Serial Entrepreneur & Ultravagabond

Timothy Ferriss, author of the 4 Hour Work Week, is a self-described “serial entrepreneur and ultravagabond” who lives a lifestyle that most of us could only dream about — until now.

Ferriss presents a step-by-step guide to his free-wheeling lifestyle, allowing us to follow in his footsteps and realize lifelong dreams. Some people consider him to be heroic, like an “Indiana Jones for the digital age”.

This exciting book has been number one on three different best seller lists: Wall Street Journal, NY Times and BusinessWeek.

Replace Obsolete Assumptions

His basic premise is that we need to fill the vacuum created by replacing outdated assumptions with the “Rules of the New Rich”.

Entrepreneurs need to replace the limiting assumptions that prevent us from enjoying life now. We should replace limiting assumptions that waste our time and force us to live in a particular location.

Freeing our time and increasing our mobility are pathways to the lifestyle of the New Rich (NR).

Rules of the New Rich

According to Ferris, the “Rules of the New Rich” include the following:

  • Retirement is Worst-Case Scenario Insurance
  • Interest and Energy are Cyclical
  • Less is Not Laziness
  • The Timing Is Never Right
  • Ask for Forgiveness, Not Permission
  • Emphasize Strengths, Don’t Fix Weaknesses
  • Things in Excess Become the Opposite
  • Money Alone is Not the Solution
  • Relative Income is More Important than Absolute Income
  • Distress is Bad, Eustress is Good

The 4HWW Model

His model provides us with a roadmap for realizing our own lifelong dreams. He shows us how to:

  • Live like a millionaire
  • Free time and automate income
  • Outsource our lives to overseas virtual assistants for $5/hour
  • Travel the world without quitting our jobs
  • Eliminate 50% of our work in 48 hours
  • Trade a long-haul career for short work bursts and mini-retirements

He uses the DEAL acronym to describe his model, where:

  • D = Definition
  • E = Elimination
  • A = Automation
  • L = Liberation

He encourages us to use “Dreamlining” to design our own luxurious lifestyles. Using principles of elimination, simplification and outsourcing are keys to creating our own lives among the New Rich (NR).

Lifestyle Design (LD) incorporates elements of both art and science. Another key component of the lifestyle design process is automation, i.e., creating systems and processes that remove ourselves as bottlenecks. But he cautions that we should never automate something that could be eliminated, and we should never delegate something that could be automated or simplified.

Carpe Diem!

Use these guidelines to recognize opportunities and sieze them – Carpe Diem. Along the way, you’ll come to realize that having options; i.e., the ability to choose is powerful.

This is a very compelling book and presents a plan that is easy to understand and apply.

Following Ferriss’ lead, I plan to aggressively pursue my lifelong dreams.  I plan to implement many of his ideas into my own life.

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