The 4-Hour Workweek (42 page)
It’s funny how this one simple question, and not to mention my daughter’s answer, would be the moment of true 4HWW self-awareness for me. You see the answer my daughter gave her teacher has a deeper meaning. I believe what she meant to say, if she could articulate it, was “My dad sort of does whatever he wants to do.”
I read the 4HWW almost two years ago when I was on vacation at the beach with my family. I remember it well, because I kept reading parts of the book to my wife, bothering her to no end. I am a developer and enterprise administrator for a large financial institution in Atlanta, Georgia. Part of my job is supporting the large complex document captures systems that I help build. Due to the importance of these systems I am expected to be reachable 24/7/365. That is good for job security, but can be bad for my family life. I have four beautiful children and I strive to be a true “hands-on” dad who is present in my family’s daily lives. So armed with your book and a fresh (ocean air) perspective, I set out to put many of the 4HWW principles into practice.
First, I worked on changing my e-mail habits. I took a hard look at my inbox and used several of the techniques outlined in the 4HWW to eliminate all the waste and noise. I formed new habits around batching my e-mail sessions and it didn’t take long to achieve a zero inbox using the “trusted trio” folder method. I also applied the less is more philosophy to composing my e-mails. I went to great lengths to ensure I am as clear and concise as possible. Only communicating exactly what is needed to the right audience and not to the world. By eliminating all the noise and fat from my e-mail diet it became much more clear what “actions” or “to-do’s” were important.
Meetings and conference calls were the next area of attack. I scrutinized each meeting invite and began declining requests left and right. Most of the time I would claim I had too much going on to attend. I started asking for the minutes of the meeting or for someone to IM me if they had a specific question I needed to answer. When I do attend a meeting it is almost always via a conference call. Due to conference room restrictions and geographic challenges in our company most of our meetings are done virtually anyway.
Less wasted time meant more time to focus on work and tasks that really mattered. I felt like I was doing less but getting more things done and with better results. The right people were starting to notice and the perception of my ability to get the job done had never been better. I was making my management look good, and when that happens they stop asking questions or micromanaging daily activities. I kept proving to them I can do it without interference. Now was the time to make the push for what I really wanted and that was to go virtual!
Going virtual was actually very easy. I had a solid foundation with my manager and others in the chain of command. Almost all of my daily work was already remote-ready. At home, I have a great dedicated office in our finished basement. It is situated well away from the rest of the house and is mostly free of distractions. I have my own bathroom with shower and I even have a mini-fridge and microwave. I dare say that my home office rivals the amenities of the top executives at my company. Most of all, I have a wife and family that totally understand and respect the rules I set for myself to continue this success.
At first, I worked one or two days a week from home, but it didn’t take long before I found myself working four out of five days a week from home. When the Southeast was hit by the gas shortage and the price of gas nationwide was cresting $4 a gallon, the company made working from home even more accepted and official. I became an overnight model for others to follow. As people around me were in a panic as to how to get to work when no gas could be found, I was happily working away at home just business as usual.
At this point, things were working better than I ever expected. Using my 4HWW skills I now had more time to be that hands-on dad I wanted to be. I became a regular up at the elementary school. I eat lunch in the cafeteria with my girls, especially on fried chicken day! I participate in a program called D.E.A.R. which stands for Drop Everything and Read, where a few times a month I come in and read to each class. I drive my kids to school and I get to see them when they come home. For my entire family, I am present in their everyday lives, and can’t put a price on that. I felt like I had achieved my goal. That was that. So I thought…
Other things started to happen. Without conscientiously knowing it, people around me at the school or church had a weird respect for me. I say weird because people literally mistook me as a doctor or just some sort of self-made millionaire. I am not kidding. There is this one guy who still calls me “Doc.” I guess the reason for this is because most people still cling to the old stereotypes of what they think it is to be “rich.” I always seem to show up for the school functions or just special days at the school, usually in casual attire and never obsessing over time or my Blackberry. Now I have people nominating me for things like committee chair on the PTA, and just recently I was elected to the board of directors at our local swim/ tennis club. The cool thing is, I actually have the time to do those things and still be effective at work and at home. It goes without saying that new doors are open to me now. More than ever before.
