m sure those will become self-evident as I work through the book over the coming days. That, and I don’t want to psyche myself out too early in my 4 hour work week journey.

4 Things I Love About the Four Hour Workweek

1) He is Empirical: To name a book ” 4 hour workweek” screams:

Hyperbole! Hype!B.S. !

So when I began to read about Tim, I expected his writing and his work to sound like a circus director or a car salesman: a lot of sales talk with very little substance to back it up.

Boy was I pleasantly surprised. If I could summarize one of Tim’s oh-my-goodness-that’s-genius-approaches-to-life-it-would-be:

Test your assumptions

Don’t automatically assume the limitations placed upon you by society, your background or yourself are true. Instead, conduct small tests and see what happens. As a result of Tim doing this, a lot of what’s in the four hour workweek isn’t an abstract manual but rather:

2) A Fascinating True Story: I want to do a lot of great, oddball things with my life before I die. I think I have found a person with an equally quirky spirit in Timothy Ferriss.

The man has, and is, revolutionizing the Western approach to work. He is the Chinese National Kickboxing Champion. He has won international tango competitions. He is a break dancer. He has been on television in Hong Kong. He has done all this while running a multinational company.

He didn’t accept what others took as the norm or limitations. He lifestyle supersedes any limits society might have imposed on him and this is part of the reason that I’m so drawn to him. It’s also the reason that:

3) He Has Backup from Heavy Hitters: I became a fan of Tim when I heard an interview he did with my blogging go-to-mentor Yaro Starak.

Among his mentors are the man who has sold 130 million books worldwide, Jack Canfield. He has been invited to give talks to everyone including the numero uno themselves, Google-check out the video at the very top of the article.

He isn’t some marginal rebel who is hated by the greats in society. His work appeals to a broad spectrum of folks from lone contractors to CEOs of Fortune 500s. Lord knows I’m African and authority figures influence me big time.
Finally I like the fact that:

4) He Teaches Us How to Separate Hours from Income: Now many Africana will tell you that this idea is simply preposterous. I watched my folks clock in 8-12 hour days 6 days a week and that’s the only way that folks can make a living right?

When I interviewed David Kobia and he spoke about the way his mother couldn’t understand how he could not be working in an office and could be doing all his work online.

I think I kinda went through the very same thing when this idea was presented by Jay Abraham, Yaro Starak and Tim Ferriss that your income didn’t have to be linked to the hours you work but rather the value you provide. Now however, I have embraced that this in fact possible: Me likes and I want a piece of that.

Anyway, someone left me a comment saying that I should do more posts where I present the options available for immigrants in regards to economic stability and prosperity.

So here goes: the trial continues. I have spoken to a few of you who are trying and living out alternatives to the bread and butter mill that is the 9 to 5. Together let’s build a library full of options that future immigrants can use to thrive in so far as the dollar is concerned.

I’m rambling now, but I ramble because I’m excited. Anyway either:

i) Click here to buy a copy of the 4 hour work week from Amazon.com

ii) Pay a visit to his blog and learn a little more about the man and his great book.

And enjoy the rest of your day or night,

Mwangi

Tags: 4 hour workweek, cashflow muse, Displaced African, Four hour workweek, lifestyle design, Timothy Ferriss

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 28th, 2008 at 3:04 am and is filed under My 4 Hour Work Week Journey, Product reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.