The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich ~ Timothy Ferriss

Funk Rating: 7 out of 10

Unlike my recent blog on The Black Swan, this is not a chewy, serious book. In fact, it's almost a fantasy book -- offering a promise that is awful hard to deliver on. That said, Ferriss does a heck of a job showing how if you are intelligent, fearless and focused, you can escape the rat race of chasing your tail for no real gain. I have to give Ferriss a lot of credit -- he says things that cut against the accepted wisdom. He shows how living your life has to trump working your life. And he does so in a great, easily readable way.

In many ways, I love this book for it shows how creativity, smart delegating and outsourcing, and focusing on what's important rather than what's urgent (and what makes you feel important) need to be the focus of your life. My only ding is that I think Ferriss gives short shrift to how hard it actually is to pull off the model he lays out -- some folks can do it, but not everyone. Some business ideas are easy to fit into his model; most aren't. And if you're not cut out to be a merchant, his tricks and techniques won't help you.

BUT, if you want to be exposed to some amazing things that are happening in our increasingly flat world, if you want to see if you can map yourself into the world he lays out, it's incredibly cool. I learned a ton from this book, will be implementing many aspects of his model in a new side venture I'm about to embark on, and I think this is a great book to help you get out of the trap of working for THE MAN. It's a quick and easy read, and Ferriss will make you laugh with how incredibly clever, quick, smart, and out-of-the-box he can be. My prediction is that the more you care what other people think about you, the less you'll enjoy/adopt his philosophy; the more internal your self-confidence, self-esteem, and happiness generation comes from, the better this book will fit your gestalt...

Enjoy!