With all of this going on around me I still come back to what my daughter said to her teacher. In truth, I am at a point where if I wanted to “sit around and watch Star Wars all day,” I certainly could. But, I find myself filling the extra time now doing things that really mean something. Being present in the everyday lives of my family, helping my community, or volunteering at my church. Now I have a plan to take it to the next level and write my own book. The project I am working on is called The Virtual Employee Handbook. It is a collection of tips and how-to’s on all the tools that are essential to the modern virtual employee, like me. We will see how that goes. One thing I do know is that I wouldn’t even dream of what I am doing now if it wasn’t for The 4-Hour Workweek! —W. HIGGINS
91. Maya Frost, The New Global Student (Crown, 2009).
92. A simple, actual proposal is provided.
The Few That Matter
A hypocrite is a person who—but who isn’t?
—DON MARQUIS
I know, I know. I said not to read too much. Hence, the recommendations here are restricted to the best of the best this book’s interviewees and I have used and named when asked, “What is the one book that changed your life the most?”
None of them are required to do what we’ve talked about in this book. That said, consider them if you get stuck on a particular point. The page counts are listed, and if you practice the exercises in “How to Read 200% Faster in 10 Minutes” in Chapter 6, you should be able to read at least 2.5 pages per minute (100 pages thus equals 40 minutes).
For additional categories, including practical philosophy, licensing, and language learning, be sure to visit our comprehensive companion site.
The Fundamental Four: Let Me Explain
The Fundamental Four are so named because they are the four books I recommended to aspiring lifestyle designers prior to writing The 4-Hour Workweek. Still well worth reading, here is the sequence I suggest:
The Magic of Thinking Big (192 pages)
BY DAVID SCHWARTZ
This book was first recommended to me by Stephen Key, an ultrasuccessful inventor who has made millions licensing products to companies, including Disney, Nestlé, and Coca-Cola. It is the favorite book of many superperformers worldwide, ranging from legendary football coaches to famous CEOs, and has more than 100 5-star ratings on Amazon. The main message is don’t overestimate others and underestimate yourself. I still read the first two chapters of this book whenever doubt creeps in.
How to Make Millions with Your Ideas:
An Entrepreneur’s Guide (272 pages)
BY DAN S. KENNEDY
This is a menu of options for converting ideas into millions. I read this when I was in high school and have read it five times since. It is like steroids for your entrepreneurship cortex. The case studies, from Domino’s Pizza to casinos and mail-order products, are outstanding, even if outdated in a few instances.
The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It (288 pages)
BY MICHAEL E. GERBER
Gerber is a masterful storyteller and his classic of automation discusses how to use a franchise mind-set to create scalable businesses that are based on rules and not outstanding employees. It is an excellent road map—told in parable—for becoming an owner instead of constant micromanager. If you’re stuck in your own business, this book will get you unstuck in no time.
Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel (224 pages)
BY ROLF POTTS
Rolf is the man. This is the book that got me to stop making excuses and pack for an extended hiatus. It covers bits of everything but is particularly helpful for determining your destination, adjusting to life on the road, and re-assimilating back into ordinary life. It includes great little excerpts from famous vagabonds, philosophers, and explorers, as well as anecdotes from ordinary travelers. This is the first of two books (the other was Walden, below) that I took with me on my first 15-month mini-retirement.
Reducing Emotional and Material Baggage
Walden (384 pages)
BY HENRY DAVID THOREAU
This is considered by many to be the masterpiece of reflective simple living. Thoreau lived on the edge of a small lake in rural Massachusetts for two years, building his own shelter and living alone, as an experiment in self-reliance and minimalism. It was both a huge success and a failure, which is what makes this book such a compelling read.
