The 4-Hour Workweek

The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich (2007) is a semi-autobiographical self-help book by Timothy Ferriss, an American writer, educational activist, and entrepreneur. In the book's dedication, Ferriss announced that he would be donating "10% of all author royalties" to educational charities such as Donorschoose.org.

Inspiration
While attending Princeton University, Ferriss' entrepreneurial side became apparent when he began offering accelerated learning classes for profit. Upon graduating from Princeton (and after a number of unfulfilling jobs) Ferriss became a founder of BrainQUICKEN, a company that sells sports nutrition products.

His business soon grew and he became overworked. In a 15-month trip around the world, Ferriss learned techniques to reduce his workload and outsource areas of his business while maintaining profitability, which -- along with interviews and case studies -- became the basis of The 4-Hour Workweek.

Synopsis
In the book Ferriss uses the mnemonic DEAL for the four main chapters. It stands for: Definition, Elimination, Automation, and Liberation.

Definition means to figure out what a person wants, get over fears, see past society's "expectations", and figure out what it will really cost to get where a person wants to go.

Elimination is about time management, or rather about not managing time. This is achieved applying the 80/20 rule to focus only on those tasks that contribute the majority of benefit. There's a difference, Ferriss says, between efficiency and effectiveness. The book's emphasis is on effectiveness.

Automation is about building a sustainable, automatic source of income. This includes techniques such as drop-shipping, automation, Google Adwords and Adsense and outsourcing.

Liberation is dedicated to the successful automation of one's lifestyle and the liberation from a geographical location and job. Incidentally, Ferriss notes that if somebody has a regular job, the order of steps will be DELA, not DEAL.

The book asserts that technology such as email, instant messaging and internet-enabled pda's complicate life rather than simplify it. It advocates hiring virtual assistants from developing countries such as India to free up personal time.

Reviews
The book featured pre-release blurbs from Jack Canfield the creator of Chicken Soup for the Soul series, Esquire editor AJ Jacobs and bestselling author Phil Town. The 4HWW was also profiled in The New York Times along with Netscape founder Marc Andreessen who stated that he was a personal fan of the book.

Ferriss makes some claims in his book that have been challenged. These have been verified:
 * He holds a Guinness World Record in tango for most spins in one minute
 * That he is a Princeton University guest lecturer


 * He is adviser to "30 world record holders in professional and Olympic sports"

Ferris claims to be a National Chinese Kickboxing champion, although in the book he admits to becoming champion by taking advantage of what he refers to as 'loopholes'. He explains his process of dehydrating to be classified as a fighter two weight classes below his normal weight, rehydrating before the fights, and shoving his opponents out of the ring to win rather than kickbox. On his blog, Ferriss explains that this tactic earned him the nickname "sumo" by attendants of the competition.