Written on 2010-03-02 23:40:11
In this blog post I am going to tell you a little about a book which has influenced me a lot. It's called The 4 Hour Work Week, and written by an early 30s professional vagabond named Timmothy Ferriss. Tim apparently spends much of his time doing "mini-retirements", travelling to exotic locations around the world learning new laguages, practicing martial arts, lounging around and generally making a nuisance of himself.
Follow your bliss, and doors will open", Joseph Campbell famously stated. In The Four Hour Work Week Tim Ferriss details how he has followed his bliss, and the doors have certainly opened for him. Rather generously, he then tells us how to do the same.
I found this book to have much that is very worthwhile. There is an enormous amount of information here, and the reader is free to pick and choose what he/she wants to take or leave. It has changed my life for the better.
I found many of the listed web sites very useful. I have always wanted to feel the rush of being a colonial master, so I have hired book editors, programmers, virtual assistants, and translators from sites mentioned in the book, and all at very inexpensive prices. If I hadn't read the book, I would not have been aware of that these people even existed; or at the very least, would never have thought that I, with my one-man writing/publishing business, could ever use them.
One other philosophical positive, Ferris is scathing of the modern culture of work for work's sake, information overload, and time wasting with gadgets. I fully concur. People are wasting their lives tapping away on mobile phones, Blackberries and lap-tops, just like I am now. There's a whole world out there waiting for us when we unplug from the matrix of the money and machines society. I personally loved the stories Ferris relates about his experience with this.
Towards the end of T4HWW, Ferriss encourages the reader to act upon what really moves us, what makes us happy; and he asks us to be of service to the world. "Take time to find something that calls to you, not just the fist acceptable form of surrogate work" (p. 297), he writes. Once we have decided this (or "permitted" might be a better word), the task is to find out how to help others, the future generations, to do the same. He then implores us to develop a habit of charity.
This very closely approximates my own approach to life, as I've outlined in my book Sage of Synchronicity. One thing I would suggest though, is developing a set of specific tools to enable you to really follow your inner guidance system. I call it listening to the "Sage". Ferriss doesn't address this issue specifically.
I give Timothy Ferriss' The 4 Hour World Week a 5-star rating. It is potentially life-changing. This is not a book you read just once for inspiration. It is hands on, and chock full of practical tips and know-how. T4HWW will work best for those who have an entrepreneurial and freedom-loving spirit, those who like to think outside the box, and preferably outside the country. It is highly recommended.
You can find the full version of this review in the "Marcus' Reviews" section - go to the tab at left, or click here.
http://www.mindfutures.com/showarticle.php?artid=57