Less Is More: The Art of Voluntary Poverty—An Anthology of Ancient and Modern Voices in Praise of Simplicity (336 pages)
EDITED BY GOLDIAN VANDENBROECK
This is a collection of bite-sized philosophies on simple living. I read it to learn how to do the most with the least and eliminate artificial needs, not live like a monk—big difference. It incorporates actionable principles and short stories ranging from Socrates to Benjamin Franklin and the Bhagavad Gita to modern economists.
The Monk and the Riddle: The Education of a Silicon Valley Entrepreneur (192 pages)
BY RANDY KOMISAR
This great book was given to me by Professor Zschau as a graduation gift and introduced me to the phrase “deferred-life plan.” Randy, a virtual CEO and partner at the legendary Kleiner Perkins, has been described as a “combined professional mentor, minister without portfolio, in-your-face investor, trouble-shooter and door opener.” Let a true Silicon Valley wizard show you how he created his ideal life using razor-sharp thinking and Buddhist-like philosophies. I’ve met him—he’s the real deal.
The 80/20 Principle: The Secret to Success by Achieving More with Less (288 pages)
BY RICHARD KOCH
This book explores the “nonlinear” world, discusses the mathematical and historical support for the 80/20 Principle, and offers practical applications of the same.
Muse Creation and Related Skills
Harvard Business School Case Studies www.hbsp.harvard.edu (click on “school cases”)
One of the secrets behind Harvard Business School’s teaching success is the case method—using real-life case studies for discussion. These cases take you inside the marketing and operational plans of 24-Hour Fitness, Southwest Airlines, Timberland, and hundreds of other companies. Few people realize that you can purchase these case studies for less than $10 apiece instead of spending more than $100,000 to go to Harvard (not that the latter isn’t worth it). There is a case study for every situation, problem, and business model.
“This business has legs”: How I Used Infomercial Marketing to Create the $100,000,000 Thighmaster Craze: An Entrepreneurial Adventure Story (206 pages)
BY PETER BIELER
This is the story of how a naïve (in the best sense of the word) Peter Bieler started from scratch—no product, no experience, no cash—and created a $100-million merchandising empire in less than two years. It is a mind-expanding and often hysterical case study that uses real numbers to discuss the fine points of everything from dealing with celebrities to marketing, production, legal, and retail. Peter can now finance the media purchases for your product: www.mediafunding.com.
Secrets of Power Negotiating: Inside Secrets from a Master Negotiator (256 pages)
BY ROGER DAWSON
This is the one negotiating book that really opened my eyes and gave me practical tools I could use immediately. I used the audio adaptation. If you’re hungry for more, William Ury’s Getting Past No and G. Richard Shell’s Bargaining for Advantage: Negotiation Strategies for Reasonable People are outstanding. These are the only negotiating books you’ll ever need.
Response Magazine (www.responsemagazine.com)
This magazine is dedicated to the multibillion-dollar direct response (DR) industry, with a focus on television, radio, and Internet marketing. How-to articles (increasing sales per call, lowering media costs, improving fulfillment, etc.) are interspersed with case studies of successful campaigns (George Foreman Grill, Girls Gone Wild, etc.). The best outsourcers in the business also advertise in this magazine. This is an excellent resource at an excellent price—free.
Jordan Whitney Greensheet (www.jwgreensheet.com)
This is an insider secret of the DR world. Jordan Whitney’s weekly and monthly reports dissect the most successful product campaigns, including offers, pricing, guarantees, and ad frequencies (indicative of spending and, thus, profitability). The publication also maintains an up-to-date tape library from which infomercials and spot commercials can be purchased for competitive research. Highly recommended.
Small Giants: Companies That Choose to Be Great Instead of Big (256 pages)
BY BO BURLINGHAM
Longtime Inc. magazine editor-at-large Bo Burlingham crafts a beautiful collage and analysis of companies that focus on being the best instead of growing like cancer into huge corporations. Companies include Clif Bar Inc., Anchor Stream Microbrewery, rock star Ani DiFranco’s Righteous Babe Records, and a dozen more from different industries. Bigger is not better, and this book proves it.