5 Lessons Learned from The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss

Hello and welcome to episode number 5 of the brand new video series 5 Lessons Learned, brought to you by BookThinkers, where each and every week we will explore the top 5 lessons learned from a book that we've read and loved. This week we're going to cover The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss. Tim Ferriss is an absolute legend. We highly recommend this book. There are probably about 500 lessons in here, so whether your dream is to escape the rat race or experience more high-end travel, earn 5 figures a month with little to zero management, or just live more and work less, this book is your rulebook. So without further ado, let's jump into lesson number 1. Lesson number 1 is all about being productive instead of busy. Tim starts this section with a quote that's all about less is not laziness. Doing less meaningless work so that you can focus on things of greater personal importance is not laziness. This is hard for most people to accept because our culture tends to reward personal sacrifice instead of personal productivity. When you think about somebody who works a 9-to-5 job, looking out of their office window, answering meaningless emails, only to amass a large amount of money that they're never able to take advantage of, It's a pretty sad lifestyle. But for somebody who crunches a few hard hours a week and makes a lot of money, travels the world, and lives their life full of excitement, that's what you want to be. So focus on being productive. It's not about how much time you put in, it's about how productive you are during that time. Busyness is a false facade that takes advantage of our lives. That's lesson number 1: focus on being productive. Not busy. Lesson number two would be action, action, action. A consistent theme throughout this entire book is to put your foot on the ground and start moving forward. Many a false step was made by standing still. Even if you run in the wrong direction, you've learned something, and that's not to go in that direction anymore. Rather than if you had stood still. You don't learn anything. So action, action, action. You always need to be moving. Now, once you've committed to action, where do you put all of your energy and focus? You have 2 options. Either the multiplication of results from something you already know you're good at and you double down and focus on that, or option number 2, which would be incremental improvements on your weaknesses, which would ultimately lead you to a mediocre skill at best. So Tim's recommendation would be double down on what you already know you're good at. You're going to yield the best results and you're going to avoid mediocrity. So lesson number 2, action, action, action, and focus on doubling down at what you know you're already good at. Lesson number 3 is all about getting uncomfortable. Tim says that a person's success in life can usually be determined by the number of uncomfortable conversations that they're willing to have. And I couldn't believe in that anymore. Getting outside of your personal comfort zone as often as you can will help rip down a lot of the insecurity-related barriers that you form that hold you back from success day in and day out. Tim has a couple fun ways that he says you can desensitize yourself to the uncomfortable feeling, whatever that really is, and I've tried them out myself. They are extremely uncomfortable. Number 1 is the 10% rule. So anytime you go out to eat or you order a cup of coffee or you're in that kind of setting, when the waitress or waiter comes over with your final bill, stop them and say, hey, wait a second, can I have an additional 10% off? And don't tell them why. Now it seems like, okay, that's not really that uncomfortable until you do it, until you put that person in an uncomfortable scenario that they've never been in And you truly experience and watch how uncomfortable they are and how uncomfortable it makes you feel, it's a completely new feeling, right? So go out there and try that. And then number 2, which I think was probably much scarier, and I don't know why, would be to go into a public space and lay down. Just lay down for 30 seconds, for a minute, whatever you're uncomfortable with. Hit that barrier and then lay down for a little bit longer. Now, if somebody comes over to you and says, why are you laying down? Just say, I don't know, I was feeling like it. But imagine yourself in a mall with busy traffic and you just lay down for a little while. Now, it's uncomfortable because society says, hey, it's not proper to lay down in the middle of a mall. But hey, why not? It's the same as sitting down, right? So get uncomfortable, break outside of your comfort zone, do something a little weird every single day. Ask for 10% off, lay down in the middle of a mall, whatever it is, but just get uncomfortable. And that's lesson 3. Lesson number 4 is about geographic freedom. How do you go from where you are today, working a 9-to-5 office job, to being completely location independent and making money while you travel in a foreign country? Tim is an expert on this subject. He did it himself, and he shares a lot of his strategies in this book. About, again, how you can become location independent. It's all about automation, it's about delegation, and it's about eliminating the waste in your day-to-day lifestyle. So if you'd like to find out more information on this topic, please check out this book. He goes so far in depth, and he can make your dreams come true if you'd like to become locationally independent. Lesson number 5 is called The Freedom Multiplier. Tim believes that the number of W's that you control in your life equals power. What you do, where you do it, when you do it, and with who you do it. When you have options, when you're controlling everything in your life, the opportunity to make money is multiplied. It's amplified by choice. Choosing is the real power. So control as many of those W's as you can if you want to increase your ability to be successful. So that's number 5, truly understanding the freedom multiplier and taking advantage of as many of those opportunities as you can. If you made it this far, thank you so much, and we hope you've enjoyed the top 5 lessons today from The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss. Tim Ferriss is an absolute legend. We cannot stress that enough. So if you'd like to pick up a copy, we will drop a link in the comments below. Number 2, if there's a book review that you'd like to see, please drop us a comment. We would be happy to read any book that you recommend, and if we like it, we will turn it into one of these 5 Lessons Learned videos. We're doing one a week right now. And then last but not least, if you'd like to connect with us more, please sign up for bookthinkers.com. Bookthinkers.com is currently a web-based application that allows users to create a virtual bookshelf. They can log book notes, create a library for themselves. They can log book note reminders. So let's say that you want to retain more information from the books you love. You just say, hey, remind me every 2 weeks, and we'll drop you an email and say flex that neural pathway more often. You can connect with your friends, recommend books, set personal challenges, partake in group challenges pretty soon. We even have a mobile application coming out in early 2018. So go out there, read, retain, share, and grow, and we hope to see you again soon.