🚀 The Book in 3 Sentences

  1. Freeing time and receiving automated income.
  2. Having time to travel the world.
  3. The benefits of remote work and how you can earn money whilst on holiday.

🎨 Impressions

The 4 Hour Work Week is packed with some great life advice on what you should do in order to automate your income so you can have free time, allowing you to spend that time doing what you love. The book also lists some helpful tools relating to automating businesses, such as virtual assistant firms, marketing analytics extensions (see how much traffic a website is getting), etc.

Who Should Read It?

I would recommend this book for people interested in escaping their 9-5 jobs and moving towards financial freedom and an overall desirable lifestyle.

☘️ How the Book Changed Me

Travel

  • I learned that travelling isn’t as expensive as it may seem – prices in many countries differ.
  • A new view on life and the benefits of working remotely.IMG_1792.JPG

Note: When Timmothy Ferris was travelling the world, he used a student card which gave him 40% off on all transportation.

Time > Money

Time is more valuable than money as time is nonrefundable, money is.

  • Hiring Virtual Assistants (VAs) to do tasks, such as handling emails, dealing with complaints, processing orders, refunds, customer enquiries, scheduling appointments, the list goes on.

✍️ My Top 5 Favourite Quotes

  • “Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one” – Albert Einstein.
  • ” I believe that life exists to be enjoyed and that the most important thing is to feel good about yourself” – Timothy Ferris.
  • “As soon as I remove myself from being a bottleneck, profits increase 40%” – Timothy Ferris.
  • “Adults are always asking kids what they want to be when they grow up because they’re looking for ideas”.
  • “The average man is conformist accepting miseries and disasters with the stoicism of a cow”. – Collin Wilson.

📒 Summary + Notes

Parkinson’s Law

  1. Shorten work time to limit tasks to the important (Parkinson’s Law)

Getting a task done by setting an imminent deadline for the completion of the task. Thus encouraging you to complete that task before the time runs out – Increases focus, and efficiency.

The 80/20 Rule

  1. Limit Tasks to the important to shorten work time (80/20).
  • Prioritise the tasks that are 80% beneficial and minimize/eliminate the tasks that benefit 20%.

Business Automation and Customer Service

  1. when starting a business in the hopes for automation , you should have a plan for starting out and when the business is too big to run by yourself.
  • Answer commonly asked questions with a FAQ page on your businesses website – reduce the number of phone calls from customers thus saving money on call centre fees, and time.
  • Hire people who are smarter than you are to help you manage the business.

🎨 The Art of Indecision

  1. When selling a product, fewer options = More revenue, as the customer is not bombarded with numerous options to choose from. – Making the choice simple for the customer.

I learnt that the more options you offer the customer, the more indecision you create and the fewer orders you receive. The more options you offer the customer, the more manufacturing and customer service burden you create for yourself. – Keep it simple.

The art of indecision refers to minimizing the number of decisions your customers can or need to make. Here are a few Methods to reduce service overhead 20-80%.

  1. Offer one or two purchase options (“basic” and “premium” for example)
  2. Do not offer multiple shipping options. Offer one fast method instead and charge a premium.
  3. Do not offer overnight or expedited shipping (it is possible to refer them to a reseller who does.
  4. Eliminate phone orders completely.
  5. Do not offer international shipments.

Note: The biggest time saver in business is customer filtering.

💎 The Lose-Win Guarantee

  1. A guarantee where you put your mouth where your money is, e.g. Dominos promises to deliver a customers pizza in under 30 minutes or it’s free! This is a great marketing technique to eliminate the risk for customers when they use your product(s) or service(s).

🗞️ Resignation

  1. When resigning from work, do something exciting.
  • Consider your options before pulling the trigger. – www.I-lesigh.com provides sample resignation letters, non-quitting options such as work leave, vacations, and second life job hunting advice. Don’t miss the helpful discussion forums and hysterical “web consultant from London” letter.